Smoots Celebration at MITReport on the
Smoot 50th Anniversary Celebration
October 3-5, 2008
On Sept 25th, the MIT club of Boston hosted Oliver Smoot and Robert Travenor, author of In Smoot's Ear, a new book about the history of human measurement. After the lecture, our AMs hosted Ollie and Robert for the fall Smoot painting.
The Honorary First Strokes
49 pledge classes later
For those who did not have the opportunity to join us,
here is a summary of the highlights.
For many the celebration started Friday at 99 Bay State Road. A buffet and libations were available throughout the evening, a well-attended event, perhaps eighty to hundred people including hungry undergraduates. I particularly enjoyed meeting the brothers from the late 50s and early 60s whose names and legends I had heard but never before met. Many times during the evening huzzahs erupted at the revelation of the name of the person entering the room…sometimes even former roommates were surprised.
Over thirty brothers attended the alumni meeting Saturday morning; probably the largest attendance ever of an alumni meeting beginning at 9:30 in the morning. There were few signs of life, even from those present, until the coffee arrived at 9:45. Steve Pettinato ‘80, Alumni President, welcomed the throng and we heard from Brandon Suarez ‘09, who reported on the new pledge class of nine (two bids still outstanding), summarized the activities of the undergraduates, and revealed the astonishing fact that the house finished ninth (from the top, not the bottom) in academics the last semester.
Paul Hajian gave a status report on the plans for renovations to 99 Bay State Road, Steve Immerman updated us on MIT’s plans for undergraduates including increased class sizes. He responded to many who felt MIT’s priorities for undergraduate housing lagged those assigned to several academic and research goals. Charlie Frick, our consultant for the Capital Campaign, gave us a view of what to expect over the next year as we organize the Building Committee and Class Agents for the Campaign. The meeting was adjourned as the next event of the weekend, The BBQ and Smoot Plaque Dedication Ceremony, was scheduled to begin at 11:30.
It was a great BBQ, the best I have ever had at an MIT sponsored event, even the potato salad was world-class. I had a chance to talk with George Dotson ‘62, who told me the story behind him the Dotson Lull, the theoretical underpinnings of which are worthy of a Nobel Prize; and, I talked to an alumnus whose name I had not heard clearly and asked what class he was. He responded ’64, which puzzled me… I knew everyone in that class, seniors when I was a freshman, so I figured he must be a Phi Delt who just wanted to be a Lambda Chi, as they always do. I asked his name again and discovered to my great surprise that standing before me was actually, in fact and in person, Jim Schomer. I huzzahed at the revelation.
Link to Club Event and Photos
The Plaque Dedication ceremony was light-hearted, each speech amusing and mercifully short. Speakers including Denise Simmons, the Mayor of Cambridge; Marty Walz, Cambridge State Rep; a young woman from what used to be called the MDC but is now the DCR, Department of Conservation and Recreation (Skip Haase told me of a bridge repaint in the late ‘60s when an MDC cruiser pulled up beside them and yelled… “Cease and desist…and throw that paint in the river!” which they did, and then reappeared 30 minutes later to finish.); and MIT’s own President Susan Hockfield, who actually presented the plaque to Smoot (it will be soon placed on what President Hockfield called the MIT Bridge). Ollie accepted gracefully saying he was thankful the award was not posthumous. Many people went off to clean up the Charles River after the dedication.
The Platters were next at 5 PM in Kresge Auditorium (Only you and you alone…) and the Big ‘50s Party concluded the MIT sponsored part of the celebration with the installation of the international standard Smoot stick (about 67 inches long) and, as the dedication on the plaque reads, “…the smoot has joined the angstrom, meter, and light-year as enduring standards of length.”
Sunday’s brunch concluded the weekend, another good turnout with wives and kids. Steve Pettinato hosted the “retirement” of Ollie’s Lambda number with a short ceremony. Ollie accepted the honor of a green banner, with his number on it, hung in the halls of Lambda Chi, noting again it was good to get the honor while still alive. The brunch ended with Steve Mullinax leading the brothers in song…The Rambler.
Link to Club Event and Photos
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