Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2000 - 77

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Tllis installment of "Lore and Legends in USIIT Histol)'" features a member whose llistol)' represents, in a velY real sense,
the Institute's "coming of age." James R. Earle, Jr., or Randy as
he is more commonly known, first heard of SlIT in the
spring of 1965 while a student at Purdue niversity in
Lafayette, Indiana. It seems that Ross Smith, then chair of the
theatre division at Purdue, returned from a meeting at Indiana
niversity in nearby Bloonlington with the first issue of a new
technical theatre journal, wllich he gave to llis young student.
That meeting was the first USIIT conference held outside of
New York City, and that new journal was the inaugural issue of
Theatre Design & Teclm%g)'. For young Randy, tllis was a
galvanizing event. The revelation that there was a professional
association engaged in the development, collection, and dissenlination of technical theatre information was a beckoning
call to which he had to respond. In shon order he wrote to the
SlIT secretalY, Richard Thompson, to become a student
member; the net of the Institute's outreach that had been cast
west of the Hudson River for the first time had snagged a very
important new convert.
For the next few years, Randy's connection with the InstittIle was through its publications. In those years before the establishment of the comnlission structure that we have today,
there were comminees for engineering, arclliteclUre, and performance, among others, and each comnlinee published
newsletters and standards of recommended practice. Randy's
enthusiasm for these documents was still evident as I sat with
him in his office some thirty-five years later and he told me of
his delight in going to the mailbox and finding these treasures.

Richard D. Stephens

After graduate school and two years with the Purdue faculty, Randy left the Midwest in 19 0 for San Jose State niversity where he still teaches today. Thus it was that he was on
hand for the formation of the Northern California Section in
1971 and the 1972 conference in San Francisco the next year.
Although he felt thatllis role in the conference had been relatively nlinor, he evidently caught the eye of president Ned Bowman, who lapped him 10 head one of the newly formed
commissions [Performing Arts Training and Education-the
forerunner of what is now the Education Commission]. In
19 6 he took over the position of vice-president for commissions and served in that capacity until 1982 when he became
the vice-president for relations.
Throughout this period it seemed as though both Randy's
and the InstilUte's development were intertwined, each growing and maturing in 1I1r11. Finally, in 1983, this relationship
came to full fruition. James R. Earle, Jr. became the first
former Sllident member to rise through the ranks of our organization and be elected as the Institute's president.
The future looked bright for both the Institute and its
young, energetic, thirty-eight-vear-old president-elect. The
phenomenal growth in membership and the thriving partnership with our commercial members, exemplified by the rapidly growing trade show, combined to drive Randy's sense of
optimism as he prepared to lead the Institute towards its silver
twenty-fifth anniversary. But there were challenges lurking behind that silver lining. The void left in the national office by the
death of long-time executive secretaI~' Herb Greggs two years
before left the InstilUte with serious issues involving manageT L> & T

000

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2000