Bernard Marshall Gordon - Personal Background

Personal Background

Bernie was born Bernard Marshall Gordon. The Gordons were a Jewish family. Bernie's father gave sermons in churches, schools and synagogues. He always encouraged his son to get A's in school. Bernie was a Boy Scout, an Eagle Scout and has received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.

Early in life Bernie learned two principles that were invaluable to him in building a subsequent career. First is that inventiveness is an interesting, useful and profitable trait. At age 13 he invented and sold a pull-cord device to drop lime into the outhouses that then abounded in rural Massachusetts. The second principle is the necessity for self-defense. Diminutive and Jewish, he was beaten so often on the way home from school that he took up boxing and acquired some skill from the teaching of his uncle, Chick Rosnick, an army physical education instructor.

Bernie attended Springfield Technical High School rather than a classical high school; however, of his sojourn there Bernie said:

"It was not a classical high school, it was a technical high school attended by kids who might want to be carpenters or plumbers. Yet I would make this comment: I was better educated in high school in 1943 than most college graduates are today. I could read and write and quote Shakespeare, I had classes in philosophy, logic and psychology, and I was taking apart airplanes and automobiles. This education was a very important influence on how I think about the teaching of engineering."

In this way Bernie was imbued with the pragmatist spirit. Comparisons to Edison, Bell and Rickover are not inapropos.

Bernie did extremely well in high school. He studied English literature and French as well as calculus, physics and electronics. He also competed on the track and wrestling teams, and was class co-president with the son of Paul Robeson, Paul Robeson II, who had been sent to Springfield to be educated, as there was only one black family in Enfield, Connecticut, where his mother then resided. Bernie graduated from high school at 16.

The successful and well-motivated young man immediately applied to MIT for admission. He was turned down on a snap judgment:

"The professor who interviewed me asked what I did after school. I told him I made outhouses and fixed radios. He actually told me: 'I don't think you're the type we want at MIT.' "

Bernie looked around for other programs and soon found one to his liking.