My father, the Anthropologist Ward Goodenough, was at the Center in 1957-58. My parents, younger sister Debbie (12), and younger brother Oliver (6), all lived in an Eichler on Metro Circle that year, next to the Quarington’s, who were also at the center (he was a Canadian Psychologist with his wife and two kids). Their child, Joel Quarington, was a very lively young cartoonist, very taken with Pogo comics. I was 14-15 that year, in ninth grade at Ray Lyman Wilbur (now JLS) Junior High school. Milton Friedman’s son (jumped two grades previously in Chicago) was in my class, along with Lucy Barker, both Center families that year. Lucy was one of my best friends, as was Melinda Cutler, the daughter of the Center Director and a year ahead of me. I remember enjoying using the ping-pong table at the Center and going to the square dances. Palo Alto suffered a flood that winter, and my sister and I had to put the furniture up as high as we could before our parents came home and we all evacuated our house. We stayed with other Center families that night. Luckily the water only came up to the doorstep. My father greatly enjoyed his year at the Center and found it a very productive context to work. He passed away at 94 a year ago this past June, having spent his career at the University of Pennsylvania. Among the fellows, I remember the Quarington’s, Milton Friedman and another economist who became fast friends with Friedman that year (one very tall, one very short), even though as I understood it, their views were very different. The tall economist was either Stieglitz of Stiegler—others may remember more clearly which.
Best wishes,
Hester Goodenough Gelber
Professor Department of Religious Studies
Stanford
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