Philip David Roos
Entering Cohort: 1958
Retired Data Analyst with Missouri Department of Mental Health
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I taught sociology for about six years; three at the Denver campus of the University of Colorado; 2+ at Stockton State College in Pomona NJ, some off and on as part of the University Year for ACTION program at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. My work at Pine Ridge convinced me that I was a lot better program evaluator than sociologist -- just a change from "pure" to "applied." I worked as a research associate for the Nurse Practitioner Program at Northeastern University for almost 4 years. An interesting job with some evaluation included.
I was jobless many times and for many years. I was fired three times. My Ph.D. in sociology was at least a minor hindrance to finding employment.
The last 14 years and 3 months of my work life, ending with my retirement on 1Dec98, was with the Missouri Department of Mental Health where civil service protection, an angel in Personnel, and perhaps my veteran's status prevented some of the managers who hated me from firing me again. I did a little evaluation at the beginning, but worked mostly as a SAS programmer, analyzing patient/client data.
My approach to solving intellectual problems became much more systematic as a result of my Berkeley training. Goffman's Hobbesianism shaped my thinking in general. The Berkeley sociology department's lack of statistics, mathematics, and computer programming as part of the Ph.D. had to be made up by post Ph.D. formal courses, self-instruction, and assistance from others.
As to how my sociology has shaped the world -- not even the teeniest, tinyest bit.
Dissertation: Three Conceptions of Large-Scale Academic Reform: An Analytic and Sociological Description