Jerry Foster:
CLASS OF 1955
Hawthorne High SchoolClass of 1955
Hawthorne, CA
Jerry's Story
Life
The Guest Room ClosetÂ
I bet you have a guest room closet.
IÂll also bet that in it youÂll find a assortment of clothes that exemplify your past. Sorting through them is like looking at your life in a rear view mirror. At least thatÂs true in my case.
What you wonÂt find in our guest room closet are any jeans, tee shirts, or Pendleton wool shirts. ThatÂs because those are the items that characterize my current clothing preferences Â
as well as my choices when I was at Hawthorne High School and USC.
You will find a US Naval officerÂs uniform, slightly grayed with all the accumulated dust of the years. Between 1959 and 1963 when I was on active duty and then for the next 18 years while continued in the Naval Reserves, the jacket exhibited the varying insignias of rank, Ensign, LTJG, LT, but now it retains the stripes of a Lieutenant Commander, my final rank, as well as the emblems for Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Navy Diver,
my two specialties.
The closet doesnÂt seem to have a remnant from the first year in UCLAÂs English doctoral program, perhaps because I reverted to my jeans and tee shirt repertoire for that year. But there is a musty black and white African robe given to me by my school in Nigeria when I finished my two-year teaching stint there with the Peace Corp in 1965.
The next two years back at UCLA are represented by a pair of khakis with a waist size so small I can hardly believe I could have ever worn them. Another pair of worn khakis seem permanently attached to an old corduroy sports coat (size 40) that fit right in at American River College when I finally left UCLA to start my short stay there as a beginning English Instructor.
A move to Phillips Academy, Andover, MA in 1969 brought about a shift t...Expand for more
o wool slacks and a tweedy New England sports coatÂ
more appropriate to the climes, both cultural and geographicÂ
and well represented in the closet. Over the next seven years, the sports coats (size 42) and I both became a bit thread bare and by the time I was ready for a sabbatical in Â76, I had back-slid into half time administration as Director of an outreach office developing programs for disadvantaged public school students.
With a Ford Foundation Grant in hand, I took my sabbatical to organize the Network of Complementary Schools, an organization of twenty-five public and private schools, sponsoring individual student exchanges among members. With some of FordÂs money still left, I took a leave of absence to explore some of the projects at the educational think tank where I was based. As an outgrowth of that exploration, two colleagues and I started Elderhostel, an educational/travel program for older adults, where I continued as VP of Program Development for three years, making the shift from sports coats to suits (size 44). A couple of these still reside in the closet.
In 1980 I took advantage of an opportunity to start and head up a tour company for older adults. Saga Holidays grew to $100 million in sales by 1990 when I left to do a turn around for another large travel company. (now Johnson and Murphy shoes and Hickey-Freeman suitsÂ
size 46) By 1993 I was ready to return to education, international concerns, and khakis (now a 38 inch waist), so I joined World Learning (formerly the Experiment in International Living) as VP for International Programs.
Finally in 1996 I decided to retire to jeans, tee shirts, and boots. And for the last eleven years have lived quite happily and quietly on our small farm in rural New Hampshire.
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