AC_1965_Web

82 AN T I OC H CO L L E G E C L A S S O F 19 6 5 5 0 t h A N N I V E R S A R Y B O O K A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z K I N G KING JONATHAN THEN AND NOW 4 B.A. Philosophy and Religion FAMI LY 4 Wife, Barbra 4 Son, Bobby 4 Daughters, Angela, Kim and Michel ADDRESS 4 2219 S.E. 34th Ave. Portland, OR 97214 CONTACT 503 206-6529 Jonathan.King@bus.oregonstate.edu A F T E R G R A D U A T I N G F R O M Woodstock High School in north India, I returned to Rangoon, Burma where my father was finishing a two year Ford Foundation fellowship. It was there that someone told us about Antioch College. I was particu- larly impressed by its relative lack of regulations. The internship program also sounded interesting—which it was, including two summers work- ing on two different French farms. Although I started out as a chemis- try major, I eventually ended up in philosophy (with an abiding interest in the philosophy of science). I have never regretted my choice! After graduating from Antioch in 1965, Jeff Yarne and I skipped the graduation ceremony and drove up to New England to poke around a bit. From there, I went to Madison, Wis., where several of my relatives lived, working there as a waiter for several months until I reported to the Navy’s Officer Candidate School in Newport,R.I. (When I was drafted after graduating, I remember call- ing my brother-in-law asking what I should do. “Go to OCS,” he said. “You have a college degree.”“What’s OCS”? I asked. He told me. Then I asked, “Which branch?”“The Navy,” he replied. So I applied to the Navy’s OCS.) After an unremarkable academic performance at Antioch, I bloomed at OCS. Don’t know why. For exam- ple, I was selected as assistant reg- imental commander my last term and I received the OCS Leadership Award when I was commissioned. From there I went to Pensacola, Fla., where I learned to scuba dive, race my newly purchased sports car, and—oh—take classes at the Naval base. From thence, it was Glenco,Ga. where I attended the NFO School for 4 months and learned to love grits for breakfast. Again, for some weird reason, I did very well—top of my class at graduation. I some- how stumbled onto a secret method of learning! While I typically asked more questions than the rest of my 30 classmates put together,my ques- tions weren’t about “what” or “how.” Instead, they were about “where, where, and why.” Years later I both taught and promoted this type of “higher” edu- cation to my students. From there, I drove across the south—seeing grinding rural poverty for the first time—to San Diego.A couple weeks of further training and it was out to the Gulf of Tonkin, landing on the USS Coral Sea CVA-43—that’s an air- craft carrier. For the next three years, I spent nine months a year flying off the coast of NorthVietnam directing airstrikes against enemy targets— typically, convoys of ammunition go- ing south. In retrospect, I thank God I wasn’t fighting on the ground. In 1970, I extended my military service two years, teaching NROTC at the University of Washington. Living in Seattle, I bought a small house, rented the main f loor and lived in the finished basement. In addition to teaching, I took ka- rate lessons, raised my Doberman, skied three times a week for seven months a year, took a variety of graduate courses out of sheer curi- osity—economics, Russian history, Chinese history, etc. I then decided to get an MBA, exiting the Navy as an LCDR. Midway through my stud- ies, a staff person insisted I try being a teaching assistant. I took her ad- vice, then decided to get a Ph.D. and teach forever! After a couple months in accounting, I switched to a new degree—only offered by Stanford and U of W at the time—designated “Business,Government, and Society.” (This was, at last, an explicit attempt by higher ed to promote multi-dis- ciplinary approaches to problems, opportunities, etc.) In retrospect, it was truly a wise decision. Over the years, it has given me an excuse to read all sorts of diverse and fascinat- ing stuff. During this time, I met my fu- ture wife—along with her three