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Frank StantonFrank Stanton
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we knew each other and suffered our problems together. She had very little use for the wives because they couldn't cook. Whenever we had a picnic, somebody would go to the store and get something and bring it, and she would bake a great big casserole or something. They all enjoyed it but nobody else--So she was not very tolerant--Well, I say “tolerant.” She was a very tolerant person, but when I got involved in the Center for Advanced Study, in the planning stages, I should have had my head examined. Because I did it selfishly, I'm sure, because I was interested in it. It was something I had a hand in conceiving, and it didn't include her, on two scores. First, she didn't have that much sympathy with some of the people who were involved, with hardly anyone who was in the first class of fellows. And I think she thought I was in love with the woman, the architect who did some of the work on the Center.

Q:

What was her name?

Stanton:

Florence Knoll. I did like her. I spent a lot of time with her on that project. She did the offices at CBS, and I guess she's the only female at that period in my life I ever spent ten minutes with, because I was so busy. I think that troubled Ruth. So the Center represented professionals for whom she had very little--Respect is not the right word, but I guess it's as close as anything I can say. It wasn't that she didn't have respect for their intellectual pursuits, but she never thought they were very rounded, sensible people. There was one statistician and his wife who used to take their infant--and I mean very small child-- and put him in a dresser drawer and go out for the evening. Ruth just couldn't tolerate their company because while they were having fun, the baby could have been in deep trouble. They put this little child in a dresser drawer, closed the drawer, and came away.





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