Re: Books that you’d suggest about the history and flavor of San Francisco

07/27/07 - posted by Frank Dunnigan

When I was at USF in the early 1970s, Father McGloin was 58--just a few years older than I am now (that's a sobering thought). Out of deference to his "advanced" age, the Administration wanted him to avoid the stairs that were present in all of the classroom buildings, and so, he was scheduled to conduct all of his classes from a ground floor lecture hall in the then-new nursing building--"a sterile bomb shelter," he once called it. He never looked quite comfortable in that new locale, away from the plaster walls, radiators, ancient pendant light fixtures, and wood-frame windows of old Campion Hall, circa 1928. The new setting was window-less, had theater-style seating, polyurethane adjustable walls, and more than a dozen switches to control lighting and temperature, none of which ever seemed to work correctly. He taught from this new location for only a short time, opting for a well-deserved retirement a few years later. Does anyone know if USF is still offering SF History Part I (Founding to 1906) and Part II (1906-Present)?