Alumni Magazine - Fall 2008 - (Page 6) FROM THE ALUMNI CHAIR Reflections on Roll Call By Bill Todd, IM 71 “It was important to me then, and it is now, that I was in the game, no matter how modest. I liked to get the little card acknowledging the gift, with the notice in the corner indicating the number of consecutive years. I appreciated the sense of belonging, even with scant knowledge and awareness of how the funds were used or what the true impact of the aggregated small gifts could be.” Like many new Tech graduates, I had pretty ambivalent feelings about my first solicitation from Roll Call within weeks of my graduation (finally) in the spring of 1971. I felt like I had been getting “the shaft” for five years with a litany of personal abuses ranging from closed-out registration in the Old Gym to drownproofing, from surly clerks in the Bursar’s Office to the cold rain and perpetual west wind while walking up “the Hill,” from sitting behind a post in the RAT section at Grant Field to a professor who erased his calculus equations on the board with one hand as he wrote with the other. I was not sure at all that I was interested in voluntarily turning over another red cent to Georgia Tech. Even though tuition was only $125 per quarter in the late ’60s and gasoline was only 31 cents per gallon, my several part-time jobs only paid $2 per hour. I was finished with college and not inclined to give Tech any more of my money. I actually had to drop out one quarter because I ran out of money to pay even that very low tuition. As the first person in my extended family to have the benefit of higher education and the oldest of nine children, I was responsible for my own expenses. My hardworking father was just too proud to sign the application for student financial aid. Working as a line boy fueling airplanes at Fulton County Airport during that quarter out of school was a huge motivator to do whatever it took to achieve an education. And the shift for that quarter, noon to 10 p.m., was surely a killer for my social life. Photo: Gary Meek So I appreciated the chance to get back to school and ultimately to graduate. As I look back over the years, I realize that my earnings have increased 36-fold since I began my first job at Grady Memorial Hospital in 1971. My contributions to Roll Call at Georgia Tech have also increased during those ensuing 37 years — by an astounding 400-fold. What happened? How did that change of heart occur? And when did it change? Certainly I did not know of the complexities of financing public higher education at that tender age. I could not have known the minority role that tuition plays in financing undergraduate education. I did not have an appreciation for the presence of the philanthropic community and the critical role it plays in creating and sustaining community at all levels, especially higher education. It must have been my own deep sense of personal responsibility and a love for history that combined to create in me some awareness of obligation and duty to honor the past by investing in the future. I was aware that Georgians had created Georgia Tech in the late 19th century in order to improve the economy of the state. I knew that my father had wanted to attend Tech, but World War II and B-17s in the China-Burma-India theater had interfered with his plans. I knew that students would follow me and that many would need help from need-based scholarships in order to make it. Contributing to Roll Call became a habit for me, even with several years of very mod- 6 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Fall 2008
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.