The Two Towers: Main

This, of course, is the story of all life. This, too, in precise miniaturization, is the story of Worcester Tech. Although the two towers are now almost lost in the buildings which surround them, the symbolism still stands, and within its philosophical framework, this book has been written.

Ideally the history of Tech will be told only when there is one book about its students, another about its teachers and trustees. There should be several books confined to alumni and friends, and certainly one to the school as an educational facility. Compressing a hundred years of life into capsule form, especially when so many people are involved, means the sacrifice of content, no matter who tries to distill the essence. So this is the story of Tech, not only as I see it but also as I can tell it in these few pages.

It would have been so easy to rely on coincidence and chance for readability. But this was not fair. The most wonderful things about Tech have not been dramatic; the strength of the school has evolved from intangibles. These I have suggested only in passing, leaving the final impression to depend more on the reader's perception than on my own words. I have tried more than anything else to portray Tech as a segment of human life, a venture conceived and nourished by ordinary and extraordinary people who got up in the morning, did their work, and went to bed at night. Sometimes, but not too often, they simply sat in the sun to think and to grow. To them their life was not a momentous affair, although they were often sure that it was part of one. And life bounced along, keeping its zest and always their interest.

To mention everyone was impossible. To mention only important persons was presumptuous. My solution was to use personalities only for color, for outline, not for credit. And I have had an almost total irreverence for titles. I have called every instructor a professor, whether he was a graduate assistant or a full professor. I have treated departments and courses with the same disregard for exacting information. After all, this was supposed to be a story, not a catalog or register.

his book will always be my own best illustration of the axiom that no one ever does anything alone. I must make special acknow-