Reflections of a Golden Oldie

Starting with the president’s reception on Thursday evening and ending with the win over Virginia Tech on Saturday, my wife and I participated in a number of Homecoming events that had been planned and delivered in an effective manner by the staffs of the Alumni Association and the Development Office.

It had been my pleasure for the first time since leaving Tech to be really involved in a meaningful way with the place that gave me my start some 50 years ago through my involvement on the party planning and fundraising committees for our golden reunion. David Jones and John Howard provided superb leadership in their respective roles as chair of those two committees. They were effectively supported by Jessica Battista (party planning) and Pam Trube (fundraising) as we ultimately reached both our participation (200) and fundraising goals ($250,000 for need-based scholarships and $3 million overall). Working toward those goals led to a lot of telephoning and mailings that opened up lines of communications that in most cases had been dormant for more than 50 years.

Regrettably, my personal career in public and higher education had limited my support of Georgia Tech to the annual Roll Call and to some visits to football games as the guest of then President Crecine and President Clough, respectively, when I served as a president in the University System of Georgia at two institutions. I recalled taking advantage of the offer 10 years ago to play catch-up with Roll Call years as part of the fundraising effort for our 40th reunion. I used that personal experience in my fundraising talk to classmates this year.

Positive and heartwarming conversations were had with a number of my friends from the four years that I spent on the Flats and on the Hill. Initially, as a former student athlete, I started out calling my former teammates in football and basketball. Toward the end, I spilled over into the other team sports and to some of my friends who were not athletes. It seemed impossible that 50 years had passed since we sat in classes together, participated in club and fraternity activities and were involved in leadership efforts on campus.

While we had a reasonable degree of success in our fundraising efforts even in this economically challenging time, much remains to be done in that area on behalf of Georgia Tech. As noted by our new president, G. P. “Bud” Peterson, alumni support at Tech ranks right at the top when compared to similar institutions and contributes to the culture that makes Tech such a special place. Collectively we can do even better. Personally, I would be less than honest if I did not admit to a sense of disappointment and a bit of failure when all of those I called did not choose to come to Atlanta for Homecoming or give if they could not come.

Currently, I am involved with the student athlete dimension of things at Tech through my work with the Georgia Tech Letterwinners Club. I was late to a meeting last spring and was elected president in my absence. I have been challenged by that opportunity to be involved in a volunteer manner and look forward to working toward increased involvement of student athletes from volunteering and fundraising perspectives and making the athlete experience at Tech one that has a lifetime dimension.

Personally, I am a bit embarrassed by the budget deficit that Dan Radakovich inherited when he came as athletic director. Hopefully, former athletes and other friends of Tech athletics will come to the table and assist Alexander-Tharpe personnel and him in closing that budget gap and funding endowed scholarships across all sports.

I know that all of us were inspired and encouraged by the enthusiastic presence and participation of President Peterson and Val throughout Homecoming weekend. His discussions of Tech and its future should be a source of encouragement to all of us and should generate a renewed interest in being a continuing player in that challenging and promising future.

I plan on being a regular attendee at “golden oldie” functions in the coming years. I encourage and challenge all of my classmates to do likewise. I also volunteer to be a member of the party planning and fundraising committees in spring 2019.

J. Foster Watkins, IE 59
Clarkesville, Ga.

Roll Call Impacts Students

I am a senior at Tech majoring in math and minoring in economics and Spanish. I got on the Washington, D.C., Georgia Tech Club e-mail list last summer when I was interning at the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Research.

I was thrilled to see the club’s push for supporting Roll Call. I would like all alumni to realize how directly these donations impact Tech students. Roll Call has made the Tech experience possible for me; my brother, a second-year mechanical engineering student; and many of my friends and classmates. Roll Call helped support me on my summer internship in D.C., my yearlong internship at the Georgia Senate Budget Office and my study abroad semester in Mexico City and Madrid. I will graduate in May.

On behalf of the many students who have benefited from Roll Call donations, I’d like to thank everyone who has contributed and to encourage everyone to give what they can so that other students will have the fantastic Tech experience I have had.

Carola Conces
Applied math, May 2010

My Visits With Ed

On reading the article and several letters in recent issues about professor Edwin Folk, I’m stimulated to add my bit.

Now in my 100th year, I have many pleasant memories of my visits with Ed, his wife and their children in their dormitory apartment. I graduated in 1931 with a degree from the Commerce Department, spent several years in the treasurer’s office and at least one as manager of the bookstore and cafeteria before being taken away by the Army in World War II. My memory is that Professor and Mrs. Folk’s apartment was open to faculty friends like me and also to student residents in their dormitory.

James H. Tipton, Com 31
Cambridge, Mass.

We Fenced in the ’70s

While I enjoyed the November/December 2009 article Good Swordsmanship, fencing was around Georgia Tech long before the spring of 2005. In the fall of 1973 or 1974, a group of a dozen or more Tech students, including myself, started learning to fence on Saturday mornings in the old gym. We had to share helmets, gloves and foils, but it was a lot of fun.

David F. Colvard, ME 74
Raleigh, N.C.

And in the ’40s

I read with interest the article Good Swordsmanship in the November/December Alumni Magazine. Unless I am mistaken, fencing was a varsity sport at Tech prior to World War II. When I started in 1948, there was a Georgia Tech fencing club, which I later joined. The equipment we had was left over from the disbanded varsity, but most people bought their own equipment once they got into the sport. In addition to our own local activities, we were also active with the Atlanta Fencing Club and participated in some of their tournaments.

I left Tech in 1951 headed for Korea via the Air Force Aviation Cadet Program. I did not make it back until 1957, at which time I went on to earn my degree with the class of 1958.

R.O. Swift, IE 58
Austin, Texas

Covers Were Profitable

Thank you so much for printing three of my Yellow Jacket covers on page 97 [The Demise of a Humor Magazine] of the November/December Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine.

The Faculty Senate did end the Yellow Jacket — and my covers — in 1955. The covers were not only fun but profitable. How about $30 per cover?!

Tilmon Chamlee, BS 54, Arch 57
Milledgeville, Ga.

Nerem Got Short Shrift

I congratulate you on the new format of the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine. It is attention grabbing. I am, however, concerned about the magazine’s content, especially as it relates to the impact Tech has had as a leading national and international academic institution.

The article in the November/December 2009 issue about professor Robert Nerem illustrates my point. Professor Nerem has been widely recognized around the world as a change agent in the field of biomedical engineering. He has played a singular role not only in advancing the scientific/engineering foundation of the discipline but also in bringing together the relevant but often competing parties such as the NIH, FDA, NSF, academia, public policy experts, legislators and industry to accelerate the movement of important discoveries from bench to bedside. The article failed to give adequate and appropriate coverage to the impact Professor Nerem has had over his decades-long career in improving the public’s health not only through his personal efforts but also through the work of his students, fellow faculty members at Tech and Emory and the coalitions he forged among complementary engineering and medical institutions around the world. He has done Georgia Tech proud and elevated its stature among other academic institutions. The article gave short shrift to his impact and legacy.

It is somewhat ironic that the accomplishments of a valued two-year Georgia Tech employee responsible for parking enforcement (Meet the Most Hated Man on Campus) in the same issue would receive more coverage than the 40-year career of one of the institution’s most celebrated academic and intellectual giants.

The point I am trying to make is the magazine has been designed to make the reader want to pick it up and open the pages. It now needs to focus on content and substance.

Paul Citron
New Brighton, Minn.

Relatively Speaking

Is editor Kimberly Link-Wills related to Richard Link, who ran the news bureau in the early ’70s? I worked as a student assistant for three years in the Office of Campus Affairs, which became the Office of Public Relations when Dick Fuller took over. I knew Dick Link and [Georgia Tech Alumnus editor] Ben Moon, and my direct supervisor was Alice Chastain.

The years I spent in the Campus Affairs/Public Relations office were a really good time in my life. My major was physics at a time when you skipped a master’s and moved directly into the PhD program. I was not ready for such a challenge, and today if I were attending Tech I would take the applied physics program as that is what I am doing today for Alcatel Vacuum Products.

I learned so much in my years as the lowly student assistant. I mailed catalogs to all prospective Georgia Tech students, bagged them for bulk mail shipping and took them to the Georgia Tech Post Office. From that I know every address in Georgia from Abac to Zebulon.

I typed, on IBM punch cards, all faculty identification cards. We changed colors every year. My last year I typed one for myself so that I could park my car on the Hill. That faculty/staff decal is still on the windshield of my 1962 Buick wagon, “Big White.”

The Office of Public Relations coordinated the graduation ceremonies, and I was pleased to “robe” such speakers as Jimmy Carter, Lester Maddox and Andrew Young. The supplier of cloth rental robes offered me a free gown for my graduation.

When the spring 1973 graduation occurred, the college had switched to disposable paper-like robes, but I took the man up on his offer and was the only graduate that year in a cloth gown.

Dick Fuller moved from public relations to another job and as part of his duties was the head of the Georgia Tech Police Department. Through him I got a second job working in the police department approving the time sheets of the part-time students who gave out parking tickets.

At the Student Center (new at that time), I silk-screened the Georgia Tech pennants under a new boss in the PR office that astronaut John Young took to the moon. I didn’t get one of those pennants.

So many memories. I am always grateful that as I learned my profession, I also had interrelations with so many of the people behind the scenes at Tech who may have taught me even more. I’m also proud that two of my three daughters graduated from Tech [Erin Robinson, STC 04, and Jessica Robinson, ID 08].

David Robinson, Phys 73
Smyrna, Ga.

Good Things Do Happen

I’ve been in Tampa since 1998 and seen stuff on the Suncoast Georgia Tech Club from time to time but just never got in touch. So it was a very pleasant surprise to meet the group at Tijuana Flats in West Chase in October. Good things do happen! It was a real pleasure to meet all the guys, girls and kids.

Ken Burnham, ChE 61
Tampa, Fla.

British Green in Scotland

Your November/December issue had a good piece about Stewart Cink and the British Open at Turnberry, Scotland. Stewart was wearing a British auto racing green cap and shirt, which he probably knew, but so far I have not seen any indication that others did.

Fred Bowyer, CE 58
Jackson, Tenn.

Admiration for Schuster

I read of [provost Gary] Schuster’s plan to return to teaching with admiration for him and some sorrow too. I judge he has helped Dr. Peterson settle in. I recall [former provost Jean Lou] Chameau as a civil and environmental engineering professor, I believe, who did much work in sustainable development. I think it’s fantastic that he went from Tech to be president of CalTech.

On another note, does anyone still call The Technique “The South’s Liveliest College Fish Wrapper”?

Jerry Abbott, CE 55
Birmingham, Ala.

Thousands of Bottles of Beer

Back in the summer of 1989, Tech Topics did an article about my beer bottle collection. I would like to give some current facts on my collection.

As noted in the article, the collection consists of full, unduplicated bottles of beer — no two alike. In 1989, when the Guinness Book of World Records first listed my collection as the world’s largest of its kind, it consisted of 1,827 bottles from 82 countries. The Guinness Book repeated the list in its annual publication for eight consecutive years — until 1996, when a fellow from Germany took over the record.

Today, the collection is comprised of 9,355 full, one-of-a-kind bottles from 137 countries. I have been greatly aided over the years by more than 260 donors ranging from friends to strangers to breweries to foreign nations.

The display is now located in my company warehouse in a special 1,000-square-foot room. Each bottle is displayed separately and is listed on a computer showing the date received, the location in the display, the donor (if a gift), the size of the bottle, the name of the brewery and where I acquired it (if not a gift). Once again I emphasize that while there are many of the same brand, there are no two alike. The collection continues to grow at a good pace as numerous new brands are continually introduced and current breweries continue to redesign and relabel existing brands.

Incidentally, I am a Georgia Tech graduate of 1953 and was honored to have played football under coach Bobby Dodd for four years, including the undefeated SEC championship teams of 1951 and 1952 and the national championship team of 1952. My wonderful wife, Martha, and I were married the summer before my junior year and are now in our 58th year of marriage, having four children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. One grandson is a fine baseball player and hopes to attend and play ball at Tech after high school.

Our Memphis business, Shuler Distributing Co., wholesale floor covering, is in its 69th year, started by my father and now being run by third- and fourth-generation Shulers.

Ted Shuler, IM 53
Germantown, Tenn.

Memories of 10 cent Beers

The newspaper in my hometown of Whitesburg, Ky., recently ran a picture showing the seats of our local soccer field being painted over with the colors of our new consolidated high school. The article said the old seats had been replaced with some from the demolished Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta.

Although I have not been in our local grandstand for years, since before we’d ever heard of soccer and it was used for baseball and football, I may well have sat in some of those seats. That brought back some great memories, especially of seeing Hank Aaron crank so many balls over the fence at Fulton County Stadium.

In the early ’70s there was a period when the Braves were having such a difficult time attracting fans that they instituted 10 cent beverage nights. This was great news for poor college students.

Here’s what three friends and I could do for two bucks apiece: We pitched in a quarter to raise the dollar to park the car. Unreserved center field seats were also a dollar. That left 75 cents each for a box of popcorn, at a quarter, and enough for five of those big plastic cups of beer. Given the camaraderie of my friends, that’s about the best two bucks I’ve ever spent.

Roy Crawford, ME 74
Whitesburg, Ky.

Strike Up the Band

I still go to most Georgia Tech home games and have a fairly set routine. I drive to the Inman Park MARTA station, where there is free parking, then a train ride to Five Points and on to North Avenue and I am two blocks from the stadium. I stop at the Varsity and get a sandwich or two and a Coke, then I walk to the campus to the Kessler Campanile, where the Tech band warms up. I sit and eat and listen to the band.

When they finish “Up With the White and Gold” and “Ramblin’ Wreck,” they rush up to the library, and some of the horn players get on top of a monument at the fountain there. Then you start to hear the drum line getting louder as it nears the library. As soon as they get there, the place starts rocking. Then here come the “Sousas,” and they strike up the Budweiser song.

When they finish that, they line up on Bobby Dodd Way with the Ramblin’ Wreck in front, with cheerleaders in, on and around it. Next are the flag girls, then the band.

The band marches down Bobby Dodd Way to the stadium. They start playing “Up With the White and Gold,” and I jump in just behind the last elements, which are the piccolos. The band is clearing the way, and it is a nice walk toward Bobby Dodd Stadium.

Much of the scenery is almost exactly as it was 50 years ago, and at that point I reflect on the five years of toil and strife, the hours spent trying to keep from flunking courses, especially the courses with the designed purpose of flunking you out of school so you could go home in shame; the walks up and down Third Street (now Bobby Dodd Way) to the library and back to be able to study in an air-conditioned facility; all the late-night studies; missing your girlfriend who was far away; the Saturday classes each and every Saturday; the six-hour labs; the three-hour exams that would make or break you; the struggles to get in the classes you needed to graduate; the course you flunked because you spent too much time studying for the one you were flunking worse; and the pop quizzes that you were not ready for in the least.

A million memories descend all at once, rushing in with the music, and it all comes back and I can hardly talk even if I want to. The band breaks off at the west stands, and I wind my way over to the east stands where my seat is in row one of the upper deck on the 10-yard line. The music from the PA makes the entire stadium pulsate. The frenzy is about to begin.

Allen W. Johnson, ChE 62
North Augusta, S.C.

Alumni Appreciative

I went to check my mailbox, and I had three letters from alumni I wrote Roll Call thank you letters to. Each one was unique, but they all expressed how nice it was to hear that their gifts to Tech were actually being appreciated.

One gentleman even said that he’s been giving for 50 years and it still makes his day just to hear that someone is thankful.

One alumnus invited me to come visit the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, where he volunteers, and another asked me to let him know when I learn about a certain property of molecules that he has questions about. One alum told me about how Tech was when he was here a long time ago, when there were no females or African-Americans. Each alumnus also stated how much Tech changed their life for the positive.

All in all, it’s really amazing to hear from these alumni and learn their experiences at Tech. One alumnus said, “By all means share this with the folks who got this personal program up. It is a winner, as you are and as Georgia Tech was, is and will be.”

Sara Kutbay
President’s Scholar, mechanical engineering

Thank You, Mentor Jackets

My Mentor Jackets mentee and I met for coffee, and a planned short meeting lasted over two hours. Neither of us could believe how much we had in common. Thanks for the opportunity to work with a current student. I wish I had the opportunity when I was at Tech.

Amanda Mewborn, IE 00, MS HS 01
Atlanta

Solution to Water Woes

As I was reading the article about the infrastructure of tomorrow in the November/Dececember issue, I remembered an idea I’ve been having for a while and wanted to ask your readers about it. It seems like every year some areas of the country have floods whereas others go through severe droughts. I’ve been thinking if it would be possible to build some kind of network infrastructure of pipes and channels that connects the entire country and alleviates both problems at the same time.

I’d like to hear from Georgia Tech engineers, as well as the people who know about finances, if this is too outrageous to be considered. Besides being a permanent solution to a critical problem, it would create thousands of jobs everywhere because a huge project like this would require simultaneous construction all over the country.

Guillermo Alzuru, MS OR 82
Athens, Ga.

Thanks to Columbus Club

Even though it was a misty day, we all thought that this was the Columbus Georgia Tech Club’s best TEAM Buzz Day yet. The Columbus club members were all so kind to give time to the girls at the Anne Elizabeth Shepherd Home. The girls need so much in the way of interacting with positive role models, and the Georgia Tech alumni team is just the type of adults they need. Thank you for the checks to help us out with our Fantasy in Lights adventure.

I look forward to next year as well as meeting some new Georgia Tech alumni.

Lynne Taylor, director
Shepherd Home, Columbus, Ga.

Worth a Thousand Words

Thought you might enjoy this picture of my 1-year-old granddaughter, Ainsley Grace James.

Scott James, IM 74
Matthews, N.C.