Russell Green

Professor
Virginia Tech

I have no doubt that many of Dick’s colleagues and students have stories to share, so I reluctantly share this one … and do so only because of its uniqueness and humor during this sad time. This story was originally shared with me by Rainer Massarsch. Back in June 1981, Rainer organized an international symposium on soil dynamics at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Dick, along with several others, received a stipend to participate. As a result, the Swedish government required taxes to be levied against the stipends, which in turn required the participants to have Swedish social security numbers. To shortcut the red tape, Rainer made up social security numbers for the participants, using the participants’ birth dates for the first six numbers followed by 9991, 9992, 9993, etc. Unfortunately, the fictitious number assigned to Dick was the actual social security number of an Italian immigrant named Sergio Saris who was working in Sweden. Sergio had a long ordeal with the Swedish version of the IRS who accused him of lying about not being Dick Woods and for evading paying taxes on Dick’s stipend. Attached is the article from the Swedish evening newspaper on Sergio’s ordeal and an English translation of the article by Rainer. Ironically, Dick and Sergio look very much alike.