Memories of a champ

The championship memories of Mike Simpson [Bus '63] in the last issue brought to mind this memory:

In March 1963, UC entered the final game of the NCAA basketball championship after having defeated Ohio State in '61 and '62. Three Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity brothers decided to drive to Freedom Hall in Louisville that afternoon to see if we could get into the game against Loyola of Chicago.

We had very little cash among us, and scalpers were illegally hawking the $7.50 tickets (imagine!) for prices as high as $50. (Yes, times have changed.)

We had decided to turn back to Cincinnati when we saw a tall, handsome black man holding forth on the circle drive before a group of young children. "I'm Cassius Clay," he boasted. "I'm beautiful, and I'm going to whomp Sonny Liston."

1970 revisited again

Upon reading the letter in the last issue from Tom Hower [Eng '71, about Vietnam protests], emotions and memories came to me. I remember, at 19 years of age on April 30, 1970, sitting on a bench in the quadrangle watching the march and people shouting at me "apathy" as they walked by. The next day, I sat on the hill overlooking the bridge to the Tangeman center. Protesters were speaking anti-war messages most of the day.

As a first-year pharmacy student, I was overwhelmed. I found out later that the dean would not allow the march to pass through the pharmacy building; senior students were posted at all entry doors by the dean to block movement.

I remember also a short time later being at the fraternity house watching the TV program with the lottery draft. It was a sad time for our great country with students and soldiers losing their lives. However, I was too young then to realize that it was a great time to experience our freedom of speech and how the people of this great nation can make a difference when so many others disliked what they were doing.

I am 60 years old now and glad I did not miss that time in history. Good and bad -- hippies, music, Woodstock, Vietnam War, protests and the college experience -- will forever be in my mind. God bless the U.S.A.

Frank Baldwin, Phar '77
Cincinnati 

More aerospace alumni

I enjoyed the October magazine featuring NASA and activities of UC alumni at the Johnson Space Center. Living in the area, we all know NASA employees, and it’s nice to know UC graduates are among them helping to develop cutting-edge technology and its application in the most difficult of environments.

One of those UC grads is my son Charles Hill [Eng '92] who worked for NASA as a contractor from 1999 to 2010 and since then as a NASA employee. He worked on techniques to repair damaged heat shield tiles and now is working on composite materials that may be used in future space capsules for deep-space exploration.

UC alumni in all walks of life can be proud of those who are a part of NASA's accomplishments. Thanks for your story.

Lauren Hill, Eng '65
Seabrook, Texas

I noticed the list of "10 aerospace grads who took flight" in the latest issue. I would like to indicate one more who should be given recognition.

I graduated in 1959 from what was then called the aeronautical engineering. One of my classmates was Karl Klute, who became an Air Force pilot. He flew in Vietnam, was shot down, and his body was never recovered. If I recall correctly, his wife told me that he had been notified of acceptance into the astronaut program and had been given orders to return after his next mission. Needless to say, he never returned.

Perhaps a separate article could be written for aero graduates who gave their lives so that you and I can enjoy the freedoms we have.

Allan Schanzle, Eng '59, M (A&S) '61, D (A&S) '64
Columbia, Md.

No one knew ...

Congratulations on the exciting and colorful October edition of the magazine, all the way from the breathtaking cover to the photo of Neil Armstrong on the last page. Being a space and astronomy enthusiast and a retired architect, I found several articles to be terrific.

Reading articles dating back to my UC days, it occurred to me that no aeronautical engineers were aware of the fact that an architectural student, myself, was busy working away at his senior thesis for a base on the moon. I was somewhat the laughing stock of my fellow students, all of who were designing various types of “earth” buildings, including a synagogue by one Michael Graves, [DAAP '58, HonDoc '82], I believe. After these 53 years, I still have all but one of the original design boards for the base. Although I contributed nothing to science with the thesis, it sure enlivened my own interest in space and space travel.

Thomas Busemeyer, DAAP '58
Cincinnati

See photos of Busemeyer's design

Disjointed aesthetics

My time at UC was well spent. I got an excellent education and grew to have great affection for the school and city. While distance makes it difficult, I try to visit every chance I get.

I agree that the school seems to have made considerable progress in athletics, academics and physical plant. While I see many improvements and some where I can look the other way, I do wish to express a small note of contrarianism.

I get the feeling that buildings seem to be in some architecture contest from hell to see which can be the most outlandish. The problem is there is no “whole,” no symmetry, no continuity. I do not advocate sameness, but the stark slap in the face from disjointed and the unrelated seems to praise the bizarre rather than any concept of overall design aesthetics.

While I marvel at the football team on national TV, I always cringe at the stark white Lindner building with heavy crosshatched X's looming over lovely Nippert. The student union addition is so glaring, inside and out, as to remind me of a shopping mall food court. And while I like the added open space, I wish it had a more organic feel and not as if it were part of an office park.

The great defenders of the anything-new-is-perfect crowd will scream in indignation, but if they are open-minded and introspective, they may see the point, at least in part.

Russ Roach, M (A&S) '71
Tulsa, Okla.

Design seriously flawed

Letters about the Sander Hall implosion were interesting; however, I was upset that UC archivist Kevin Grace brushed off comments that it was known, even before construction, the building was unsuitable for human habitation. The architect’s design of Sander Hall was seriously flawed, I believe.

When the plans were reviewed by the Cincinnati Fire Department and the Cincinnati Building Department in 1968, both departments ruled that the building did not meet fire codes and building codes. Rather than changing the design to make the building safe, the architect and top UC officials went to city hall and requested that city council grant an emergency ordinance for a waiver from the codes. In a 1991 newspaper article, professor Ahment Aktan stated the dormitory lacked fire safety and had unsafe engineering design.

Sander Hall was an expensive lesson for Cincinnati.

Herb Pahren, Eng '52
Cincinnati

Editor’s note: The emergency ordinance basically enabled UC to construct the hall with non-operative windows because "opening of windows in the structure would present a safety hazard in a building of such height and would interfere with and defeat the operation of the force fresh air ventilating system," the ordinance stated. City council also placed additional safety regulations on UC, then petitioned the state to add those safeguards to the state building code, which already permitted non-operative windows. In addition, city council agreed to change the City Building Code to allow the same type of construction in similar buildings, as reported in the News Record on Jan. 27, 1970.

In the 1991 article, civil engineering professor Ahment Aktan claimed that Sander Hall was constructed in a method that had been used in more than one-fourth of buildings standing 10-30 stories tall in the Midwest and Eastern United States -- a method in which floor slabs would pile on top of each other if a gas explosion occurred in the basement or a runaway truck hit the building.

Watch the Sander Hall implosion, and read many related memories