My first job was at the Mergenthaler Linotype Company, 29 Ryerson Street, Brooklyn, NY in 1960. I had gone to an employment agency and they had two jobs. “What does Mergenthaler do,” I asked? “Something to do with books,” the guy said. Thus I gave up a lucrative career at Squibb, which was the other job.

I was embarking on one of the great journeys of a lifetime, one that that would wend its way through every major change in the printing industry. It was not apparent as I delivered the mail, filed memos in the filing department, processed orders for parts and mats, or ran errands for the innumerable supervisors and managers.

One day I was delivering mail to Herman Zapf, who was adapting Palatino for the Linofilm. I asked him what he did. “I correct the errors of my youth,” he answered. Look at the lowercase hot metal y and the phototype lowercase y and see what he did. Mike Parker was in charge of type development and was always open to my questions. I once asked what a Clarendon was and he cleared his desk and drew the history of the serif on a large sheet.