Worcester Polytechnic Institute - Peddler Yearbook (Worcester, MA)

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THE AFTERMATH ‘Shrim V “A. j: era ARTHUR JULIUS KNIGHT Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering and Super¬ intendent of Buildings and Grounds B.S., W. P. L, 1907; Instructor in Civil Engineering, 1910-16; Assistant Professor, 1916-17; Assistant Profes¬ sor, and Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds, 1917-. “Has Professor Knight been around?,” and if the odor of burning rags penetrates the atmos¬ phere, the answer is “Yes,” for then his inevit¬ able cigar will soon come strutting into view. Perhaps no Civil will ever forget “Shrimp’s” characteristic poses, either leaning against a black-board or perched up on a stool in the drawing room. And he surely has versatility. He teaches railroads, stereotomy, astronomy or what have you? It has been said that “Shrimp” can teach any¬ thing in Tech’s curriculum. Rut no matter how hard he drives us, he does all the problems him¬ self, which consoles us a little. FRANCIS JOSEPH ADAMS Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering B.S., W. P. I., 1904, and E.E., 1906; Graduate Assistant in Electrical Engineering, 1901-06; Instructor, 1907-17; Assistant Professor, 1917-. Whoever gave Prof. F. J. the nickname “Rip’ must have been fond of antithesis, because “Rip” never ripped anything in his life, either of language or of pants. He is a little diffi¬ dent, quite apologetic and absolutely harmless. (He wouldn’t even make faces for fear of hurt¬ ing somebody’s feelings). But however harm¬ less he may be, he is never vacillating—we have yet to meet a man clever enough to pass his Transmission course without doing a big gob of honest work. “Rip” is primarily an electrical man; he has even worn spurs and scaled the dizzy heights of electric light poles in his day. He once told us that we, too, ought to start our careers as line¬ men’s helpers and work up to be Directors of the company, but we’ve decided we’d rather start in as directors. 24

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fV r THE AFTERMATH CLARENCE ALBERT PIERCE Assistant Professor of Theoretical Electrical Engineering B.S., Wesleyan, 1902, and M.S., 1904; Ph.D., Cornell, 1908; Assistant in Physics, Wesleyan, 1902-04; In¬ structor in Electrical Engineering, Cornell, 1904-11; Assistant Professor of Theoretical Electrical Engineer¬ ing, W. P. I., 1911-. Picture to yourself a portly, bespectacled gen¬ tleman delivering, with the help of numerous unintelligible diagrams, a lecture on armature reaction to forty or fifty sweating, note-taking churls in a room upstairs in the E. E. Building. All of a sudden he stops lecturing and starts off on a lengthy and utterly irrelevant harangue on some such subject as “How to he successful, though married. Gone are all thoughts of ar¬ mature reaction, yea even until the following Wednesday, when a soul-rending quiz reminds the poor student that he should have gotten the lecture which C. A. Pierce forgot to give. “Doc” H K t N0 “Pop” BAX CHARLES JOSEPH ADAMS Assistant Professor of English A.B., Amherst, 1896; Instructor in Modern Languages, W. P. I., 1908-13; Assistant Professor of English, 1913-. If there are folks who are so busy teaching the details of living that they have forgotten how to live themselves, there are also folks who are like “Pop” in showing us the sunny side of life by their own example rather than precept. “Pop’s” understanding heart could always see why we gazed longingly out of the window on a sunny spring afternoon. He usually romps off with first place as the best liked prof on any student referendum. Through his attitude and personal apprecia¬ tion we have gotten more of the love of good reading and the meaning of literature than we have from anyone else in our lives. 23

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r THE AFTERMATH SAMUEL JAMES PLIMPTON Assistant Professor of Physics Ph.B., Yale, 1905. and Ph.D., 1912; Loomis Fellow. 1905- 06; Assistant in Physics, 1909-12; Instructor, 1912-13; Johns Hopkins, 1913-14; W. P. I., 1914-19; Assistant Professor, 1919-. Plimp has been a boy physicist, an automo¬ bile racer, a pioneer in X-ray work, a radio in¬ ventor, and part author of one of the world standard books in mathematical physics. Once in his father’s cellar he was surprised to see the inverted image of a horse and carriage move across the wall. Nay, Volsted ’tis hut one of his apt personal experience stories to illustrate the point—in this case a pinhole camera effect. No matter how much we wanted to learn about the acceleration of gravity—and we all did—we could always forgive “Plimp” for interrupting the class routine with one of his stories. “Plimp HERBERT FOSTER TAYLOR Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering and, Secretary- Treasurer of the Alumni Association B.S., W. P. I., 1912; Assistant Professor of Civil En¬ gineering, 1920-22; Assistant Professor of Civil Engineer¬ ing, and Secretary-Treasurer of the Alumni Association, 1922-. We didn’t meet “Herb” in any class-room un¬ til our Junior year, when we had Highways. Nevertheless we all felt as though we’d known him for years for he made us feel right at home. His announcement the first day that Highways wasn’t a hard course proved a bitter illusion to certain members of our class. We had him again in Sewerage, but it was as the Alumni Secretary that we know him best. He has probably travelled as far, if not far¬ ther, than anybody in the interests of Tech. We “Herb are looking forward to the day when we can sit Skull 2 AE in at Alumni banquets and listen to “Herb.” 25