Oral history interview with Robert D. Forger, 2016

Transcript of an oral history interview with Robert D. Forger conducted by Joseph Cates at Forger's home in Newtown, Connecticut, on 16 March 2016 as part of the Norwich Voices oral history project of the Sullivan Museum and History Center. Robert D. Forger was a member of the Norwich University Class of 1949. The bulk of his interview focuses on the history and development of his relationship with Norwich University, including as a student, alumnus, and trustee. ; 1 Robert Forger, NU ‘49, Oral History Interview March 16, 2016 At His Home in Newtown, Connecticut Interviewed by Joseph Cates, of the Norwich Oral History Project JOSEPH CATES: Mr. Forger, Bob, can you please state your full name and date and place of your birth? ROBERT FORGER: Robert D. Forger, May 24, 1928, in Norwalk, Connecticut. JC: Talk a little bit about growing up in Norwalk. RF: I grew up in Westport. Westport did not have a hospital. And for years we could get our birth certificates in Westport but then they stopped. If you were born in Norwalk, you can’t do it. (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: That was a wonderful place to grow up in. It was a town of about 5,000 people. I went to a high school that took in students from two other towns and had a graduating class of about 96, almost 100. And 11 were from one other town and 13 were from the other town, so the other 75 were from Westport. I got a wonderful preparation there. We had a very, very good faculty. If you can believe this, I learned all my English from the Latin teacher. I took four years of Latin. We had to diagram the sentences. Latin sentences. And I had an English teacher whom I had for three years who was hung up on the classics, so we learned very little English, but we sure know all of Shakespeare and everybody else. (Laughs) And I got a good preparation because when I went off to Norwich, the curriculum as a chemist, I had to take trigonometry. And I said, “But I’ve had trigonometry.” Oh, no, you haven’t had trigonometry like this. This is really …, so you have to take it. So, I ...