ABSTRACT
In 1971 Joan Huber and I were married. She had been teaching at Notre Dame for four years and liked it. We wanted to be together. Bill Liu, chair at Notre Dame, offered me a named chair, but we preferred a university new to both of us. Charlie Loomis had told Fritz Fliegel, chair of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana, that we were available. Fritz had formerly chaired Rural Sociology. When asked to chair Sociology because its internal turmoil prevented consensus on a new chair, like a good marine (his words) he responded to the request as if it were an order, agreeing to serve for a time at least. Fritz invited us for interviews.
