My Promise to Keep, August, 1961 – Lowell, Mass.
In all of our lives, there seems to be a few critical decision points – crossroad experiences – when the next decision could possibly change the rest of our lives, forever. Usually, we don’t seem to be particularly aware at the time on just how such a step could influence every other decision in the future, like a long, spiraling array of falling dominos. Where does the last domino fall?
For me, such a critical time is taking place right now, in the summer of 1961, after successfully completing my four years of undergraduate studies in physics and mathematics at the Lowell Technological Institute, LTI,. Naturally, the first question that comes to mind is, “What to do next?”
I have no capable mentors with experience in the world of atomic energy research. Nobody in the interwoven web of adult relatives ever even entered training beyond his or her high school years. I feel completely alone in handling this decision.
But, yes, there is one exception, Uncle Lucien, the West Point graduate with an excellent military record in the U.S. Army. Today, he holds the rank of a retired colonel and he lives in State College, Pennsylvania, the town where PSU is located. Since West Point is known to produce officers with better than average engineering backgrounds, he might serve nicely as a mentor in my making the right decision for a long-term career in scientific research and engineering development.
However, West Point is not recognized world-wide as an institution of advanced research leading to a doctoral degree in physics research. But, nevertheless, Lucien will have to be my best advisor during these times of many unanswered questions. But, the details of this issue still remain as open questions.
Of course, the option of getting an immediate, local position with a technical company remains a possibility. Such a firm would probably have a strong need for a person having a specialized expertise in chemical, electrical and mechanical technologies. Certainly, this solution presents several attractive possibilities, but it lacks an exciting career track toward advanced R&D projects – more on this issue, later. Again, the best approach seems elusive.
A few, entry-level, technical jobs in the Lowell area are open to LTI graduates, who hold Bachelor of Science, B.S., degrees in electrical or mechanical engineering, chemistry, electronics, plastics, etc. Others – not many, though – can be found in different industries located in various states along the Northeast Coast. Also, there might be a low-level position open at the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories in Bedford, Massachusetts, for someone like me having only a humble B.S. degree in physics. The career pickings are rather scarce.
But, maybe, I ought to count my blessings because, at the end of this last semester, I was considered for employment at a paper mill factory located somewhere in one of the Carolinas – North or South, but I do not recall which. The company representative, who interviewed me at the LTI campus library on University Avenue, explained to me the salary and associated benefits that came with the job. For me, being wanted as a potential, technical adjunct to a firm that transforms wood chips into paper pulp that is needed for the newspaper industry, came as a double-edged, or mixed, invitation.
Certainly, being a candidate for any legitimate position in any industry and in any field or in any geographical location felt good – even, reassuring. The economic times are today, and have been, quite challenging as is usually the case in our favorite Spindle City, where advanced belt-tightening is the preferred form of self-preservation.
So, a real job paying an above average salary sounded attractive. Therefore, why did I not immediately jump at this first-class opportunity of a lifetime that promised to take me from Lowell’s decaying cotton and textile industries to the promising, fertile paper pulp industry down South? If the new jobs are down South where the economic growth is happening, why would I choose to stay in the gray, forlorn fields of eastern Massachusetts? Why would I hesitate for a moment?
Does it not seem masochistic to stay behind, perhaps forever, watching a historical set of red-brick-sided, textile factories slowly and deliberately rust and crumble before our eyes? Maybe, my hesitation shows a troubling element of madness, a dementia praecox, perhaps?
In contrast, the fantasies that fill my heady brain revolve around Rutherford’s work at the Cavendish Laboratories on the spatial distribution of protons and electrons in an atom, on Marie and Pierre Curie’s discoveries of polonium and radium in Paris, and on the Law of Conservation of Mass in chemical reactions by Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry. These achievements were all vital, pivot points in the development of today’s scientific understanding of the physical world.
In passing, it is a sad comment regarding human nature that Lavoisier was guillotined by the Parisian mob of the French Revolution during the period called “La Terreur” in 1794. Seemingly, the fickle, undereducated and unwashed masses of that rabble had little to no tolerance for scientific inquiry, at least, in the mid 1790s. Even today, I, sometimes, wonder when such disgruntled citizens will ever adopt less drastic expressions of their intense discontent for generally accepted, societal norms.
For me, the successful churning of wood chips into paper pulp lacks much of the scientific glory and excitement listed above, although I will be the first to admit that newspapers and magazines certainly add much value and excitement to our cultural well being. However, other, LTI engineers might even find the pulp paper business quite rewarding. But my dreams seemingly go beyond wood chips and pulp. However, where, indeed, do they lead?
Where and in what human endeavor is there an urgent need for someone like myself, who has a glowing passion and interest for applying the laws of physics such as mechanics, electricity and magnetism, statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, partial differential equations, matrix algebra, atomic physics and, yes, even quantum mechanics to better understand and appreciate the wonders of our world? Such an endeavor could result in patents and inventions – new devices that could make for a better world, and happier citizens.
Where do you go after you have reached first base in the ballgame of applied, basic science? And, is there life after the Bachelor of Science degree in physics? At this moment, everything seems unclear, but also filled with untold possibilities.
[ENDE]