By John C. Leavitt

Leland Magill is where I came from. He is forever in my thoughts.

This is a self-portrait taken in July 1966 in the Casbah of Tangiers, Morocco. This moment is a benchmark in my life. I spent that summer in Europe and North Africa. Then, a month later I embarked on a career as a molecular biologist by starting graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh, a move that I do not regret.

As Drover said in Australia “In the end the only thing you really own is your story …” so here it is!

Table of Contents

Where Did I Come From?

Growing Up in Rowayton – Chronicles of Cricky

  • Our Packard
  • Nursery School in 1948
  • Leavitt Kids Around 1953/54
  • Times with Grandfather in McLean Virginia
  • My Backyard in 1953
  • The Magill Sisters Populate Rowayton
  • My 2nd Grade Teacher Mrs. Golding
  • Camp Mohawk 1953
  • My First Yankees Baseball Game
  • The Day the Squirrels Fought Back
  • Struggles in School
  • Not My Birthday – Around 1955
  • My Dog Freckles
  • The Parallel Lives of Rowayton Kids
  • Trip to the Natural History Museum in 1955
  • Delivering the Newspaper and Mail in Rowayton
  • Sailing School
  • Sailfish Racing
  • An 8th Grade Incident
  • Tennis at Bayley Beach
  • School Bus Antics at the End of the School Year
  • Life at the Bluff
  • The Bayley Beach Stand
  • Our Family Friend Jerry Beatty
  • Voyaging to Nearby Planets in the 1950s
  • Senior Year at NHS
  • Paul Tebo
  • Dick Wilmont
  • My Norwalk High School Graduation
  • My Friends in the NHS Graduating Class
  • The Spring of 1963 – My Sophomore Year at Bethany College
  • Stefan and Marion Schnabel
  • Summer of 1966
  • Seeds for the Future

Chronicles of My Life as a Molecular Biologist

  • Salary History, Grad School to 2010 – No, I didn’t get rich
  • The Garret Ihler Story – My Grad School Mentor
  • Some Trials and Tribulations at Johns Hopkins
  • My Escape from Johns Hopkins
  • Later at the National Institutes of Health
  • My Move to Palo Alto CA
  • My Role in the Emergence on Proteomics
  • How Dekalb Genetics Made Roundup Ready Corn
  • Satisfaction with My Career
  • My Views on Stem Cell Research
  • Addendum: Some Minor Details

My Life With Becki

  • Becki and I Get Together
  • Golden Gate Bridge Walk – 1987
  • JD Sharing My Breakfast
  • Our Special Day
  • Our Drive Through Milton Gardens and Rowayton on June 28, 2010
  • Becki Shovelling Our Driveway So I Can Go to Work – Whenever I Bug Her Too Much She Says “Go to work!”

Marriottsville Years – 1974 through 1999 (unfinished)

Palo Alto Years (to be added) – 1982 through 1995

Woodstock Years – 1996 to the present (unfinished)

  • Years 2009 through 2011 – Our life described in Letters to Daughter Elizabeth

My Feelings About the Origin of Life on Earth

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