Mercy and Mentorship
| Categories: Alumni Celebrations
Russell Fraser, CE 65, was finishing his first year when he decided to give the School of Architecture a try. “That lasted for three quarters, and I dragged my tail back over to Bobby Dodd Way to the Civil Engineering building and begged Dr. Schutz (Director of the School in the 1960s) to readmit me, which he did!” Bill Schutz’s kindness didn’t end there. Two years later, Fraser was called into the director’s office with no explanation given. “With bated breath, I trembled in the waiting room waiting for the bad news (Navy ROTC disqualified? Available for draft? 60-hour catalog no longer sufficient?) I was invited to sit down with him at his conference table where I could see my entire course history laid out. Dr. Schutz looked me in the eye and said, ‘Well young man, I think you have suffered enough. How would you like to graduate this month?’ I have since darkened the halls of several more academic institutions and can say that Dr. Schutz was in a class of his own when it came to looking out for all students, especially for those who needed a little help.”
In 1970, William Bulpitt, ME 70, MS ME 72, became captain of the mechanical engineering team involved in the Clean Air Car Race. Sam Shelton was faculty advisor. “That summer, I had been to the Air Force ROTC summer camp in Charleston and took my final pre-commissioning flight physical,” Bulpitt remembers. “I found out I couldn’t go to pilot school as my left eye had dimmed during my senior year. That limited the possible assignments I could have in the Air Force. The ones I did want required advanced degrees. I talked with Dr. Shelton, and he immediately suggested I go to graduate school and he could help me get a full-ride fellowship. He did it, and I was able to get an educational delay from the U.S. Air Force. I did my thesis on automobile air pollution that involved the construction of a new emissions lab for the ME School. That ended up being one of the more satisfying accomplishments of my career, and certainly one of my biggest achievements at Tech. When I went on active duty at Eglin AFB in Florida, Dr. Shelton had me connect with one of his old colleagues from the Jet Propulsion Lab, and I was able to have a much more meaningful job than I would have had otherwise. These acts of mentoring certainly changed the course of my life and career, in a good way.”
“I wish I could remember the name of the professor I had for CVE mechanics of materials class. He was tough—exam problems had to be all the way right, no partial credit, because ‘the bridge could fall down.’ Quizzes could help you get up to a C, prior to the final. On the final, there were six problems. If you got six right, you got an A. Five right, you got a B, and so on. You could stay as long as you wanted. I needed to get a good grade to keep my GPA up for my scholarship. I brought him my exam in the lobby, and he graded it on the spot. Somehow, I had made a small error on one of the problems, which was going to keep me from getting the higher grade, but he had mercy and motioned for me to sit down at the table next to him and fix my small mistake. Luckily, I was an ME major, so I don’t design bridges now…” –Valerie Maier-Speredelozzi, ME 98
“Tom Michaels taught electromagnetics (a.k.a. ECE 3025 under the old curriculum). He saw that I was struggling and reached out. Myself and a few other students would go to his office to discuss and practice the material after lecture. I still remember he was raising a puppy that was all over us when we were writing on the whiteboard. One class, he told us students that he had had a recent heart attack and was on blood-thinning medication. I remember he had his left hand bandaged from a nick, and I could see blood through it, but he was giving the lecture and writing with his good hand. I greatly admired that with everything he was going through, he was still helping and looking after his students. Later, when I completed and turned in my final exam, he looked me in the eye, shook my hand, and quietly said, ‘I’m glad you made it.’ I found out that he passed in May of 2018. A professor speaking at a different memorial (unrelated to his) posed the question, ‘What is the time constant (in reference to an electrical engineering term) of a person in ECE? When you leave the scene, how long will it be until absolutely no one walking the halls even knows who you were?’ The memories of outstanding instructors and mentors stay with you, and Tom Michaels was one of them for me.” –Blake Carris, EE 14
Sideways the dog was a friend to all. Before tests, students leave pennies on her gravestone for good luck.
