George R. Phippen

Listen to the interview:

George: "I was weighing this idea of staying around [Albert] Carlson who was the hip prof at the time … I was the very first [in the new geography department] … It was all Carlson's doing … He caught me at a good time. He said … ‘We know you don't have time for a full major but we can work something out.'  Well, you should have heard Neidlinger. … He said, 'You are crazy.' He called me…. I cannot tell you what he called me and he said, ‘I just can't believe that anybody in his right mind would do this.’ … I was headed to the top two schools there and geography wasn't … who had ever heard of geography?"

Download complete transcript of interview.