My first college campus - MSM

A bit longer than one week ago, Stu (of Eunoia) posted Class of 66 Physicists' Reunion :-) concerning his trip to attend "...the 48th reunion of the Class of 66 at City University (London,UK) where 10 of us who had all finished  a B.Sc.(Hons) in Physics in 1966...." Stu included several photos of the campus - to which I commented, "Your surroundings were certainly a lot classier in university than those in which I found myself. It looks like a wonderful  campus and environs." I scrounged around to find photos to illustrate the campus on which I spent my first 3.5 years of college. Finding few (I don't know where the rest of them are hiding - in the basement, somewhere, undoubtedly), I resorted to the internet for some of the photos, below.

Let's begin with the mascot of our school - Joe Miner - from my day, and from sometime later.

 

 

 

This is the image of a post card that shows most of the permanent buildings on the campus of University of Missouri School of Mines & Metallurgy (MSM). I'm guessing that the photos were taken about 10 years before my arrival on campus. (I arrived in September of 1955.)

Here's a view looking down the main "avenue" of buildings.

The nearest building, as I recall, housed the ceramics and mining engineering departments. The only classes that I attended in it were classes on x-ray crystallography (a few meetings during my first semester of solid-state physics). The next building housed the administrative offices and library. In the upper right background is Norwood Hall - home to the geology, electrical engineering, and physics departments. Below is a more recent photo with a point-of-view at about 180 degrees from the above photo.

The building on the far left of the above photo was the mechanical engineering building. Not visible between that building and the domed-roof building is a small building that housed the cafeteria. I never ate at the cafeteria because it was for feeding those who lived in the dormitories. There was no dormitory for women. While single, I lived (at different times) in apartments that had been sectioned off in a large old house - across the street from the football field.

Below is a more recent and better photo of the mechanical engineering building. Note the smokestack to the left of the building - serving the powerplant from which heat was distributed to the buildings on campus. There was no such thing as air conditioned buildings on campus in those days. The smokestack will figure in a later tale.

I was happy to find the above photo of Norwood Hall, since I couldn't find the ones that I had taken. When I was at MSM, the geology, electrical engineering, and physics departments shared the building. Some of the electrical engineering classes that I took were held in other buildings - including, temporary wooden buildings that had been placed on campus during WWII which were designated as T-1 through T-4.

Below is a 2011 photo of students on campus. When I was on campus, two women meeting while walking between classes was an event! Look at all of the women, now! (I've no idea what the buildings are, their having been added at some point since we left in early 1959!)

The name of the school has changed at least twice since Hunky Husband and I were there. At one time it became University of Missouri at Rolla. More recently, the name was changed to that given in the photo, below.

 

 

 

Comments

[Ole Phat Stu]

Thanks for sharing :-)

[Cop Car]

Stu--You are welcome. You provided me a trip down memory lane! I've returned to Rolla MO twice since HH and I left in January 1959 - in 1962 for my younger brother's wedding (he received a BSEE with honors in 3 years - in a hurry so he could marry a few days after graduation) and on a sentimental journey in 1998.

In 1962, I'm not sure that HH and I went to the campus, although I assume that we did. In 1998, we spent a couple of days just visiting the campus and wandering about town. As it turned out, everyplace I had ever lived had been purchased by the university or by the town, torn down, and replaced with buildings or tennis courts! Whenever it was that they were torn down, it was long overdue. Those places would now be classified as slum dwellings by today's standards.

[bogie]

Love looking at the old photos, even if they aren't from anything that I was involved in. I know, strange hu?

[Cop Car]

Bogie--You are strangely wonderful!