In April 1974 I was nearing the end of my PhD research at the University of Toronto. My wife was in the Archaeology PhD program there, too, and I felt I had a while to go. So I was not in a rush to get a teaching position. In fact, I had been teaching at UT and I thought I could just continue that until I finished, though unfortunately UT wanted me to teach the next year at one of the satellite campuses, not the main one.

At that time the UT Computer Science Department sent out every year a list of new PhDs and their thesis titles to other Computer Science departments in North America. I was on that list but didn't know that they did this. Meanwhile, my wife was informed by her PhD supervisor that he was going on sabbatical for the 1974-75 academic year. He strongly recommended that she finish her coursework at Bryn Mawr College and the University of Pennsylvania. That same week I received an invitation from Prof. Joshi of UPenn to interview for a faculty position. I hadn't applied; he took my name from the list UT had sent around. "Well," I thought, "I can always work at UPenn for a year while my wife does her coursework -- that would be very convenient. And then I could look for a permanent job." I interviewed, I was given an offer, and I accepted.

I'm still at UPenn.