This week’s Project 100+ memory comes from Bob Mossman.  He was born in Bridgeton and raised in Upper Deerfield Township.  He attended public schools, including Seabrook Elementary School with many Japanese American children who had been relocated to the area during World War II.  They were there as the result of the initiative of Seabrook Farms which built housing to accommodate the Japanese who had been interned during World War II.  Their parents worked for Seabrook Farms, and Bob became friends with many of these children. 

Bob attended and graduated from Bridgeton High School in 1960, which was a very diverse high school at the time.  Bob’s father was from Camden, New Jersey. He became an orphan when both his parents died of tuberculosis, and he was placed at the “Home for Friendless Children” in Camden.  He lived there for several years before he became a “taken boy” at age eight.  This meant that a farmer selected him to live on his farm to work for him from age eight to eighteen.  He was separated from his two sisters who ended up in Philadelphia.  As an adult, Bob’s father worked at the Owens Illinois Glass Company in Bridgeton.  Bob’s mother was a homemaker.  Bob had an older brother, Frank, and a younger sister, Joanne.  Frank graduated from the University of Delaware, and Joanne graduated with both a Bachelor’s in Elementary Education and a Masters’ degree from Glassboro State College.  Joanne went on to become a teacher and eventually the Superintendent of the Mannington School District in Salem County.  Both of Bob’s siblings have recently passed away because of Parkinson’s disease, from which Bob also currently suffers.

Bob enrolled in the Fall of 1960 at Glassboro State College.  He graduated in the spring of 1964 with a Bachelor’s in Social Studies and a minor in Library Science.  Continuing his education at Glassboro, Bob later earned a Master’s in Student Personnel Services. 

His first job after GSC was as a librarian at Washington Township High School.  After one year, he left education and took a job with ACME Supermarkets.  After one year there, he returned to Washington Township as a social studies teacher and guidance counselor.  He worked there for five years before joining Camden County College as Director of Student Activities.  He later moved to Gloucester County College where he took a position as Director of Admissions.  He ended up working at GCC for nearly four decades, filling numerous roles during that time, sometimes on the administrative side and sometimes on the teaching side.  For most of this time, Bob and his family lived in Pitman, New Jersey.  Bob was elected to the Boro Council and on served on several boards, including the Zoning Board and the Library Board with Nathan Carb.  When he was teaching, his courses were in Sociology and Education.  While in his teaching role, he enrolled in a doctoral program in Educational Theory at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. He drove to New Brunswick twice a week after a day of teaching and completed his doctorate thanks to the remarkable support of his wife, Gail Foote Mossman.  After he completed his doctorate in 1978, Gloucester County College continued to promote him, and he later served as Dean and finally as Vice President of Academic Services.   He retired in 2004 as Professor Emeritus.

Bob’s wife, Gail, and daughter, Katie, continued the Glassboro State legacy.  Gail worked for many years as secretary to President Herman James.  During those years, Katie began attending Glassboro State College and Graduated from Rowan College of NJ in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology.

After retiring, Bob and Gail moved to Florida and now live in the Villages.  In Florida, they have made numerous friends, have enjoyed playing golf and tennis, and have basked in the warm weather.  They have continued to return to New Jersey regularly as they still have family in the area.

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My options after graduating from high school were limited. I worked at the Owens Illinois Glass factory the summer after high school and each summer of my college career.  I knew that I did not want to continue there.  So, my choices were to join the military or find a college that I could afford.  A friend named Frank Dilks invited me to join him to check out Glassboro State College, where he was a sophomore.  He picked me up, and I remember that we sat in on Professor Peacock’s economics class.  He was an engaging professor.  I had taken an economics class in high school as an elective, and to my surprise, I knew some of the answers to the questions that Professor Peacock asked.  After that class, I had the confidence that I could be successful in college work.

I only applied to Glassboro State College.  At this time, it was possible to put yourself through college by working in the summers and then working part-time during the school year.  I had a job cleaning the bookstore during the academic year, and I worked in the factory during the summers. The tuition at GSC was only $75 a semester.  I commuted my first two years, after purchasing a car for $300.  I lived in Glassboro during my junior and senior years, having saved enough from my summer job to be able to afford this.

I thought that the Social Studies faculty at Glassboro State were fantastic.  Let me begin by discussing Harold Wilson, the chair of the Department.  He was a very effective teacher of American History, and I have kept the books that he assigned to us all these years later.  He had a wonderful, dry sense of humor.  He was well-known for asking us challenging questions and, when we could not answer properly, kidding us by having us stand up and promise never to be a teacher and to never let anyone know that he had been our teacher. 

Professor Livingston was very energetic.  It was clear that he loved his subject matter.  He taught European history which included much map work.  This was necessary as most of us did not know where these European countries were located.  I had Jesse Kennedy for Asian history.  I also remember Maurice Blanken who taught Politics and Sidney Kessler who taught American History.  I can’t remember having a single bad faculty member.

Another very special faculty member was Coach Richard Wackar.  I was one of the managers for his basketball team.  We revered that man.  He was very important to us.  Coach Wackar had a strong sense of ethics, which we admired.  He knew all our names. He even knew Gail’s name.  One episode that I remember gives you some sense of the man.  It involved an away basketball game.  Some Glassboro State students had driven to the game to cheer on the team. They sat behind the basket and began to yell and distract the opposing team when they were shooting free throws. While this may have been common behavior for other fans, Coach Wackar stopped the game and told our fans to cease their actions. He promised to pull the team off the court if they continued.  This type of attitude may be rare today, but we were all so proud to work and play for him.  Years later, Coach Wackar said that we could call him by his first name but we refused, calling him only “Coach” or “Mr. Wackar.”  I couldn’t call him by his first name even when I met him at my 50^th class reunion in 2014.  I remember sitting at a table during this reunion with another fellow alum (another one of the managers.)  When Coach Wackar approached our table, my friend started to cry.  Later, I asked him what happened.  He said, “That man did so much for me as a young person.”  That my friend (who had gone on to be a teacher and after retirement a truck driver) would tear up in public when he saw Coach Wackar 50 years later, gives you some sense of how important he was to us students.

I joined the International Relations club in my sophomore year.  I believe it was the first year of the club, and Professor Livingston was one of the advisors.  I thought it would be good for me since I wanted to be a Social Studies teacher.  I had also read a book called, The Ugly American, that shaped my thinking.  As I remember, the book argued that Americans did not distinguish themselves when they travelled overseas - they were either involved with the military or were focused on expanding American business interests.  I wanted to prove that the new generation of Americans had broader interests.  Club leaders were initially looking to have monthly speakers about international affairs, but Operation Uganda soon took over all of our time.

I travelled with the International Relations club to New York City.  I can’t remember everyone who went on this trip, but I know that Betty Bowe did.  I am sure that Bill Kanouse went, but I can’t remember him clearly.  Bill was another Social Studies major.  I remember him best for introducing me to my future wife, Gail Foote.  We are still married sixty years later, so I will never forget Bill Kanouse.  In any event, I believe that Professor Livingston organized this trip and drove the car.  I can’t remember if there was a second car or not.  In any event, I remember visiting and touring the United Nations and then the Russian Mission to the United States.  After we entered the building that housed the Russian Mission, I remember that a Soviet official came out and gave us a speech about the benefits of communism.  They also gave each of us a book about communism as well.  It was an interesting learning experience to be invited into the Mission and to hear directly from a Soviet official.

During the drive back to Glassboro, we got more and more upset that the United States, at least according to the Russians, had such a bad reputation in other parts of the world.  We decided that we wanted to do something about it, but I can’t remember all the details.  I don’t think that Uganda was the first choice of the group for our planned efforts.  I believe that we were originally considering the nations that became Rwanda and Burundi.  However, these nations were in much turmoil.  Moreover, they were not English colonies. So, Professor Livingston suggested that we switch to Uganda, which was an English colony that had less strife at the time.

The next big moment was a trip to Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1962.  I think we took multiple cars this time, and I know who drove the car in which I rode. It was Dr. Jesse Kennedy - I remember he was smoking his pipe while driving.  I also remember him telling us as we approached Washington that we might get “Potomac fever.”  I didn’t know what he meant at first, but after the excitement of meeting our Congressman, William Cahill, I began to understand what he had meant.  The most important person that we met on this trip was Sargent Shriver, John F. Kennedy’s brother-in-law and the first Director of the Peace Corps.  Quite a few of GSC students went on this trip, including Gail, Betty, and surely Bill.  I remember our sitting at a table when Sargent Shriver came in. He was well-spoken, nicely dressed, and overall impressive.  In that moment, I was overwhelmed with “Potomac fever” as I stared at this person who I had seen on television. He was like a movie star to me, and I think to others in the room as well.  We told him what we were doing and why, and that we needed his support.  I remember that he loved our plan and that he promised to help us if he could. I believe that he did do things to help us, though he was very busy. 

Those of us working on Operation Uganda took a second trip to New York City to visit the United Nations.  They were having a special reception in honor of the leaders of the soon-to-be independent Uganda.  At this meeting we met Milton Obote, who would become the first Prime Minister of Uganda on October 9, 1962.  I was very impressed to meet this man and to shake his hand.  I also met Uh Thant, the Secretary General of the United Nations.  By this time, Professor Livingston and Betty had moved the project into another gear. They were doing so much work.  I am sure that they met with officials at this time to discuss our plans for supporting Uganda.

Back on campus, the entire College was getting more and more excited about Operation Uganda. Folks were beginning to understand that Glassboro State College could do something that might actually make an international impact.  Professor Livingston and Betty hosted many meetings where we discussed what we wanted to do, how we wanted to do it, where we wanted to store items, and so on.  One of the major goals was to collect books.  We had to gather the books, which mostly came from school districts who were replacing older texts with newer texts.  We soon received so many books that we needed more space to store them.  The Glassboro movie theater allowed us to store books backstage.  Later, the College let us take over a farmhouse.  We had to divide the donated books into different categories, such as “no good,” “well used,” “slightly used,” and “brand new.”  People were working on this project all the time.  Some folks worked one night a week, some worked two nights a week.  Many worked on the weekends.  I believe that Professor Livingston and Betty probably worked seven days a week.  Gail and I often spent a “date night” sorting books.  This was great for me as I could spend time with Gail without having to spend money on a dinner. 

For the big celebration on campus on October 9, 1962, I volunteered to coordinate the visit of some twenty Ugandan students who were studying at other colleges in the United States.  We invited every Ugandan student in America to attend.  We had arranged for them to stay in Oak and Laurel Halls, and I corresponded with them about these arrangements.   I did much work researching the history of Uganda before they arrived.  By the time they arrived, I was well versed in their history, including the differing groups that made up the nation and their history of strife and conflict.  I met them as they arrived, took them to the dining hall, and I stayed with them overnight.  This was one of my very favorite experiences in my entire college experience.  We stayed up late at night talking about their country and the state of the world.  I could sense that I was one of the very first Americans who they had met who knew the history of their country to any extent.  For a kid who had grown up in rural New Jersey, this was an amazing evening.  In the many years that have passed since Operation Uganda, I have often reflected that we Glassboro State students were the true beneficiaries of the project.  How lucky we were to have had these experiences. We met important politicians and students our age from Uganda.  I am very proud of what we did, what we accomplished.  However, many of us were disappointed about the difficulties we faced in getting the books we collected to Uganda.  And later, we were disappointed by the even more depressing political events that unfolded in Uganda in the late 1960s.

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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/