March 20, 2018, Vol. 24, No. 14

Fisher Hall Memories

Fisher Hall

Hi Dennis,
My husband actually proposed to me in Fisher 135. We both graduated in 2006 (Greg Mooren, May 2006 and Molly Crouch, December 2006). We were back up at Tech for visit the following February and Greg told me he wanted to check out the changes to Fisher 135 (they had made the updates the semester after he graduated).

It was a Saturday night and a little before the Film Board early movie showing. Suddenly all the lights went out in the room and I thought we were in trouble, like we were not supposed to be there or something. Greg told me to calm down and look at the movie screen. He had been Film Board president while he was a student at Tech and had gotten a couple of his buddies that were still in school to play a “movie” he had made of our history together as a couple. At the end of the movie I looked down and he was kneeling in front of me with a ring! (I said “yes” of course!).

A fun side note, we went to the hockey game that night and ended up catching a hockey puck that came flying over the glass. We now have the puck framed on our bedroom wall. :)

Thanks for sparking the fun trip down memory lane! Fisher 135 will always hold a special place in my heart.

-Molly (Crouch) Mooren

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Two of my memories of Fisher Hall are as follows:

1) Taking notes in the main lecture hall during freshman Chemistry classes, where the notes started out quite legible but turned into scribbles that trailed off the page as I started to get sleepy during the lectures; and

2) Going to see the movie “The Jerk” in Fisher Hall on a Friday evening with a friend right before I went to a party where I met the man who has now been my husband for almost 25 years!

Thanks for the great newsletters!

Best,
Michaele Hakamaki ‘88

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While at Tech, I worked in the business office inventory department. Our job was to tag all new equipment and to manage the documentation and inventory. I and several others on and off pretty much tagged all of the equipment and furniture in Fisher Hall when it opened. I remember in particular working with Professor David Chimino in the Physics Department who was always very helpful. I also recall catching a few naps in the dark lecture halls when the boss told us to just take the tools and get lost since work was a bit light. this job paid my way through Tech and provided all of my spending money as I lived at home in Calumet.Since I graduated with a Math degree, I also spend most of my life in the new building after it opened. What a joy when compared to the old Hubbell Hall that occupied my time from 1962 until Fisher Hall opened.
Jerry Davison ’66 Math
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That first Chem 101 lecture in the fall of 1977.  Or the first movie presented by PFRC and my introduction to the local science fiction club.The analog computing lab on the second floor, and programming computers with patch cords to make graphs.Working for 3 years as an aide in the (digital) Computer Science lab my last 2 2/3 years helping out other CS students with homework, or using the two HP1000 computers in the lab.
Eric Horner
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Dennis,
My best memories of Fisher Hall (135 with the old seats!) are probably like many others before and after me! Doc Berry and his lectures in General Chemistry. He could pick you out regardless of where you sat, gave fantastic talks, and would bend over backwards to help you if you were really trying and still struggling. I was and he did! I was in the freshman chemistry class of 1973 and by the time I left Tech in 1978 I had a friend for life as many other did!

Jim Heim
Chem Eng Class of 79

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Doc Berry and freshman chemistry.

Jerry Philo

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Dennis,
A few favorite Fisher Hall stories:

- a guy who insisted he sit on the aisle during freshman chemistry because
otherwise the CO2 exhaled by his seat-mates would put him to sleep and if
you fell asleep during a Doc Berry lecture you might get called out and sent
from the room in a massive public humiliation

- the IMB 360-44 main frame computer that took up most of the north side of
the 2nd floor.  Less computing power than a “dumb” cell phone I suspect.

- the “ooos and ahhs” from the physics class every time “Circle Man” Dave
Chimino (sp?) drew a perfect circle on the board

Kerry Irons

***

When I arrived at ‘da Tech’ in the fall of 1965, Fisher Hall was the newest building on campus (the Library was still under construction) and many of my classes were there that first year or so, which was great as it was the building closest to the dorms and therefore had the shortest walk on those cold Winter mornings.  And when I think of Fisher Hall, how can I not recall the Freshman Chemistry lectures by Doc Berry or Prof. Chimino drawing his perfect circles on the chalk board in Physics class.  Or Dr. McMillin with his mysterious Analog/Digital hybrid that was going to revolutionize the world of computing.  And then there were the cheap (I think we paid a quarter), and sometimes even free, movies on Saturday evenings.

John R. Baker, P.E., BSME ‘71