April 23, 2010
This year marked the 50th reunion for the Class of 1960, and members celebrated by attending a number of campus activities and rekindling long-lost friendships. Hosted by Texas Exes, reunion attendees were able to return to campus where President Wilson once led and share memories of favorite past times at Scholz Garten.
Following an update on the Cockrell School with Dean Gregory L. Fenves, engineering alumni were greeted and welcomed back to their home department. Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics alumni met with department chair, Philip Varghese, and toured two of the department’s laboratories: the Texas Spacecraft Lab (TSL) and Air Systems Laboratory. Students and faculty members discussed their current work and displayed ingenious examples of their satellites and airplanes — the ASE/EM alums were quite impressed!
A few things have changed since 1960. Tuition, once a deal for $52 a semester, is now $4,911 for full time attendance and the engineering female student body has increased from a total of 23 individuals to 22 percent of the total engineering population!
A few things have remained the same. The Class of 1960 was one of the first to study in W.R. Woolrich Laboratories (formerly the Engineering Laboratories building). It opened in 1958, and is still the home of Aerospace Engineering, although Dean Fenves and Dr. Varghese have plans for a new building by 2017.
Although awed by current initiatives and research, these alumni proudly shared their own accomplishments. Members of this extraordinary class have gone on to do incredible things from running successful consulting firms to conducting the test flight for the first orbital space shuttle at NASA. In attendance were ASE/EM Reunion Chair Captain Bob Crippen, Charles Cole accompanied by wife, Judy Cole, and Bill Miller accompanied by wife, Joan Miller. Bill’s granddaughter is following in his footsteps, and will be a freshman in Aerospace Engineering this fall.
