Michigan Technological University - Keweenawan Yearbook (Houghton, MI)

Page 11 text:

It might seem strange to dedicate the yearbook of an engineering college to a blacksmith, to those who know Mr. William Opie, however, such action is quite fitting and proper. On October 25, 1952, Mr. Opie used anvils and hammers in the Michigan Tech forge shop for the last time, after teaching hundreds of pros- pective engineers the almost forgotten art of hand-forming metal during the last 14 years and two months. The retirement of Bill , as everyone calls him, will leave a gap in Tecl1men's hearts as well as in the forge shop, for as long as he has been here Bill has always been well thought of by all those who have had cause to work with him. Techmen could spend hours relating to one another tales of the old gentleman s expert blacksmithing and his always pleasant, sparkling personality. In 1905 Bill left Cornwall, England, where he was born in 1882, and came to New York. While visiting friends in Houghton that year, Bill took a job as an apprentice at the Isle Royale Mine and learnecl blacksmithing under the guidance of William Champion, then foreman of the forge shop. When Mr. Champion retired, Bill became foreman and held that job for ten years, until the mine closed in 1935. In 1912 Bill's stay in Houghton was firmly cemented. In that year he met and married Miss Edith Percella Ripper, a nurse from Liskard, England, who also came to Houghton to visit friends. Bill Opie is retiring with two noble distinctions: That he is probably the oldest active blacksmith in the Copper Country, and that he is one of the most liked men that have had the occasion to be at Michigan Tech, VVe all nope that the following years will be as happy as he has said the last fourteen have been. 7

Page 10 text:

DEDICATION BILL OPIE, forge instructor of Tech for the lost 14 years, 'raking one lost look of The shop he loved so well. 6

Page 12 text:

fqpfzeaiew. . . . , . of the i953 Keweencivvczn op- peors on the following IO pages. In this section we hcive attempted to present ci one-picture represento- tion of the vorious sections to tol- low. This is o cleporture from the usuol form of Keweenowons in thot the vorious divisions of campus life ore presented in somewhat less ostute form ond surroundings than usuol . . .