This week’s Project 100+ memory comes from Carole Leporati.  She was born in Camden, but her family later moved to Paulsboro and then Wenonah, New Jersey.  Both her parents were the children of Italian immigrants and born in New York City.  Her grandparents were union organizers and members of the International Workers of the World (the “Wobblies”).  Her grandfather participated in the defense of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti by helping to raise awareness of their case and doing investigative research.  Carole’s father worked in the Camden shipyards during World War II.  After the war, he co-founded a business that sold and installed carpets.  Her mother worked in retail jobs until she started her own clothing store at age 50.  Carole attended public schools and graduated from Deptford Township High School in 1961 at the age of 16.  She enrolled at Glassboro State College in the Fall of 1961.  She graduated at age 20 in the Spring of 1965 with a history minor and degrees in English and secondary education.  Her first job was teaching English and theatre at Red Bank High School in Red Bank, New Jersey.  After one year, she used her earnings to travel to Europe, visiting England, Scotland, Wales, France, Spain, and Italy.  When she returned in October, she took a job that was still open teaching theatre and English at Ocean Township High School.  After this academic year, she took several jobs working off Broadway in the theater and began pursuing a master’s degree in directing and producing at Columbia University.  She was the only woman in the directing program at Columbia.  She didn’t realize how unusual her path was at the time, though she found it odd that she was required to have more oral examiners than the male students.  She completed that degree in 1969. She continued to work at various jobs and taking additional courses at Columbia.  In the Fall of 1969, she received an invitation to apply to teach theater at the newly formed Delaware County Community College.  She accepted the position and taught there for thirty years.  She loved teaching there as her students ranged greatly, different ages, different backgrounds.  Her colleagues, especially at the beginning, were amazing.  She started multiple programs, including the Communication Arts Curriculum and the College’s Cultural program, a lecture, film, art, music, and artist-in-residence series.  In 2000, she retired from DCCC.  After she retired, she moved to Maine and started a professional theater company, something that she had done earlier in Philadelphia.  She also continued working in antiques, something that she had also started earlier with her husband in Pennsylvania.

*****

I always wanted to go to college, and my parents always encouraged their children to go to college.  My father left school in the third grade in order to work.  My mother found a way to graduate from high school, but no one in our large extended family completed college before my older brothers did. One uncle went to college for a year, but that was the only experience any of us had.  In addition, with one brother still in college, my parents did not have enough funds for me to go away to college, and my high school was not adept at alerting us to the possibilities of scholarships. There were several of us who were in the same boat, wanting to go to college but completely unaware of how to apply.  So, a call went out to Glassboro State College, which appealed to my parents because it was so close, and since I wasn’t old enough to drive, I could hitchhike to classes.  Officials at GSC suggested that the group of us come down to the college for an interview.  We did, and they accepted all of us.  I was interested in educational theater.  At the time, theater was within the English department, so I became an English and secondary education major.

I did want to live on campus, but I couldn’t.  Besides this, my experience at Glassboro State was great.  Freshmen year, I hitchhiked to and from campus, which was difficult because participating in the theater meant that my hours were odd.  But there so many kind and considerate people at the college. I fortunately met a senior math major, engaged to a woman going to a different college. Once he heard my situation, he offered to give me a ride to and from campus, patiently waiting for me and working around my odd hours.  He literally was a life saver. 

Operation Uganda was a very important part of my college experience.  I had an unusual path to getting involved as I was just a freshman in the Fall of 1961.  That first semester I was given a job on campus, but it did not work well for me.  So, I requested a change, and they assigned me to work for Marius Livingston.  I knew him from my being a member of the International Relations club, which I had joined earlier.  This was in the Spring of 1962.  I was a freshman, and this was the very early stages of Operation Uganda.  Mr. Livingston understood my skills from the beginning. He knew that I was not going to be great sitting at a desk, so I became his assistant. I did all kinds of jobs.  I corresponded with those donating books and other material and helped him with tasks related to the celebration planned for October 9, 1962. 

Even though I was just 17 and had only recently gotten my driver’s license, I became one of the main drivers of the “Ugandamobile.”  That truck was a wreck.  It had a hole in the seat of the driver’s side, which I filled with books.  One could not open the door of the vehicle from the outside, so one had to reach in through the open window to open the door from the inside.  The horn only worked if you connected two loose wires.  I got strange looks when I pulled in to gas stations.  They were not sure what to make of the truck to begin with, and they certainly did not expect this young woman, only 17 or 18, to hop out of the driver’s seat. In any event, I drove that truck all over to pick up books, including stops throughout New Jersey and also in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New York. 

I thought Marius was an extraordinarily gentle, considerate, thoughtful, and smart human being.  He was a lovely man.  He was inspiring, but in a very quiet way.  He never raised his voice or was ever angry.  All of us volunteering for this project respected him, honored him, and even loved him.  I think that all of what happened with Operation Uganda was due to Marius because he was so inspiring.  For example, the student who worked hardest and did the most on the project was Betty Bowe.  Like me and the other volunteers, I wonder if her dedication came from her relationship with Marius just as much or more than the overall project goals of helping the people of Uganda.  In any event, Marius was also very good at compromise and finding practical solutions to the problems that we encountered. He helped instill good management skills in me.

All those who worked on Operation Uganda benefitted so much from our involvement.  We learned so much.  We found ourselves in situations that we would have never been in otherwise.  We met politicians, diplomats, and business leaders.  We met people from all over the region and from different parts of the world.

The State Department initially invited two students to travel to Kampala.  Betty was the obvious first choice.  I was to be the second student on Air Force One, but there was some concern that Betty and I needed a chaperone.  As the invitation was for two, I was replaced by the wife of a faculty member from the History Department.  I was, of course, very disappointed.  Marius sat down with me, and we discussed it in detail, and I decided that I would not let this disappointment linger.  He then decided to make me a lead figure in the October celebration.  As a result, I did television, radio, and newspaper interviews and was a host for the on-campus activities. multiple times.  Marius, as he did with so much else, made this situation work.  However, I never did change my mind that Mrs. Livingston should have been the chaperone.

Extra-curricular programs are so important to students. We learn so much outside of the classroom. This was absolutely the case for me with Operation Uganda, and I found this to be true with my work in theater both as a student and later as a teacher and college professor.  I wish that more people understood how important these outside of the classroom experiences are to the development of young people.

I had great experiences with the faculty at Glassboro State. Among the social studies faculty, besides Marius, I remember historian Anne Edwards and Harold Wilson.  Anne was involved with Operation Uganda.  She was a positive person, and I appreciated her presence very much.  While I did not have a class with either Marius or Anne, I did have a class with Harold Wilson.  A funny story is that when I told my biology teacher from high school that I was going to Glassboro State, he gave me his notes from when he had Harold Wilson.  He told me that he expected the class would be the same, right down to the jokes.  He was right.  This has led me to reflect on which subjects best suit themselves to changing content from year to year. 

Of course, as an English major with a focus on theater, I had far more classes and contact with faculty in the English Department.  I had classes with David Lloyd, Mike Kelly, Richard Wilcox, Nathan Carb, Edward Wolfe, and more.  I really appreciated how much they respected us as students.  The three theater professors (Lloyd, Kelly, and Wilcox) were three very different men.  At the time, almost all of the male faculty at GSC wore suits to teach.  Not so among the theater faculty, however, where only Dr. Kelly did.  Between them, they created a workable blend of the creative and the practical environment in which to learn and prosper. I did mostly backstage work. We didn’t have an extensive program or our own facility.  We had to share Tohill theater with the rest of campus, meaning that we had to work around guest speakers, music programs, and various general assemblies.  Yet, I found theater at GSC inspiring because of these faculty members.  They never encountered a problem that they believed couldn’t be solved.  I took their attitude with me.  I delved into projects knowing that there are always several options and confident that we would figure out a way to accomplish our goals. I remember Richard saying to us, “When it stops being fun, it is time to stop.”  I really appreciated this, and this saying has been one that I have followed throughout my life.  This did not mean quitting, but understanding when it was the right time to step back from something and knowing that it was good to do that.  I received a very good background in theater and life from these very diverse teachers. 

Fellow students that I remember included Paul Murkowski, who was involved in the theater and also with The Avant.  Another student was Patti Smith.  We attended the same high school so it was a pleasure to see her again when she entered GSC.  I asked Patti to audition for a role in a play that we were producing. She did a great job with the audition and won the role.  She was stunning, and it was a remarkable performance.  She was so young to have understood the role so well.  My good friends were Terry Zambrano and Ron Ryner.

The day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated still resonates.  I was sitting outside between classes with several other students.  Another student came to our group and told us that “Kennedy had been shot.”  In shock, we ran into nearby buildings, seeking information about what was happening.  There were people everywhere, and there was utter confusion. Yet, it was also strangely quiet.  At one point, we realized that one class was still meeting.  It was a math class.  We knocked on the door as we thought they hadn’t heard the news.  The instructor told us that “there was nothing that we could do about it, so we are going to continue class.”  I understood his point, but it seemed completely unrealistic to expect students to learn anything at that moment.  I still remember this so vividly, and I thought later that this may have been his way of dealing with the tragedy.  We spent hours plastered around any radios or televisions that could be found.  I can’t remember when classes resumed, but I do know that I was at home with my family for the funeral. 

Although I lost contact with GSC after graduation, there were some interesting moments later in life when I met others connected to Glassboro State.  In the early 70s in Pennsylvania, I lived on an old farm with several musicians and artists, including the musician, Jim Croce.  Maury Mulheisen, who had been a GSC student and became Jim’s backup guitarist, lived there also. Maury was introduced to Jim by a friend who was on the music faculty at GSC.  Maury was an extraordinary musician and a gentle soul.  He died at age 25 in the plane accident that took the lives of Jim and four others.  All of us who knew them were devastated. 

While few people knew that Maury had attended Glassboro State, English professor Richard Mitchell was, by the 1970s, one of the most famous people associated with Glassboro State due to his publication The Underground Grammarian (which led him to appear on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show multiple times).  When I was a student, before he became famous, I found him very amusing and to be quite a character.  I read The Underground Grammarian, and it was certainly interesting.  After I graduated, I would sometimes run into people who knew Richard Mitchell or had read his works.  A good friend and colleague at my college was a friend and fan of Richard’s so we shared many amusing stories.

Generally speaking, I found the faculty at GSC to be very professional, except for one English faculty member who refused to give women students A grades, as he did not believe that we were capable of an A level performance.  After having received As on all my assignments, I still got an A-. I protested to the English chair, who could not help me because faculty had complete control over grades and could assign me whatever grade they wished for participation.  Of course, I was not the only woman to experience his intolerance.

But overall, when I was at Glassboro State, it was a wonderful educational environment because of faculty like Livingston, Kelly, Wilcox, and Lloyd.  The students’ support for each other was encouraged by the faculty.  They sought to make GSC a place of community and not of competition.  I have made sure that my theatre and classroom had the same spirit.  I really didn’t want to go to Glassboro State.  I wanted to go farther away from home. I didn’t want to be a commuter.  Once I was going there, however, I decided to make the most of it.  Now, I look back and have no regrets about my time there. 

And looking to the more recent past and to the future, I have a grandniece, Stacie Leporati, who followed in my path as a theatre major and is now artistic director of a theatre in Texas, a grand nephew, Chris Leporati, who just recently graduated and is doing well in Philadelphia and another grandniece, Abby Leporati, who will be entering as a freshman in the fall of 2024 and is arriving with multiple accolades to her name. They all wanted to stay close to home and chose Rowan as their university!

*****

This is part of the Department of History’s “Project 100+,” an ongoing collection of memories by Glassboro State College and Rowan University alumni and staff that began as part of the celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the founding of Glassboro Normal School, later Glassboro State College, and now Rowan University.  Due to interest in the project, the number of interviewees continues to grow.  Thanks to Laurie Lahey for helping proofread and edit the final versions.  Email carrigan@rowan.edu with questions or corrections.  You can find the Link to all of the Project 100 and Project 100+ entries on the Web:  https://chss.rowan.edu/departments/history/alumni_all/project_100+.html