colleges in the nation could claim that half of their entering class graduated in the top 10
percent of their high school classes. Clarkson was one of those schools. Thirty-one were
valedictorians and 10 were salutatorians. A record number of 186 were women, representing a
jump of 50 from the previous class.
In their SAT scores, the mean for math was 638 and for verbal was 527, placing them in
the top 15 percent of college-bound students nationwide. This class came from 18 different
states, including Florida, California, and Virginia, and several foreign countries; 32 were sons
or daughters of Clarkson alumni, an all-time high.
Mini-Baja Car.
A group of students, mostly mechanical and industrial engineering majors,
tested their classroom theories by entering the Texas Mini-Baja competition. John Liechti,
Russell Lewis, John Danek, and Scott Fowler competed at the University of Texas at Arlington
against cars developed by engineering students from across the United States and Mexico.
The object of the competition was to design a vehicle able to withstand tests of low- and
high-speed maneuverability, endurance, and drag racing. All cars were powered by eight-
horsepower motors enabling them to reach speeds of about 40 mph while attaining gas
efficiency of up to 90 miles per gallon. In maneuverability, Clarkson's car finished second in
the 20-team field, and tenth overall scoring.
ICRN Became WCKN.
ICRN-TV changed its name officially to WCKN-TV, effective July 1,
1980. That change was made to avoid confusion caused by the association with the name
ICRN-TV with the then defunct Inter-College Radio Network. By adopting the call letters that
began with "W," the station became standardized with other broadcast stations in the Eastern
United States; the "CKN" portion of the new name represented a contraction of the name
Clarkson.
Prof. Goodrich Murdered.
Chemistry Professor Frank C. Goodrich was found at 9:00 a.m. on
Saturday, November 15, by a cleaning woman in his home at 57 Elm Street in Potsdam with a
single fatal stab wound through his heart. Goodrich, 57, was found fully clothed on his bed; the
words "the horror" were written on the bedroom wall in three-inch letters of blood.
Arrest warrants were obtained by the police for Goodrich's son, Glenn, on charges of
murder and of kidnapping his mother and driving her to Albany where he released her. There
were no signs of a struggle at the death scene, or that Mrs. Goodrich had been hurt during her
imprisonment. Glenn subsequently was convicted of the murder and sent to prison at Marcy,
N.Y.
Goodrich had been a faculty member at Clarkson since 1965.
ACS Regional Meeting.
More than 800 chemists from 38 states and 17 foreign nations
attended the Tenth Northeast Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) held
on the Clarkson campus between June 30 and July 7. More than 400 previously unpublished
papers were presented including 43 papers by Clarkson faculty.
Topics of local interest included papers on environmental chemistry of the Great Lakes
and Adirondacks. One paper on contaminant pollution in Oswego County waste disposal sites
touched off a week-long controversy in the greater Syracuse area.
