street, then we will have to run it." I said, "I understand that, if you hear it on the
 street, I understand that." But, fortunately, they did not, and so it was announced
 to the Board meeting.

P: Well, the only one else who knew it was Mary and she was not going to talk to them.

R: Then, what I did, on the day of the Board meeting, I walked around and talked to
 a couple of my key [people], my closest friends, Portia [Taylor], and Tal [Mullis], and
 Bob [Myers], and a few people like that.

P: Bob who?

R: Myers, Tal Mullis, Portia Taylor.

P: Tal Mullis?

R: Yes. The other vice president.

P: I know about Myers, but I did not know Tal Mullis.

R: One of the world's great people.

P: So you then announce it to the Board.

R: Yes.

P: Were they surprised?

R: Yes, they were.

P: It sounds to me, as I was reading this, that when you passed out the notice of it, they
 did not want it. They said to ignore it.

R: Yes. That was a marvelous Board. That is another thing, over the years, the
 Board's relationship to the president was always so good at Santa Fe.

P: But you were sincere about that, nobody was going to talk you out of it.

R: No. That was it, period, exclamation point.

P: So you gave them nearly a year?

R: I guess that was about nine months? I figured that it would take them two or three
 months to get organized and four or five months to do it [hire a replacement].

P: A search committee. But you felt you were leaving the college in good shape?


 146 -