I left Berkeley in 1968 for the University of Hawaii. I stayed 12 years, became a father, grew concerned about overpopulation, the environment, and hunger, crafted my ability to teach, and began writing textbooks.
In 1979, my wife, Sheila, whom I had first met at the Survey Research Center at UCB, got a job offer in the Bay Area. Taking a deep breath, I resigned as a tenured professor and department chair, and we moved. For the next seven years, I was a writer only. As the years went by, however, I found I missed the classroom, partly because the ham in me missed performing.
At about the time I was strongly thinking I wanted to get back into the classroom, I learned Chapman College (now University) was beginning to search for a new chair. So I applied and moved to Orange in 1987. I've been here ever since, partly to watch the political transformation of Orange County, beginning with Loretta Sanchez's booting out B-1 Bob Dornan.
It would be hard to exaggerate the importance of my Berkeley education. When I was assigned Charlie Glock as my advisor and sent off to the Survey Research Center, I wasn't sure what survey research was. (Charlie remedied that.) Even more important, I met and became friends with such a variety of people, with varied sociological and social views that I think their impact still pushes my unfolding evolution.
How has my sociology shaped my world? Totally, I suppose.