Returning To Civilian Life

When I was a teenager my ambition was to own and operate a high-class night club or some kind of a dance bar with good music and bands. To me this seemed like a glamorous and interesting life.

When I returned from Korea I stopped at the local bar for a drink. Inside I saw the same people who were there when I left two years earlier – in the same chairs! I had just been halfway around the world and it appeared as if these people had never left that bar. This caused me to re-evaluate my goals and I decided that I wanted something other than the bar scene.

On being discharged from the army I had been offered a couple of jobs playing guitar – one for a Hawaiian band in Honolulu, and another with a western swing band at Knott’s Berry Farm in California. Although I loved playing the steel guitar I wasn’t quite sure I wanted that as a career. It seemed to be quite risky since if I injured any one of my fingers I would be out of a job. The other problem was that I had promised to marry Elaine Horning, a former classmate, on my return from service so I felt obligated to her.

I decided to return to college and finish my degree. I first thought I wanted to study music, but the jobs in that field appeared to be somewhat limited. I could, for example, become a marching band director for a high school and put on halftime shows at football games wearing some kind of silly uniform, but at this point in my life I was tired of uniforms. As I further examined other options I noticed that there was a high demand for secondary science and math teachers. My mother was an educator, as were some of my aunts and uncles. That seemed to be a perfect fit, so I worked  toward a degree in Comprehensive Science at Kent State University. This would qualify me to teach any high school math or science course, and I could break  all of my fingers without losing my job.

Now there was the promise to fulfill. I married Elaine but I had no job or money. My parents generously offered us a place to stay while I finished school.

Gene Roliff -Elaine Horning  c. 1957

After graduation there was no problem getting a teaching position. The demand for science and math teachers was so great that I believe the only qualification needed for employment besides having a degree was being able to walk upright into a classroom with a body temperature of 98.6!

I obtained an interview with Lee Grimsley, president of Portage County board of education. I remember standing in front of his desk at “parade rest” during the interview. Finally he said, “Sit down Mr. Roliff, this is not Korea”. He then referred me to Mr. David Nelson, Superintendent of Suffield Schools. Part of that interview required me to prove that I was born by presenting my birth certificate.

Foot and thumb prints from my birth certificate. These were used by the hospital to prevent the mother from taking home the wrong kid by mistake.

When I handed Mr. Nelson the birth certificate he took a long look at the feet imprinted on that document, then stared at me with a grin over top of his glasses – I felt like crawling into a crack in the floor!

I guess he liked my foot prints because he hired me on the spot. My salary for the year of 1958-59 was $4000. This was $1000 less than I was making 4 years earlier as a milk man.

I quickly found out that having a degree certifying me to teach all math and science courses offered at the high school level was good for obtaining a job, but not so good thereafter. It appeared that the principal tried to give me every course in the school that I was qualified to teach. He loaded me up with 6 preparations in my first year of teaching – Algebra I, Algebra II, Solid Geometry/Trig, Plane Geometry, Chemistry, and General Science. The second year was basically the same, but Physics was substituted for Chemistry (what a break!). Needless to say I didn’t have much time to sleep during those first two years of teaching, since I was usually up until after midnight trying to stay one day ahead in my class preparations.

I must have found some spare moments because during that time Elaine and I added 2 sons to our family.

On October 4, 1957, our country received a shock. The Russians put the world’s first artificial earth satellite into orbit. The space race was on.

Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite

You could see it fly overhead at night with the naked eye. You could hear it beep on the radio. The Americans were humiliated since they had thought the Ruskies were just a bunch of illiterate cave men incapable of doing anything scientifically significant.

As a country we have often under-estimated our enemies. At the beginning of WWII, we were led to believe that the Japanese soldier was an inferior being that couldn’t hit anything with a rifle. After all, he was so near-sighted that he had to wear those thick little round paperweight glasses over his beady little eyes. The reality turned out to be quite different.

Then of course there was Custer, 9/11, Vietnam, etc.

After the initial panic wore off from the Sputnik launch, the government finally realized that we were deficient in our teaching of math and science. To help remedy this The National Science Foundation was formed. This agency offered grants to teachers that enabled them to firm up their competence in teaching these disciplines. I applied for, and was granted, a stipend to obtain a master’s degree in mathematics from Syracuse University in upstate New York. This was the opportunity of a lifetime!

I moved to Syracuse with my family and spent a year and a summer working on a graduate degree. Upon completion we moved back to Ohio where I taught at Field High School, a consolidation of Brimfield and Suffield schools, for two more years. I then obtained a position at Ravenna City Schools where I taught Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science for the next thirty years.

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While looking for My old birth certificate, I stumbled across this bill from the hospital where I was born. I thought it might be of interest to the reader. Please note the outlandish prices for hospital care – especially the price for circumcision!!