The acronym, "ABD", means "all but dissertion" in satisfying the requirements for a Ph. D. at a university. I was never able to reach this stage because my dear departed wife broke leg twice during my final stage at Graduate School, and I was too involved earning a living, studying, caring for her and two small children to shoulder this extra burden.

The loss to me was not academic, since, as I show elsewhere, public school and college and graduate school only provided me with records that would impress others, but not an education. (I've often said that I've never met my real teachers, since I learned from their papers and their books.)

But it made a difference in earning a living. My contract at the University of Maine (Orono) was not renewed in 1971 because I did not have my doctorate. Even a doctorate might not have helped me that year since Time Magazine was then saying that engineers were driving taxis and Ph.D.'s were flipping hamburgers. However, it would have helped me later.

But my wife and I saw our two sons, Tim and Chris, receive their doctorates. And that's a blessing.