MSM/UMR/MS&T graduates

Discussion in 'New Member Introductions' started by w3hodoug (Doug Hughes RIP 03/24/2021), Sep 1, 2008.

  1. w3hodoug (Doug Hughes RIP 03/24/2021)

    w3hodoug (Doug Hughes RIP 03/24/2021) 2008 Engineer of the Year Frisco.org Supporter

    Paroled from Rolla in 1963 with a BSEE from MSM - my mug shot was in the alumni magazine last winter due to an alumni service award presented at Homecoming in October 2007.

    However, Ken Wulfert had his on the cover once. He's hard to top.

    How many remember the HO layout in the sub basement of Old Met?

    Doug
     
  2. meteor910

    meteor910 2009 Engineer of the Year Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    I remember it! Visited it, but not often enough. I was just getting started in HO during my MSM years. I don't know why I didn't join and get active in the club - it would have been good for me I'm sure.

    What happened to it? Do they still have a RR club at MU S&T?

    Ken
     
  3. w3hodoug (Doug Hughes RIP 03/24/2021)

    w3hodoug (Doug Hughes RIP 03/24/2021) 2008 Engineer of the Year Frisco.org Supporter

    The next time any of you are on campus, go to the second floor of the Havener Center and check out the fantastic painting of 1522 on its last trip through Rolla with Don Wirth at the throttle.
     

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  4. tim gungoll

    tim gungoll Member

    Class of 1994 in Petroleum Engineering and Geology and Geophysics. I never saw the layout. It was probably long gone by the time I got there. Rolla really seems like a cross-roads city. Some of my ancestors enlisted there for the Union and it was one of the last Frisco passenger routes if I remember the thread correctly on that. Now there appears to be a number of alumni present here. It is a small world.
     
  5. tim gungoll

    tim gungoll Member

    Why do I know the name Don Wirth? I was active in Republican politics while I was there. Is he still around and what did he do?
     
  6. w3hodoug (Doug Hughes RIP 03/24/2021)

    w3hodoug (Doug Hughes RIP 03/24/2021) 2008 Engineer of the Year Frisco.org Supporter

    Don is active on this web site as Frisco1522. He was chief mechanical engineer for the 1522 project a few years ago and has been active in the FMIG since day one. He's not an alumni of Rolla, but knows it well. His dad was an engineer on the Eastern Divison through Rolla.

    The college has changed a lot since I went. It was tough back then too. I had to have 148 hours for a BS, plus 8 more for manditory Army R.O.T.C. Those were real hours with 1 for 3 in labs. We had Saturday-morning 7:30 classes as freshmen. Few instructors had PhD's back then.

    But I didn't have to take surveying - the first of the EE classes to miss it. In retrospect, I should have taken it anyway. It's a useful skill, made much easier with lasers and GPS.

    Doug
     
  7. tim gungoll

    tim gungoll Member

    I had surveying with a one-armed kodger for an instructor. I can't remember his name. He graded it hard but I am glad I took it.
     
  8. meteor910

    meteor910 2009 Engineer of the Year Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    As a chemical engineering student, I escaped the need to take the surveying course. I had a good high school friend who was a civil engineer, however - he was out surveying the campus it seemed all the time. That has to be one of the most thoroughly surveyed pieces of real estate in the USA!

    They did make us take one semester of mechanical drawing, which I am very glad I took. All engineers should be able to create, and read, an engineering drawing. I wonder if they still have that course requirement today? Probably all computer based now. We were all pencil, ink and drawing linen! Ah, the good old days!

    Ken
    MSM, BS ChE, 1964
     
  9. tim gungoll

    tim gungoll Member

    Jake was the first name of that surveying instructor. We had to take mechanical drawing in the early 90s. I also started using AutoCad as a part of one of my classes and was able to get a copy at student rate, which was still expensive. My favorite class was a manufacturing processes class in which we did metal castings and machine shop milling. It was like a woodshop class except we worked with aluminum and other metals instead of wood. I really don't think there is a much better place to get a great education and learn real-life skills than UMR. The one downside was that I was always near the top of my class in mathematics everywhere else I had been. At Rolla I was a B- student in math and happy to get that. The attrition rate there was one of the highest in the country if I remember right. Those first year classes either made you or broke you. Somehow I survived and am a better man for it.
     
  10. meteor910

    meteor910 2009 Engineer of the Year Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    I fully agree with Tim's comments. I really matured in my four years at MSM. I still have a picture of "Joe Miner" above my desk.

    Our first week there was Freshman orientation week, Sept 1960. The Chemical Engineering Department chairman, Dr. Dudley Thompson (one of the most inspirational people I ever met), assembled all the freshman ChE class in the big auditorium in the chemical engineering building, called G-6 back then. He had everyone stand up and introduce themselves to four people - the person on his left, his right, to the front and to the rear. He then said - "If you persevere and graduate as a BS-ChE from our department, the odds suggest those four people you just met will not." He said he just wanted to get our attention. He did! He also proved to be about correct. About 20%-25% made it.

    Ken
     
  11. tferk

    tferk Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Doug -- finally saw your note and acted!

    BS Metallurgical Engineering 1993. Began in 1987, one month after they tore down the Frisco station in Rolla. During college did co-op stints for US Bureau of Mines in Rolla, and Noranda Aluminum in New Madrid. USBofM got me along the Lead Line south of Cuba, and into Doe Run's Viburnum and Casteel lead mines, the Buick smelter, and Doe Run's smelter at Herculaneum (destination of all those Frisco gons of lead concentrate.) While working for Noranda, lived in apartment in Sikeston next to Chaffee Sub allowing me to keep tabs on train ops under BN Green. Got to explore old Frisco haunts such as Cape Girardeau, Lilbourne, Malden, etc. Later shared house in Morehouse, another Frisco town.

    Did what I could along the Rolla Sub in the post-merger era. Hiked often up the cliffs along Dixon Hill and waited for the one daylight westbound and/or eastbound freight. On nice days sometimes would sit under that large tree at the east end of Dillon siding and study while waiting for a train. Caught most of the 1522 break-in and excursion trips, and tried to capture as much of what was left along the line at the time. Canoed the Gasconade under the bridge at Jerome. Hiked the entire line between Rolla and Newburg (how about a thread on that cut west of Sills with all the UMR alumni names carved into it?!) Got several visits in at Ft Leonard Wood...the civilian RR engineer was diabetic and could be bribed with a gallon of sugar-free ice cream. My friend got a cab ride there, but I could never connect between a hectic class schedule and their infrequent trips. Did get run of the equipment for photos.

    After graduation moved to Beaumont, TX, and a job at a steel mill. Moved from technical side to operations side, then jumped ship to an aerospace forging company in Houston. Not much Frisco down here!

    Ted's Frisco related tidbits:

    -- Mother's side of family owned land at Rosedale and sold it to the Frisco for their terminal there. To this day, my family has a float in the annual K.C. St. Pat's Parade with "Rosedale Irish" proudly displayed somewhere on it.

    -- Spent first few years of my life in a house near Dodson, subject of another thread here.

    -- Later moved to Harrisonville, another Frisco town (Blair Line and Leaky Roof) and grew up there, actually not far from the unincorporated burg of Daugherty on the Leaky Roof.

    -- One of the toughest decisions I ever had to make: Interviewed for a co-op job with Testing Services Division, operator of the former Frisco laboratory in Springfield. They did all the lube oil & fuel testing, failure analysis, accident investigation, etc. under contract for BN. Had a great tour of the facility, and while conversing with the manager, asked about the cause of a recent unit coal train derailment near St. James. Pulled out a few color photos I had taken illustrating the failure point (broken truck frame) and the manager enthusiastically dug out the investigation report. Seems they were asked to investigate the failure, but had not seen the actual derailment site. In summary, hit it off and was offered a job. Would have had run of the diesel shop and other facilities. Unfortunately, I was attempting to pay for tuition and had a substantially higher job offer in southeast Missouri. Tough, but after getting out of the Black Hole debt free, it was the right decision.

    Still haven't adjusted to name change from UMR to MIST. My colleague calls is MOIST.
    However, I still constantly meet people in the metals & materials industries who know what "ROLLA" means when they ask where you went to school. It may not be in the Big 10, but it carries a lot of weight in the engineering world.
     
  12. w3hodoug (Doug Hughes RIP 03/24/2021)

    w3hodoug (Doug Hughes RIP 03/24/2021) 2008 Engineer of the Year Frisco.org Supporter

    I've experienced the same during a 42-year engineering career. Rolla grads seem to do well. Here's a little bio for Dick Paul, who was a freshman my senior year. http://www.af.mil/bios/bio.asp?bioID=6705 I could tell he was pretty bright. He played flute in the band and piano in the dance band and combo. I was in the trumpet section. We've stayed in touch.

    Yes, getting through that college was a feat. Six from my high school class started @ MSM - only two of us graduated.

    Doug
     

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