hi kevin,

you have big shoes to fill but you have a number of weeks (years) to grow into them. everyone out there is wishing you well.

as a member of the class of ’61 and graduating in ’63 with a degree in metallurgical engineering i find it interesting that there is such a thing as a phd in communication. i’m still trying to get used to the fact that saturday classes are a thing of the past as well as winter carnival having classes dismissed and no tests on saturday morning after an all nighter. enough complaining and showing how jealous us old timers are of the current crop of toots for the experiences they will have although much different from ours but hopefully just as enjoyable.

the question at hand is favorite memorabilia. i presume that this refers to what was obtained while at tech. along with the beer mugs my favorites are 2 sets of bookends. i think they were both cast in the foundry in the basement of mcnair hall. one is cast iron of a big m with a torch going up the middle with a ribbon that says engineering and science and michigan tech on the base. these were sold in the book store, i believe. the second set are cast in brass and we may have cast them as part of a foundry class. they are pretty simple with the mcmt logo with the t going thru the c. i also still have the gear and cutter grinder that i made in the shops building as part of a course designed so that we would have practical knowledge of how machine tools were used. pretty basic in this day and age but eye opening for an aspiring engineer back then.

surprised no one mentioned the rex on sheldon avenue.

kent werger
class of ’61

Thanks, Kent. They give PhDs in all sorts of wacky things now. I used principles of philosophy and rhetoric to build some basic rules for community development, using past development models as a guide. I looked at long-term economic, social, political, cultural, and ecological imperatives. I once lived in the land of strip malls and big box stores, and I’m convinced we can develop better than that. That we can do better things with physical space than we are.

I’ve probably just put everyone to sleep.