engineers. This would correct the impression that most people have of technical-both before and after graduation-
being just a bunch of guys who go around with a slide rule stuck in the back pocket of their dungarees.
Three-year Engineers.
In response to a request from the Federal Bureau of Education,
Clarkson students expressed their support of a proposed three-year education to turn out the
badly needed engineers as the country geared for war. Although 50,000 engineers were needed,
only 12,500 were graduated in June from America's 158 engineering schools. This idea,
however, never caught on.
Placement Bureau.
Under the direction of two professors, Jess Davis and Frank Wingate, the
newly formed Placement Bureau corresponded with the numerous company personnel directors
obtaining information on various positions available and assisting Clarkson men to secure those
positions.
Cigarette Poll.
Students polled about their favorite cigarettes listed the major brands as
follows:
Lucky Strike
12.1%
Pall Mall
2.3%
Camel
10.4%
All others
2.9%
Philip Morris
8.0%
No particular
9.8%
Chesterfield
6.9%
Pipe, cigars only
3.4%
Old Gold
2.9%
Don't smoke
41.3%
Ham Radio.
After a particularly heavy snowstorm had felled telephone and telegraph lines, on
Friday, March 15, ham radio operators began to send and receive messages, finally linking
Potsdam with the rest of the country. Bob Thompson in the Karma House operating W8QJU
contacted W8CPJ in Oneida operated by Lambert Chapin '38. These two, operating a triangular
loop with Bud Cohn operating W8RZX on Main Street, set up the linkages for messages from
Potsdam to Brooklyn and North Carolina. Heavy snow clinging to the antennas prevented the
messages from reaching as far as usual, so a series of other ham stations relayed the messages
up and down the Atlantic seaboard.
Who's Who.
Seven Clarkson men were chosen for the 1940 edition of
Who's Who Among
American Universities and Colleges
: Paul Benoit, Robert Durfee, Lester Broekhuizen, Leroy
Chellis, Charles Wheelock, Edward Palmenberg, and Raymond Brown.
Student Killed.
Robert Smith, Auburn, was killed in an accident during a snowstorm near his
home in Auburn. He and another student were in a car which collided with a bus owned by
Cayuga Omnibus Corporation about two and a half miles east of Auburn. Snow was drifting at
the time of the accident and apparently neither driver could see well. Smith's car was coming
around a bank of snow on the highway when it sideswiped the bus. A second Clarkson student,
William Holben, Skaneateles, was injured in the accident.
All-girl Band.
Playing for the Junior Prom in April, the Coquettes Orchestra, featuring Viola
Smith, drummer, was the first all-girl aggregation to appear in the North Country. Considered
the best all-girl band in the country at the time, this group had appeared in several Warner
Brothers musical shorts, and in New York City theaters.
