People came to the university to interview students, and I had one offer that was $25 a month more than any other offer. Occasionally, you get four, and it worked out. Because, you can put two and two together and sometimes you get five, sometimes you get six. It had nothing to do with college while I was at college, it just made something later in life possible. Later, I can tell you how, when it fits into the story, how it impacted me. I had physics from Nier, who at that time had succeeded in separating uranium isotopes in a small centrifuge. Kelly: You mentioned earlier that you had one professor that turned out later to be instrumental in the Manhattan Project. I ended up finishing up in chemical engineering. We started going to school twelve months out of the year. World War II came along and then you couldn’t change your field anyway, because you would lose your draft deferment. You really didn’t worry about your grade and just wondered whether you were above or below the red line. They had to accept everybody, but they had to have a way to reduce for upperclassmen. So, after three quarters, you were down to one-eighth of the students. Each quarter, when they posted all of the grades and a red line at the middle, 50% of each class flunked. But everybody in that part of the school had to take three quarters of physics. The way it worked at the University of Minnesota, this meant that the freshman classes were huge, might be 500, 600 students. They were good jobs, 25 cents an hour at that time. He had a contract to analyze pieces of German shells and stuff for what alloys were being made. I worked at a cafeteria for my meals serving breakfast, and I worked at an analytical lab for one of the professors. I worked at the switchboard of the university hospital from 4:00 to 12:00. Today, kids start out and then change their mind, they change fields, they go an extra quarter, maybe an extra year. You can decide by then, you can go into any field, pre-med, pre-law, anything, and you won’t have lost a quarter.” You’ll have as much math as a math major. You’ll have as much chemistry as a chemistry major. At the end of two years, you’ll have as much physics as a physics major. One high school teacher said, “Well, when you go up there, you sign up for chemical engineering.” I had no idea what various fields amounted to.
At that time, in Minnesota, if you were a graduate of a high school, legitimate graduate of a high school, you were automatically accepted at the University of Minnesota. But a couple of high school teachers insisted I had to go. I really had no intention of going to the university, because there just wasn’t any money. Levenson: Well, my parents were not much help. From that humble beginning, how did you get to the University of Minnesota? Both of my parents came over before World War I. At various times, it’s been Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Polish, German, Russian. They loaned my parents $200 to buy a used truck and for capital to get started. There had been a junk dealer there, nobody that was there now. Some friends had an old house in Northfield, Minnesota. Was there just one year and then had to quit to go to work in a sweatshop as a seamstress. My mother came to this country when she was 13, was put into a kindergarten, because she spoke no English.
He did manage to save up enough money to bring other members of his family over. He was literate, but he was self-taught in this country, because he came here speaking Russian, Polish, and Hebrew, but he never went to school. He lost his job, was unemployed, had no skill, no trade. Just prior to the big crash of the stock market, ladies’ felt hats went out of style. He learned a trade as a felt-maker to make ladies’ hats, felt hats. At that time, if you were Jewish, drafted into the Russian Army, it was probably for a 25-year term as a private. My Dad came to this country at the age of 18 to escape being drafted into the Russian Army. Kelly: Do you want to mention what your father’s occupation was? We ended up moving to Northfield, Minnesota, which is where I finished my growing up and left there to go the University of Minnesota. By the time I was five, the Depression had started to hit, and things were not in good shape. Paul, Minnesota, lived there until I was five years old. I think I was present at the time, but that’s a long time ago. Levenson: Well, I don’t remember much about it. Tell us, if you would, when you were born and where, and something about your childhood. At any rate, let’s begin with the beginning. M-i-l-t-o-n, and Levenson is L-e-v-e-n-s-o-n. My first question to him is to please say his name and then spell it. I’m Cindy Kelly, I’m in Alexandria, Virginia.
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