Alumni Magazine - Summer 2008 - (Page 6) FEEDBACK Gridiron Success You can’t imagine how excited the alumni are about having a new football coach. Many of my friends agree that there should be a contractual clause for beating Georgia in the coach’s contract. Bonuses for a win and two strikes and you’re out. I loved reading your article introducing Paul Johnson, the new commander and chief of our gridiron team. But there was one thing missing. As an engineering grad, I know Tech’s successes stem from the use of intellect and engineering — not brawn. It seems that your article touched on this in Coach Johnson’s career but never outright said it. Bobby Ross took what was not the best talent and won a national title on his knowledge of how to use what we have to win. He engineered it. I hope Coach Johnson can do as the others have done in your same issue: Use engineering to win. “I’m a helluva engineer,” as the song goes, so let’s live up to the reputation. Eric Broadwell, AE 85 Roswell, Ga. End of an Era When I received the Spring ALUMNI MAGAZINE announcing that President Wayne Clough was leaving Tech to head the Smithsonian Institution, I looked up the issue that announced when he started as president. The Fall 1994 edition read: “The New Era Begins.” It was interesting to me how the two magazines dovetailed together. In one he talked about a strategic plan “What an amazing man and what a unique time in the life of Georgia Tech. … Dr. Clough will be remembered as a hardworking, gifted leader who was very approachable and always had time for students. I’ll miss my next-door neighbor and good customer.” —Tommy Klemis that “needs to be linked with an overview as to what the role and future of our institution is within Georgia and the nation.” The last issue covered his remarkable accomplishments and legacy. What an amazing man and what a unique time in the life of Georgia Tech. When the Olympics brought the world’s focus to Atlanta and Georgia Tech, one of our own became the visionary, he gathered the right people to expand our campus with state-of-the-art facilities and he took our focus globally. He has the gift of bringing people together in that he has walked the campus as a student himself, been a teacher, a dean and provost. Dr. Clough is one of my health-conscious customers. He always orders a chargrilled chicken salad. He’s been a Junior’s Grill customer since the early 1960s. I don’t know what he ordered back then, but I’m sure he didn’t care about fat grams as much. Dr. Clough will be remembered as a hardworking, gifted leader who was very approachable and always had time for students. I’ll miss my next-door neighbor and good customer in the Carnegie Building. Tommy Klemis, Cls 71 Owner, Junior’s Grill Bragging Rights I had the distinct pleasure of meeting President Clough at the reception for the 30-year celebration of the Georgia Tech Research Institute in Huntsville, Ala., on Feb. 26. I had done some remote sensing Earth atmosphere work with them in the early ’90s and was extremely impressed. I felt I could not fail to attend the reception. It was a fun and wonderful time of remembrance for many. Now I learn that Dr. Clough is changing responsibility — leaving Georgia Tech to go to the Smithsonian, another institution close to my heart. Because of the wonderful things he has done for Tech and the duration of his time as president, he has absorbed through osmosis the heritage of this great Institute even as he helped make it better. And it is that heritage he will carry with him on his journey to the Smithsonian to help make it a far better national asset. I have some family connections who are University of Kansas graduates and they constantly tell me how great their basketball team is. As the final games were played with the Kansas Jayhawks taking the crown, I could hardly hear myself think in the face of all the bragging that was going on. But the arrival of the GEORGIA TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE with Dr. Clough’s portrait and comment about taking the top job at the Smithsonian gave me an idea. I scanned the cover and sent a copy to them. I told them we did not win the national basketball championship; we won, instead, the Smithsonian! Jim Kennedy, AMath 61 Huntsville, Ala. Photo: Gary Meek Fact 14 False The Tech-Navy football game that you mentioned as fact 14 of the “100 Facts and Feats, Triumphs and Tragedies” in the Spring issue was played on Oct. 21, 1944, not on Oct. 31, 1943. Edmund A. Waller, IM 53 Gainesville, Ga. 6 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008
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