On March 28, 1979 I was at the University of Kentucky working on a Ph.D. My father, Paul E. “Tim” Doutrich was the mayor of Harrisburg.
As I was driving to school that day I heard a news report about the potential meltdown at Three Mile Island. I was very concerned. When I got to school just before 9 A.M. – I was a Teaching Assistant in the History Department – I phoned my Dad. I was surprised that I got right through to him. I thought in light of the emergency that I’d have to leave a message. I asked him about the news report that I’d heard. He said, “What news report?”
It wasn’t until hours later that Dad had enough of the story to know what was going
When I told him the Three Mile Island meltdown report, he said he hadn’t heard about it and, ironically, asked me about the report. Needless to say, it was a short call.
I talked to him about an hour or so later (after my class). A Boston Globe reporter had called him immediately after my call and gave Dad the scraps of information he had. Dad then called the mayor of Middletown, Robert Reid, who gave him more bits and pieces of information.
It wasn’t until hours later that Dad had enough of the story to know what was going and more than a day later that he got the full story. During the days that followed, my wife, who grew up in Middletown and whose parents still lived there, and I made numerous calls back to our family in central PA. Among them was a sister who lived just outside Middletown. She considered a quick trip to Lexington with her two sons but instead stayed in Middletown.
Paul