L. Roy Wilcox, PhD - Autobiography, Part 2

(this section and the introduction pages are marked with “Redo-reorganize!!” No such reorganization has been found in the original notes)

PREFACE

To my daughter, Jean, who commissioned this work.

Writing biographies, in particular the auto – kind, is one of many things about which I know very little. Accordingly I have spent probably more time in thinking about this project that I have in carrying it out.

Probably this type of job is relatively simple when the subject’s life is essentially single – faceted, at least so far as readers’ interests are likely to be concerned as for example, in the case of a great statesman. But in a case where greatness, together with a consistent amount of mediocrity, if any, is spread over a number of “facets” and where salient features are far from constant over the years, the job is pretty complicated. This is so in part because a simple chronological account of such a life must deal at early stage with many or at least several related or unrelated facets; and the results promises to be a grand hodgepodge.

Therefore, since I regard myself as a multifaceted (a jack of many “trades,” master of at least two) I have decided to write my (auto –) biography into parts with inter-part and in intra- part biography, cross references kept to a minimum.

Part one is a chronological account in the form of a collection of commentaries, one for each of us set of “eras” with relatively little attention to the “facets.” Part two deals with the facets including hobbies, special areas of interest, or significant pieces of my career. A table of contents of each part appears at the beginning of that part.

In part one there is no implication of lack of continuity from one “era” to the next, but there is enough shift in lifestyle, Outlook and self-evaluation at each transition to justify the organization there are many anecdotal items, some possibly significant, which should appear somewhere but don’t fit well in part two; these are therefore included somewhere in part one although they may span two or more eras. Similarly in part two, the various items have sufficient identity to lead to their separation; yet there are many inter-relationships, some of which have become evident to me only through the sorting out processes in which I have been recently involved in connection with this project.

(Note from transcriptionist: some of the “unknowns” about the families mentioned here are known by the person typing this manuscript and have been identified in footnotes, marked * on the respective pages, for the edification of the reader. Numbered footnotes are from the original manuscript. This was transcribed using Dragon software and then hand-revisions, as necessary - JMWH.)