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AI: Well, so getting back to your high school years then, as you were going through high school, what, what did you have in mind? What were you thinking of doing at that time? What were some of your plans for the future?

WW: Well, my first thoughts were of going into medicine, I think partly because of what my dad was always talking about, and it sounded like a good profession to me. So I went through high school with that in mind, and geared my courses, trying to accumulate credits and courses that obviously would be a prerequisite for going into pre-med, and that's what I did, concentrated on.

AI: And when did you graduate high school? What year was that?

WW: I graduated from high school in 1953.

AI: And then did you go directly on to college?

WW: Then I went directly on to the University of Illinois, undergraduate school at Champaign-Urbana, and enrolled in pre-med.

AI: Well, that must have been quite a change for you, because you had grown up in your childhood home in West Chicago all those years. What, what were some of your first impressions on leaving home?

WW: My first impressions were going to a school so large. High school I went to was very small, everyone practically knew everyone else there. When I went to the U of I, it was obviously so large, it was, it was somewhat of a shock. But it was also exciting at the same time, going to a big university.

AI: And did you live on campus?

WW: I lived on campus, yes. I lived in two different boarding houses for men, while I was down there. During the course of time when I was in pre-med, I had second thoughts about medicine, and decided to go into dentistry. And since pre-dent and pre-med are pretty much the same curriculum, I, later on when I was in undergrad school, I applied for dental school, and I was admitted.

AI: What were some of the factors in deciding to switch to dentistry?

WW: Some of the factors, I thought perhaps -- well, the dentists I was going to at the time in West Chicago, my own personal dentists, made it seem to me like a very attractive profession. I also felt that my hours, perhaps, could be dictated more by myself, and also, I would not be dealing with life and death situations all the time. So those were some of the reasons I chose dentistry instead.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.