Strange Things You May Not Know About Me

First in a series....

When I was in college I had a part time job working as a typist. You may be thinking big deal, we all had part time jobs working our way through college. I was a typist for the late A. Leon Higginbotham, federal court judge and civil rights leader. I worked for him during the summer of 1987 during the school year as well. As a typist, I helped type up a book he was working on called "Shades of Freedom", finally published in 1996, as well various articles he was working on.

During the time I was working for him he was both a judge and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. I worked for him both at his office in McNeil Building on campus as well as at the Federal Court House in downtown Philadelphia, where his chambers were on the 23rd floor of the court building.

The time I remember most vividly was when I was working with Dr. Higginbotham on a Saturday morning. Typically sessions like these he would dictate and I would type while he dictated. During this time, he had provided me a stack of yellow pad paper with handwritten notes, also not an uncommon practice. He left me alone in his chambers that particular Saturday morning while I typed and he left to do other errands.

Somewhere between 10 am and 11 am that morning, the fire alarm went off. I knew the procedure. No using elevators, walk down 23 flights of stairs. 15 to 20 minutes later, I was in the lobby talking to one of the security guards who told me it was only a test of the system. I had to get someone to let me back up and when Dr. Higginbotham returned, he apologized profusely for forgetting to let me know about the test that day.

This job was not an easy job for me to get. I saw the ad published in the Daily Pennsylvanian and applied for the job. Dr. Higginbotham's aide took my application and thanked me for it, but I never got a call back. Instead I called the office back each day asking about the position. I'd get questions like "Are you really sure you want this job?", "Do you realize who you'd be working for?", and similar queries. My persistence paid off and I was hired. As it turns out I was unique in a number of ways. I was the only Asian to work for the judge at the University, and one of the few men. I enjoyed working with the judge immensely and there are other fun stories of that time when I worked for Dr. Higginbotham.