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Chapter 17: ARAMCO - (Arabian American Oil Company)
I had obtained a relatively high position in the Department of
the Army. Civil Service positions paid well at the lower levels, but dis-
tinctly less than private industry in the higher levels. My boss had 10 or
15 years to go before he would retire. I felt trapped.
Frank Murphy had worked for Ninth Service Command Head-
quarters some years before and was now Assistant Personnel Manager
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job evaluation function. Murphy telephoned to ask about the availability
of people with that experience. In late July 1948, I had taken a weeks
vacation and was painting our house in Berkeley. The invitation to inter-
view with Aramco resulted in several successive interviews, each with
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by a call to go to San Francisco. This necessitated carefully cleaning
the paint from all my body parts and taking the bus or Key Train to San
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which is the original Standard Oil Company of California building. I
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$485 per month. This was about $30 a month less than I was making in
the Department of the Army. There were two aspects we had to consider.
One was that we would have less money, not exactly a thrilling prospect
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as much for a non-supervisory job in the oil business, and if I could
progress there, my salary would become substantially higher.
Jean and I discussed the alternatives carefully. As always, she
was highly supportive. To meet the economic squeeze we sold our car.
For the next nine months, we walked or took public transportation. I
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vice and together with Jeans $1,000 from the sale of her one-eighth in-
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As I recall, we were paying about $60 a month on the mortgage. We
didnt tell anyone outside of the family, but at age 27, we owned our
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