Kelsey: When and where were you
born and raised?
Founds: I was born in
Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania,
and I spent quite a few years there before I went to
college. And then ultimately my father was
transferred to
Morristown. At
that time it was
Allied Chemical and Dye
Corporation. So we then moved to
Madison. I
continued my education at
Villanova University
in
Pennsylvania,
graduated from there, and then began teaching at a
local private high school for four years. During
that period I went for my
master’s degree:
the
NIH [National
Institutes of Health] had a program for high
school teachers to get a
master’s degree in
biology at the
University of Notre Dame.
So I spent quite a few summers taking courses at
Notre Dame. And
then ultimately in 1967, I saw an advertisement for
a position here at the
college, just
getting its start. I applied for the position, even
though at that time I didn’t have my
master’s degree in
hand. So I interviewed and was hired as an
instructional assistant, until I got my
master’s degree,
which happened to be the very year I joined the
faculty here. So I served as what they called an
instructional assistant in biology for the first
year, and then I was promoted to instructor in the
second year.
Kelsey: Where were you teaching when you
decided to start going for your
master’s?
Founds: The name of the high school, which is
now closed, was
Bayley-Ellard High School
in
Madison.
Kelsey: Were you in college when your family
moved to
Madison?
Founds: Yes.
Kelsey: So you were already going to
Villanova?
Founds: Yes, I was going for my
bachelor’s degree
at the time.
Kelsey: What subject was your
bachelor’s and
master’s in?
Founds: I had a major in biology and a minor in
chemistry.
Kelsey: And that was true for both your
bachelor’s and your
master’s?
Founds:
Master’s was
strictly biology—biochemistry.
Kelsey: And so then you were an instructional
assistant when you started in September of 1968?
Founds: Right. There were two of us in biology
at the time. Tim Patschkewas
the instructor, and he had his
master’s at the
time, and I was the instructional assistant. So my
duty was … I think I did some teaching, but my
responsibilities really centered around getting the
department up and running, as far as the
laboratories were concerned.
Kelsey: Why did you decide to teach?
Founds: Well, I always wanted to teach. I felt
that that was a career choice that I had made when I
was in eighth grade, believe it or not. A lot of
kids today don’t know what they want to do. I knew
exactly what I wanted to do, and I pursued that.
But I knew that ultimately I would want to teach at
a college level, and I got four years of experience
teaching at a private high school, which was very
good experience, but this became a dream for me,
that when this school opened, I thought, “Wow, this
is a brand new school, brand new facilities,” and it
looked like an exciting opportunity, so I decided to
apply and determine if this was for me.
Kelsey:
County colleges
were brand new, at least on the East Coast, in the
sixties.
Founds: Correct.
Kelsey: What drew you to a
county college?
Founds: Well, first of all, to teach at a full
four-year college, you need a
Ph.D. They don’t
hire many people with
master’s degrees.
And I knew what the salaries were at the four-year
colleges, and they don’t hire you so much to teach,
as to do research. And to do that, you really need
a
Ph.D. So the
County College of Morris
was more of a teaching institution than a research
institution. And it seemed to be a school where
there was going to be quality stressed, in a lot of
different ways. We were very proud as a
faculty when the school
opened, because the school was, I think, founded on
a lot of quality principles.
Kelsey: How do you think that came about, that
it had that kind of a reputation, even when you were
being interviewed?
Founds: Well, I think that a good part of that
was that the school had money to spend, and the
institution, as you could see from its founding, had
buildings that didn’t look like something out of
World War II. I
mean, they built solid buildings, they were
architecturally nice-looking, very sound and
efficient inside. The laboratories were all new,
and all the equipment was new. I think the
faculty felt that they wanted
to have this school be the best of the two-year
colleges in the state.
Kelsey: How old were you when you started
working at
CCM?
Founds: I was twenty-six years old.
Kelsey: And you had been in college pretty
much straight through.
Founds: I continued my education. As I
graduated from my
bachelor’s degree
and teaching, I immediately applied for this
NIH grant to
continue my education. So my goal was always to
continue my education.
Kelsey: What year did you graduate with your
B.A.?
Founds: I was a
B.S. in 1964, and I
got my
master’s when I
joined the college in 1968.
Kelsey: What was the physical
campus like at that time in ’68?
Founds: Well, there was only one building, and
that was Henderson Hall.
Everything was located there. And I had the
unfortunate problem of having to equip the
laboratory. There was only
one biology lab that I can remember, in that
building. And I think I was also involved in the
chemistry laboratory as well. But I remember that I
had to make sure that everything was safe, and one
of the elements of that building was shower heads,
showers, in case someone were to spill something on
themselves that was caustic or whatever—unsafe.
Actually, we had started teaching before those
laboratories were complete. So the president was
downstairs, under the
laboratory. So I asked the guy to pull the
chain to make sure that the shower head was working
properly, and of course what they didn’t tell me was
they had not plugged all the holes in the floor
around the drains. And the shower went off, as it
was supposed to, but it didn’t turn off. So it
basically filled the container that was supposed to
collect the water, and continued to fill, and they
could not get the thing to turn off, and they didn’t
know where the valve was. So as a result, there was
a flood on that floor, which
went right directly down to the president, on his
head! So that was kind of a joke for the time
being. He was baptized in that building by me.
Kelsey: That’s a good story. What was it like
around, outside of
Henderson Hall, in terms of….
Founds: I don’t remember clearly, but it was a
beautiful campus, and we knew
that more buildings were going to be built. I don’t
remember if they had started more buildings at that
time or not. But it was a wonderful place to teach
and to come, to just be here.
Kelsey: Was there a
cafeteria?
Founds: I think everything was in Henderson
Hall. I don’t know that they had the building
across the way built yet, the cafeteria building. I
don’t remember that. I think Henderson Hall served
all of those purposes.
Kelsey: Where did you all eat?
Founds: Well, as I said, I think there was a
cafeteria in that building, in Henderson Hall,
because there weren’t many
faculty members or students,
so it didn’t require much of a room to cater to
these people. Now, there was another building—in
fact, my office was there—it was the
Dalrymple House
because this was part of the Dalrymple Estate, if I
remember correctly. That building still exists.
It’s down below here on the campus.
I don’t know what it’s serving the purpose for now,
but at that time it was faculty
offices. And then ultimately as Henderson Hall was
completed, we moved to Henderson, and then
ultimately the science wings were built, and we all
moved up there.
Kelsey: What were the rules regarding
smoking on campus
and in the classrooms or the labs?
Founds: I never
smoked, so I don’t
know, but I don’t think
smoking was allowed
in the rooms, in the classrooms. Whether it was
allowed in the building, I don’t know, at that time.
Kelsey: What about the labs?
Founds: Labs you could definitely not
smoke. That was a
safety issue.
Kelsey: What was the atmosphere like on campus
during that first semester?
Founds: I think it was very positive. People
were excited about the expansion that was going to
take place. The student
body, I thought, was very good. I mean, it was your
average college group. I think the makeup, as time
went on, could be described as sort of bicameral.
There was a group of students that were solid
college students, and there was a group that didn’t
quite have what it took to compete at the college
level. And I would notice that in my grades, when
it came time to grade the students: There always
seemed to be a population, about two-thirds of the
students, that you would probably find at any
college, four-year school. But then there was
another third that struggled—probably more so than
what you would see for students
in a four-year school, only because they probably
would not be able to get into [such] a college. But
this was an open enrollment school, they were given
an opportunity to try.
Kelsey: During that first semester in the fall
of ’68, a lot of things had happened right before
that, in terms of the world at large.
Founds: Correct.
Kelsey: The
Kennedy assassination,
Martin Luther King,
the
Democratic convention,
Tet in Vietnam. Do
you remember any of those incidents, the fallout
from that, showing up on the
campus and in what the
students did?
Founds: No, I think the major issue was the
Vietnam War. And I
think a lot of students probably had that in mind,
that if they didn’t do well in college and continued
their college education, they may have been
called up for that
war. Now, they did
change the way in which students were treated.
Later on, people joined, they had a
lottery system
later on that was developed. But if you were a
college student, you had a
waiver, you weren’t
called up, unless they absolutely needed you. But
that was really the only fallout. The
Kennedy assassination
and all of that occurred before 1968, so that really
didn’t have much of an effect, I don’t think.
Kelsey: I meant
Bobby Kennedy.
Founds: Yeah. I think that people were shocked by
that, but I don’t remember what the fallout might
have been at the time. I still think the
war was probably
the biggest issue here on campus.
Kelsey: Do you remember any
protests?
Founds: Yes, there were certainly…. This was a
rather conservative county, so therefore
protests were not
as active as you might find in more liberal areas.
But there certainly were people
protesting the
war, certainly as
it went on. So that did occur. I don’t remember,
we didn’t close school, to my recollection, because
of it. And there weren’t any riots or anything of
that nature. These were generally peaceful
protests.
Kelsey: Do you remember if there were any
veterans going to school?
Founds: There probably were, but I don’t
remember specifically having contact with them, or
talking about the
war with any
veteran that I knew of anyway.
Kelsey: What was the world like for you in
1968, what concerned you personally?
Founds: Well, not much. I mean, certainly the
war was on my
mind. But I knew from the
draftboard, in which
I had to appear to discuss my situation, which was
in
Philadelphia, that
my chances of being [drafted]
were pretty slim. So I wasn’t really concerned
about having to go to
war. If I had to,
I was going to, but it seems as if I was going to be
exempt—and for particular reasons: because I was
teaching science, because I was teaching nurses,
they felt that teaching that particular population
was important to the
war effort. So for
that reason, they basically took other people
besides myself. But other than that, I think it was
a pretty nice time all around. I don’t ever
remember being stressed. We were very busy here,
and excited about the college, and I think it was a
nice time—except for those poor people that had to
go to the
war.
Kelsey: Because you taught
biology, practically everyone who had a
nursing major would pass through.
Founds: Correct.
Kelsey: What was the demographic of the
nursing class like?
Founds: Well, I think most of the
students were older than
your typical student, four-year college population.
It was a mix. There were some younger people, but I
think the average age might have been around thirty,
thirty-five, somewhere in there. So it was an older
group. It wasn’t a group of students coming
directly out of high school.
Kelsey: And what about in terms of
gender?
Founds: Oh, all women. There were very few
men.
Kelsey: But there were a few?
Founds: There were a few.
Kelsey: How did they do vis-à-vis the women,
in terms of class work then?
Founds: I would have to say that they were
probably the brightest crop of students on the
campus. Very hard working.
They had a goal. They knew after two years they
would become a nurse. So they worked very hard,
they were excellent students, and there were very
few that I remember having a problem. I mean, they
worked very hard. The nursing department, I think,
was a very sort of exclusive group here, because
nursing as a career was highly valued. A lot of
studentsthat go to four-year schools or even
two-year schools, really don’t know what they
want to do, whereas this
group of students knew what they wanted, knew that
when they got out they would have a job, and a good
job.
Kelsey: What was the
social life like for faculty
and other people who were working at the college?
Founds: Well, they had parties here, I
remember—actually for the
students and the faculty, for the faculty to mix
with the students and the
administration. They were very nice. I think
that there were some groups of faculty that would
get together from time to time. Usually the heads
of the departments would have members of the
department over for a picnic or whatever during the
summer. But as I said, the first year was really a
very hard-working year, so we didn’t do a lot of
socializing, that I can remember.
Kelsey: Were there any local hot spots?
Founds: Because I wasn’t much of a beer
drinker, I didn’t really frequent many of those
places that I can remember, but we would go to a
place down here on Route 10,
which was an Italian restaurant. A lot of our
affairs were held there. It burned down. I can’t
even remember the name of it now. But it’s just
down below the college, as you go east, on the west
side of Route 10.
Kelsey: How did you dress
to go to work?
Founds: Hm, that’s a good question. Honestly,
I don’t remember whether we wore suit coats and ties
at that time or not. I don’t remember. We
certainly didn’t dress down. I mean, we wore
business clothes. But whether we wore a suit coat
and tie…. I think in the beginning we did. It was
a requirement of the college that we come dressed in
professional business attire. But as time went on,
I think they changed the rules.
Kelsey: How did you
get to work?
Founds: Drove.
Kelsey: And what kind of a
car did you drive?
Founds: Ah! (laughs) I think at the time I
was driving a 1968
Pontiac LeMans, if
I remember correctly.
Kelsey: Where were you living?
Founds: Well, I lived at home, because the high
school where I taught was right next door to where I
lived in
Madison. But when
I joined the faculty here, I
started looking around to see if there were any
faculty members interested in sharing an apartment,
and lo and behold, Jerry
Luboff, who was in the English department, was
looking for, I think, a third person to join him at
an apartment in
Morristown. It was
in a two-bedroom apartment where three of us shared
the rent. We couldn’t afford the rent by
ourselves—it was too expensive at the time. Today
it would be cheap. So three of us essentially lived
out of that apartment for a while.
Kelsey: So you drove west then, from
Morristown.
Founds: Correct.
Kelsey: Describe what
Route 10 looked like at that time.
Founds: Believe it or not, I think there were
farm fields on both sides
of Route 10, that I can remember—open fields—which
now are occupied by buildings.So it was pretty well
open. I mean, it wasn’t as populated with places as
we see today. So there was still a lot of open
land, not many buildings.
Kelsey: What about the traffic?
Founds: The traffic was lighter than I think it
is today, but then the highways, if I remember
correctly, weren’t that great. I think they widened
Route 10 as the traffic became heavier. But I still
think at rush hour it probably was lighter than it
is today.
Kelsey: What about the intersection at
Center Grove Road
and Route 10, where you
would turn in to the college?
Founds: Nothing strikes out in my mind. I
can’t remember that there was any difficulty there.
I think they always had a left-hand turn lane there
for those of us coming west. I think they made that
additional lane. But nothing particularly stands
out in my mind.
Kelsey: And what was on those four corners?
Founds: Actually those four corners looked
pretty much the same, except for what is on the
right side going west, which is now an
A&P shopping
center. That was not there. And I honestly don’t
remember what was there.
Kelsey: What were the
students like?
Founds: I think at that time, when I first
joined the college, they were
very hard-working, a little older than your typical
four-year college student. Many of them couldn’t
afford a four-year college education, but they could
certainly have easily gotten into a four-year
school. So this afforded them an opportunity to
come here for two years and then transfer to a
four-year school, and not have to pay four years’
worth of a four-year tuition. And this school was
reasonably inexpensive at the time, and a bargain,
so I think that attracted a lot of students.
The
faculty, if you looked at the
degrees they held, were as good as any faculty at
most four-year colleges that you could go to, and
represented a broad range of schools:
Ivy League and
state schools, etc. So I think the faculty were
excellent. Certainly the facilities were new, and
the price was right.
Kelsey: Describe a
typical day in the classroom.
Founds: That’s really hard, because I’d have to
remember what it was like forty-some years ago. It
probably isn’t much different than it is today:
students would show up for
class, we told them—I think this was developed early
on—that we would give them a syllabus, let them know
what we expected of them for the semester, and it
was lecture. I think for the most part it was
lecture-centered—certainly in science anyway. They
would take notes, and we would give tests. The
classes weren’t too large, so there was a lot of
give and take, students asked a lot of questions.
And I think in general it felt like any other
school. I had done some teaching at a four-year
school, so I knew a little bit about what to expect
in the freshman year. I was teaching at
Rutgers when I was
going for my graduate degree there, so I got an idea
of what that was like.
Kelsey: Describe what was considered cutting
edge classroom technology
in 1968.
Founds: Well, the
overhead projector
(laughs) was as cutting edge as I can think of. We
may have had
closed-circuit TV
at the time, too, if I remember correctly.
Certainly the technology has changed a lot. We had
a printing department, which you don’t have that
anymore, I’m sure. So you would take your tests
that you’d typed up on
mimeograph
paper—that was another thing we had—you would take
it to the printing center, and they would
mimeograph off your
tests—which, of course, was all ink-based
technology. Then it went
to
copy machines, I
think in the end. In the eighties they had new
copy machines—that
was the new technology. So it was pretty
primitive. And we had
Selectric typewriters,
the
electric typewriters,
that I remember using. Ultimately, if I remember
correctly, while we were there,
computers finally
made our desks. But I don’t remember if that
happened while I was still here.
Kelsey: Describe student
behavior and dress.
Founds: It’s very difficult to remember that.
I think that because the students were a little
older, they were more serious. If you go to a
typical state four-year college, you might find the
students to be a little immature. I think this
group was a little bit more mature. However, there
were students who were not good students. They
didn’t come from classrooms and high schools where
they learned much. So as I said, about a third of
the class had difficulty. But overall, I would say
the students were serious, mature, and interested in
learning. But remember, there was a different
motivation for that. If they were to fail out of
college, then they probably would have been
drafted.
Kelsey: So the students who were having
difficulty, did they really try hard to be able to
make it through?
Founds: Some did, not all. Some were not very
serious. They were just here to bide their time and
hope that they wouldn’t be
drafted.
Kelsey: What do you remember most about that
first year?
Founds: Well, the fact that we were all very
proud, that the
college had such a
quality faculty, quality
campus, and that we were all
interested in making this an excellent school. And
we worked very hard. I mean, it was a really tough
year, because everything was new, so we were
starting from scratch. So we were a very close-knit
faculty. And I remember it
being a lot of fun, because we felt that we were
really contributing to something that was important,
and that would be here for a long time.
Kelsey: You left
CCM in 1983.
Founds: Correct.
Kelsey: Did you also leave teaching?
Founds: Yes. I had gotten my
Ph.D. in
microbiology at
Rutgers University in
1981. In 1983, I was recruited to join a
biotechcompany, in,
of all places,
Portland, Maine.
There was a group out of
Harvard University
that had started this company. It was cheaper to
start it in
Maine than it was
in
Boston, but
Boston was only
three hours away. So I decided I would test the
waters to see what this was all about. The biotech
revolution had just started. Back in the seventies,
some of that technology
laid the foundation for development of products in
the late 1970s and early 1980. So I joined that
company, and that was quite exciting.
Kelsey: Have you been on the
campus recently, other than coming for this
interview?
Founds: No, this was the first time in a long
time.
Kelsey: How do you think
community colleges
have changed since 1968?
Founds: Well, certainly because of the number
of years of existence, they’ve grown in size, and
certainly physical plant. I mean, this place seems
bigger than it was when I was here. I really can’t
say much more than that, because I don’t have any
[recent] experience teaching here, so I don’t know
what it’s like. But I would say it probably has
become, and will become, a more important component
of an individual’s education, as time goes on,
because four-year colleges are getting totally out
of sight for most families. They just can’t afford
them. So I think that as an alternative for the
first two years, I think a lot of
students will look toward
the two-year college to fulfill those first two
years of education. And they’ll certainly find that
the quality is here for those first two years. And
then they’ll go on to a four-year school, finish off
in two years. In actual fact, that’s what my kids
did—especially my daughter
wasn’t sure what she wanted to major in. So I sent
her here for the first two years. That was a while
ago. She then went to
Rutgers University
and majored in English. And to this day, she said
that she felt that she had better teachers here—as a
whole—than she had at
Rutgers. So that
speaks well for the college.
Kelsey: Is there anything else you’d like to
add?
Founds: No, not really. I think that’s about
it.
Kelsey: Okay, very good. Thank you.
Founds: Thank you.
[END
OF INTERVIEW]
INDEX