R: I am an optimist, a very strong optimist, but I do worry a little bit about things.

P: Do you think your grandson is going to grow up all right?

R: Well, I think that he is going to have such marvelous parental support and help, and
 interest, etc., but I think even that does not guarantee anything any more. It is scary
 when you look at [the future]. I think that the kids have so much peer pressure on
 them, of the wrong kind. That is just scary. I do not know how we are going to turn
 that around. I hope we can. I believe maybe we can, but it is not going to be easy.

P: What would you tell your grandson about the future if you had a chance to advise
 him? What do you want him to do?

R: Well, I think I would like to see him get the best education he can get. I hope that
 he would have an association with a [church]. People ought to know something
 about God and the sense of values that come from having a commitment to a
 religion of your choice. I would hope that he would be a generous and an unselfish
 person. I guess that I hope he would not be too materialistic, and that he would live
 a good, happy life.

P: What do you think we have not said that we ought to have said today? Is there
 anything that we have left out that I did not ask you and I should have?

R: I guess that I would like to say that along the way so many people have been helpful,
 understanding. I think about Walter Matherly, where it all started. I never would
 have been in Florida if it had not been for Walter Matherly. Here I was, a young
 instructor, yet he took an interest in me, at a time when I needed some help.

 I feel fortunate to have known and worked with Wayne Reitz. He must be the most
 unselfish person that ever came down the pike. I tried a few things other than
 education, but in the end, I think I used very good judgement in returning to
 education because it has been such a satisfying life and such a satisfying career.

 [I had] marvelous friends along the way. I think that we humans cannot do it alone.
 You need family and friends, and then, of course, in the end, I just happened to run
 into Mary Elizabeth Wehrman. Mary has put up with a lot, shifting around and
 moving around, and with all my changes. [She] never complained. She is just a
 marvelous person.

P: So there is no deep, dark Alan Robertson that I have not discovered today, no secret
 past or anything?

R: No. Even during the war, Sam. The war was a bad thing, but even that experience
 was a growing experience. It really was. You tended to understand that, by God,
 that is terrible thing and you hope it never happens again. But I made a lot of good
 friends.


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