The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)
Issue link: http://wpialumnimag.epubxp.com/i/114745
Approximately 100 Lens and Lights alumni, friends, and current members celebrated the group's 50th anniversary on Dec. 1. Highlights included remarks from LnL founding president Jim Day '65 (inset) and a screening of the WPI student recruitment film Bridge to the Future, created by LnL in the 1950s. Bridge to the Future was just one of the reels that became etched in members' memory banks. Schmidt recalls using borrowed reels of 35mm Ƃlm to train projectionists. "One of them was the British crime drama The Day They Robbed the Bank of England, and right when the robbers were tunneling underground, the reel stopped," he says. "For many years, I've tried to get a DVD of the movie, because I want to see how it ends!" Lens and Lights also worked to build relationships in the Ƃlm industry. Through some networking, Day once got a contact at MGM Ƃlm studios and took a trip to New York City to borrow some reels for training from production manager Haven Falconer. "I remember sitting in his ofƂce with its window just over the famous Camel [cigarettes] billboard in Times Square," he says, "watching the 'smoke' rings move out over the street below." Andy Fish '66, was the fourth president of LnL. He's now a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of New Haven, in Connecticut. He recalls, "In 1965, when WPI was celebrating its 100th anniversary, the ceremony hit a glitch—and it was LnL to the rescue. "Everyone had assembled in Alden, preparing to march to [now Skull Tomb], where Robert Goddard conducted some of his rocket experiments," says Fish. "During the assembly, Esther Goddard was going to talk with her husband's associates in Washington, D.C. The telephone call went by landline from WPI to the Telstar transmitter in Maine, via space to the Telstar receiver in California, and then by landline back to Washington. This was arranged by a senior member of AT&T.; "We ran Alden's audio system. We connected the telephone line to the PA system. When the call went through, we could hardly hear Dr. Goddard's associate. AT&T; was sure that we screwed up. (They obviously did not know the quality of WPI's courses in electronics.) I told [our professor] that I could increase the PA gain to 120dB, and he said, 'Do it.' Right after that, the local AT&T; operator came on—you could hear her all the way down to Atwater Kent. AT&T; had found and corrected the problem and Mrs. Goddard was able to talk with her husband's associate." Modern Day These days, Lens and Lights produces concerts and performances in Alden and Harrington, and on the Quad. It has done the lighting for such well-known bands as OK Go and They Might Be Giants, and for campus lectures, dances, and robotics competitions. Current president Dan Hullihen '14 says the club has come a long way— and to prove that, some of its vast collection of equipment was on display at the reunion. "We now have enough lights to set up in Harrington using a truss. We can hang lights from the ceiling, and do it safely." Safety is, and always has been, the mainstay of the club, Hullihen points out. LnL's training programs, along with a world-class rigger, provide instruction on tasks like positioning cables in trusses on a venue's ceiling. "You don't want a truss to fall," he says. "Depending on the amount of equipment on it, that can be over a thousand pounds." Day agrees that service goes right along with making sure the job gets done right. "Safety is No. 1 and we're all trained and focused on the needs of the customers," he says. "This is what's kept the club going for 50 years." Maintained Value Seeing former club members at the reunion who now have successful AV-related careers is inspiring to Hullihen and the other members, and continues to add value to the organization. "Maybe they're working for a company manufacturing soundboards," says Hullihen. "We can reach out to them and they'll give us a demo to learn about a new product." Schmidt embarked on a career at ABC Television in New York in 1977, where he is now a senior audio/visual systems engineer. Joe Rimstidt '88, a former LnL president, is a product manager for Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems in Dallas. He got his Ƃrst job with Meyer Sound Laboratories in Berkeley, Calif., through past LnL member Jamie Anderson, who graduated from WPI the same year. Jim Day, now retired, was a mechanical engineer with Chandler Evans in West Hartford, Conn., designing and developing jet engine fuel pumps and controls. His days at LnL primed him for workplace roles, he says. "Things you learn at WPI are elements that make a good club and put you in good stead to learn how to work with people. These lessons have stood by me in my career." Winter 2013 65