RICHARD DYER: ’31, ’32 then?

ARLEEN WALLACE:   I think that’s when that was.  I know it was in the thirties.  But they had set up a stage at the bottom of the hill and they had put, apparently, a set of Columbia old buildings.  They had even driven horses and teams across the stage, but apparently it was rained out and they lost quite a bit of money on it because of the weather.

DYER: to my understanding, the merchants still don’t talk about it because it took them years to pay it off.

WALLACE: Is that true?  I wouldn’t be a bit surprised. 

DYER: Well, you might plan to organize the new pageant.

WALLACE: Oh, no.  Well, at one time when you and Barry Hunt were thinking about it, why, Dave did say, ‘yeah, it would be fun,’ but I don’t think we want to do that now.  We’ve made a lot of change in the property and…

DYER: You don’t have a place for…

WALLACE: I don’t have a place for…we’ve pretty well filled the place up with our own things.  And then we have to do some traveling.  We like to travel.  We’ve traveled all of our married life since my families been on the East Coast and we’ve been out here.  We used to go back east every couple of years driving with the children.  So now we’d like to continue that and maybe take another trip overseas. 

DYER: What about hobbies?

WALLACE: We like gardening, and we like boating.  We have a little boat and we like to take it up to the lake.  And we may even learn to fish.  Neither one of us have ever fished before.  And so we both like to eat fish, so Dave said, ‘I think we’re going to have to learn how to fish.’ So we may even learn how to fish.

DYER: Well he’s been sort of a workaholic though.  Can he settle down to something…

WALLACE: Oh, yes.  I think so.  He’s very flexible and he has enjoyed his time home.  So I think that as long as we’re doing it together, why, we’ll enjoy it.  We enjoy working together or playing together and we hope to keep doing that for several more years. 

DYER: Do you have community commitments? Organizations…

WALLACE: Well I’ve been on the Columbia Design Review Committee for several years and I helped to start the …I was one of the original members and secretary for six years of the Columbia Area Improvement Association, although I did have to give that up because it just got to be too much.  When I came into the job here at the president’s office I found I was meeting myself coming around the corner.  So I gave that up.

DYER: So let me ask you one last question.  If you’re going to select the ideal person for Dr. Cunningham, what must the replacement be like?

WALLACE: I think someone who can keep a level head, and not be…

DYER: And you’ve done that?

WALLACE: Well, I’ve tried to.  And then confidentiality—someone who can maintain the confidentiality of the office.  I think that’s a highly important thing.  There’s just so many things that come through this office that are confidential and I think that’s one of the pt\rime requisites in addition to good secretarial skills.  And I think telephone technique has a lot to do with it because those people calling from anywhere…their first contact is with that voice on the pore and if it turn them off then it leaves them with a very poor idea of Columbia College and especially the president’s office. 

DYER: Any chance that a man would be available for a position like that? Have you heard of men…

WALLACE: Yes.  Apparently there are men in secretarial positions, but I think it’s primarily all in government work; like back in Washington DC I know there are many male secretaries, but I’m not aware of too many out here.  In fact I think whenever we’ve had a secretary position advertised, we have never, that I can recall, had a man apply.

DYER: I doubt if a man in rural Tuolumne County would apply.

WALLACE: No.  I’ve never heard of one.  

DYER: Well, Arleen Wallace, I’ll miss you and I know that a lot of people on this campus will miss you because whoever the replacement is, it’s going to be hard to live up to what you’ve done here and we certainly feel very honored to call you friend and colleague.

WALLACE: Thank you Dick.

DYER: Thank you for the interview, I really appreciate that.

WALLACE: You’re welcome. 

LAST 10 SECONDS OF TAPE ARE BLANK

END OF TAPE

General Information:

Interviewer: Dyer, Richard L.

Interviewee: Wallace, Arleen (Secretary to the President)

Name of Tape: Faculty Interviews in the History of Columbia Junior College (CC_hist_14_1)

When: Early 70s

Transcriber: Ariella (September 2008)

Transcriber’s Note: Continued from CC_hist_14_0