Selected text
Then there was the Geology Institute. I was in the first graduating class that also had girls. There were three of us. We studied well, of course. One of our professors was Ion Athanasiu. He looked at us as if we were little more than bugs! He was interested in the boys. When I entered college, exams were not on fixed dates. We could go to classes for years without passing one single exam; or we could pass as many as we felt like, whenever we felt like. When I got to the 3rd year, an order came to block the exams. If you hadn’t succeeded at 75% of the exams, you had to repeat the 1st or 2nd year. Thus, out of the 300 students admitted in the 1st year, only 9 reached the 4th year. So I finished college. What were they to do with us now? The boys were immediately assigned based on the professor’s recommendation. There was no committee in charge with this. Those who had studied well and had earned the professor’s trust were sent to the Geology Institute. As for us, the girls, he told every one of us: ‘What am I supposed to do with you, Miss? How will you go on the field?’ And we looked like three frightened chickens.
He sent one of the girls, Bebe Carnaru – may God rest her soul – to the Micropaleontology Department. There was only laboratory work to do, not field trips. As I was more energetic, he told me: ‘Go to Professor Macovei.’ He was the dean of the Romanian geologists and a member of the Academy. He could go to Gheorghiu-Dej [12] unannounced, and Gheorghiu-Dej stood up when he entered his office. This is the kind of prestige this man enjoyed! He wrote the first treatise on the geology of the oil deposits, published in France: ‘Les gisements de petrole (geologie, statisticque, economie)’ [‘The oil deposits (geology, statistics, economics)’]. He was a great professor of an extreme severeness – all the students dreaded him! ‘Go to Mr. Macovei and tell him I sent you.’ So I went. The others were amazed: ‘Who do you think you are to go to Macovei?’ I was already married. But I called Professor Macovei and told him Mrs. Mira Tudor would come to ask him whether he could find her some position, wherever he wanted, doing whatever he wanted; I told him I had been a good student and all. I knocked on his door; they didn’t have secretaries back then, so he answered himself: ‘Enter.’ He was short, but had a very strong torso. When he sat, he looked like a colossus. I stopped between the door jambs and didn’t make another step into the room. ‘Good afternoon, Professor.’ He looked at me. ‘What do you want?’ – ‘I am Mira Tudor. Professor Athanasiu told me to come to you.’ – ‘What? You’re Mrs. Mira Tudor? What, you’re married?’ – ‘Yes, Professor.’ – ‘And how old are you?’ – ‘Well, I’m 22; I finished college. I studied for four years.’ Then I thought he found me unappealing – I wasn’t too noticeable, I wasn’t pretty, and I hadn’t dressed up or anything. ‘What am I to do with you? I feel sorry for Jenica, who recommended you. What to do?’ He took the phone and talked to a professor, Pauca; he taught paleontology at the Institute of Geology and Mining Technology, and he also had a part-time job as the chief-geologist of the ‘Grigore Antipa’ Museum – this was possible back then. ‘Listen, Pauca, I’m sending you Mrs. Mira Tudor – but his voice showed that he was making fun of me – to work with you.’ The man asked him where. Macovei said ‘Put her at the collection, at Antipa.’
Mr. Pauca put a duster in my hand, and this is how I became a tutor, starting my career in higher education. I wiped the dust off those rocks for a long time. The geology section is in the basement; it’s very nice and very neatly organized. Eventually, Mr. Macovei remembered me: ‘How’s that girl?’ Pauca said: ‘Dusting the collection.’ – ‘Take her with you at the practical classes. Have her carry the trays,’ – the practical classes used samples of rocks – ‘maybe she got to know the rocks during all this time. Tell her to make you a collection for the Triassic, to see how she handles it.’ I was horrified the first time I entered the auditorium carrying the tray behind the professor. But he began to see that I was serious, that I worked well, I was interested and I liked it, so the next fall, after several geologists had refused to go to the Soviet Union for further specialization, I was the one who said yes. The offer had been turned down by two people before it reached me. I wasn’t sent to the USSR because I was a Party member. Those who had refused, Dragos Vasile and Ionel Motas, weren’t Party members.
He sent one of the girls, Bebe Carnaru – may God rest her soul – to the Micropaleontology Department. There was only laboratory work to do, not field trips. As I was more energetic, he told me: ‘Go to Professor Macovei.’ He was the dean of the Romanian geologists and a member of the Academy. He could go to Gheorghiu-Dej [12] unannounced, and Gheorghiu-Dej stood up when he entered his office. This is the kind of prestige this man enjoyed! He wrote the first treatise on the geology of the oil deposits, published in France: ‘Les gisements de petrole (geologie, statisticque, economie)’ [‘The oil deposits (geology, statistics, economics)’]. He was a great professor of an extreme severeness – all the students dreaded him! ‘Go to Mr. Macovei and tell him I sent you.’ So I went. The others were amazed: ‘Who do you think you are to go to Macovei?’ I was already married. But I called Professor Macovei and told him Mrs. Mira Tudor would come to ask him whether he could find her some position, wherever he wanted, doing whatever he wanted; I told him I had been a good student and all. I knocked on his door; they didn’t have secretaries back then, so he answered himself: ‘Enter.’ He was short, but had a very strong torso. When he sat, he looked like a colossus. I stopped between the door jambs and didn’t make another step into the room. ‘Good afternoon, Professor.’ He looked at me. ‘What do you want?’ – ‘I am Mira Tudor. Professor Athanasiu told me to come to you.’ – ‘What? You’re Mrs. Mira Tudor? What, you’re married?’ – ‘Yes, Professor.’ – ‘And how old are you?’ – ‘Well, I’m 22; I finished college. I studied for four years.’ Then I thought he found me unappealing – I wasn’t too noticeable, I wasn’t pretty, and I hadn’t dressed up or anything. ‘What am I to do with you? I feel sorry for Jenica, who recommended you. What to do?’ He took the phone and talked to a professor, Pauca; he taught paleontology at the Institute of Geology and Mining Technology, and he also had a part-time job as the chief-geologist of the ‘Grigore Antipa’ Museum – this was possible back then. ‘Listen, Pauca, I’m sending you Mrs. Mira Tudor – but his voice showed that he was making fun of me – to work with you.’ The man asked him where. Macovei said ‘Put her at the collection, at Antipa.’
Mr. Pauca put a duster in my hand, and this is how I became a tutor, starting my career in higher education. I wiped the dust off those rocks for a long time. The geology section is in the basement; it’s very nice and very neatly organized. Eventually, Mr. Macovei remembered me: ‘How’s that girl?’ Pauca said: ‘Dusting the collection.’ – ‘Take her with you at the practical classes. Have her carry the trays,’ – the practical classes used samples of rocks – ‘maybe she got to know the rocks during all this time. Tell her to make you a collection for the Triassic, to see how she handles it.’ I was horrified the first time I entered the auditorium carrying the tray behind the professor. But he began to see that I was serious, that I worked well, I was interested and I liked it, so the next fall, after several geologists had refused to go to the Soviet Union for further specialization, I was the one who said yes. The offer had been turned down by two people before it reached me. I wasn’t sent to the USSR because I was a Party member. Those who had refused, Dragos Vasile and Ionel Motas, weren’t Party members.
Period
Location
Bucharest
Romania
Interview
Mira Tudor