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American jobs in Aramco. I was still the youngest General Superinten-
dent in the company and my department had been converted from being
the worst industrial relations department into being the best. My future
within the company looked very bright indeed. However, it is only when
you are put to the test that you reveal what your true values are. Jean
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always earn a living somewhere but the welfare of our children was our
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Manager at the time and a good friend, that we intended to leave the
company by September 1959. Anyone in a position of authority loses
strength as a leader when people recognize that he or she is leaving. Ac-
cordingly, it was agreed that this matter would be kept a secret among
Doug Ezzell, Jean and me. We also did something that might be con-
sidered rather daring. We told Janet and Richard of our plans but swore
them to secrecy. To their great credit, they kept the secret.

Janet graduated from the ninth grade in our Aramco school sys-
tem in July 1958. Thereafter, students had to be sent abroad to continue
their education. Most such children went to the American Community
School, which adjoined the American University in Beirut, Lebanon.
Civil strife had begun some months before in Lebanon and personal
security became questionable. We read brochures about many European
schools and decided to send Janet to the American School in Switzer-
land in Lugano.

We were proud of Janet for her good academic work in school.
She had been the salutatorian in her graduating class in Ras Tanura. She
had always been a levelheaded kid who used good judgment. In Sep-
tember we, with some trepidation, put her on the plane in Dhahran from
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station, bought herself a ticket to Lugano, took a taxi from the railroad
station to the school, and arrived at night. She handled the whole trip
superbly, all by herself as a 15-year-old, and we were proud of her.
Richard began the seventh grade that fall by playing on the foot-
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ketball and in spring, he played on the baseball team. He loved all the

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