Wilmette Public Library Local History Digital Collection

Rhea Saul Adler (1906-1990) oral history

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Track 9: Track 9
Transcription: Track 9 RA: Oh, that was when we went to the Florsheim Shoe Company. No, he was somewhere else, because we discussed this the other day. Florsheim came to him to ask him to come and work for them. But he decided on something else at that time, and he went into public accounting with Ernst & Ernst. And from there he went to a client. For one year, we left Wilmette and went to Iowa. By that time, our girls were grown, and our oldest daughter had finished high school. And our oldest daughter had finished high school at New Trier and their experience, her experience at New Trier had been very good and very satisfying. We also had the experience of having all three of them in, what they called, the Kellogg summer school. The Kellogg Foundation had provided Northwestern with the funds to bring its teachers down here for summer schooling at Northwestern, and they had a demonstration school in the old [local? Lincoln?] school. And so, for several years, they had gone there and had a marvelous experience because Dorothy Ollendorf [?] headed it up, and that was before she came to the Wilmette system. And she got local teachers to demonstrate. And they also had parents involved at that time. So that, I remember once, she sent my up to New Trier High School, where a group from Sherwood, Wisconsin had come down. And Carleton Washburne was conducting the service, and, of course, I had been interested in the Winnetka technique which I had heard about at Lake Forest, at first. And then, I had taken exception in one of the discussion groups to something that he said. And we got into quite . . . because, you either didn't back down or you had to convince him that your opinion had value. And so it was quite a hassle before we got through. But I enjoyed it thoroughly because I had come from a family where you could say almost anything at the dinner table, but you had to support your point of view. And that was not one of the things that was commonly done, and to the girls in the family. And so I've always, maybe you could say, been too opinionated, but . . . RF: Well, but your opinions were backed up with facts. RA: Well, this was the point, apparently, because I did get to do things that I wouldn't have otherwise. And it was true that at the League of Women Voters in 1952, I was asked, they put out a common call for people to work at the GOP convention at the Hilton. It was pre-convention time over the Fourth of July, and I thought that would be fun. RF: Well, who was running that year? RA: That year, well, this was pre-convention. RF: Was this the [?] Republican convention? RA: This was the Republican convention where Eisenhower and Taft were the two strong nomin . . . well, they were wanting to be the nominees. And it was highly contested. And Dorothy Ollendorf had come back from the National Education Convention in New York, in Atlantic City, I believe it was. Eisenhower had spoken, he was then head of Columbia University, and I asked her what she'd gotten, and this was the one thing I've retained out of it. She said, well, Mr. Eisenhower spoke to them. And I said, "Was it good?" and she said, "Well, I'll let you decide." "He put the question to us: 'When are the people in your profession willing to do your job to put the people in my profession out of business?'"; Fleischer, Regina
, Interviewer; Adler, Rhea Saul, 1906-1990
, Interviewee; Barnett, Amanda
, Transcriber
Media Type: Audio; Text
Item Type: Audiocassettes
Description: Interview of Rhea Adler by Regina Fleischer at 401 3rd Street, Wilmette, IL, in 1985.
Notes: Photograph of the first public library in Wilmette, Illinois
Place of Publication: Wilmette, Illinois
Date of Original: About 1985
Date Of Event: About 1985
Subject(s): Libraries
Oral histories
Wilmette Public Library
Personal Name(s): Adler, Rhea Saul
Language of Item: English
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