Bethlehem Steel pay cut on return to MIT

Tom mentions taking a one-third pay cut leaving Bethlehem Steel to join the MIT faculty in 1976. Brief biographical anchor for the consulting story that follows.

One of the ways I learned failure analysis was — when I came back in 1976 from Bethlehem Steel, I had to take a one-third cut in pay to be a faculty member. At that point I had three children, and maybe a fourth one by the time I bought my house in '78. I had to buy it because my mother-in-law couldn't live alone anymore, and we had to move her in. She lived with us for 17 years. But I couldn't afford my house, and I never knew where the mortgage payment was coming from more than two months ahead, and I had to rely on some consulting to do this.