Loading...

Media is loading
 

Oral History with Pat Brisette

Download Pat Brisette Transcript (266 KB)

Interview Date

7-22-2025

Interviewer

Amelia Clark; Melinda Marchand

Description

Oral history interview with Pat Brisette. Pat Brissette was born in Cooperstown, New York, and spent her early years in Buffalo, New York. She spent the rest of her childhood in the small town of Stanford, New York. Her early education began in a small schoolhouse and sparked her lifelong interest in science. Most of her family members received a college education or an equivalent, so Pat applied to colleges, including Clark University, at the suggestion of her school staff. After interviewing with Tom Dolan, and enjoying the small, accessible feel of Clark’s campus, she decided to attend Clark. Pat planned to major in chemistry, and in her interview shares her unconventional academic journey into mathematics and its influence on her eventual career in computer programming. She discusses her love of dormitory life, and her experiences working at the dorm’s telephone switchboard during her time as a student. Her interview highlights the changing social life at Clark in the mid-1960’s, underground women’s sports, illicit drug use, and campus-wide activism, especially through student reactions to the Vietnam War. Pat’s interview reminds Clarkies of the important balance between work, school, and having fun, and that life beyond Clark is rich and varied.

The Women of Clark oral history interviews follow the Worcester Women's Oral History Project rules. This means interviews are only edited to remove "ums" and "ahs". There have been no other edits made.

The transcript for this oral history is available as a supplemental file for this work.  

Type

audio; text

Genre

oral history; interview transcript

Format

mp3; pdf

Language

English

Location

Worcester, MA

Duration

01:49:03

Keywords

Worcester, Clark University, oral histories, women, women's history

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS