Gerald W. Smith Memoir - Brookens Library

Gerald W. Mth 2 40try to locate somebody who would cone on an interim basis, a tempoperson.Tney discussed that matter that afternoon. I was not presentat that meeting and so I do not lolow just what the nature of the discussionwas, nor how mu^, people were discussed. What I do how is thatin the eve* of Labor Day as I was working out on lawn, a phone callcame f'rm Dr. Bme.Q. Where were you living at that time7A. I was living in Sprhgfield because I was serving as Executive Directorfor the adrr;inlstrators and as Admlnistratlve Relations Director for theIE;A, which included the Junior College Association.Q. I knew that Gerry, but I wanted to get it into the record again.A. And...the nature of Dr. Browne1s .~nye:mk%@n- was essentially vdhatI've Just sald. They had to have somebody right now...and the questS?onwas, would I be willing to serve them as an interim person on a tempararybask, bdicating to me that they were not looking for a permanent indivi-dual; they would decide on that at a later th~. I explained to Dr. Brawnethat, yes, I would probably be Interested but I was not a f'ree agent. Iwas employed by the Illinois Association of School Administrators and theIllinois Education Association; consequently the matter whether I could bed e available had to be related to them. So that eve- he called theExecutive Secretasy of the Illinois Education Association, Wayne Stoneking,and discussed it with him. Upon arrival at work the next mrning Waynesaid, "We have samething to talk aboutfr (chuckle, chuckle). Of course,then we also had to bring bto the conversation the pmsldent of theschool administrators whose Executive Director I was. The result was that,I t m , by Wednesday of that week the officers of both associations hadbeen contacted and they agreed that this was a very important piece ofbusiness that was being taken care of In the Sltate, one which they had.supported actively and they felt, therefore, that we ought to make thataccomdat ion.By Wednesday or Thursday I had responded to Dr. Browne by indicating thatI would be interested and that I thought we could establish a workabiearrangement within our own office. It had been agreed that if I did thisRoy Baker who was working with me in that office would take over muc$ ofmy responsibilities but I would retain some because I would go on pqttimeand temporarily.The Board at its meet- on Monday recessed until Friday. On F"ridwlSeptember 10, they met in Fnicago . At that meeting. . . I l rn going to tb toshow you how busy they were, but first of all here's the agendacovered on December 10. They selected Maurice Mitchell to serveChairman of the Board. They designated Newton Minm (who was anto draft a tentative list of rmles by which the Board would operate.put John Cox and Mrs. Kahn on the matter of what to do withthey approved the petition f'rom DuPage College. That approval was jwt aninitial step. At any rate they did approve it and sent it on to the,Boardof Higher Education for their review. They received petitions fkmn $Lack