I graduated from high school in 1976 with no plans of ever going to college. Got a job in a shop in Muskegon. Married in '77. Something just seemed to be missing. College kids came and went in the summers of '77 and '78, and they seemed to have more of a purpose going on their lives. I like things mechanical, and mathematics, so I started thinking about mechanical engineering. The summer students recommended U of M or tech. I looked them up the back of a Webster's Dictionary; U of M about 70,000 students in Ann Arbor, Tech about 7,000 students in Houghton. I applied to Tech, and was accepted.

About the same time I was accepted at tech, my wife Rhonda and I found out we were expecting. We decided that I would go to tech in the fall of '79 and Rhonda would stay with the family support network in Muskegon/Whitehall.

My dad had a going away party for me in August of '79. Rhonda was due any day. My dad asked me what I was going to do about Rhonda and our baby during the school year and I told him that I was planning to visit them every weekend.

"Do you know where you're going?" he asked increduously.

"Sure, Houghton, up by Houghton Lake."

He got out a map and showed me where Houghton was. Needless to say, Rhonda and our first daughter joined me at 2009C Woodmar Drive in Daniell Heights within the first two weeks of the '79-'80 school year, and we never looked back.

So, when people ask me why Michigan Tech, my answer is simple, because it's near Houghton Lake.