Dr. Scadden. This is Dr. Scadden
Mr. Banks. Hello Dr. Scadden.
Dr. Scadden. I am here.
Mr. Banks. Did I hear somebody else come in?
Dr. Scadden. I don't know who that is? Mr. Banks. This is Dick, I am sorry.
Dr. Scadden. Hello Dick.
Mr. Banks. How you doing Larry?
Dr. Scadden. I am doing well. Mr. Banks. What is the final day?
Dr. Scadden. A week from tomorrow, the seventh of September. So it is getting
Mr. Banks. Yes it is. Is the transition going smoothly?
Dr. Scadden. Yes it is. It is a lot of work.
Mr. Banks. I don't even want to get into that. I can imagine. You have been there for so long.
Dr. Scadden. I started the program. Transferring the reins is easier than actually moving the stuff out. It has accumulated for nine years.
Mr. Banks. That has got to be a very different feeling.
Dr. Scadden. It really is. Mr. Banks. I think you can sort of imagine that, but what is actually is really honest goodness happening there are probably all kinds of different emotions.
Dr. Scadden. That is very true, there are a lot of different emotions that are involved.
Mr. Banks. You're going where then Larry?
Dr. Scadden. Nowhere immediately really, but I am going to do some consulting. I am doing to do some writing. Sonja and I are going to spend two weeks in Hawaii in September looking for property. If we don't find any, so be it. Hello Norm, it is just Dick and I at the moment. Hello?
Dr. Coombs. Hello.
Dr. Scadden. Hello I am here, Dick is here, and you are here.
Mr. Banks. He is looking for property in Hawaii Norm.
Dr. Coombs. I understand that.
Dr. Scadden. And if we do not find anything that is really in our price range or something that we want to do, we can do the sour grapes saying well staying on the west coast allows us to go to Europe easily. Because we enjoy that.
Dr. Coombs. Do not try Orange County I can tell you that.
Dr. Scadden. Now, I lived in California go for 40 years.
Mr. Banks. That is home, isn't it?
Dr. Scadden. It was for both of us for 40 years.
Dr. Coombs. Prices here are going up and up.
Mr. Banks. I imagine it is like Hawaii. They are just not making anymore of that land and there is only so much to go around.
Dr. Scadden. We did well when we were young, buying in Marion County when I was in graduate school. And that will serve us fine for property at the rest of our lives. If we sold that eight years later...
Mr. Banks. Hello Martha.
Dr. Scadden. Hello Martha.
Dr. Absher. Hello this is Martha from Duke.
Dr. Scadden. I am Larry from NSF.
Dr. Coombs. I am Norm from EASI.
Mr. Banks. And Dick Banks from EASI.
Dr. Absher. Well hello everyone. What a nice way to have a retirement party.
Dr. Scadden. I should say.
Dr. Coombs. And for when we do the broadcast, September 12 probably, we will have some nice pictures of food and fireworks.
Dr. Scadden. Hello Larry.
Dr. Goldberg. Hey, are we having a party?
Dr. Coombs. We're having a party.
Dr. Scadden. Pass the dip please.
Mr. Banks. I was going to say it is a lousy time for pizza.
Dr. Goldberg. It depends on where you are.
Dr. Absher. We are approaching early lunchtime. This is Martha from Duke.
Dr. Coombs. As I said in a message, and this is Norm, we probably should identify ourselves. Greg Banks will go crazy trying to transcribe this.
Mr. Banks. Although it does a pretty nice job so when a person comes in you know who they are. And it is really nice if somebody does say their name when they talk, even your first name is fine.
Dr. Scadden. Except for Larry.
Dr. Goldberg. Yes, Larry and Larry. And no more Larrys allowed on the line here. So Larry how soon are you in Hawaii?
Dr. Scadden. We arrive on the 17th of September. But that is really property search. We will be back here on the second of October unless we really find something we want instantly. Someday we will hold to move over there but it is a while yet. Hello David.
Dr. Lovelock. Hello Larry.
Dr. Scadden. How are you?
Dr. Lovelock. Very well indeed.
Dr. Scadden. It is nice to hear your voice.
Dr. Lovelock. I am sorry to find you departing, but only from the government.
Dr. Scadden. I am departing the government, I am not departing the world.
Mr. Banks. I will never forget going to the NSF meaning and David introducing himself and saying, "I do not have an accent."
Dr. Scadden. He still holds to that.
Dr. Lovelock. I have best wishes from John Olson, Allie Marabian, and Georgia Ellis.
Dr. Scadden. Thank you very much.
Dr. Lovelock. John is very sorry that he has not been able to me in. And he was all set to come to the last meaning and of course we all know what happened.
Dr. Scadden. That is a lot of bureaucratic story that I have already forgotten most of it.
Dr. Lovelock. I have a story for you if I may.
Dr. Coombs. Oh yes, good.
Dr. Lovelock. It is about the first time we met. You may not remembered the about three years ago you had given us the award and then called the PIs meeting in about November. And shortly before that meaning a delicate issue arose that I needed to talk to you about.
Dr. Scadden. Yes I remember that issue.
Dr. Lovelock. So you said why don't you come in at 7:00 in the morning before the PIs meeting and we'll talk about it. So it was a November wet, gray, day that I walked out and get there by seven o'clock. I think I got there at ten to 7:00 and your door was closed and your office was in darkness. So I sat outside waiting for you to come. Well 7:00 comes around and no Larry. I began to have some thoughts about government workers. At ten pass 7 still no Larry. Then I heard some shuffling inside the room. I knocked on the door and phone of course you were working in darkness. It had never dawned on me that you were in there because of course all the lights were off.
Dr. Scadden. That is a great story.
Dr. Lovelock. It gets better because you and I had a ten minute conversation completely in the dark. I have dined off that story many times.
Dr. Scadden. That is great.
Dr. Coombs. Yes, this is Norm, we might say Larry functioned in the dark a lot of the time.
Dr. Scadden. That is true. I usually come am in turn on my light but sometimes I forget. And I have found that it does keep people away.
Dr. Absher. Larry, we are just going to miss you so much. I just have to speak up for Duke and say what wonderful support you have provided for my programs. And now we are beginning to have outcomes and seeing students in college. I have a deaf professor out practicing. I just want to say thanks from Duke for the wonderful support and how we will miss you. Besides I will be jealous of you being in Hawaii.
Dr. Coombs. Could you tell us a little bit about your project for people who will be tuning in?
Dr. Absher. Are you asking me Martha?
Dr. Coombs. Yes.
Dr. Absher. What Larry funding for me is a program in which I extended the work I have done, particularly emphasizing deaf college students, and introducing them to many areas of engineering and science. Into the K-12 level. And we have had community programs where we have had all of the students in our local area getting a chance to interact with these college-age role models and participate in campus on the Duke campus. It is just totally changed their whole life's goals, because most of the students had never interacted with a deaf professional, a deaf professional, anything. They did not even think about going to college. Now I have some of them in college.
Dr. Scadden. That is really good. I have to say that that is been the best part of this job, watching the projects grow, watching the impact it has had on peoples lives. That is what I will miss the most is not having to contact with the people who run the projects and the day-to-day contact with watching them grow. You know Martha, the term peer mentoring is something I have never heard until you applied.
Dr. Absher. Yes that was my term.
Dr. Scadden. Hello John.
Dr. Gardiner. Hello all. Hi Larry, how are you? I am doing fine.
Dr. Scadden. I was telling Martha something,
Martha Absher. The first time I never heard the term peer mentoring was in her proposal. And now the term is starting to show up elsewhere. So it is a contribution that you have made to the whole field of mentoring.
Dr. Absher. Well your support and NSFs support has been wonderful. And you have fought so much red tape for all of us Larry. We're also grateful at your courage.
Dr. Scadden. Well thank you. That is something that I pride myself in finding ways through the red tape, through the bureaucracy, but it has also probably taken ten years off my life.
Dr. Coombs. Well this is Norm. I think one of the things that is great is that Larry you have been much more than just a professional program officer. But there has been the personal contact, the encouragement, and all of that. John, I wonder if you could share some of your non-NSF Larry experiences? Like bicycling around Europe or something like that.
Dr. Scadden. Not together we haven't.
Dr. Coombs. Okay.
Dr. Gardiner. I didn't join his party to hear people praise Larry. I came here to roast him.
Dr. Coombs. You have got the floor.
Dr. Gardiner. This is John Gardiner. Well I told, I have a lot of Larry stories. But you're not going to want to listen to me all day. I told a story on Larry's other party that I left him a note about reminding him about the time actually shortly before he joined NSF. We were walking through the streets and I was really impressed that a blind eye was flying through Washington leading another blind guy. And I said so. Swishing past taxis and he said, "Don't worry you are on the traffic side."
Dr. Scadden. Yes, I have to protect myself wherever I go.
Dr. Gardner. This is John again. No way am I going to go bicycling with Larry.
Dr. Scadden. We have been in Europe together. But we were not bicycling, I think we may have found something to drink over there in Germany at some point.
Dr. Absher. Was it water Larry?
Dr. Scadden. I do not believe so.
Dr. Coombs. The water is not drinkable.
Dr. Gardiner. This is John for the last time. One nice thing about Larry retiring is the next time I offer to buy him a beer he can say yes instead of saying, "As a government employee I am not allowed to except la da da."
Dr. Scadden. I had lunch yesterday with a friend of mine who works at the Department of Agriculture. And she and I have been having lunch often not and always the other one buying, each time the other one buys. This has been going on for five or six years. And yesterday as we parted she said, "The problem is now you can never buy me lunch again." It is one of those bureaucratic things that we hold to, but among friends it can get a little loose.
Dr. Coombs. Well I think it sounds like your grantees better watch out. You are going to come around and do a lot of collecting, is that it Larry?
Dr. Scadden. I hadn't thought about it, but I will taken note on it. Hello Ed, this is Larry Scadden here.
Dr. McCarthy. Hello Larry, it is also Bill McCarthy.
Dr. Coombs. From New Mexico right?
Dr. Miskus. Indeed. How I things?
Dr. Scadden. The things are going well. I have just eight days to go there and then all the paperwork dealing with New Mexico State will go to somebody hands. I do not know who is going to be because my successor cannot touch them because he is coming from New Mexico State not too long ago. It will actually go up the line to the division director most likely.
Dr. Miskus. That is great Larry. Larry we just wanted to tip a little bit of the bubbly to you.
Dr. Scadden. Well thank you. It is a little early in the morning but I will be glad to except it.
Dr. McCarthy. It is early here but for you guys it is almost noon isn't it?
Dr. Scadden. That is true. Well thank you. I have already said on this line that the best part of the job is working with the project people. And from time to time even get a chance to visit the various campuses and I have been to Los Crsis twice and it is really great to be able to be there those two times. And I know there is going to be somebody joining the line.
Dr. Coombs. Did I hear Sheryl come in there?
Dr. Sheryl Burgstahler.. I am here.
Dr. Scadden. Hello Sheryl.
Cheryl. Hello.
Dr. Scadden. I only got to visit your campus once or twice, I do not remember. It was a longtime ago. Cheryl. I think once.
Dr. Scadden. That was probably eight years ago or something.
Cheryl. Yes, that was during our first summer program. So it would have been 1993.
Dr. Scadden. You are still the foundation of what we've done here. It was the first grant that we made.
Dr. Gardiner. This is John Gardiner, hello Cheryl.
Cheryl. Hello.
Dr. Gardiner. They're getting to be too many people on the line so I think I will be a kind person and bow out. Larry, congratulations again.
Dr. Scadden. Thank you John, we will be in touch.
Dr. Gardiner. Congratulations from Caroline as well.
Dr. Scadden. Thank you.
Dr. Gardiner. Okay, goodbye.
Dr. Absher. Hello Cheryl from Duke. It was really wonderful to get to meet you and work with you all these years. And I hope to spend more time with you in Hawaii.
Dr. Scadden. I look forward to it Martha. I'm going to be tracking all the projects out of just personal interest forever. So the best of continued success to you.
Dr. Absher. Thank you so much for all your help and best wishes. Bye.
Dr. Scadden. Bye.
Dr. Lovelock. I also will be leaving now.
Dr. Scadden. David?
Dr. Lovelock. Yes.
Dr. Scadden. Thank you for joining us and thank you so much for your story reminding me of the first time we met. That is a great story.
Dr. Lovelock. I look forward to seeing you again.
Dr. Scadden. I look forward to it, take care.
Dr. Lovelock. Take care. Bill. I just wanted to let you know that you have an often invite to come to New Mexico anytime.
Dr. Scadden. Well I like it down there so much that I will except it whenever I possibly can. I told my life that New Mexico is a place that she should visit as well. I really enjoyed it down there.
Cheryl. Seattle is a nice place to come to too.
Dr. Scadden. Yes it is.
Cheryl. You going to need to stop your particularly if you're going to Hawaii. You're going to want to stop along the way.
Dr. Scadden. That is not a bad idea. Bill.
Dr. McCarthy Anyway Larry we will go ahead and dropout at this time. We just wish you all the best.
Dr. Scadden. Thanks so much Bill, it was nice to have you online.
Dr. Berland. Larry this is Betty Jo Berland. I cannot invite you to any place exotic.
Dr. Scadden. NIDRR. Okay, for those of you who do not know her Betty Jo works for the national Institute on disability rehabilitation research. One of the stops earlier in my career in Washington.
Dr. Berland. Well you have not stopped working with us.
Dr. Scadden. I am going to be reviewing grant proposals my first week in retirement. That is a bad discipline I have about retiring.
Dr. Berland. Well I hope it is wonderful for you. I hope it is as wonderful as your career was. And so I guess I will be seeing you in about two weeks.
Dr. Scadden. Yes, Betty Jo thank you for coming online.
Dr. Berland. Best wishes.
Dr. Scadden. Karen how are you? Karen Milchus from Georgia Tech. The conference telephone announces everybody coming and going. This is a technology we need at a revolving door in hotels.
Dr. Coombs. It is not that you have something like that. I know sometimes a party where it is noisy, I am talking to somebody had found out that they left.
Dr. Scadden. Yes that happens far too often. That is true.
Dr. Milchus. I was sort of waiting for the big trumpet fanfare before the announcement to. We will have a big earthquake out here in Seattle on your behalf.
Dr. Scadden. On Karen's behalf our mine?
Dr. Milchus. On your behalf.
Dr. Scadden. Thank you.
Dr. Goldberg. This is very Goldberg. And to people who are not here today that wish you the best, Laurie Everett and Berry Cronan, who are at this point called unemployed if you can believe that.
Dr. Scadden. Well I believe Laurie just joined MIT.
Dr. Goldberg. I had not even heard that.
Dr. Scadden. Yes, she is directing a nice program over there.
Dr. Goldberg. Excellent. And Barry is moving around in the dot-com world.
Dr. Scadden. Yes I have corresponded with him. The those of the first to people I had contact with at WGBH back in the late '80s when I was still with the electronic industries foundation.
Dr. Goldberg. Right.
Dr. Scadden. And since then your group has gone tremendously into something that I refer people all over the world to go to your website, use the guidelines, and so forth. The WGBH and now the national center on accessible media have made tremendous contributions to the field of accessibility.
Dr. Goldberg. I appreciate that. We give an awful lot of thanks to you. And oddly enough, Madeleine and I here are spending the last two days of our fiscal year before vacation getting our final report in, the guidelines.
Dr. Scadden. You still have one other project going so you are not off the lease here at all.
Dr. Goldberg. Not at all.
Mr. Banks. Welcome to Ken Barner.
Dr. Scadden. Hello Ken.
Dr. Barner. Hello Larry, how are you?
Dr. Scadden. I'm doing fine. Thank you for coming on.
Dr. Barner. I am more than happy to. I missed things last week. I was out-of-town unfortunately.
Dr. Scadden. It is not unfortunate when there is a vacation involved Ken.
Dr. Barner. I guess that is true. So I guess congratulations are an order on your successful career there and things.
Dr. Scadden. Well thanks so much. It is that if on career and I keep saying that it is the projects that I have been involved with that make the difference. And what has gone on the University of Delaware over the years is just fantastic. I have been able to watch you grow in your career from a new a Ph.D. to career awards from the National Science Foundation and other things which is really outstanding. So continued success to you Ken.
Dr. Barner. Well it has been a lot of fun and really have wound up around the great bunch of people, which is what I think really made the difference.
Dr. Scadden. Yes it can make a big difference to. And Anna, the engineer on your staff.
Dr. Barner. I don't know, she on? We were going to go on separate phone lines because I was not sure how my speakerphone was going to work out. She may or may not be on here.
Dr. Scadden. She is not on as of yet anyway.
Dr. Barner. Okay, while she was going to call. She will probably call in a few moments.
Dr. Milchus. This is Karen Milchus again. You probably have already answered this question a few times but I really cannot picture you retiring. So what are your plans now?
Dr. Scadden. I am really going to retire. But I am not going to give up activity. I am going to be doing some consulting and some writing.
Dr. Milchus. Okay, great.
Dr. Scadden. And my wife and I will be doing a fair amount of travel as well, starting with Hawaii in three weeks.
Dr. Milchus. That is a good place to start.
Dr. Stern. Hello Larry. Hello Sheryl. Who else is here?
Dr. Coombs. Norm Coombs here.
Dr. Stern. Hi Norm. Dr. Milchus. Karen Milchus here.
Dr Stern. Hi.
Dr. Goldberg. Hello Jenny, Larry Goldberg.
Dr. Stern. Hello Larry.
Mr. Banks. Dick Banks.
Dr. Barner. Ken Barner here.
Dr. Scadden. We had a number of people in and out already. So it has been quite a floating, revolving, door.
Dr. Stern. I cannot help it if I am in the last half of the alphabet.
Dr. Coombs. You always that at the back of the room in school?
Dr. Stern. Actually in those days I was the shortest in the class. So I was in the front of the line and in the room. Larry, sorry I missed the other party. But this is a very good event to.
Dr. Scadden. I am really thrilled. I was thrilled with the event that the NSF put on for me last week. But it is so nice to have so many people from around the country to come online to talk for a few minutes at least.
Dr. Milchus. So Norm where is the virtual food that you promised us?
Dr. Coombs. Well it is going to be on the screen when we air this, probably on Sept. 12. We've got some shrimp, some fireworks, and some hot dogs.
Dr. Scadden. That's great.
Mr. Banks. And they will have alt tags.
Dr. Milchus. Very good.
Dr. Coombs. Someday when they get really good in broadband connections, maybe we could send the real thing down the line.
Dr. Scadden. That would be really broadband, yes.
Dr. Stern. Or at least we could do, or what about the company that was doing the smells? Wasn't the company in Berkeley? We could have the smells of the food.
Dr. Scadden. I did read about that can I did not figure it out. You it certainly have to build it into your computer to a great extent.
Dr. Stern. Special software.
Dr. Scadden. The only thing they can actually provide the smells for would be the smoke of some chips burning. Not the kind of chips that we eat.
Dr. Coombs. Well Larry I know you have a meeting coming up shortly.
Dr. Scadden. Yes. Actually and going to be meeting with a consulting group that is going to go through a portfolio and see is there is something I might be interested in helping them on. So right now my own calendar was totally booked through April. And I was trying to back away from a few things knowing that I need some time to relax and really give consideration to what I want to do during my retirement other than right and do a little consulting. Not 100 percent of the time of. And am going to be on a lot of advisory boards.
Dr. Stern. You're going to be working on the TAG project.
Dr. Scadden. Yes I am working with the accessibility group that David Bolnick.
Dr. Stern. David came to see us last week.
Dr. Scadden. Terry Youngblood and Peter Blanc.
Dr. Barner. And I am sure you want to be around for rewriting the entire 508 guidelines.
Dr. Scadden. I have done my 508 for my wife. I want to help implement it but I do not think I want to be on the inside of it ever again.
Dr. Coombs. You're going to enjoy being your own boss. That's the thing I like about retiring. I work as much as I ever did but I am my own boss. You allow that Larry.
Dr. Scadden. I am looking forward to it. I hope it really pans out. I question whether a consultant is really his own boss.
Dr. Milchus. I think they can be if they are retired. They can decide which strings they are really going to let the pulled.
Dr. Scadden. You can walk away more easily.
Dr. Coombs. This is Norm again. I want to thank everybody for coming in and helping with the party. We will put it up on the Web I guess Sept. 12, with transcriptions and some virtual food and so you can to back in and hear yourself. So do not work to hard the rest of the day. We really wish you your best in retirement.
Dr. Scadden. Thank you so much Norm and everyone else for coming on. It has been great to talk to everyone today. This is that the end of our contacts, I am just changing venues.
Dr. Milchus. Best of luck.
Mr. Banks. I am extremely glad to hear that Larry.
Dr. Scadden. Take care.
Mr. Banks. Take care. Take care everybody.