Stanford next

Stanford had the files of Keesling, Chairman of the Building Committee for the GGBHD (Golden Gate Bridge Highway District) and sat on the Board of Directors. Needless to say he had lots to do with Strauss as Chief Engineer. Keesling was a Stanford graduate, hence their acquisition of his personal files. Some of the files were devoted to his work on the bridge; in his real life he was a lawyer. Stanford had a set-up similar to the Environmental Design Archives at Berkeley, in that they asked me to identify material for copying and then they would copy and send for a fee.

It was hard to restrict myself as I screened the material for any correspondence related to Strauss specifically. I especially liked two habits of Keesling. One was to keep a calendar in which he noted with whom he met, the topic, and a brief description of content. Much in the way a lawyer would track billable hours. He also had someone take transcripts of meetings so that you can see who said what verbatim. This got interesting when Strauss was on the hot seat.