Gilbert F. White
research. We had decided to marry before I went to Vichy, France, in 1942
but wanted to await my return, whenever that would be. I was detained for
a year in Germany, and we were married following my exchange in 1944.
After the war she accompanied me to Haverford. It was a very demanding,
time-consuming effort to be the wife of a president in a college where many
of the students were returning veterans her age. When our youngest child
went off to school she began working with me on problems of domestic
water.
Q: Is she a Quaker, too?
A: Yes, we're both convinced Quakers. And were both members of the Florida
Avenue Meeting in Washington. We joined separately but then came to know
each other later. Since then, Quaker meeting has been an integral part of our
lives.
We have three children, all fine people doing useful work. Our oldest teaches
economics at the University of Illinois. And the second one maintains a glass
studio in Oakland, California.
Q: Are those both sons?
A: No. The oldest is a son. The second is a daughter, the glass blower. The
third took a Ph.D. in anthropology and now is raising a family and teaching
part-time at the University of Victoria. We have none around here, I'm sorry
to say.
Q: Well, it makes for a peaceful existence, I suppose, anyway.
A: We came to Boulder because I'd had the experience of working on a ranch as
a boy and wanted my children to have it. So I looked around for a ranch that
we could spend the summer in that was high and dry-one of our daughters
was then somewhat asthmatic--and was within driving distance of a university
library. I drew radii from Laramie, Fort Collins, Boulder, Colorado Springs,
Albuquerque, for an operating ranch. It turned out there was such a rancher
in Sunshine Canyon who took his cattle to the high country. So I wrote to
him. His wife's reply was come live on our home place next summer if you
77
Previous Page
