Alright, today is still February 21st; it's a Thursday, and this is Lauren Benditt with the University of Wisconsin Oral History Program, and I will be interviewing Jim Laundrie about his time with the Forest Products Lab.

So, I wanted to thank you for coming in to do this and I guess the purpose of this interview is for you to recount some of the stories that you have from your time at the Forest Products Lab. Um, and I guess before we start talking about the lab itself, ah, maybe we'll start with pre-Forest Products Lab time, so, I guess, what did you do before coming to the Forest Products Lab? Where did you do your education?

Oh, I'm from Green Bay originally, but anyway I went to the University of Wisconsin here in Madison, and graduated in [January] of 1955 in Chemical Engineering. But then while I was a senior at the University, I worked here at Forest Products about half time. So, actually my start date was way back in January of 1954. Cuz' then I worked a year, and then, ah, well I know, I had a pile of tickets at the university, parking tickets, and I said there's no way I was sticking around Madison and Forest Products hadn't offered me anything so I went to work for Dupont when I graduated in [January] of fifty-five, but I only lasted there three months because I got called to active duty with the Air Force, because I took ROTC, so then I spent two years in the Air Force and all of that was at [Ellsworth Air Force Base in] Rapid City, SD. Ah, anyway then when I got out of the Air Force the Forest Products was after me at that time, so I came back in May of ['57] and then I stayed until January of 1986. So that's a brief history, with a big gap in there. Ok, so what went on in the mean time.