Columbia University School of Engineering - Yearbook (New York, NY)

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SECOND YEAR CLASS

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The 1934 COLUMBIA ENGINEER very wide field over which these branches range leads readily to the admission of the wisdom of choosing a very dehnite portion of the work and confining our efforts thereto. The era in which we are now living has been called the age of specialization, and concomitant with the appellation comes the accusation that it is tending to standardize our lives-to pattern after one mold a mosaic in which the individual is lost. Yet in the execution of a great engineering project we can have no general practitioner responsible for the whole: on the contrary, we need experts for each portion of the work. However, the line of demarcation between the various branches of engineering is not so sharply dehned that we may with security lay out the boundaries of each and place dennitely a given piece of work in its proper sphere. It follows that we must all have a knowledge of the branches allied to our chosen one, that we may see its relation to the whole and be able to estimate or at least allow for the effect of the other fields upon our own. The very inten- siveness of specialization tends to minimize the importance and preclude any con- sideration of these other branches. Entirely aside from these aspects comes the question of the possibility of the leading of the good life -a state of being which includes the liberal. cultural side of life as well as the prosaic technical. Unfortunately there exists no yard- stick with which we can measure the value of a liberal education-no gage by which to evaluate the returns to us of efforts expended along these Lines. A student is very apt to chafe at the requirements of an engineering school which demands apparent unessentials such as languages, literature, history, economics, and the like, if, indeed, he does not forsake the school entirely in favor of one applying itself more directly, as he considers it, to his interest. This again is in line with the idea of specialization, the application of one's whole self to a predetermined occupation to the exclusion of other worth-while though not directly applicable interests. Since his student days comprise the molding period of the engineer, it is- then that he has his best opportunity of laying the founda- tions of a well rounded out life and that school best serves the student which gives him the chance to make the most of his opportunity. The student merging into the engineer is next likely to carry with him the influences of hi-s formative period, and if now he should decide to specialize along a certain line, these influences may combat the tendency toward the abnegation of the good life which is inherent in the very quality of specialization. It would appear then that specialization tends to make one move in rather a narrow groove. Certainly the benefits accruing to the individual are not as apparent as those recurring to society as a whole as a result of his efforts. And yet there is something admirable in his splendid isolation. He lives, as it were, in a world of his own making, the essentials of a difficult, involved mental task now clearly lambent to him in the rehections of a flame kindled by his own efforts. To be a master of one thing worth while, to possess the ability to do that thing better than anyone else, to live with it constantly and further it along until it results in another boon to mankind-these are values of no mean order of magnitude. Wfhether we wish to specialize along any line is a question each of us must decide for himself, undoubtedly circumstances, opportunities, and abilities play a large part in the determination of our destinies, yet withal the will to do also becomes a powerful force when combined with the industry to support the will. ' H. F. S. Tzwuiy-tlzree

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The 1934 COLUMBIA ENGINEER becunh Bear 01211155 CHEMICAL ENGINEERS Arthur George Appelboom Everett Auer Myron A. Coler Sidney A. Corren YVilliam Franklin Cothran Vincenzo S. de Marchi Charles B. de Maya Paul William Garbo John C. Kalbach Norman Fulton Linn Gaetano C. Marcotrigiano john I. Morrisroe Lester B. Pope, Ir. A. Niles Shoening Charles H. Sivan Albert UI. Wfasmuth CI VIL ENGINEERS Burleigh Boyd Richard Hazen Gerard Matthew I-Ieslin Theodore deF. Hobbs John Elmer Lahti George 'W. Langmus Theodore R. Lohr Thomas P. Quilty Vincent I. Ricigliano Mariano N. Sinacori George Henry Spath George S. Stringer Frederick C. Tonetti Frank D. Zuzzolo ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS John Henry Bose Odin V. Carlson Charles Albert Castillo -I. Paul Frampton J. Edward Greengard, Ir. 'William I-I. Kehrer Frederick A. Lindley, Ir. T-zveiily-fire Taft Mardirossian ,Iulius Masheroni Emanuel Maxwell Gustave Natapoff Roger C. Norton Dale Pollack Valentine P. Rader john A. Rado Alfred Skrobisch Dimitri Soussloff Frederick Charles Spellman Rinaldo V. Taborelli Alford L. Wloods INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERS Frederick VVilliam Arnold Philip Eugene Fisher Arthur Mitchel Herman von Plonski Arthur C. Vlfilliams Arthur S. M. XV ood MECHANICAL ENGINEERS Irving .Ioseph Britz Frank E. Fowler VVilliam Geoghegan Wlilliam Pierson Hammond .Iohn T. Huels Wfilfred Julius Kinderman Sidney Rosen XV alter Scheel Morris A. Shriro William LI. Smith Wlilliam A. Wfilson METALLURGICAL ENGINEER Sidney VVilson Poole MINING ENGINEERS Arthur Beyer Robert D. Lilley Wfalter E. Scheer