Lowell Technological Institute - Pickout Yearbook (Lowell, MA)

Page 24 text:

A visiting lecturer Entertainment from L. T. C. was held once more. This time the price of shoulder patches decreased to $1.00. Sparked by Chris Chingros, 35 points, we upset Clark in the opening basketball game of the season 68-63. Following that win, we managed to drop the majority of our games, so it was a case of wait till next year ... WLTI first broadcast in January, with an opening program featuring Col. Kelley, President Lydon and Dean Williams . . . We celebrated LTI ' s Fiftieth Anniversary by a special convocation with Governor Herter as honored guest. It was at this cere- mony that the cornerstone for a new administration- auditorium building, Cumnock Hall, was set . . . Shep Fields appeared at the All Tech Formal, and Jilla Webb sang a new Alma Mater selected by a school- wide contest . . . Club Eames was a gala success, as we saw our instructors as we never dreamed we would . . . Then, as a fire immobilized Lowell Teachers, we sud- denly found ourselves beset with the females. They were given the facilities of the P-L Building, and more of us became conscious of our dress and appearance . . . Finals were declared mandatory, with no exemp- tions, ending a feast for some. At this time, we had spent almost half of our four years at Tech. We were blase . . . had seen everything . . . there could be nothing new to stir us. We obvi- ously knew our three R ' s . . . but when we saw those Ten R ' s consecutively appear in The Text, and those apostolic 12 go from the school for a while, we be- came plenty panicky. Griping was done only among friends, and when no one was watching. After that episode, everything was anticlimatical. The presenta- tion of My Sister Eileen and the ensuing social events just couldn ' t compare with the Text ' s two-week plan. A summer ' s hiatus from LTI brought us back to some radical changes. The clean dean was replaced by a jovial dean, Richard Ivers. Charlie Edlund, the all- time faculty catcher in softball, became Charles F. Ed- lund, Dean of Faculty, replacing G. Nathan Reed. This was our new team . . . but some said it was the same old ballgame . . . The Tech Formal came early that year . . . Billy Butterfield performed ... A new electronics course was introduced . . . The basketball team won its opener 71-70 . . . but even a gigantic pep rally couldn ' t help them defeat MIT. We were juniors, and what a year it was . . . The engineers were personally introduced to the ring trav- eler . . . There were lab reports and lab reports, and even more lab reports . . . Thank heaven for the man who invented copying . . . There was the stimulating inspiration of T Chem., and the fight to get up for the card quiz in P. Chem . . . There was Textile Testing with its statistics . . . now really we weren ' t the worst class in that respect . . . And there were many of us 20

Page 23 text:

was held, with Freddie Martin featured ... A Frosh Smoker had Swede Nelson as guest speaker. We saw LTI emerge as an outstanding power in a strange game called soccer. There was no football to cheer for, so we immediately were in need of a good interpreter . . . Viva Zapata!! . . . Our first enc ounter with industry came at the Open House, which highlighted Secretary of Commerce Sawyer. Many of us, clad in our ROTC blue, were strategically placed throughout the Institute to decorate the walls. Suddenly, it was Christmas time, and with some exams behind us, we tried not to look backward . . . The new year began with the first Military Ball, an im- mediate result of which was the sale of shoulder patch- es to the Corps at $1.25 apiece. A new organization, WLTI, was formed on campus . . . The Film Classics group continued to present fine motion pictures . . . The Text pessimistically foretold a bleak fraternity future, as men from the houses went back to the dorms . . . The new Paper-Leather Building was opened in March, and many of us began to sleep in classes held there as Hell Week raged in full fury. We voted to change the name of Lowell Textile to Lowell Tech, and we were quite startled to read that President Lydon was to campaign for governor. Naive as we were, the Pink Issue had taken us in. That April was a good one . . . There were three vacation periods, one occasioned by the Wool Bureau Convention here. The Tech Players presented, You Can ' t Take It With You, and after almost a full year of LTI, most of us were content not to try . . . Upstream Day capped the social year, as many beer bottles were uncapped by the rapidly learning Frosh . . . We were indeed rapidly learning, but perhaps the wrong things; for when finals were over, our ranks were depleted. Summer came- and- went all too quickly. When we were ready for our next year, we weren ' t the same group of innocent youths. We were proud and arro- gant sophomores, who knew everything about LTI; and we didn ' t hesitate to tell the first freshman we saw all about it. Things were somewhat different around LTI. The ROTC moved its offices, and added new officers . . . Physics Lab was now in the P-L Building . . . There were fraternity floors in the dorms, instead of having men suffer the disadvantages of their houses. O Pi celebrated its Fiftieth Anniversary . . . Prof. Merrill stepped down as head of the Cotton Depart- ment after many years of meritorious service . . . We found that things as sophomores were not what we ex- pected . . . Was it not? . . . Math ... to differentiate or integrate . . . Cotton ... to be sure . . . Physics . . . Philosophy . . . Organic . . . 1, 1, 2, 2, . . . are you sure Fermi started this way? . . . Lab reports . . . dung locks . . . We had an All Tech Smoker, and the Military Ball i ' Just married ' Now, just a pinch of salt 19

Page 25 text:

who took great pleasure in leaving the corps of cadets, and looking on as interested spectators as the boys in blue breezed by. Yet there were those among us who were — in two words — Gung Ho! In February, the ROTC graduated its first com- missioned officer ... A student questionnaire by the Student Council put student complaints where they could be filed for future reference. An issue of the Text printed on pink paper proclaimed there was to be no pink issue . . . and that that color paper had to be used up somehow. After the events of the previous year, some of us wondered; but the tradition was up- held ... It was to Atlantic City that we all nocked for the Machinery Show in late April. As those who shortly were to be out in industry , we were eager to see all — and we did — the 500 Club . . . Club Tropi- cana . . . Jockey Club . . . Yacht Club . . . the Monkey Bar . . . the Bamboo Club . . . What hangovers we had for the alumni banquet at Hadden Hall the next day. And then it was back to LTI to end the year. A plan for the establishment of hazing for next year was accepted by President Lydon . . . Prof. Elmer Fickett retired at the age of seventy, and was feted at a testi- monial dinner ... A new course in Textile Manufac- turing was set up, designed to eliminate much of the duplication and repetition throughout all the textile courses . . . Oh? . . . The Tech Players presented Remains To Be Seen . . . The Class of 1954 was graduated in outdoor ceremonies during our final period. We could almost taste our degrees. The summer came and went . . . for the first time not as fast as we wanted, because we were to be seniors. And when we returned to Lowell, we again saw some- thing new. Cumnock Hall was open, and we said this is for my graduation . . . We found disgusting freshmen parading about in little red caps. Mighty seniors that we were, we stood aloof from this non- sense . . . There was a TV set in Eames Lounge, ful- filling a campaign promise of an unsuccessful candi- date in our freshman year . . . Things were looking up . . . even a field house was being planned. Vice-President Nixon came to LTI for an honorary degree at the dedication of Cumnock Hall. Ed Hayes gave him a beanie, a picture which made many news- papers, and evoked many snide comments during the election year . . . To no one ' s surprise, the Frosh were the winners at Field Day; and they discarded their beanies at a school wide banquet in Cumnock Hall . . . The first IFC Weekend was held with a skit night pre- ceding the dance. The Military Ball followed shortly thereafter . . . The Tech Formal engaged Claude Thorn- hill to make with the music ... A Slight Case of Murder was the Players ' offering. And now as seniors we felt as if a burden had been Who ' s taking notes? . . . and then we ' ll see if Cumnock burns - » ■ ■ ■ J w J K ' v i J V ' 1 ► B H - n ■ iS w . : - 21