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Stewart: I know you were associated with Old Dominion for many, many
years. Could you describe your background before you came to what is now
Old Dominion?
Billmyer: Before
I came to Old Dominion, I lived in several places. I was born in 1919,
in Victoria, Virginia. My first transition was in 1937, when I went
to Shepherd College in West Virginia for two years. From 1939-43, I
was at Virginia Tech, where I got a bachelor's degree and a master's
degree in chemistry. After that, during the years of World War II, I
was in Richmond as plant manager of the Water Purification Plant. It
was quite out of my field, but it was a rare opportunity to see another
discipline. In 1946, I went back to Virginia Tech as an instructor.
I stayed there until 1950, at which time I came to Old Dominion.
Stewart: [Old Dominion]
was then under the direction of Lewis Webb. Was he the attraction for
coming here or was it the situation? Had you known about the place prior
to your coming here?
Billmyer: I knew
about the place from people who transferred from Old Dominion to Virginia
Tech. It was rather interesting. Virginia Tech drew people from many
places. There were some who stayed at Virginia Tech from the freshman
year to the senior year and beyond. But there were many who transferred
from other schools after two years. Among those were people from what
is now Old Dominion, when it was a two-year branch college of William
and Mary and, for some time, Virginia Tech. The people who came from
Old Dominion to Virginia Tech were almost uniformly good students. They
obviously had good training. I marveled at what they had learned in
two years. In addition, they spoke well of Old Dominion. That's about
the only impressions I had of it, but it was borne out, from the 35
years that I've been here, that people who go from Old Dominion with
reasonably good records and good motivation can expect to do well anywhere.
Stewart: What were the specifics
of your coming here? Did you
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seek the job? Was the job open
in a conventional way? Was there a personality that attracted you to come
here? Did you apply for a job or did they ask you to come?
Billmyer: I applied
for a job. I heard about an opening at Old Dominion. I didn't know much
about the people in the school, but I retained the good impressions
that I had gotten.
Stewart: You had never seen the campus?
Billmyer: I had never
seen it.
Stewart: What were your initial impressions about the place, physically?
Billmyer: I liked
it. It was a small school and it reminded me of Shepherd College, where
I spent two years. A large school or university can have many attractions,
but, especially for people starting out or leaving home, a small school
with what might be considered to be a small-town atmosphere and closeness
can be a good means of transition. My first impressions of Old Dominion
were quite good. Although Old Dominion has changed drastically over
my 35 years, I never lost my fondness for the institution.
Stewart: You came to teach chemistry, specifically. Where was chemistry
taught in those days?
Billmyer: Chemistry
was taught mainly in a building that no longer exists. It was an old
building at the northwest corner of Hampton [Boulevard] and Bolling
[Avenue]. I felt rather sad when the old structure was torn down.
Stewart: That was the old public school building that Old Dominion
picked up when it first started back in the '30s.
Billmyer: Lewis Webb
reminded me one time that as a small child, he recited some poem on
a stage at that same building when he was in grammar school.
Stewart: So, that was where most, not all, of the sciences, including
chemistry, had their main headquarters. How many years were you there?
Billmyer: We were
there for about five years. In 1955, we moved from that old building
to what was called the Science Building.
Stewart: That was a new structure then.
Billmyer: Yes -
we occupied
it almost as soon as it was completed.
Stewart: It had better lab facilities, I would assume.
Billmyer: Much better!
Stewart: Do you recall a particular
event in those days, in terms
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of teaching
in the old Academic Building? Any problems?
Billmyer: Oh, we
had a few problems. There was always a lack of space, but we managed.
I remember something that was rather odd in relation to most faculty
members. Because of the loss of one faculty member in the middle or
end of the year, the department might be understaffed. I found myself
teaching several kinds of chemistry simultaneously, plus biology, hygiene
for one year, and physics. At this time, by the way, I saw my first
black students. I'd like to mention parenthetically that Old Dominion
has never, by policy, been racist. Lewis Webb had a belief that anybody
who could find tuition money and was qualified should be enrolled at
Old Dominion. He got opposition from the community. He got opposition
from the parent institution, which decided policy. But he was able to
follow his policy fairly well of a rather open enrollment for those
who met the qualifications. I suppose I was one of the first to have
a fair number of minority students.
Stewart: When was this?
Billmyer: 1953
- First,
I taught these people at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, off campus. Then
the program moved back to the campus and we had black students as early
as 1953. How did they do? How did they behave? They were the same as
others. They expected nothing and behaved as anybody would. I remember
them fondly.
Stewart: I don't think that
is too well known. They were in attendance actually before it was formally
made a four-year school.
Billmyer: At that
time, it was a two-year school. I'm not sure how early minority students
began to come to Old Dominion. It's quite possible that there were minority
people earlier than the ones I taught, but I'm not aware of that.
You asked about various
people I've recalled from the old building, which is now torn down.
I remember two students who sat on the front row for my 8:30 chemistry
class. The same two students sat on the front row for my 9:30 biology
class. I would look at them and they would look at me. One of them asked,
"Don't you get tired of seeing us?" I said, "No - I admire your perseverance.
I think you deserve a citation of some sort!" Those were interesting
times. I can't say that I taught all of the courses equally well, but
I did have some of the same students in general chemistry, biology,
and physics. There were people who thought that I was at least twins
because I was showing up everywhere.
Stewart: Is it your
impression that the early days of a school, in the formative years, are
more exciting for people, even though there is harder
work involved?
Billmyer: Yes
- I
have a good reason for saying that. It is necessary, in addition to
trying to maintain excitement, that you
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also maintain a framework.
There were flaws in the early days, but they were not serious because
the enrollment was small. If you are going to have a regional, urban
university such as ours, you have to move from an informal, cozy arrangement
to something with more structure. You gain in prestige and the quality
of offerings, but, of course, everything has its price, so you lose
in that personal relationship which I think pervades everything that's
done in the state of Virginia.
I'd like to mention
another student. After we moved into the new building, around 1958,
there was among my students a blind woman. She was taking (of all things)
physical science, which included the identification of rocks and minerals.
My people came to me and said that it was too bad that she'll never
be able to identify rocks and minerals. I tutored her outside of class.
Her guide dog would sit at her feet and look at me very solemnly. He
never trusted anybody and he was always looking out for her best interest.
But he and I gained respect for each other. This woman, who appeared
to be quite bright and may or may not have learned very much from my
outside instruction, came to a time when she had to take the practical,
which on a particular day involved the identification of rocks and minerals.
I asked her whether there might be a problem. She said that she would
like to be given the test just the same as the others. So, she lined
up with the rest. The people came in to identify forty rocks and minerals.
They looked to see whether she was doing well. The rest of the people
spent a little extra time trying to identify this collection. She asked
them if she could move along. She would lift the rock or mineral to
note the density and texture. She would scratch it, which was a standard
test to note how readily it would powder off on the surface. By means
that, to this day, I don't fully understand, she was ahead of everybody
and she made one of the best grades. I went into one class and on the
front row sat my wife and my step-daughter. I must say that I was taken
aback, just as they said that they were taken aback. After the course
was over, I was too polite to ask them what they thought. I did hear
one of them say that it was a rough course and that I didn't give her
any breaks at all.
Stewart: I'd like to talk a little bit about some of the organizational
changes, in terms of the development of the college. You were teaching
chemistry and biology. Were these distinct departments at the time?
Billmyer: Yes -
I was teaching
in three departments. If I consider all of the courses that I taught
in those days, they would now be in at least four departments.
Stewart: What do you consider to be your set
of contributions? What were the kinds of things that you did, in relation
to teaching or other activities?
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Billmyer: There
are some things that I'd like to be remembered for, not as a contribution,
but with regard to an interesting time. I was chairman of a committee
in the 1950s and we booked classical films. Some were foreign, some
were domestic, and some were silent. I always had a fondness for arts,
such as film making, fiction writing, and drama, although I never performed.
I was fairly active in those fields. I read book reviews over a radio
station connected with the college. Also in the 1950s, I did some TV
work. I presented about 15 fifteen-minute programs on what is now WTKR.
I wrote the material, got the props ready, and presented them. [It was]
the hardest work I had ever done in preparing for a lecture. If I was
in the middle of a thought and had only five seconds left in show, I
couldn't say, "Well, we'll start there next time," because it was not
a regular program. It was done by invitation periodically. I either
made my final point then or it was left [out]. Also, I did book reviews
for the local paper.
In addition
to that, from 1973-1983, I was a volunteer librarian at King's Daughters
Hospital. That was interesting because I literally had nothing to do!
The people said, "We hesitate to ask you to do such a boring task. There's
nothing to do except sit there and make sure people don't come in and
absent-mindedly take the books out, forgetting to bring them back."
I may have checked out one book in those ten years. How did I spend
my time? I read the journals. I took back material that was relevant
to what I was teaching and that I couldn't have gotten out of any textbook
readily at hand. I took the material to the pre-med people and nursing
students at Old Dominion. My attitude towards volunteer work is if you
don't enjoy it and gain just as much as you give, you ought to look
for another kind of volunteer work.
Also,
from 1971 to the present, I go down to the International Seamen's House
at 1222 West Olney Road, where I sit behind a desk and wait for seamen
from all parts of the world to visit. Very few are from America. There
are not too many to whom English is a first language, although we do
get British seamen. What do they want? They don't need money; they have
an adequate supply. They don't need food; they have enough. What they
need is a chance to [make] phone [calls]. I make more international
calls than I do to local numbers. I might phone Korea one time, North
Africa another, Britain, France, etc. Very few French-speaking people
appear there. They seem to go to other places provided for them. There
are a lot of Norwegians and Italians. I suppose the people who phone
home most often are the Greeks, as they tell me they are close to their
families and they like to keep in touch. From time to time, I give a
little bit of advice, whether it's to a person who is troubled with
relations aboard his ship or even a person troubled with his captain.
We also have a legal group (volunteers also) skilled in international
law and the laws of
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the sea, who help us
out. These are some of the things that have been interesting to me.
Stewart: You have a lot of activities,
many of them outside of Old Dominion.
Billmyer: Yes -
since I've retired,
I've not been aware of retirement! I've not thought too much, except
for practical reasons, about what was going on or had gone on at Old
Dominion. I tend to be absorbed with what I'm doing at the time and
what I hope to be doing soon. One thing that has been of interest to
me is my work at the Writing Center. I always said that after teaching
a variety of courses, it would be interesting to wake up and find myself
in the English Department. The closest I've been is the Writing Center,
where the people are most congenial and get their work done with little
or no animosity and with harmony that I can only envy. I've been at
the Writing Center since I was first called there in 1980 to grade some
exit exams. These are the essays that people have to write, with good
grammar and organization. I probably have graded about 1,200 papers
in five years. I enjoy that and I hope to continue. They've asked me
to associate myself with the Writing Center for the coming year, so
I might be there for some time to come.
Stewart: That was
a reform that Dr. Rollins instituted --
the testing procedure
for the students.
Billmyer: I was on
the University Senate at the time when Dr. Rollins was being considered
as our president. I had heard Dr. Rollins tell us what his hopes were
for Old Dominion. There were two other candidates who were brought to
the campus. I never saw nor heard them. I went back to my department
and said that I didn't wish to exclude any avenue, but I just felt that
Dr. Rollins was ideal for where we were then. I never lost that opinion.
Dr. Rollins decided, after a few years, that he'd like to try something
else, but I had the feeling that he left of his own volition and he
did not outlive his usefulness. I think of the Writing Center as one
monument to Dr. Rollins' tenure as our president.
Stewart: Going back to a couple of presidents, obviously you knew
Lewis Webb. Could you give your impressions about him?
Billmyer: Lewis
Webb was ideal for Old Dominion at that particular time. He was always
accessible. I had very few occasions to go to his office, but I had
a feeling that (preferably with an appointment to make good use of his
time) I could go in at anytime and consider a problem that I thought
needed to be brought to his attention. But in addition to being in his
office, because of the small size of the school at that time, Lewis
Webb was all over the campus. He rushed around. He wasn't spying; he
was just enthused by all of the activities. When I saw
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Lewis Webb looking in
my class, I was reassured because I knew the man. I might even see Lewis
Webb watering the lawn. He might be anywhere, doing anything. In summary,
I'm grateful, and we should all be, for the tenure of Lewis Webb. There
was a time when new people in the apparatus of higher education came
into the structure and, as often happens, they wanted to shake up the
whole organization. Among other things, there were people who decided
they would displace Lewis Webb without his fighting a battle. When the
word got to Norfolk that there were people who wanted to reorganize
Old Dominion, for what I thought were insufficient reasons, there was
a great upswelling of support for Lewis Webb and rightly so. They had
a presentation and ceremony on the lawn near the Old Administration
Building. It might have been the late 1950s or early 1960s. Local business
and social leaders, one by one, presented plaques to Lewis Webb, citing
his accomplishments. They also presented him the keys to a new car.
On that same platform were some of the people who had tried to displace
him. They were, a few years later, displaced because they didn't fit
in too well.
Stewart: These were people who were at the school at the time or were
they outsiders?
Billmyer: They were
not at the school, but they were at other institutions or in the apparatus
of higher education in Virginia. They did have some supervisory powers
over Old Dominion.
Stewart: That's an interesting story. I hadn't heard that. What about
some of the internal, social life on the campus? Do you have any recollections
about that?
Billmyer: Yes. As
you would expect, the social life was quite different in early times
from what it is today. When Old Dominion began to grow from a small,
two-year school to a four-year school and to include a graduate school,
I envisioned factions, strife, a terrible splitting apart, and a splintering
of the structure that a lot of people had worked so hard to build. Jumping
ahead to today, I marvel at the coherence of the institution and the
cohesiveness. We are still struggling because of the great strides for
an identity or an image perhaps. But this institution has held together
amazingly well in view of what was always meager funding, partly because
the legislature, to this day, perceives Old Dominion as that little,
two-year school in Norfolk and partly because of the demands made on
us. I think Old Dominion has done a remarkable job in all its areas
and holding together to show the great promise it has. Back to the question,
by contrast, in the early days of course, there was much more social
life, in a manner of speaking, throughout the whole school. The entire
faculty could fit into one small auditorium. My social contacts were
only partly with chemistry. The four or five of us in chemistry mostly
lived in widely-scattered areas. I
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lived about ten miles
from Old Dominion. My associates met at various homes, during the off-hours,
to discuss science, art, and a variety of other things.
Stewart: Could you tell us about any of your experiences with students
at Old Dominion?
Billmyer: Yes.
I remember most of my students. They were almost uniformly what I'd
call nice people. I enjoyed working with them. Old Dominion, to this
day, has retained an interest in students. It should be a first assumption
that we would be interested in the people who come to us for help. I've
been told that there are some institutions that are so formal, so computerized,
and so forth that they may give good formal education, but they leave
the students feeling that they have no particular identity in the eyes
of the people at the institution. At Old Dominion, I think we've succeeded
remarkably well in retaining our contacts with the students. I've had
a lot of contact with students. I think that these people were deserving
of my attention. I remember one case where a Greek student wanted to
become an American citizen. He asked me to testify as to his character
downtown. So, we went downtown; it must have been in the '5Os. We went
to Immigration or some such office. I walked in, gave my name, and before
I could state my business, the man behind the desk asked me if I came
from Victoria, Virginia, with a population of about 1,800. The man said
that his daughter had married someone from Victoria, a man whom he identified
as a close friend of mine. After that, my business was routine. The
man asked me as an afterthought whether I could testify as to the good
character of this student, which I readily did. I don't know what other
formalities were taken care of, but the man later told me that he had
been admitted to U.S. citizenship. I have every reason to believe that
he was a good citizen as long as he was around. I've had students who
have had various fortunes. Some of them became well known in their chosen
fields of expertise. Some of them were defendants in court. They had
various fortunes. Many of them are now doctors and dentists in the Tidewater
area, making good contributions. I called a man in the summer of 1984
who had been a student of mine and he offered to take me to dinner.
I remembered and liked him well. He is an orthodontist in Portsmouth.
We had not seen each other for about twenty-five years. I had a thoroughly
enjoyable meal. His daughter joined us, who might, except for an overload
in my class, have been a student of mine. I've had a good many students
whose parents were students of mine. I always hoped that I could hold
off a year or two and maybe get some grand children of former students.
It would have been interesting!
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Stewart: I think that in 35
years of teaching, that could happen! I guess I've had my first second-generation.
I'm waiting for my third; I think they may show up! Out of curiosity,
I noticed that in one of the bits of information I found about you that
you were in charge of alcohol in Old Dominion. Now what does that mean?
Billmyer: At Old
Dominion, for much of my career, nobody got tax-free alcohol except
from me. From January of 1962 to the middle of 1985, I was in charge
of alcohol. That alcohol was, to the best of my knowledge, never consumed.
It was used for cleaning, as a solvent, and as a chemical reagent to
prepare more complex compounds. Once in a while, somebody with the best
of intentions would come in and ask for some alcohol to administer and
measure doses to subjects to test efficiency. I would always say that
we could be closed down and lose our alcohol license if any of that
alcohol was consumed because our charter permitted us to use that alcohol
for cleaning, as a solvent for stains, and as a reagent, but never for
consumption.
Stewart: So any alcohol that was consumed came under some other auspices
or somebody else was in charge of that?
Billmyer: Yes.
I had nothing to do with that!
Stewart: It's something you never really think about, but it's a fairly
important function to be in charge of that.
Billmyer: Yes.
It was quite simple and routine. But I was always aware of a bit of
pressure to keep the records accurate. Inspectors came by and they never
found fault. I was very happy about that. One time, I came from home
on short notice and opened up the alcohol storeroom. The inspector looked
at me and said, "You're wearing a Pendleton shirt!" I wondered whether
I had done some thing wrong. I always had a slight feeling of awe, as
I said before, of government and its agents. He said, "You should have
a L.L. Bean catalog. I'll have them send you one." I said that I'd be
most grateful. I forgot about it and a month later, I got a L.L Bean
catalog and I've gotten one ever since.
Stewart: Well, this has been a very interesting interview. We want
to thank you. Obviously, your plans for the future are to continue your
many activities, I assume.
Billmyer: Yes.
I'm not aware of having been retired. I have five years to go before
compulsory retirement at age seventy. I decided truthfully that my last
year was as interesting as my first; I just felt that I'd given all
I could. I felt that I needed to get out of the way and do something
different. I expect to enjoy future activities as much as before. What
will I do? I hope to go back to doing some drawing with India ink, which
I didn't have time to concentrate on; and also a little watercolor.
I need to review some languages, maybe five to ten.
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Last Sunday, at the
Seamen's House, I had an opportunity to use some Spanish because some
men from the Argentine ship spoke almost no English. I am not fluent
in any language, but I am able to establish contact by speaking the
language, however slightly.
Stewart: Is it your background from Victoria, Virginia that would
explain your renaissance interests? Did this start when you were very
young? Obviously, you have very diverse interests.
Billmyer: Yes.
It was a problem. I didn't jump from one thing to another. It wasn't
a case of short attention span. I wanted to pursue a multitude of things
at once. I thought about it, but I didn't have an occasion to ask anybody
how I could solve this problem. I decided to major in chemistry, realizing
that I could pursue journalism (which I did), art, history, anthropology,
and a multitude of other things. These became hobbies. I was amazed
when my hobby, astronomy, became one of the courses that I taught.
Stewart: Sometimes that happens, especially when it's a small school
that is just getting going.
Billmyer: Quite true.
Stewart: I want to thank you very much for the chance to interview
you. I think the [readers] will find this to be very, very informative.
Billmyer: Let me
say in closing that I am really grateful. What contribution I might
have made historically, I'll leave for others. I don't worry about that,
but I am grateful for a chance to consider Old Dominion from one more
person's viewpoint and I do thank you for that.
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