Husband: Ed Nelson
After graduation, I went to Washington State as a home economics major, but as I did the general education requirements in my freshman year, I became more interested in academic subjects and ended up majoring in sociology and minoring in psychology. At that time successful young women got their MRS degree and devoted themselves to home and family. I was a failure at that and finished my bachelor's degree in 1961 and worked for two years for the Social Security Administration in Seattle and Tacoma. By then I decided the only thing I was good at was going to school and went to UCLA for a Ph.D. in sociology.
In 1964 I married a fellow student; we received our master's degrees in 1965 and our daughter, Lisa, was born in 1966. Ed finished his doctorate before I did and started teaching at Rutgers University in 1968. David was born in New Jersey in 1969. I finished my dissertation on women-both jobs and housework-and we decided to return to the West Coast. We were lucky enough to get two jobs in the same department at California State University, Fresno in 1973. We were very busy with two jobs and two kids for a long time. But now, both children are grown--Lisa is a Lutheran minister and David is a policy analyst. We were able to do a lot of traveling both professionally and visiting relatives.
I'm now officially retired, teaching part time only.
2007 Update:
Since retirement I have spent time with my grandchildren who lived far away (Washington D.C., Chicago, and Wisconsin). I have also worked part-time, mostly evaluations for nonprofit organizations.
I enjoy traveling, mostly to professional conferences in the US and visiting the grandchildren (Lisa has three boys – twins Matthew and Nathan are now 6 years old and Seth is 2-1/2. David has two girls – Elizabeth is eight and Grace is 4-1/2. Now they all live new Madison, Wisconsin.) I visit my two sisters who still live near Lake Stevens a couple times a year, but I’ve also gone to Europe and to India.
