Alumni Magazine - Summer 2008 - (Page 73) ALMANAC 25 Years rs Ago 50 Years rs Ago 75 Years rs Ago Georgia Tech became the first American university to reach an agreement on a wide-ranging exchange program with the China Association of Science and Technology, which coordinated all scientific and technological issues within the People’s Republic of China. Tech President Joseph M. Pettit and Wang Shuntong, executive vice chairman of the Chinese association, signed the agreement on June 8, 1983. Tom Hall, IE 59, was a senior when selected to be one of 36 American college students participating in the first student exchange program between the Soviet Union and the United States, starting in June 1958. The October 1958 alumni magazine featured his Russian diary, including photos he took that managed to elude the cold-war Russian security and sketches he drew capturing the experience. L.W. “Chip” Robert, CE 1908, was named assistant secretary of the Treasury under Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. He founded Robert and Co., an Atlanta-based engineering and architectural firm, in 1916, and it grew to be one of the leading firms in the nation. A star athlete at Tech, Robert was quarterback of the football team and earned 15 letters in football, baseball, cross country and track and field. The Alumni-Faculty House was named for him in 1979. Chip Robert, right, laughs with Tech alumnus and Hollywood producer Y. Frank Freeman. 100 Years rs Ago After a two-year campaign by a small group of alumni who refused to let it die, the Georgia Tech Alumni Association officially opened for business with a charter signed by Fulton County Superior Court on June 20, 1908. The original mission statement read: “The object of this Association shall be to promote the cause of technical education in Georgia and the South and to establish and maintain scholarships; to aid in the development of the Georgia School of Technology; and to promote the mutual interest of the members of the Association.” GT Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008 73
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