Snippets from My Life Story

Close to graduation, I got an offer of a job at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. I told Professor Landis that although I was greatly impressed with his Institute, I was being considered for a job at Harvard. He said he would wait.  Smitty Stevens came through Baltimore on the train to Washington. I met him on the train and we rode to Washington together. Later, when I returned, Morgan asked me how it went. I shook my head, and said, “I don’t know. We argued from the minute I got on the train till the minute we got off.” Morgan shouted, “Great! Smitty loves to argue.” So I got the job at Harvard.

Morgan advised me, when I accepted the job at Harvard, to start as instructor rather than assistant professor. The reason being that as Instructor I would have seven years before Harvard would have to decide on whether to keep me rather than four as assistant professor. My friend Ray Hyman chose to be an assistant professor in the Department of Social Relations. Sure enough, after four years they let him go. He moved to the University of Oregon where he has been ever since.

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