Was that one of the reasons that you were appointed superintendent at Crater Lake, because you had had a history of getting plans that would be effective in place?
If I had to say why was I given the job at Crater Lake, I would say that I probably got the job for two reasons. I think the more important one was that I had a history of cleaning up really bad messes and getting them straightened out. I had done that in a series of jobs. They were pretty awful places, getting them straightened out and getting them running right. And then the one that you mentioned.
Did you expect to stay at Crater Lake as long as you did when you first took the job?
No, I didn’t. I probably stayed there about two or three years too long.
Did you look at what you set out to do in something like a curve, where you peak at a certain point and then it levels?
I think there is that. There is no doubt that you lose an edge. There is no doubt about it. You only can tilt at a wind mill so many times when you no longer are enthralled by tilting a wind mill. It also probably requires another set of eyes, looking at it from a different direction that may accomplish the same thing but from an angle that you never ever, ever would have considered.
I think I was probably two, maybe three years, too long at Crater Lake. Crater Lake had to be one of those type of areas. Other areas that I had been in, you could see that those things that really needed to be accomplished were going to be accomplished within a do-able length of time. Crater Lake was simply so big, so immense in the number of problems that had to be addressed that there was absolutely no way that any one superintendent was ever going to be there long enough to get it all done (9).
