Belly Laughs All Around: The 59ers Remember

Glen Mroz, Jerry Ziarno, and Mark Mitchell
Glen Mroz, Jerry Ziarno, and Mark Mitchell

It started with certificates and pins awarded to the Class of 1959, as they joined the Golden M's, who graduated 50 years ago or more. 

As digital cameras flashed, Harold Seppala hollered, "Got any Brownie Hawkeyes?"

"You're dating yourself, Harold!" was the reply. 

Later, as the microphone was passed around, the stories began.

From 3 feet of foam blanketing the floor of the unit operations lab, to a 250-pound icicle tucked under a classmate's bedclothes, to the gun-toting professor who demonstrated the principle of impulse momentum dynamics using a .45 pistol and a birch log, the recollections of the '59ers generated a lot of laughs.   

For details of these and other stories shared during Alumni Reunion 2009, see https://www.admin.mtu.edu/urel/ttoday/current.php

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.