THE THOMSON FAMILY SCRAPBOOK Compiled From Original Scrapbook Of David McCullough Thomson By David McCullough Thomson, August, 2001

Ohio State University

After getting out the Army in 1958 I worked for the State Of Michigan in one of their mental hospitals but soon saw that this was not for me. So, since brother Tom was in the restaurant business I asked him about possible jobs in the food service business. He told me contact Szabo Food Service in Chicago.

I worked several years for them in the restaurant business, all of which were as a manager of hospital/industrial food services. During this period I got married for the first time. Here name was Barbara Swanson, a Home Economics teacher in Lansing, Michigan.

I was transferred to Columbus, Ohio to be the food service manager for the Army Depot. There were two cafeterias, one managed by a woman manager who I supervisored, and the main cafeteria managed by me.

I soon found that managing an industrial food service was very routine and rather boring as I had set up a four week rotating menu. This allowed me to order the supplies and have the workers prepare the food with no trouble. So, I decided to go back to school at night and take some courses in Mathematics, which at that time I believed I had a knack for.

Undergraduate In Mathematics After one year of night school at Ohio State University (OSU), where I got straight A in three classes I, and my wife at that time, decided that I should go back to school full time and get an undergraduate degree in Mathematics. Since I already had a Bachelor Of Arts (BA) from Michigan State College (MSC) it would only take me two years to get my degree.

Since OSU required all their graduates to have taken a foreign language I had to take one so I choose the easiest one, Spanish. I soon found that I could read the language but my tongue and mouth just could not pronounce the words. I did manage to get though three terms of Spanish but just barely.

During my first year at OSU as a full time student I got all A's in the Mathematics subject. The Spring term one of my instructors was talking to me and said that since I was doing so well in math and since I already had a college degree, I should skip the rest of the undergraduate program at OSU and apply for graduate school. I was astonished! Graduate School is for the brightest students and I never considered myself that bright.

The instructor told me to sign up for the Graduate Record Examination, a rather rigorous two part examination, a general part and a second part in your major area. Each of these exams at that time were about 2-4 hours long, I am just not sure which as this was back in 1963.

Graduate School - Mathematics I scored about 54% on the General Exam but about 92% in the Mathematics Exam. These scores were sent to the head of the Mathematics Department at OSU for his acceptance of me into their graduate program. I learned that the Department agreed to take me into the program because of my high score on the Math exam. I might also mention that the Mathematics Department was beginning a re-building program and was looking for graduate students. In fact, the head of the department and 6-8 professors were hired the previous year. The Math Department head came from Norte Dame and he was really trying to improve the stature of the department. One way to do this is to have graduate students, and good ones at that.

So in the fall of 1963 I began the Mathematics Graduate program. I soon found that the class work was not that hard even with my limited math background, three undergraduate classes. All the students were very bright and I enjoyed attending class with them.

Several of us got together now and then to work on homework assignment and study for final exams.

(Click On small graphic to see full view) During my 1st year in graduate school I somehow managed to get mostly A with a few B. All graduate students are assumed to be bright so if you are average in your class you will get a B. Above average gets a A and those few below average get a C. A grade of C is really bad as you have to have a B average or above to graduate. With my three undergraduate As and the As and Bs in graduate school I was invited to join Pi Mu Epsilon (ΠΜΕ), the National Mathematics Honorary. This was a great honor for me as I had not been a good student in my undergraduate days in Michigan State College.

About this same time some friends encouraged me to take a test to see if I might be eligible for Mensa, an organization for people who's IQ, as measured by a standard IQ test was in the upper 2% of all people. So I thought why not. The test was fun to take and I never expected to do well but there were lots of math questions. But the letter (on the right) came and I was accepted into Mensa with a IQ score of 134, close to the bottom score they accept but still was acceptable. I attended several local chapter meetings in the next year or so but soon grew tired of the things they were discussing. Sadly I never got involved in it again.

I remember one incident in a class I was taking which I believe was Group Theory. Don't expect and explanation of Group Theory as I have forgotten all of it in the past 40 years. Anyway, each day the professor would ask for volunteers to put up homework problems on the blackboards that stretched around three sides of the class room, the other side was windows to the outside. And each day I would volunteer and normally would be allowed to put up my solution as most other students didn't want to put up their answers as (a) they figured it was wrong (b) didn't want the professor to ask them to explain the solution or (c) they were embarrassed to do so.

Most days my solutions were either totally wrong or partially wrong and the professor would have to explain to the class the correct answer. But to me this was the best way to learn, i.e. putting up the solution in front of the class and letting the professor correct it. One day, as the professor was asking for volunteers, I raised my hand once more. The professor stopped all work in the class, some students were already hard at work putting solutions on the blackboards, and proceeded to tell the class this:

I did pass the course and even passed the final exam.

After two years in the Math Graduate program I had to write a thesis and was assigned a professor to assist me, which means he would choose the subject and help me over the rough points. Dr. Ranko Bojanic was a tremendous help to me and without his kind efforts I would have never gotten my Masters Of Science degree. At this point I knew that I would not be continuing on with Graduate School as I had reached my limit of understanding high mathematics. So I graduated and then had to decide what to do next.

I had been a teaching assistant for the Math Department ever since I began Graduate School. All graduate student teach undergraduate courses, mainly remedial math, algebra, and calculus. After graduated the department offered me a full time teaching assistant position at pretty good money and since my wife at that time has a decent job there was no reason to refuse. So I started teaching 2-3 classes a day. Some I did all the instruction and others I was the lab teacher, i.e. I helped the students with the homework assignment from the previous day. All in all it was a fun time as the work load was not that hard, maybe 4-5 hours a day.

Undergraduate - Physics Since my work load was so light I decided to take some courses myself. I had always like physics so I enrolled and took a beginning physics course, one the used a text book about three inches thick for three semesters. Now these courses were even better than the beginning math courses as you to see and do various real world experiments. Physics is really a lot of math with some logic thrown in so I did really well in the courses, just like beginning math I got all As.

Near the end of the 3rd semester I made the mistake of telling one of teachers that I already had a Master's in Mathematics. He smiled and said, "Gee, you should really be in our graduate program as graduate physics is all math!". The next thing I knew I was taking graduate Physics courses.

Graduate School - Physics The teacher was correct, graduate physics was 90% math and with my background I easily got through the courses for two years. My grades were so good that I was invited to join Sigma Pi Sigma (ΣΠΣ)But then I ran into a problem. In order to continue all physics graduate students has to take a test and get at least 60% on it in order to continue on towards a Phd. To make a long story short, I only got about 54% and that was mainly in the graduate course questions. The part I didn't know was the undergraduate courses which I never took. So, I reached the end of my graduate school studies and had to make a decision once again.

The previous summer and the summer when I took the Physics department test I worked as a summer student for Columbia Gas System Research Department in their new Research department where they just got a new IMB computer. Near the end of my summer work with Columbia they made me an offer to work full time for them. Since I could not continue on in graduate school and the math department teaching assistant position really didn't pay that much, it was an offer that I couldn't refuse. So I took it and worked for Columbia for 23 years before retiring in June, 1991.

After graduate school while working at Columbia Gas, my first wife and I divorced due to her having an affair with a fellow-graduate student. The best thing that came out of my marriage was the oppourtunity to get into Graduate School.

A short time later I started dating a secretary at work and within a year we were married. This marriage produced a son, Chris. Unfortunately, when Chris was about 5 years old my wife, Mary Ann, decided she want to live close to her parents and wanted to move from our nice 1700 sf ranch into one side of a twin-single, owned by her parent, on a main road on the other side of Columbus. When I refused she decided to take our son and go there anyway. This lead to our divorce.

About a year or so after our divorce I met Jeanne and about six months later we were married (1979) and we still are married. About 1985 I came home from work one day and a kitty that was abandoned and living in sewer in front of your home allowed me to pick him and take him inside our house. This was Sam, the absolutley best cat in the world.

At the end of June, 1991, Jeanne, Sam and I took off in our RV for a year on the road. We wanted to see the sights we have always wanted to see but couldn't due to the distance we would have to travel. Our travels were outstanding and you can read all about it by going to A YEAR ON THE ROAD   

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