These notes are in progress
01:30 - Dean McGavran - mentions Sidney Kark, John Cassel, Lucy Morgan, Guy Steuart
03:10 - Bert's biography - birth, town where growing up, how commercial development destroyed small business (including his father's)
5:50 - Bert on UNC committee once (chaired by a member of the Planning Department) on what is UNC's role in preserving small communities
06:30 - Virginia had only 11 grades of secondary education. Needed two years of geometry to go to college. Out of 50 students, only two were headed to college (plus two who went to bible college). Bert and one other student taught each other plain and solid geometry.
07:35 - Bert went to Virginia Tech at age 16 - he was one year behind in science education but not behind in language
08:00 - Reverend Harry Primm, Presbyterian Minister - no library in Stroudsberg. Bert went through every book in his library.
[skipping ahead from 10:00 to get to EPID history]
32:00 Bert interested in social anthropology
32:50 - Edinburgh - Bert was planning to graduate from Edinburgh but his father had a heart attack so had to come back early
34:15 - John Cassel was schooled in tradition that Bert experienced at Edinburgh
35:10 - Charles Darwin found medical school unbelievably boring
36:00 - came to UNC in sociology to finish degree (because left Edinburgh after one year) - started at UNC in 1956. Dissertation was.in social anthropology tradition
37:20 - Bert offered instructorship for a year in Epidemiology (? not clear how that happened).
John Filley, Department of Mental Health, were looking to fill out their program and offered Bert a position but it did not work out(?). In meantime Bert had gotten to know Bob Wilson, who was very important for him. Bob urged Bert to apply for a SSRC fellowship (only 10/year)
Bob Wilson knew Alex Leighton from his Cornell [University in Ithaca] days [Bob came to UNC from Cornell]. Bert had choice to live in Ithaca or in NYC (Cornell Medical College). Bert [and Ellen] spent a year in Ithaca, and he was invited to teach in summer school. Alex Leighton left for Harvard, and Bert continued to work with him for a decade, commuting every other week.
43:10 - John Cassel telephoned Bert and offered him an opportunity in Epidemiology. Bert got a call from Chancellor Sitterson, urging him to come back. Bert also had an offer of an assistant professorship at Cornell.
Bert had attended John Cassel's seminars but hadn't spoken with John about specific positions.
45:50 - Bert in Sociology 1956 - 1961 (diploma in 1962 because of delay). Bob Wilson suggested SSRC Fellowship. Bob had been a member of the SSRC administrative staff.
47:00 - Bert attended John Cassel's seminars while Bert was a graduate student. First time he went to Cassel's seminar, said to himself that "he talks like someone with a Talmudic education" (turned out to be true). John Cassel loved to have debates. John Fulton was designated the role of the devil's advocate if no one else took it.
48:30 - John Cassel told Bert he wanted 50% of Bert's time for the Evans County follow-up and its social environment questionnaire. Bert tried to put the questionnaire on the same plane as the Univ of Michigan Survey Research Center plane.
50:00 - Started attending John Cassel's seminars in 1958 or 1959. On the faculty then were Cecil Slome. Tyroler arrived perhaps a year later. Tyroler was with Champion Paper near Asheville - he was their industrial epidemiologist. John recruited him. John Fulton came in 1960? Ralph Patrick came in 1961 or 1962? Bert joined the Department of Mental Health in 1962 or 1963 as assistant professor and "resident social epidemiologist" but spent most of his time in the Epidemiology Department. He left in 1965-1966 to go to Cornell. Became a faculty member in Epidemiology after Cornell.
56:00 - Tony McMichael spent a year as a postdoc, then went back to Australia, but soon afterward went to Britain. Mike Marmot's family background is similar to Bert's, though they went to Australia. Mike received his epidemiology training in Britain and became a citizen.
58:20 - Bert invited back to teach at Cornell in summer. David Jenkins came to UNC EPID at about the same time that Bert did. David was a student in the UNC Department of Psychology. When he was a student finishing his dissertation he was already beginning to spend seminar time in Epidemiology. John Cassel wanted a psychologist - to have all of the social sicences represented - a model that Sidney Kark advocated.
60:00 - Carl Shy was originally director of the Environmental Studies and Environmental Sciences.
These notes are in progress