Interview with Ed & Nina Gold

Abstract

Tape recorded interviews of Ed and Nina (Speed) Gold conducted by Emily Will in their home during September and October of 1983. Ed Gold taught chemistry at Stout. The Gold family was very much involved in political activism and includes discussion on Ed's and Nina's respective childhoods, Nina's trip to the South disguised as a man, political activism in Ed's family including his father's invlovement with labor unions and the American Socialist Party, student and eating cooperatives in Madison, Ed's decision to be a conscientious objector during WWII, Ed's job at National Pressure Cooker (now Presto Industries) as Chief Chemist and his involvement with Teflon frying pans and other new developments in cookware, Ed's subsequent departure from Presto after the company became involved in manufacturing weapons, Nina's proposal of a Peace Corps to Henry Reuss (who later introduced a bill to establish a Peace Corps), involvement in the peace movement, the protests during the National Democratic Convention at Chicago in 1968, Senator Joe McCarthy and McCarthyism, the Sylvers and Faler Case at UW-Stout, ROTC and Stout, and miscellaneous topics.