JEROME E. GOLDBERG
Sometime in the psychedelic ‘60s headed north for graduate study in Canada. Toronto was an intellectual mecca in those days with many academic luminaries, the most notable of which were the wizard of the north Northrop Frye and media pop star Marshall McLuhan. When I was invited to McLuhan’s home for a party one evening, I was greeted at the door by his son who proceeded to tell me I was an imbecile for taking his father’s courses.
At the University of Toronto I completed my Ph.D. dissertation under the direction of Northrop Frye – the title of which was “William Blake: A Study in the Human Sciences”. The Ph.D. degree in English was conferred in 1978.
After that I went over to England where I had a research appointment at the University of London. It was in London that I made the amazing scientific discovery that there are two genders (among Homo Sapiens) on planet earth. My secondary education had been at the all-boys Central High School of Philadelphia. I matriculated at an all-men’s college in Ohio and I never even majored in biology there. So this was quite a revelation for me. Why I never published it in Nature I don’t know? But it helps explain why that old Kenyon cleaning lady looked so damn good to me!
Also in London I became interested in small aviation – the very definition of serendipity for me. I was fortunate to have been able to see much of England, Ireland, Holland, Yugoslavia from the cockpit of a Piper Twin Comanche (GAPZF).
My teaching career in the English Department spanned several institutions including Toronto, Penn State University, Holy Family University and Bucks County Community College. At Penn State I taught a graduate course called “Recent British and American Poetry”. But most of your energy is dissipated in the lower-division courses. The beginning of every semester was the same – I would gather the first round of freshman essays, review them to make an initial diagnosis, and begin to weep – not for them but for myself.
About 20 years ago traded in the Volvo and the corduroy jacket and transitioned over to a second career. I enlisted in Jack Bogle’s navy with The Vanguard Group in Valley Forge, PA.
Currently I am an education and investment specialist with the Education Savings Group at Vanguard. Frequently I will be called upon to put out a fire with an elevated client; and occasionally I will be called upon to give a seminar on a topic relating to investments or to our complex tax code.
The summer will mark my 20th anniversary in the financial services sector with Vanguard. How I have managed to last in this navy for 20 years bogles my mind.
Finally, I have served as a member of the Board of Directors of a community center for health and human services delivery. Community activist on issues of Mental Health/Mental Retardation. For the Public Committee in the Humanities – served as advisor to public outreach programs in the humanities. Evaluated long-term funded projects on public policy issues in the humanities.
Occasionally – at my work with the Education Savings Group – I will receive a call from a parent who is sending her child to a small, select liberal arts college on a verdant hill in Gambier, Ohio – and I will invariably tell her – with unmitigated envy – what a wonderful four years they have to look forward to.
JEROME E. GOLDBERG
1719 Tustin Street
Philadelphia PA 19152-1807
Phone # (215) 742-3590