Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships.

After returning from the war, Helene’s son Harry took advantage of the GI Bill (as he said he would do in his October 27th post), and graduated with a BA degree from UC Berkeley in 1951. In the spring of 1951, he worked in the UC Berkeley Engineering Library for $1.15/hour. Today we see correspondence regarding his application to work for the CIA.

20 November 1951

Dear Mr. Lowell:

Reference is made to our recent correspondence concerning your employment with this Agency.
Since we have not heard from you nor received the completed application forms, we are wondering if you are interested in applying for a position with us. We would like very much to hear from you, so that we may know what disposition to make in your case.

If we do not hear from you within fifteen days we shall assume that you are not interested in being considered for employment with us.

Very truly yours,
L.F. Holmes, Chief
Personnel Procurement

 December 7, 1951

Dear Mr. Holmes:

It is with sincere regrets that I must, at the present time, let pass up the opportunity of working with your agency.

One month before I received communication from you I obtained a very satisfactory position in public relations which I do not want to give up for the time being.

Nevertheless, I have not given up my plans of entering either your agency or Foreign Servie for which my training has prepared me. I think that public relations experience will but add to my qualifications for government service.

I have resolved to keep up my studies in the international field and not to allow my fluency in French, German, and Russian suffer in any way, although I have no opportunity to apply this part of my training to the present position.

Hoping that I shall be a more valuable man to you after having served my apprenticeship in public relations, I remain

Yours sincerely,

After graduating from college, Harry looked into a variety of possible career possibilities, including working for the California Redwood Association, as we saw in the October 31st post. In April 1951, he applied to work for the civilian branch of the army as an “Intelligence Research Analyst” in Europe, although he had been told there were no openings at the time. He tries to keep that door open in his letter to the CIA representative.

Although Harry was drawn to a job that would take him back to Europe and allow him to use his language skills, at this point his mother was living with him and he probably rethought the wisdom of his leaving her again.