Sue, I have made some changes in red/bold highlights.
By the way, Dan received an A and 3 B's last semester. He is living with Sandy; there may be a correlation between his grades and his living conditions.
From: susan sampson <susanraesampson@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2022 5:50 PM
To: David Sampson <davidsampsonatbearcreek@msn.com>
Subject: family stories
You have to fill in the blanks on this one, and make a lot of corrections, and yes, you can veto putting it on the family website, but before you do that, let me explain that your stories are interesting, and most family stories are not. In particular, as much as I enjoy reading memoirs, I lose patience with people who have nothing to say. The prime example is a memoir that was highly touted in years past, called “Mennonite in a Little Black Dress.” The author was brought up in a Mennonite community but went off to college and became a professor and got divorced and sophisticated. About to start her sabbatical, she got in a car wreck and had to go “home” to recover. There she found a down-to-earth dude like a truck driver to marry. Duh. Wouldn’t you rather read about somebody who got clocked on the head with a whiskey bottle? YES!!
Anyway, according to my recollection and half-lost notes,
When his grandson Danny told David that he was moving back in with his maternal grandmother Sandy Hutton and Sandy’s husband Ray, David was pleased. David recalled that his first stint at Oregon State University ended less than ideally, like he was kicked out for drinking beer (Plus assault and battery). He got drafted, but that was 1962, and the Viet Nam war had not totally heated up. He was assigned to a commissary in San Francisco, he worked full time in a couple of bars. By the time he was discharged and returned to OSU to work on an education, he’d met Sandy, and she was no-nonsense. They studied. David graduated with high enough a GPA to be admitted to grad school at Georgetown Title IV NDEA Graduate Fellowship , and he finished his first year there with the highest GPA of any graduate student. He credits Sandy with much of his success. End of story 1.
When David was teaching college at Canesius college at Buffalo, New York, he and a couple of cohorts aspired to go into business for themselves. He planned to handle marketing and Research, Mr. Hartenstein would be their computer geek; and Dave Concannon would be their PR man. Concannon was a reporter for the Buffalo Evening news, a home-town football player for the Buffalo Bills who had never gotten to play a game, a nominee for the Pulitzer Prize, Jack Kemp's Campaign Manager and Press Secretary. They needed about $30,000 to launch. When they met with their banker, the man said that he knew Mr. Hartenstein and Mr. Concannon, but didn’t know Mr. Sampson and was concerned about his character. David was flabberghasted, but then the banker began to laugh. The character issue had to do with my dating/affair with a woman 20 years older than I was. They got their loan.
Hartenstein was first to bail out, then Concannon (David had been supporting both of them), so the business folded and David picked up the tab for the $30,000 that was owing. It took him two years to pay it off.
Concannon disappeared into Mexico, then some years later, reappeared in San Francsco. Along the way, he’d picked up the Mexican nickname, “El Diablo Loco Roja,” the crazy red-headed devil. David got notice from the federal bankruptcy court in San Francisco that Concannon was seeking to discharge his debt to David. David was furious and gave the guy a piece of his mind. Never had David ever pursued collection of a share of the $30K, but was indignant that his former partner would seek a court order that he didn’t have to pay. Further, I lent him $1500 cash so he could make his sojurn to Southern California and then into Mexico!
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