Knot Tying.
After the Alumni Reunion on November 29, at the Woodruff Housein Watertown,
Charlie Pohl and Charlie Ward ’02 attended a production of the play,
Hearth and Home.
During
the vaudeville intermission between the second and third acts, an escape artist asked for two
sturdy men from the audience to tie him up with as many intricate knots as they could.
Ward and Pohl volunteer volunteered to show the people what intricate knots and
combinations of ropes engineers could tie. They labored and sweat over this knotty problem
until they felt smugly satisfied that the victim was secure.
Only one minute and 32 seconds later, the victim stood before them, free from all the
ropes. So much for engineering knot tying.
Alumni Role.
Frederick Zapf ’04, secretary of the Alumni Association, later remarked on the
work of the Association in his report to the Alumni:
A return to the once familiar halls reveals to the graduate of five year’s standing, for instance, changes of a
remarkable character, and changes of which he dreamed “in his day”.
The welcome which greets him on his return, however, is not that of a stranger in a strange land. The graduate is
received, rather as the conquering hero, as one who has been making history for the Institution which is now happy to receive
him as an honored guest.
He continued with this interesting observation:
It is now he feels most ashamed to think that in some moment he has imagined that his relation to Alma Mater, the
Institution of his professional birth, ceased when he graduated and left her doors, diploma in hand, to take up his problem in a
busy, pressing world, and to acquit himself honorably in all the battles of life. The graduate sees that as the child bears an
indissoluble relation to the parents, so his relation to Alma Mater is an inseparable one. As once a part of her being and now a
product of her institutional life, his interests are firmly bound to Alma Mater, and his life must henceforth necessarily by given,
in part at least, to strengthen and increase her fullness of life.
It is then that each alumnus stands ready to take up and forward the interests of his college through every available
channel. The Alumni Association feels his influence. The faculty knows of him because he is directing worthy young men to
them for instruction. He is always keeping in touch with every plan of the institution, and his influence and interest work
wonders in its healthy growth and steady advancement.
Another alumnus, Michael L. Stack ’05, wrote in 1912 to describe a common complaint of
college graduates- looking for permanent employment:
I went to Pittsfield immediately after graduation and stayed with the Stanley Co., until February 1907, going from
there to the Consolidated Ry. Co., a trolley subsidiary of the NY, NH & H RR Co., later changed to the title of Connecticut Co.
Remained with this company in Construction Department until Feb. 1909 when the panic had thoroughly ousted our work and
again the department broke up and forced me out into the cold bleak world, as had been the case at Pittsfield. Wandered around
aimlessly for 13 weeks looking for something to do. Finally, in May 1909, I accepted a position as a draftsman with the NY,
NH & H RR and in October of the same year was promoted to Assistant Engineer.
Maurice F. May ’11, made the following interesting observation:
My first year out of college I took up the test work with the GE Co. It was very interesting and varied and seemed to
put in practice a lot of points that I had left in my books as blank theory. In fact, I was somewhat discourage with my lack of
knowledge until one day when a BS in EE asked me what I meant my commutation and did I want the motor to spark? How
thankful I am I’m from Clarkson.
Ray Wiswell ’07, made a helpful suggestion from Fonda, N.Y., after the 1915 banquet in New
York City:
The only suggestion I would like to offer for the [alumni] banquet, however, is that as long as we go to the Big City
for the same, that with the number of fellows living around there they should see that a few of us northerners were given a little
