Vernon
Right, that's true. After I got out of the service all of my work--until I graduated--I got
A
on the GI bill.
Q ..
Now you started in electrical and you switched after a year. What inspired you to go into
civil?
Well, I learned more about what the various types of engineering did, and I felt that I was
A
more interested in what civil had to offer. I had a professor in charge of civil engineering,
Dr. [Eldon] Dodge, who pointed out that he had a series of seminars that all of the
students had to take which he talked about professions and just a practical lecture. There
was no course work other than just coming and listening to what he had to say about how
to go about dealing with your profession and deciding on what you want to do, and things
like that.
He pointed out that a lot of graduating engineers actually didn't work in the field they got
their degree in. They would change their mind after they had graduated from college and
because of opportunities or other reasons they would work in a different area then they
actually got their bachelors degree in. Or they would go on and take advanced degrees
in some other type of engineering.
That was really one of the most beneficial courses that I think I had in the whole school--
listening to him talk about how to find a job and where to work if you were a civil
engineer. "Be careful that you don't get into an organization that is run by lawyers and
the engineers are in the back room some place. Be sure that in the organization that the
engineer's role is a prominent role." All that type of thing that you didn't get anywhere
else because he had been in private practice before he became a professor. So he had a
lot of background in that area, and he could provide a lot of good guidance. It got a lot
of us started off in a good direction I think.
Q ..
So you had a lot of practical experience from him, where he had been and the same
problems and that was really critical. Did you find that a lot of your professors had never
been out consulting or working for architect and engineering firms?
Well, the majority of them had not been. We had the head of the department and then
A
there was another one that came in while I was there who was a surveying instructor, who
came from private industry. He had a lot of practical experience that he brought to the
classroom. He taught courses on construction, which was really his course. The
construction industry thought that his students were really great because he gave them so
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