Manuscript Page 68

San Diego, Long Beach, Santa Ana, Alhambra, Fullerton, Burbank, Glendale and Torrance. Not all districts were members each year and membership was strictly by invitation.

I want to mention some of the people who were on my staff at Torrance. One especially good employee was Jean Long, Director of Food Services. Jean was over six feet tall and was one of the most able people I ever worked with. During one year we opened twelve new cafeteria operations and she equipped and staffed all these student food centers. She left nothing to chance but managed to train all the employees who came on board while she kept all the other cafeterias operating smoothly. She opened more than a new cafeteria a month all that year and every operation was as smooth as could be. Jean left Torrance to become Director of the National School Food Services organization. She left quite a gap in our organization because we were still growing rapidly but I was able to hire John Blandy, an Ex-Marine who had been captured during the battle of Wake Island and who spent five years in prisoner of war camps in Japan. John was a real find and fit right in to our organization. He was trained by the Marine Corps in food services so knew the field inside and out.

When our Maintenance program began to become ineffective, I hired "Dutch" Aldershof as Supervisor. Dutch was one of the GIs who waded ashore in North Africa when the United States began its campaign there in World War II. He had been trained by Peter Kewitt Co. and had worked all over the world building air fields and roads. He was particularly effective in scheduling men and equipment. He brought a real shot in the arm for the Maintenance Department.

I now realize that I have waited too long to write down all this "stuff." It has taken me two days to remember the name of my first experienced well trained Accountant. This was Bill Sells and if I could I would apologize to Bill for my poor memory. However, Bill passed away some years ago and the best I can do is to remember him in gratitude. Bill was the first accountant in my experience who really organized a training program for Account Clerks who did the actual work in the Business Office. He produced an Accounting Manual to show the paper flow in the office and to serve as a guide for personnel working there. This Manual became a guide for many school districts in Southern California.

I could include many other outstanding people who were on my staff or with whom I worked but I do not think it would be productive to do so because there were simply too many to deal with in this paper. There were some who did not fit the jobs they were trying to fill and they had to find other employment. I can remember their names but I will not mention them here.

Now I want to turn back to the Board of Education-Superintendent relationship. I doubt that the tension in this area bothered the principals or the teachers. They are quite well insulated from the central administration and from many of the public. The tension certainly did bother the employees working close to the Superintendent because the Board controlled all salaries and they refused to give the Superintendent a raise. For