This is the story of an 11-year old from a lower-class family who wanted to be a scientist, an engineer, and the role the GI Bill played in that story.
I didn’t know what a scientist did. I had heard they looked at bugs, but I didn’t know why. An engineer was a man who drove the subway; he had to know a lot about trains.
All I knew was that I didn’t fit in with the other boys. I was small for my age, lightly built, and I didn’t have any interest in baseball, boxing or football. I knew I didn’t fit in, but I didn’t know why. My parents knew nothing about science or engineering, so their only response was to say nothing about that.
One would think that my school was the place I would learn about the science-engineering side of things, but it didn’t cater to that mind set, and that was it. So, I went on by myself and explored the limited resources at the local library. I really couldn’t have benefited much from that because I had no idea of what to look for.
I went to school and didn’t like it very much. Teachers had an interest in the athletic performance of the grammar school and high school teams and not much else. Actually, the whole school administration was the same way.
I stumbled along until 1945, when the Germans were beaten and only the Japanese remained. I was old enough to appreciate that my parents were not going to pay for me to go to college. My high school grades also were not likely to generate any support in that area. I was not interested in most of the things they taught, so my grades were just above failing.
Reading the local paper, I learned about the GI Bill, which would pay for you to go to school after you had served in the military. My senses at 17 years of age told me that the war wasn’t going to last much longer and I only had a short time to get in the military to take advantage of the GI Bill. I needed to enlist as soon as possible. A little investigation showed me that getting in the Army or the Navy was tough, and they required a four-year enlistment. The Marine Corps would take you at 17 and they still had enlistments lasting only until the war was over. The Marine Corps had a reputation for being the first in the fight but not necessarily the first in high-level thinking, Needless to say, there was a battle with my family about dropping out of high school and signing up for the Marine Corps. After much struggle, they agreed, and I signed up.
After the war was over, the Marine Corps was reducing its forces. There was no room for people like me who enlisted for a period called “convenience of the government,” so we were discharged, in my case with some 15 months as a Marine. The next step was to go home and see what developed.
After getting used to being at home again, I decided to start by going to the local college which was filled with veterans of the recent conflict. My family was dubious; how could I go to college when I had done so poorly in high school? They felt it was better to go back to high school, where they had special classes for veterans. I stuck to going straight to college, and by making an effort I was able to get passing grades in the science program.
After two years, I transferred to the University of Michigan in the physics program. I got a bachelor’s degree in physics, met the right girl, got married and took a job in the Navy. Then I returned to school, finished a master’s degree in physics and we moved to California where I enrolled at the University of California at Berkely for a Ph.D. in engineering.
After I completed my Ph.D., I took a job at the University of Arizona as an associate professor of engineering. I stayed there for 19 years until I retired as a full professor. After that I continued to work part-time as a professor emeritus in engineering, consulting with the Agriculture School at the University of Arizona and writing papers.
None of the above would have happened without the GI Bill.