Locality and Professional Life

One Sunday morning nearly three decades ago, my wife Dorothy and I were walking along the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. I was considering a job change and was concerned about whether my new responsibilities would divert me from my aspiration that my work "make a mark." She asked what I meant by making a mark. That meant, I confided, that people would long remember my contribution by name. She said that if that is my philosophy of life, I am likely to be disappointed.