Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 364

One of the feature alumni meetings of this period was the New York-New Jersey dinner in December, 1934, arranged in honor of two graduates who were presidents simultaneously of national engineering societies: Harrison P. Eddy, '91, of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and J. Allen Johnson, '05, of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. These two, President Ralph Earle, and Dr. Alfred D. Flinn, '93, were speakers in a symposium on "Engineering Education," before a large group of alumni and preparatory school principles. Another feature of the alumni program was the Fall Homecoming, which was successfully inaugurated in November, 1936.

The year 1936 was one of major significance in the history of the Institute, for it brought the announcement that the five senior members of the faculty were about to retire. Coincident with this announcement came news of several promotions among younger men. Raised to the rank of assistant professor were: Harry B. Feldman, Albert J. Schwieger, Paul R. Swan, Edwin Higginbottom, J. Edward Fitzgerald, Willard E. Lawton, and Edward C. Brown, and later, M. Lawrence Price.

First of the older professors to relinquish teaching duties was Dr. A. Wilmer Duff, at the opening of the 1936 college year. He was then seventy-two. His teaching experience covered a period of forty-seven years, the last thirty-seven of which had been spent at the Institute as head of the departments of Physics and General Science. During this period he had been the author of several textbooks, including the wellknown "Textbook of Physics," 1905. It was to complete an eighth revision of this book that he retired a year before his four contemporaries. Dr. Arthur W. Ewell was appointed as his successor. Dr. George H. Haynes, Dean Zelotes W. Coombs, Dr. Walter L. Jennings, and Prof. Alton L. Smith retired at the end of the 1936-37 college year.

Dr. Haynes, senior member and chairman of the faculty, joined the Institute instruction staff in 1887. He taught Modern Languages for two years, Mathematics for one year,

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Last Modified: Fri Jul 30 11:15:25 EDT 1999