Skateboarding Contest.
Clarkson's First Annual Skateboarding Contest was a huge success.
Sponsored by the recreation department, it was rained out on Saturday, but was held on Sunday,
September 18, with a large turnout for both the downhill and slalom races.
The slalom course was run off a ramp set up beside the gym. Racers were to weave
through soda cans in the fastest time possible. They were allowed to hit three cans without
penalty, but were penalized one-tenth of a second for each can hit after three. Each competitor
was allowed three runs, with his or her best time being the one entered for competition. The top
six contestants then made three more runs to determine the winner. Steve Newman, Jim
Erickson, and Mike Martell took the top three spots.
In the freestyle competition, each contestant had two minutes to perform as many stunts
as possible to rack up points. Eight contestants were chosen for the finals competition, and the
top three winners received trophies. Jim Erickson, Hal Fletcher, and Paul Johnson were the top
three winners. Mark Driscoll of Equippe Sports, Lake Placid, was the judge.
Phalanx.
President Plane was tapped into Phalanx, along with seniors Stephen Churan, Harold
Glasser, Matthew Horris, Margaret L. Mangan, Robert R. Rich, Brian P. Shields, Donald R.
Tadio, David A. Taylor, and David W. Valentine. Juniors tapped included Michael D. Brother,
Sandy Demeree, David E. Rogers, Judith Steciak, and Robert R. Ziek, Jr. (See Appendix II)
"Last Lecture" Series.
Randy Lamson, director of student life programming, polled the
student body to select several professors to deliver their "last lectures." These lectures were to
be presented is if these faculty members were actually delivering the last lecture of their careers
after a lifetime of teaching. Professor Bradford Broughton, chairman of the department of
humanities, was chosen to deliver the first lecture. He was followed by Professor Egon
Matijevic of the chemistry department and Professor Joseph Estrin of the chemical engineering
department. All three men earlier had won the Distinguished Teaching Award at Clarkson.
Broughton, appearing in lecture hall 111 of the Science Center on February 16, 1977,
wearing his purplish-hued PhD academic regalia from the University of Pennsylvania (which
his wife calls his "Moby Plum Suit"), demonstrated that the humanities clearly are fun. On the
assumption that he was speaking in 1991 as he was completing 36 years of teaching at
Clarkson, Professor Broughton characterized the humanities as the
mis
behavioral sciences, the
areas that depict strife and disaster. While the study of humanities is not useful in the social
worker's definition of the word
useful
, it is of constant use to those who respect, enjoy, and
require the evidences of civilization. Literature, for example, is peopled with delicious
characters, some saintly, some villainous, but all fascinating. In them, he said, "We see
fragments of ourselves and of others around us."
Concluding his valedictory, he declared that not only teachers, but everyone must be
truly interested in the material they deal with. Interest engenders enthusiasm that leads to
eagerness; and it is this condition that both demands and creates the energy to accomplish one's
goals. Pervading everything, however, must be a sense of humor, for boredom and lassitude are
destroyed by humor. He ended with the remark, "I pray that each of you derive as much
pleasure and satisfaction from your own pursuits as I have from mine."
Matijevic, resplendent in a pale blue dinner jacket that set off the snow-white hair he
would have acquired by 1991, continued the series two weeks later to a crowded hall.
"Dreams," he began, "are most important when one is young." His two dreams as a youth were
to come to the United States from his native Yugoslavia and to succeed in an academic career.
