In the middle of the term, yes. And I don't think I've
Page 20 ever seen an issue where one person… Actually there were
two people on the committee. A committee was formed to investigate the
Michael Paul case, and of course you knew it became a nationwide case.
But all of the networks had people here to interview Paul and interview
people in the administration. And Michael was a very shy person, and he
didn't like this publicity. All he wanted to do was to get this resolved
and get back to teaching. And Dan Pollitt was sort of advising him; he
was, I guess, his attorney, in a sense. And he called Dan and said, "Mr.
Pollitt, what shall I do? NBC is out here and CBS is out here, and I
don't want to go out and talk to them. What shall I do?" And so Dan told
him to crawl out the window
[Laughter] in
Bingham. And then he called me that afternoon, and there was a group
organized to deliver victory to Michael Paul, and they met in Gerrard
Hall. And I can't remember what that group was called, but anyway they
had a rally, and Mike said, "I don't want to go. What shall I do?" So I
told him to come to my house that night, and I'd have a party for him.
And they came over to give him a report later, Darryl Powell, who was a
good friend of his. But the administration appointed a committee to make
an investigation of the Michael Paul case, and the person who was
chairman of that committee was Jim Gaskin. And it was one of the most
beautiful reports that I'd ever read. The two of the people that I
remember distinctly on the committee and who made a great contribution
were Jim Gaskin and Dan Patterson. And there was one sentence in that
report that I'll never forget. Jim wrote the report, and he said, "We
wish that the people in the administration who made the decision about
Mr. Paul's case had had the facts which we have as a basis on
Page 21 which to make their decision, and we don't think
it was Mr. Paul's fault that they didn't have the facts."