Bill West on His Connection with The Consortium

As Told to Elizabeth Macanufo 

August 2010

At the Schoen Luncheon during the 44^th Annual Orientation Program and Career Forum, Bill West (University of Southern California, '79) became the newest Eagle Club Member. Following, Bill discusses his career and the important role The Consortium has played in his life.

I grew up during segregation in Kentucky in the Appalachia region. As quiet as it's kept, Kentucky is part of the old South. They had a lot of the same Jim Crow laws that the other Southern states did.

I was a Brown v. Board of Education baby. In first grade I went to an all black school. By the time I got to second grade, rather than fight the ruling, the school district implemented it. Each grade I advanced in, we were the first wave of black students who went to previously all white schools. The city of Ashland took ownership of it, trained the teachers, embraced it and made it happen. To this date, I credit them for that.

Every silver lining has a cloud. My father, who taught math and coached football and basketball, lost his job because of the rolling desegregation. We moved to Lexington, KY when I was 13. They had not embraced desegregation, so I was back in an all black school.

My dad was my ninth grade math teacher. That was the longest academic year of my life including college and graduate school. That was torture. My dad put a lot of value on education. There were pretty high expectations of me. I graduated from high school as salutatorian of my class.

Then, I went on a stupid binge and for three years I made a lot of mistakes. I dropped out of college and ended up in the Air Force to avoid getting drafted. The job market told me I was worthless. I tried to shortcut it as long as I could, but they job market doesn't lie. Uneducated, I wasn't worth a whole lot.

I was working a factory job in Indianapolis. It was low pay, menial and physically demanding. One day I saw a well dressed guy coming from the lunch room. I knew he had a nice job because he worked hard and was clean every day. I was dirty every day and sweaty and stinky. I cornered him and asked him what he did. He told me he was an engineer and worked on the design for magnetic tape. I asked him how he got that "good job", he said he was recruited on campus. I asked, "what do you mean?  They came looking for you instead of you coming here and looking for them?"