Junior College Instructors

So I’ll turn to my college days. I think I’ve written fairly completely about my days at Fort Dodge junior college. As I look back on them, those two years were the happiest and most relaxed of my college years — particularly the second year which was just sort of a “marking time” year.

During the first year I took courses which would be fully accepted toward a engineering degree (at least at the two state-supported Iowa engineering schools). The courses included physics, English, chemistry and math (algebra, trigonometry, analytic geometry). Physics was not normally taken as a freshman course, but since it was within the capability of the Fort Dodge J.C. while such courses as engineering drawing were not, it was included.

The teachers at the junior college were sort of a mixed lot. The physics and chemistry teacher was Chapman, an able enough individual but I think sort of a frustrated man. Like my uncle Carl he had the tendency of looking down at the floor instead of at you, or at the class when he was talking — although his tendency in this regard was not as marked as my uncle’s. Chapman was a radio ham and I recall him following this hobby on occasion, using a little set he had in his classroom.

The math teacher was an elderly spinster whose teaching was weak on theory, but strong on the solute of problems. It wasn’t until years later that I grasped the reasoning behind both differential and integral calculus (she taught calculus the second year I was at the junior college).

The English teacher was Goodrich and she was better quality. Actually she had been a teacher at Iowa State University (College in those days) and had been let go because of the Depression and had found employment at the J.C.

While on the subject of teachers I should not omit the physical education instructor at Fort Dodge J.C. He was Thiele, and was customarily called behind his back “Horseface” Thiele. The origin of this sobriquet I have no idea of as his face was not horselike in character — actually he was a rather short plump man both in face and body. Phys Ed was twice a week — one session of gym and one of swimming.

I had never been subjected to swimming before and it was not an experience that I look back on with any degree of pleasure. Presumably there was some sort of test of proficiency in swimming in order to pass the course — I seem to recall that one had to traverse the pool the short way. I was able to do this by holding my breath the whole distance (I never did master the art of breathing while “swimming”). I also, as I recall kept my eyes shit whenever submerged or nearly submerged.

One big dividend from taking a second year at junior college was that I completed the two years of physical education that were required for graduation with an engineering degree, under the rather lax tutelage of Mr. Thiele — I’m sure that the phys ed department at the university would have required a much higher degree of proficiency in swimming than I ended up with.

The day we spent in gym each week was largely spent idling around, maybe shooting the basketball a little; in fact my memory of what we did to fill the time is surprisingly vague (at least compared to the swimming class). I heard later on, after I started to work in California that Mr. Thiele had suffered an early demise.