that. And he was so willing to share. I had no idea what human ecology was. I was much more interested in playing music and hanging out on the green, but when Ed started talking about Whitehead and John Dewey, I read everything I could read by those guys, and I was going, Yeah! Man, this is it. This is the way it should be. You could even separate out human ecology; the idea of interdisciplinary education just blew me away, that there is a relationship between the sciences and art. It was like, Whoa! Plus he said to me, “I don’t have time to talk about what you need to do. You need to be a selfstarter. Don’t come in to me every day and say, ‘What do you want me to do?’ You need to figure out what it is you need to do.” Then we talked about everything but buildings and grounds. . . . Lots of things shape your life: my father dying before I was born, meeting Ed Kaelber and Al Stork [COA’s first director of buildings and grounds]. Al Stork was a great teacher. He could do anything. He knew carpentry very well, but he was also a good designer. Anything that anybody else could do in metal, he could do in wood—and he was a good metalworker, too. He was a good welder. He painted well. He did everything. He could do electrical work and he could do plumbing. He was an incredible human being. 28 | COA
DG: What was it like getting ready for the first classes?
MD: We worked day and night for months, getting the fire chief to allow us to use Guy’s Cliff as an educational institution—fire doors had to be installed, the kitchen had to be retrofitted so it would meet health codes. The labs had to be outfitted. I don’t remember having a day off. We just knew it had to be ready. It was a blast!
DG: Did you participate in the all-college meetings?
MD: Ed believed in a sort of egalitarian mode of operation. I was working for Al Stork, but I would get the same memos everybody else would get. I think Ed tried to keep everybody included, but not everyone could be included. You know, do we want to fix this roof today, or do we want to sit in a meeting? Ed would say, “Make the decision in the best interest of the institution.” If you make a decision you think is in the best interest of the institution, most of the time you’re going to be right. If not, you just stand up and say, “I made a mistake,” and move on. Don’t dwell on it. Otherwise, this place wouldn’t be here.