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MEMBERSHIP NEWS |
Given the success of this feature, first initiated by my predecessor, I agreed with the concept and invited five colleagues to share their retirement experiences with us
RETIREES GLIMPSES
Alex Gynp
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Retirement in August 1996 has not changed my life significantly. I have taught one or two undergraduate courses during the fall and summer semesters since leaving the University in a formal basis. I am looking forward to being active in two classes during the summer of 1998. Freedom from routines of normal academic activities (endless committee meetings) provides opportunities for interactions with regulatory and industrial organizations through consulting challenges. Real life experiences provide interesting discussion for undergraduate environmental engineering students. Heavy commitments since retirement provide good reasons for getting out of bed every morning and have prevented me from wearing out a hole in the living room carpet as a result of wifely requests to vacuum daily.
Ralph C. Nelson
Political Science
Among the immediate benefits of retirement for me was release from schedules, the end of the excuse that there was never enough time to do things, and the freedom to travel in the fall. However, I have taught a course each term, with the exception of 1997, in the last five academic years and am involved in research projects that bind me to the University. Ron Wagenburg, now retired as, and I finished revising our text Introduction to Canadian Politics and Government for the seventh edition, published this year. The late Walter White was one of the co-authors. The first edition appeared in 1972. So retirement has not brought about the kind of abrupt change it has for many others
Mordechay Schlesinger
Physics
I have retired on 1 July 1997. At that time I was appointed Emeritus Professor of Physics. General Motors with whom I have a Longstanding association named me "General Motors Academic Research Fellow". That made me one of two individuals thus named globally ( the other individual is at MIT in the US). While most of my work with GM is proprietary, My three graduate students are involved in research topics only remotely related to the latter. In addition I am Associate editor(since 1990 and until 2000) of the JOURNAL of the ELECTROCHEMICAL SOCIETY handling about 200 manuscripts a year, as well as the ECS and IEEE joint letter journal of "Solid state and Electrochemical Letters". Last but not least I am Co-Editor (with Gordon Drake) of the Canadian Journal of Physics (1997 until 2002). My first book published by Wiley in New York is in print (titled 'Fundamentals of Electrochemical Deposition') while I am currently working on the second for the same publisher (titled' Modern Electroplating'). Just in case you forgot after reading this... I am retired. As a retiree I find some ( not enough ) time for our five grandchildren. By the way my wife Sarah who retired from the public school system is involved in the teaching and administration of a local private high schools an education consultant.
Robert Stager
Civil & Environmental Engineering
.My first year of retirement was transitional as I fulfilled some promises I had made at the university. And others which I had made to my wife. Still I hung around waiting for some inevitable and undefined emergency which would call me back. Guess what, nobody called. And the university managed without me. By the summer of 1997 I really got into this retirement thing. My Canada Pension had started and I discovered the various establishments which give SENIOR discounts (try ARBY's on Tuesdays). I bought a new computer and joined the Internet world. I slept in a little, travelled a lot and made lots of promises to the outside world. My wife and I worked on our genealogies and even went to Switzerland last October. We both have roots and relatives there. Being an engineer I really prepared for the trip. I took four months of tutoring in the German language.
Since that trip I have completed two second semester courses in German at the U of W and expect to take two more in the fall. And I took these courses for credit. Think of my fears as I wrote two final exams this April, my first since 1962. Maybe I will get a degree in the area I was talked out of in 1955, in languages. I now have a student identity card which is quite useful. So what else am I also doing. I volunteer at a nursing home eight hours a week doing their computer work. That entails scanning, drawing, writing and designing using Corel Draw and WordPerfect. And the emergency call finally came. I am back at my old post as chair of the University Parking Committee.
THE NUMBERS RACKET
By Joan Hackett
The instructions read "To request missing mileage information (They owed me 500 miles) call our Frequent Flyer Automated Information Line. I punched in the 800 number (11 digits). A taped voice answered, thanked me for calling and without further ado snapped. "Have your Frequent Flyer card ready" I was still digging it out when the next order came, "Enter your 9 digit card number NOW." I'd missed my cue. She accused me of entering an invalid number. How could it be invalid? I hadn't entered it yet. She was impatient. "Enter your 9 digit card number again!" I plugged away at those numbers looking at the card and pushing buttons at the same time. I did enter 9 digits but she didn't like any of them. She was meaner than ever, "That entry was invalid!" I didn't wait for further instructions - just forged ahead and got those numbers right on the buttons! She ignored my triumph. "Hold,"she barked. I did.
I expected a real live person to come to my rescue-but "no" my tormentor returned to read the day's menu. There were 3 choices. I picked #3, "getting warm," I thought, but #3 had two divisions of its very own-I picked #2. To my horror, The Voice said "For missing mileage information enter your 13 digit ticket number now! I flailed away at the phone. Each time I got a wrong number. The "Invalid/Enter again" message was repeated over and over. Finally I got it right! My reward: an interminable busy signal. I hung up and swore never to play the numbers again.
Editor's Note:
The Editor regrets the delay in the distribution of this April Issue Newsletter. The objective was to report to the members , results of the Faculty Association General Membership deliberations, with respect to the Contract Committee's recommendations on Pension and Benefits. As you have read in earlier pages, the recommendations have been approved.
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