Bachiller

Autobiography
I was born in New York City on a cold January night when the water pipes in our apartment froze and burst. Fortunately, my mother was in the hospital rather than at home at the time. My father emigrated from Lithuania to the United States at the age of 12. He received his higher education in New York City and graduated in 1914 from the New York University School of Dentistry. Mymother came at the age of 14 from a part of Russia which, after the war, became Poland; she was only 19 when she was married to my father. My first seven years were spent in a large apartment in Manhattan where my father had his dental office, with our living quarters adjoining it.

My brother was born about six years after I was, and shortly thereafter we moved to the Bronx, which was thenconsidered a suburb of New York City. There were still many open lots where children could play and large parks, including the Bronx Zoo, to which I was very much devoted. My brother and I had a happy childhood. We went to a public school within walking distance of our house. Our classrooms were generally quite crowded, but we received a good basic education.

I was a child with an insatiable thirstfor knowledge and remember enjoying all of my courses almost equally. When it came time at the end of my high school career to choose a major in which to specialize I was in a quandary. One of the deciding factors may have been that my grandfather, whom I loved dearly, died of cancer when I was 15. I was highly motivated to do something that might eventually lead to a cure for this terribledisease. When I entered Hunter College in 1933, I decided to major in science and, in particular, chemistry.

By this time my father was not financially well-off since he, like many others, had invested heavily in the stock market, and in the crash of 1929 had gone into bankruptcy. Fortunately, he still had his profession and his loyal patients. Had it not been that Hunter College was a free college,and that my grades were good enough for me to enter it, I suspect I might never have received a higher education. My brother also was able to take advantage of a free higher education, going to the College of the City of New York where he studied physics and engineering.

I remember my school days as being very challenging and full of good comradery among the students. It was an all-girls schooland I think many of our teachers were uncertain whether most of us would really go on with our careers. As a matter of fact, many of the girls went on to become teachers and some went into scientific research. Because of the depression, it was not possible for me to go on to graduate school, although I did apply to a number of universities with the hope of getting an assistantship or fellowship.Jobs were scarce and the few positions that existed in laboratories were not available to women. I did get a three-month job teaching biochemistry to nurses in the New York Hospital School of Nursing. Unfortunately, because of the trimester system, the same job would not have been available again for nine months. By chance, I met a chemist who was looking for a laboratory assistant. Although hewas unable to pay me any salary at that time, I decided that the experience would be worthwhile. I stayed there for a year and a half and was finally making the magnificient sum of $20 a week. By then I had saved some money and, with help from my parents, entered graduate school at New York University in the fall of 1939. I was the only female in my graduate chemistry class but no one seemed tomind, and I did not consider it at all strange.

After a year of graduate studies I had finished all the required courses but now needed to do the research work for my Master's degree. During this period, I took a job as a teacher-in-training and then as a substitute teacher in the New York City secondary schools, teaching chemistry, physics and general science for two years. In the meantime, I...