Gloria Feigenbaum to Marc Nerlove

Gloria Feigenbaum to Marc Nerlove

economics

Zachary Tumlin

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Gloria Feigenbaum to Marc Nerlove, 1973, box 1, folder Feigenbaum, Gloria, 1972-1973.

Duke University

2022

Gloria Feigenbaum

JPEG

English

1973

Marc, I am going to say something to you very gently, and I am being truthful and honest. When you go to Northwestern, you will probably be provided with a whiz of a mathematical typist; if she is a secretary in the true sense as well, that will be even greater. But one of your greatest problems with a secretary (and one I have chosen not to make more of an issue about) is that you take it for granted that you know more about secretarial skills and postage, in particular, than anyone else, and you become so preoccupied with the things that should be normally someone's province, that you sometimes lose sight of what your true function should be.

This business with your having not written on the papers could have been avoided if you, all this time, had left such matters up to my judgement, and I would have reminded you that this is the nice thing to do. But you, in your exactness that has become so much a part of you that you can't stop it, have taken the path of secretarial initiative and tend to make a robot of the persons who work for you. You really don't need someone like me who can think for a man's needs as I have in the past. You need only a stenographer, who takes dictation, types your papers well, and follows your precise directions.

I have known for some time that you really didn't need anyone like me, and many, many times when I could have said something to you about discussing things with Carolyn (assuming that I wouldn't understand such things and didn't have the desire to learn) I have chosen not to, because I have weighed the other good qualities I have seen, and felt that if you needed to assume my secretarial duties, you just go right ahead and do it.

I decided many moons ago that a good relationship with you was worth more than an argument over my use of postage, or your bypassing me constantly. Initiative is something I have always been able to exercise until I met you, but if you had allowed it, this would not have happened. I am truly sorry--but the papers have been mailed.

I hope that you have a central mail room at Northwestern so that you won't worry about sealing, or whatever, and that you can concentrate on the important thing in your life--your research.

With affection, Gloria

G--You're very sweet to tell me all this. Please leave it in my inbox so I can save it.

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