(7-5-2007) The following is an email from Jerry Mericle. Jerry attended Tech in 1956 - 1957. Jerry had the room next to mine on the second floor of Fitch Hall. Notice that Jerry still calls me "Tenderfoot" which is how I was known west of the Mississippi. - Don McKelvey

OK, Tenderfoot- I'll play your silly game................. just as soon as you tell me how to make a posting! I hunted and hunted for a reply link, but came away empty handed. As you can see, my "collitch edjamacation" didn't prepare me to be a computer geek! LOL.
OH! Just read the last line of your email.........DUH! (at least, I learned to read- be it ever so slowly. LOL)

My choice of Tech was a shade different from yours:
After graduating H.S., I worked for a year at Fansteel Metallurgical Corp. in North Chicago, IL. as a Development Engineering Tech (that means I got to try make the machines the engineers developed work the way they wanted them to). One of the engineers I worked for conned me into applying for college and since my granddad wanted me to become a mining engineer (we did a lot of prospecting), and I was a N.M. resident (more or less), N.M. Tech was the logical choice. Granddad spotted me a year's tuition and board- $600- (that should amuse the new kids coming in now) and away I went. Straight into remedial math! I never did get to be worth a damn in math..... probably why it only took them 1 year to convince me I wasn't engineer material. Of course, the 21 hr. class load and the 20 hr. work week in the assay lab didn't help. Nor did the car wreck I was in followed by a week in the hospital; landed me on academic probation. I asked to re-take the classes I had done poorly in, but admin would have none of that, so I said, "chuck it!" (or some similar phrase) and that ended my college career. But my year there did teach me some valuable life lessons and give me some fond memories, so I consider it time very well spent.
Standout profs were Gerald Green and Morris Stubbs, with Tom Odle and Charles Wiley capturing the "slightly kooky" type positions.

I found your "choosing Tech" article amusing as well as enlightening- didn't realize I knew anyone smart enough to get a scholarship! LMAO!
Don't know if I'll make 49ers this year, but will try- if I can talk my bride into giving me a few days off from working on the house addition. For some reason (probably female), she wants to get moved into the new master bedroom. Probably has something to do with the huge new walk-in closet she's getting. (mine will be half as big, but 2 1/2 times bigger than the one I have now)