Third in a series

Re “West’s Limbaugh, Born to be a Leader”

Almost 30 years into his career as a college administrator, Dr. James Limbaugh became vice president for strategic planning at Angelo State University in his native Texas.

“You know how, whenever you are a vice president, inevitably you grouse about the president,” Dr. Limbaugh said the other day in his roomy office at West Los Angeles College. “You say, ‘Why, I can do a better job than that.’”

Trish Limbaugh had heard her husband voice that desire so often that one day she challenged him.

“Alright, then, go and be a president,” Mrs. L dared.
“So I applied for one,” said the new president of West L.A. College. “But my first presidential interview was a disaster. I just was such a rube. It was embarrassing.”

Dr. Limbaugh, in his congenial, ever-soft Texas drawl, explained what did and what should have happened.

“There is a certain expectation of a demeanor of a president,” he explained. “I didn’t know how, at the time, to put on that mantle to walk into the interview.

“I didn’t know how to prepare to be interviewed to discuss the kind of things that a president should know.

“All the people I have talked to since then have told me that every first presidential interview is a disaster. You don’t understand the lay of the land until you get there.”

(To be continued)