Today’s Project 100 memory comes from Michael DiDomenico.  He was born in Landisville, New Jersey.  He went to public schools and graduated from Vineland High School in 1963.  His mother was a housewife.  His father was an operating engineer and in a union.  He operated heavy equipment for various jobs.  He had two sisters, one who also graduated from Glassboro State College and became a teacher, and another that worked in various business offices.  He had a brother who worked for the Coast Guard.  After graduating in 1967 from Glassboro State College with degrees in history and secondary education, he worked in Bridgeton as a junior high school.  After a year, he joined the faculty and taught history at Oak Crest Regional High School.  Oak Crest split after a few years, and Mike joined the Absegami High School, where he taught for the rest of his career, retiring in 1999.  In addition to teaching history, he coached football and golf at Oak Crest and Absegami.  During the summers, I had a second career as a musician, playing guitar on the Jersey shore. 

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Glassboro State chose me.  It might have been the only place that accepted me.  I was happy that it was close to my home.  I commuted my first year, then lived on the campus for the next three years. I walked on to the football team at GSC in my freshmen year.  It was the first year back for the team after the College had suspended the program for a number of years.  I ended up staring for four years as an end, and it was a great part of my Glassboro State experience. 

I began as an elementary education major, but I changed to history and social studies. I wanted to coach football, and history seemed to be the best fit for that aspiration and my talents.  I made several good friends at Glassboro State.  Joseph Campbell was a fellow history major, and we remained friendly for many years after graduating.  He became a teacher for a period, but he then moved into administration and got a doctorate.  The last I heard he was living in the Florida Keys.   

I remember several faculty members in the social studies department, including the chair, Harold Wilson. By the time that I was a student, he was at the end of his time at GSC.  Interestingly, he had my uncle as a student three or so decades before I arrived on campus, and he remembered him and our shared last name.  I took Marius Livingston for American history.  He was very unusual as an instructor.  He was extremely self-conscious about his students.  He didn’t want you to make any mistakes and would interrupt you as you started to go down the wrong path, providing you with some helpful words to get back on track.  I later took Robert Hewsen for a graduate course, and he really did know a lot about Russian history that you could not find in any textbook.  I never finish my graduate degree, but I took several classes. 

English literature professor Nathan Carb was the most unusual of all of my professors. He did not own a television, remarking that he only regretted not having one after the assassination of President Kennedy.  He gave very interesting and creative assignments.  I remember once questioning him on a personal level.  He was only in his 20s, but he was so smart that I thought he could be a professor at a more prestigious college.  So, I asked him, “what are you doing here?”  He replied that if he went to such a place, they would expect him to spend more time than he wanted in devotion to publishing academic works. 

I was at the Summit at Hollybush in 1967.  I was right in front of President Johnson and Premier Kosigyn.  Towards the end of my senior year, I was on a date with a young lady.  I didn’t know her that well and wanted to make a good impression, so I crawled into President Robinson’s flowerbed and took some of his flowers for my date.  Later you could see the missing flowers in the television coverage of the Summit. 

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This is part of the Department of History’s “Project 100,” the collection and sharing of one hundred memories by Glassboro State College and Rowan University alumni and staff.  One memory will be released per day in the 100 days leading up to October 20, 2023, the date of a reunion celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the founding of Glassboro Normal School, later Glassboro State College, and now Rowan University.  The reunion will take place at 7pm at the Summit City Farm and Winery in Glassboro, New Jersey.  Registration for the reunion will be open from July 11^th and will remain open until the venue reaches its 100-person capacity (or October 13^th if capacity never reached).  We do anticipate that the reunion will sell out, so please register as soon as possible by visiting the Alumni Office’s registration page here:  alumni.rowan.edu/historyreunion2023. 

You can also find the up-to-date set of Project 100 memories on the Department of History’s webpage.  William Carrigan arranged, interviewed, transcribed and/or edited these memories.  Laurie Lahey proofread and helped edit the final versions.  If you wish to share your own memories, please email Dr. Carrigan at carrigan@rowan.edu.  Alumni with Facebook accounts are encouraged to join the RU/GSC History Alumni group here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/251485937221524.