(JT:  Jim Tagg, Interviewer)

JT:  In '67 you come here, first of all, you have to be chair of the department (Philosophy), but you also had to follow Owen Holmes' dictum that you get involved, and …

PB:  Well, the thing is, and I didn't know it, I'd never had any experience in anything of the kind at all, but if I was made for anything, I was made for that situation.  I jumped in with all four feet, and I didn't have to be urged.  First thing, I was twice the faculty member elected to the Senate.  I was two terms as chairman.  I was two separate terms as the president of the Faculty Association.  I was two separate terms, plus a little more, as Associate Dean.  I was just born for these quasi, half-baked, administrative kind of things.  It turned out that it suited me.  I didn't want it, I didn't want anything.  I just floated on the sea.

JT:  Well, if flair and verve were the strengths of Sam Smith, what do you think you brought to those?

PB:  As I say, there's no training or certification.  In some of them, I have to say that in some of them, I was just good at it, it turned out.  At least that's my view.  I was on every damn committee and ad hoc committee, and I just loved it.  I loved it, and I thought I was good at it, if I'd thought about it at all.  And that was my full service to the University.  I didn't realize it until a couple of years ago, no that's wrong ... but I was never cut out to be a scholar.  I wasn't an academic in the scholarly sense at all.  I had a certain success as a teacher, but I was never any scholar, which was a sore point with my department, that I didn't add to their business or luster at all.  On the other hand, I certainly served the University long and well, and they recognized it.  They kept promoting me and giving me increments.