When two obstinate forces meet head-on, chances of any meaningful progress dwindles to nil. On one side stood my father. And he was "certifiably stubborn". On the other side stood the medical profession. And they proved to be just as intractable as my father. After all, here was a mere lay person trying to tell the medical profession that he had a cure to Valley Fever. Good grief!

But dad was not a saint. He never really approached this as an effort to be a Good Samaritan. His first dream was that of achieving some financial reward for his discovery. He wrote letters to many of the drug companies asking if they would be interested in his cure. Some seemed to have an initial interest until it became known that the cure was based on a common over-the-counter chemical. The drug companies were quick to point out that, as a common product already in the marketplace, it cannot be patented. Consequently, any investment they made in setting up production and distribution could not be protected. Second, since Valley Fever was more or less localized to Bakersfield, California (USA), the market was just too small to be economically viable. After a few years of contacting various companies and hearing essentially the same story, my dad's thoughts of monetary rewards had to be abandoned.

His next desire was to gain some recognition for his discovery. After all, he considered this to be quite a discovery! His initial contact was the California Health Department. They suggested he contact a Dr. Smith at the University of California at Berkeley who was conducting all research into Valley Fever. The first contact did not go well at all. When the Dr. Smith found out that a geologist --- that's right, a geologist --- said he had a cure for Valley Fever, he wanted nothing to do with him.

My dad did not accept rejection well. Dr. Smith's attitude when he found out that a geologist thought he had found a cure for Valley Fever was simply too much for my father to swallow. Dad thought the science should speak for itself. He was simply not prepared to entertain the politics of medicine. All this did was stiffen his resolve to hold onto the formula until he found someone he thought was seriously interested. He would occasionally write letters to the California Department of Health stating that he wanted to talk to one of the directors about his discovery. They would always reply that he should contact an analyst at the department and there would be a phone number for him to call. He was not about to talk to an "analyst"!