I am sure there have been times in your life, as there have in mine, when you were caught in an unexpected situation, and when, trying your best, you couldn't figure out where you were or what brought you there. Poets and philosophers have given different names to this predicament. Some call it fate, others destiny, good fortune, good luck.

After much study and thought I decided this was serendipity. Let me explain that I didn't invent or even discover it. This had happened several hundred years ago. All I did was identify it and then decide it was happening to me. It was like a physician diagnosing an ailment, except my condition was both inspiring and exciting.

Not my first serendipitous experience, but perhaps the most important in my life was when, for some unexplained reason, I left my office, walked into the hall and looked down at a young lady descending the stairs. I went into my assistant's office and asked the name of the last job applicant he had interviewed. After some hesitation (he had already interviewed ten) he gave me her name. Without further explanation I asked him to hire her.

To make a beautiful story all too brief, a year later the girl and I were married. Now, after 52 years of a wonderful married life replete with sons and grandsons, I sometimes look back and ask, "What if I hadn't walked out of my office when I did?" You may conjecture all you wish, but I know it was serendipity.

Before demonstrating how serendipity can change the course of our lives, I should first describe how it was discovered. In the middle of the eighteenth century an English writer, Sir Horace Walpole, wrote a letter to a friend, Sir Horace Mann, then living in Florence, Italy. Walpole described how he had uncovered a Persian fairy tale describing the adventures of three princes from Serendip (the ancient name for Ceylon, now Sri Lanka) who were sent by the king, their father, out into the world to gain further knowledge. It was not long before the princes realized that although they rarely found what they were looking for, they were nonetheless continually running into treasures quite by accident which were of greater value than what they sought. When they realized what was happening to them, each day thereafter became a new and thrilling experience. Horace Walpole called their encounter "serendipity."

One hundred years later the first dictionary to recognize the word described it as, "making discoveries by accident and intuition of things not in quest of," or "The faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident." United States Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo was more inspired. He described serendipity as, "Like many of the finest things in life, like happiness and tranquillity and fame, the gain that is most precious is not the thing sought, but one that comes of itself in search for something else."

Does this nudge your memory? Do events now come to mind in which a wrong turn, a detour, a deviation led you to something you were not seeking, but which proved of greater worth? If so, you are joined by hundreds of others whose bounty has been not only rewarding but of great benefit to mankind.

In a London, England, laboratory one night an assistant neglected to clean a laboratory dish. On the following morning, biologist Alexander Fleming noticed that a mold in the offensive plate, which when examined under a microscope, dissolved bacteria. This "accident" led to the discovery of penicillin, a drug that has saved millions of lives.

Charles Goodyear accidentally spilled a mixture of sulfur and rubber on a stove, a mishap which was transformed into the process of vulcanization which made possible the manufacture of automobile tires. Serendipity is not always kind. In 1936, King Edward VIII of England was counting on a large and enthusiastic showing of public support during a parade, which would pave the way to his marrying an American, Wallis Simpson. But heavy rains that day kept the crowds away and he abdicated the throne.

George de Mestral took a stroll one day in his native Switzerland. On arriving home he found his jacket covered with cockelburs. As he picked the sticky seed pods off his clothing, he wondered what act of nature could have cause the pods to have their tenacious sticking ability. Under the microscope he discovered the cockelbur had little hooks which entangled themselves in the fabric. An artificial series of hooks and loops were created which, when pressed together, became very difficult to separate. Thus Velcro (vel for velvet and cro for crochet needle) was first made in France. Nearly fifty years later, no better substitute for Velcro has been found. NASA found Velcro invaluable for holding floating objects in space during space travel.

One of the greatest arguments for serendipity on record is the accidental discovery of America by Christopher Columbus who was searching for a route to India and China.

Most of us are where we are and have what we have because of serendipity. In 1906, my father decided to leave Los Angeles and seek employment in San Francisco. On his way to the railroad depot to purchase a ticket, a runway team of horses caused him to back into the doorway of a travel agency office. The ticket he bought there instead of at the depot proved to be faulty and he cancelled the trip. Four days later on April118, 1906, the great earthquake and fire destroyed much of San Francisco.

My father stayed in Los Angeles, met and married my mother with me as the aftermath. May I ask, "What if the runway team hadn't interrupted my father's trip to San Francisco?"

It was serendipity that lead me to the company I still work for after sixty years. I had started ny first year at USC. A family friend operated a student boarding house where I was given free board and room. Slightly perturbed by her own generosity, she suggested I might seek a night job which would include a room and salary at one of several companies which hired students. Through a mistake in direction I walked into a company where I was told students weren't currently being hired. That was until the general manager walked into the office and asked if he could help me. Within a few minutes after explaining my situation, he said that a night student was leaving and that I could have his job. Eighteen years later I became president of the company and today I'm a member of the board of directors. May I ask what would have happened if I had gone to the right address?

A sudden encounter, a wrong turn in the road, an accidental happening, these and perhaps a bit of fate, providence, and good luck have brought most of us to where we are today.

"One spring morning the Princes of Serendip awoke to find the sun rising over their father's kingdom. Their journey had ended where it began. Unknowingly, they had returned home and this turned out to be the best happening of all."

This is Serendipity.