ing relationship with Tech through the previous years, he had
also co-founded a manufacturing company. It was a proprietorship
which had not made him so practical, however, that he
could not still be dubbed at the school as "Blue-sky Johnson."
His specialty had shed many shells during its development from
metals to materials, from the forge shop to the laboratory, located
twenty years in Stratton and as many in the Higgins Laboratories
until it came full circle back to the Washburn Shops.
Carl Johnson had developed his Laboratories much as he had
developed his subject, by close contact with industry. When the
Washburn Shops stepped out briskly in the new togs of Materials
Engineering, complete to an armored warrior standing in the corner,
there were seventy-five contributors on Carl Johnson's list of
industrial benefactors. Many of the company names were the
same ones found on the original list of contributors to Boynton
Hall's building fund nearly a hundred years before.
Less than a month after President Storke's inauguration, two
directors of the Olin Foundation visited the W.P.I. campus
again. Welcomed at a convocation in Alden Hall, these men
stormed at everyone within listening range. To the administrators:
"Student admission and distribution is too strict. Mass education
is coming whether you like it or not." To the trustees: "A college
of this size should have an endowment of thirty-six million
dollars." To the community: "Education is the fastest-growing
business in your City." To the students: "I can tell you you are
not paying your way, whether you like it or not. You have a
moral obligation to pay back to the college a portion of the
money that was spent on you." To the teachers: "Your business
is to see these people get an education. You can no longer be an
ivory tower." To the alumni: "If you are going to keep this college
growing, you must make up your mind that you will pay
your share of the cost."
Abruptly the scoldings were concluded with twinkling eyes
and the surprising statement: "We are going to give you a new
chemistry and chemical engineering building to be finished in 1965."
It was impossible not to be reminded of another manufacturer
who, a hundred years before, had come down from the northern
hills in a horse and buggy with a hundred thousand dollars and
a dream in his pocket. John Boynton, too, had struck a bargain
--making it clear that he would not release his money unless and
until the community would promise to support his project.
James 0. Wynn and Charles L. Horn said virtually the same
thing.
"This is a technical institution," said Mr. Wynn. "The young
men who are coming here are coming for a technical education.
But I hope that they will also be given an exposure to the literature,
the drama, the art, the music, and the history of our Western
peoples. so that as engineers or scientists they will have some