Who, what, when, why & where?
Imagine opening a publication that comes in the mail and finding your own face staring back at you -- the face you saw in the mirror 56 years ago!
That's what happened when Joseph Thistle Laing (E '48) was reading his Currents newsletter last spring. There between pages 4 and 5 was a little card asking alumni to support the Great Engineering Educators Fund.
"Imagine my surprise," said Laing, "to find an insert showing a picture of me taken long ago in Radio Engineering Lab, supposedly measuring standing waves in an RF cable."
Laing went on to explain that he hadn't seen the photo since 1947 when he was recruited to pose for it. "I was a graduate student in EE under Prof. Everard Williams, and also had classes with fondly remembered Benjamin Teare, Leo Finzi and Ed Schatz, among others," Laing remembers.
Like many others of that era, Laing's education was interrupted by World War II. "I applied and was accepted for Naval officer training after completing my freshman year in 1944, and I returned in 1947 to finish it with an MSEE awarded in 1948," Laing explained.
We sent Laing a copy of the photo and some Great Engineering Educators brochures where his photo appeared on the cover. In his response, Laing said that he was "glad he was able to make, unwittingly, a tiny contribution as your cover boy."
We were, too, Mr. Laing -- and particularly glad that your photo is now identified!
Unfortunately, most of the names of the students who appear in photos from the University Archives are never known. Photos were randomly taken in the university's earlier days without much thought given to documentation for the future.
To help remedy this situation, we thought perhaps you, our alumni, can help us identify some of the students, instructors and classes of yesteryear.
From the Archives
It seems that the more appropriate question might be "What's on Tap?" — but we think this was a class project and we'd love to know more about it.
Can you help us identify these photos? What class is this? Were these students sophomores, juniors or seniors? Do you recognize anyone? Who is the instructor? What were the students doing? When was the photo taken? Where was the photo taken?
Send us email or write to us at the address listed below. Your letter may show up in the next issue of Currents -- and a surprise may show up in your mailbox!