Off to a Good Start

A Surprising Journey

This memoir is about my surprising journey from a dirt road on the outskirts of Yuma, Arizona to an endowed professorship at the world's greatest public university, and the nine life lessons I learned along the way.

I was born a Baby Boomer to a working class family in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, but when I was six months old my family moved to Yuma, Arizona, where for ten years I lived on a dirt road on the outskirts of town. In the 1960s I grew up with my parents and five siblings in the rapidly developing Santa Clara Valley of California, watching social change and cultural transformation happening all around us. At the age of 16 I developed a plan for my life; some might call it a dream. In the 55 years since then, I've far surpassed the goals I set for myself. With hard work and a lot of support from others, I earned undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Stanford University, served on the faculty of Cornell University, and held an endowed chair at the University of California, Berkeley. My life has been, and continues to be, a rich and rewarding journey. The stories I tell here are the most interesting twists and turns on my journey, and they offer glimpses into the lives of many fascinating people, including some famous athletes, an Emmy awardee, a Hawaiian Queen, an excommunicated priest, a U. S. Senator, two Nobel Prize winners, and a group of amazing VISTA volunteers who set out to make the world a better place, and did. I also tell the stories of how I became a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War and how I surprisingly became a Talking Chief for a Samoan clan. Hollywood writers couldn't make this stuff up.

The cornerstones on which I am building my life are family, friendships, work, and professional and community service. I've found that the contributions I've made and the relationships I've established in each of these areas are enabling me to live what the ancient Greeks called a fulfilled life, one filled with happiness and meaning. In the book's final chapter, I summarize the nine life lessons I've learned thus far on my journey to achieve a fulfilled life. I know I am not completely there yet, but I'm off to a good start.

Thomas Rundall