Menlo School of Business Administration

Horace Greely is credited with the saying, "Go West Young Man."  I followed his advice, 119 years later!

My room in the US Surplus quonset hut that was converted to a dorm called Keeler Hall.  I had a water bed, tapestries and an Election sign I "borrowed" from somewhere down the street.

one of our forms of entertainment, water fights on hot days

It was 1969, Menlo Park, CA...A long way from Elkhart, Indiana.  To determine the best fit for a college Ann and Dad sent me to Chicago to a testing facility.  You fill out a questioneer with questions regarding education, recreation, morals, climate etc and they select a list of Colleges for you.  World Campus afloat and Menlo were on the top of my list.

     At The Menlo SBA, there were 27 young men in my class, including Prince Facil and Prines Saleh from Saudi Arabia, Dan Block (H&R Block) Bruce Stuart (one of a few heirs to Carnation Milk) and the heirs to Northrup Aircraft, Sun Oil Co., etc.  A diverse and wealthy group from all over the world.  I was most certainly the little fish in this pond! The cream always rises to the top, the rest of us went to Menlo. 

     Dad and I had decided that $200.00 per month would be sufficient for gas, clothes etc.  My first week there, 6 of us drove the 20 miles to San Francisco and went to the Playboy Club. I decided to buy the second round of drinks. The next day, I called home and said, "Dad we have a problem." The round of drinks for the six of us was $86.00 and it was only the 3rd of the month!  When in Rome.... There is nothing to equal the learning and growth experience of peer pressure and friendships from  all over the world.  We spent weekends in the Private Dance Clubs of San Francisco, where Bruce Stuart had an apartment at the top of the hill, right above The Buena Vista, location of our Sunday recovery Brunchs. We went to Larry's familys place, The Mailliard Redwoods, thousands of acres of giant redwoods to Hunt deer and boar.  We made road trips to Santa Barbra, where Prince Saleh rented an entire hotel on the beach and we each had a bungalow. We frequented Haight Ashbury, the home of Flower Power and Make Love Not War. If it sounded like fun, we did it! One of the guys had a large ranch in Goleta, on top of the mountains above Santa Barbara and that was a favorite.  We were quite a caravan with a Lamborgihni, Two Shelby GT 500's, my Buick GS 455, Joe's yellow Firebird 500 and a VW Microbus to name a few.

We would drive to Tijuana for the ten cent beer and 25 cent shots of Tequila

     It was tough competing for dates with guys that had their own jets, diplomatic immunity and offers of weekends in NYC or London, Paris....   But I survived and occasionally prospered. 

     I am hoping the statute of limitations has expired on this next story.  My second year at Menlo, they decided to allow girls to attend the formerly a male school. The Director of admissions called me to his office one day. He showed me a large stack of files on a table. He said these represented all girls applications that qualified to attend Menlo. He suggested I go thru the pile and select any that I felt would enhance my Menlo experience. The files all had PHOTOS.  Patty Hearst was one of my selections and later became quite famous  after being kidnapped by the SLA and thru Stockholm Syndrome robbed banks with a machine gun!  She was rescued and turned out fine, The members of The SLA had a gun battle with the FBI and all died when the house they were in burned to the ground.

    Perhaps to the shock of some I graduated in 1973 with a BS in Business Admin, minor in Accounting.