Identifier,913031
Interviewee,Kerstin E. Trawick
Date,3/21/14
Interviewer,"John Horan, II"
Abstract,"Kerstin E. Trawick born in Texas ended up moving to Cleveland after her husband got a job at Cleveland State University. She came to Cleveland by way of New York City, where she has fond memories especially of the arts and culture there. She explains how she was focused on her children when they first moved here, but decided to rejoin the workforce after her kids got older. After working at Case Western Reserve for several years as the assistant to the secretary, She got a position with the law school in External Affairs. Eventually, she became the assistant editor to the Journal of Legal Education, a position she had until she retired in 2007. Her fondness of sports, arts, and culture are evident in this interview. Music has especially made a mark on Trawick, but she enjoyed the opera and ballet as well."
Tags,"Texas, Harvard, Cleveland State, Cleveland Heights, economics, academia, Cleveland Heights High School, Edgehill Road, desegregation, New York City, Russo's Grocery, Cedar-Fairmount, Coventry Road, Zagara's Market, Case Western Reserve University, law school, Journal of Legal Education, editing, alumni relations, African American, Shaker Heights, municipal stadium, baseball, Cleveland Opera, Cleveland Orchestra, culture, Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM)"
Special Notes,
0,"Introductions, Birthdate: March 6, 1939; She was born in Texas, went to college in Texas, graduate school in Harvard where she met her husband, moved to NYC because that's where her husband got his first job, then the second job was at Cleveland State and that's how she ended up in Cleveland"
1,"Studied English at Harvard in order to be a college teacher; She got her masters and did all of the coursework for a phd, but never wrote a dissertation. Called it the typical female 1950s story; She did teach part time at Barnard College and the City College of New York; She didn't like teaching and she had a kid"
2,These reasons but also the bottom fell out of the academic market; She hated leaving manhattan but realized that Cleveland Heights would be much better to raise children; Says that her husband had a friend in Cleveland Heights who told them about a short term housing opportunity
3,"There was someone in the neighborhood that was going away for the summer and needed someone to stay with their teenage daughter; This meant that they had a place to base themselves and look for a place to buy, which kept them in Cleveland Heights happened in 1969 when she was 30"
4,"She recalls that while she had small children all of her energy was focused on the kids, doesn't mean she wasn't paying attention but she just couldn't focus on any issues of the outside world"
5,"Lived on Edgehill Road, nice street with many families with children; Summertime scene was children playing all around; did not do many organized things - only ice skating and music lessons; once they were in school she became involved with the PTA"
6,"The kids went to Coventry Elementary, Roxboro Jr. High, then Heights High; Both her and her husband thought it was strange because they moved around a lot; They fully expected to move to because that is what academics did"
7,"Her husband taught english and liked his job and there were fewer job opportunites, which is why they did not leave Cleveland; Racial equality concerned them in the schools"
8,"She says that in those days, the schools were a majority white but that the schools began grouping kids according to ability, her kids were in the highest groups, but it bothered her that there were very few of the black classmates in those upper groups; Doesn't remember trouble or hostilites"
9,Her friends had African American friends; there was no pressure to change the teired program; she recalls that white parents were more involved with the school than Black parents which bothered her; She speculates why that was
10,"She continues to wonder why there weren't as many Black parents at the schools, she tihnks that it could be because white parents could afford to have one parent stay home; Lived on Edgehill for 40-plus years before they moved to Judson"
11,"It was an upper-middle class neighborhood that she liked very much; all young professionals, and describes the professions of the neighbors; She says when she first moved in there was one African American family, by the time they moved out there were a few more but it remained majority white; Says that because the street was wide and busy, they did not have any block parties"
12,"Although they never had any formal parties, people dropped in all of the time; Closer to Coventry, it was easy to walk to; Coventry felt close to Greenwich Village "
13,"Describes Coventry, says it was a mix of older operations and other shops, and now it has become more of an entertainment district; She never went into the Poultry Market; She bought all of her groceries at Russo's on Cedar-Fairmount"
14,"Describes Russo's welcome to her when they first moved in, they gave them two coupons for something like $50 worth of groceries, which brought her to Russo's and she never changed, not until the Russo family moved out in the late 90s; a Giant Eagle took over and now it is Dave's"
15,Now she shops mainly at Zagaras because it is similar to Russo's; describes a drugstore at Cedar Fairmount - Merritt Drug; nighttown was a place that they sometimes went; Their bank was there it was where the bagel shop that is there now
16,"The Mad Greek moved in as well, but that used to be on Coventry Road; She went to the Coventry Street Fair, but she doesn't remember it much; Children were fond of Tommy's and they still meet their friends there"
17,Describes how long she spent at home with her kids; it wasn't until her youngest son went to fulltime school that she thought about moving back into the workforce
18,"She says that the reason she moved back into the workforce is because she realized that they were entirely dependant on her husband for financial support; she thought she would give the family a little insurance; She got a job at Case Western Reserve, which was ideal because it was close to her house and there was the possibility of sending her kids to school there; Describes how she got the job - assistant to the secretary of the university"
19,"The job was a 2/3rds time job, which worked out because her kids would leave and come home at the same time as her; it changed into a 3/4time job but it would never become a fulltime job and it was during this point in the mid-80s that she wanted a job that was fulltime with possibilities for growth"
20,This is when she got the job with Case Law with the title of Director of External Affairs; It was easy enough to enter the workforce getting in because the job was parttime; helped that it was in academia where she had spent a lot of her life
21,"Her job at the Law school and how she got it, the new dean of the school did not have much respect for the old regime, especially the director of Alumni Affairs and he wanted to get someone above that person so he created the office of external affairs and picked Kerstin to head it"
22,The director of Alumni Affairs did not like the arangement and after a brief time they left for another job; Eventually after she did more publication work she became Director of Publications and External Affairs; The school then took over the Journal of Legal Education temporarily and she became associate editor of that and she gave up the Alumni Affairs portion of her job (but not the publications side)
23,"It had to do with her schooling as an English major, so editing and writing were very comfortable for her; it was also good because she was getting tired of working with alumni relations; Her position as director of external affairs was not very high up and it was not uncommon for a woman to staff the position, she says that the work used to be done by the dean's secretary, who was almost exclusively a woman"
24,"But now things have changed, but back in the seventies most of the staff was female; Her responsibilities included putting out a magazine for alumni, which took up the publications part of her job, it was a quarterly magazine"
25,"It was at one point 48 pages, and she calls herself chief editor, but she was a staff of one; Her favorite part of the magazine was the ""Focus On"" section -  when she arrived it was only focused on cleveland alumni, but they were also undergoing a shift towards trying to make the school more national"
26,"In fact, she says that they did have a lot of alumni elsewhere, she persuaded the dean to allow her to travel and interview notable alumni around the country and then do a write-up on them; They ran out of cities and thought about what else to do - they came up with an idea to do a write-up on African Americans"
27,"She says that an interesting thing she found out that a majority of the African American Alumni at the time were from a specific place in Alabama; Gives the reason why they came to Case Western, lists a few people: Fred Gray and CB King and gives their bios"
28,She says that this procession from Alabama to Case Western was an interesting part of the civil writes movement
29,"She had grown up in the segregated south, but she says fortunately her family abhorred segregation; because of her family she always had a sympathy for African Americans who had to live under those conditions; "
30,"The ""focus on"" section began a few years after she first got there in 1982 and the African American project happened in the late 80s; begins to describe her jobs as associate editor of the Journal"
31,"She says that she did the heavy lifting, she commented on which manuscripts she thought should make it in, but since she did not have any legal training, her voice was not heavily influenial; after they accepted a manuscript her role became bigger; She worked with the author with edits and rewrites; She says that many teachers in law schools are not good writers and do not take criticism well"
32,"Most of the writers, however, were happy if she could improve her work; She discovered that those higher up in the university were more accepting of her criticism; She had fun because it was a form of english teaching that was not in a classroom"
33,"The journal was published by the Association of American Law schoools, and it usually moves every five years to get a different set of editors; it stayed longer (something like 7 years) at CWRU then it was going to go to Vanderbilt, she had edited something the dean of Vanderbilt had written and offered to stay on as associate editor - the dean accepted; she was 60 at this point and she became a freelance editor out of her home for 5 more years"
34,"This position was excellent for her because she could do it from her house in her pajamas if she wanted; The journal then moved to Georgetown and she stayed on for a couple more years, but because Georgetown was much bigger and had a large staff they did not need her and she retired"
35,"She retired from CWRU in 1999, she was with Vanderbilt until 2005, and she completely retired from Georgetown in 2007; She goes back and says that at least 90% of the authors she worked with allowed her to help them because more people can help improve people's writing"
36,Describes a specific story about a faculty member of CSU who did not want his work touched at all; another woman who taught at one of the law schools in Callifornia went over her head to one of the faculity editors
37,
38,"When she went back to work, she did not get that involved in social events; She says that she never became a joiner or a club person; Instead she enjoyed entertaining, casually"
39,In 1969 when she moved there was a consciousness for how the way things were changing- mentions shaker heights and how it was nationally known
40,"She says that Shaker Heights planned neighborhoods so that neighborhoods wouldn't turn rapidly or too completely; They wanted mixed neighborhoods; Also, in the years before they came there were instances of blockbusting; also describes the rule against having for sale sign"
41,She just doesnŐt remember being conscious of any sort of racial tensions in the real estate market by the time they got to Cleveland Heights;
42,Says her own involvement was in the east suburbs; She did deal with Cleveland lawyers however; She went downtown for business and they went to playhouse square
43,"Before they would go to playhouse square, she never felt a strong relationship to the city of Cleveland; Although, they did go to municipal stadium and they had a great time going to baseball games"
44,Great childhood memories of going to the Class B baseball games in Austin Texas with her father who taught her how to score baseball games; Once they came to Cleveland she took her parents and her kids to Indians' games
45,She remembers that municipal stadium was an enormous place that was usually empty; recalls a story of her son watching the game down by the dugout because there wasn't very many people there and there were many empty seats
46,"She was sad about leaving New York, but the music scene in Cleveland made up for it; They subscribed to the Cleveland Orchestra almost immediately after they got here, and they went from sharing a half series to having it to themselves"
47,They decided that their daughter needed music lessons at the Cleveland Institute of Music - which became central to their lives; CIM decided that little children needed one full year of music theory before they learned how to play - opposite of the Suzuki method; it meant that the kids looked at the piece of music and knew what it should sound like before they begin playing
48,"Both of her kids took music, and her daughter is a teacher of music theory at Ball State; Son is a physicist, but is a good amateur pianst and plays the cello - he was in the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra the first year they did that; "
49,"Says that throughout her and her husband had a half series at the Orchestra, then when her parents moved to town they also got a half series with seats next to Kerstin's, and then they got 2 more for the children; but they got rid of four of them and still have two"
50,"She loves going to hear faculty recitals at CIM, also fans of the Cleveland Opera; Went twice to the Metropolitan Opera when it was on tour"
51,Says that the Metropolitan Opera came to Public Hall which was an awful place to hear the Opera; She described how the elite spent a lot of money to get the Met to come to Cleveland - and they set up fake boxes to create an illusion of separation
52,Thinks that it was too bad that they spent all this money to get the Met to come to Cleveland when they could have developed a Cleveland Opera; CIM had an opera series that occurred during the summers which included a picnic
53,The CIM program merged with the Cleveland Opera and the picnic idea went away; She didn't like the advertising for the Opera because it was condescending
54,"She says that they saw very fine productions put on by the Opera, and she cites the reasons while the Opera folded about 10 years ago"
55,Now what she does is go to the movie theater broadcasts of the Met Opera - she thinks they are a wonderful advance in culture; She doesn't thnk that the Met Opera theater productions did not have anything to do with the collapse of the Cleveland Opera even though they overlapped
56,"Went to the Cleveland Ballet, but not frequently; They did when they lived in New York City; relates the New York City Opera collapse story"
57,Continues to give a background of the New York City Opera; she says she is more comfortable with opera and music as opposed to dance
58,"There were years when they subscribed to the Cleveland Playhouse because so often both the Cleveland Playhouse and Playhouse Square does ""warmed over"" broadway that didn't interest them; but they did subscribe to the Great Lakes Theater Company; They have subscribed to Dobama in Cleveland Heights; Thanks; END OF INTERVIEW"