For some reason lost to history there are a very large number of photos of President Hackerman in the files, enough so that I’ve gradually noticed some themes begin to develop. (My earlier “Obsolete Technology + Norman Hackerman” post shows what I mean.)
Today, a couple of examples of another classic Norman picture: standing with hands in pocket. There must be a dozen such images in one collection or another, these are simply two that crossed my path yesterday. First up, in his office with Prime Minister Edward Heath in 1983:
Next, a rather more intriguing photograph, complete with some nice obsolete technology. It’s unlabeled and undated but likely very, very close to the beginning of Hackerman’s administration:
I recognize a couple of people here—the longtime Dean, Holmes Richter, is the tall bald fellow and Chemistry Professor John Margrave is beside him—but I don’t know where they are.
Bonus: I felt a small chill yesterday when I saw some guys surveying the lot I park in.
Isn’t that Mrs. Robert Curl talking to Hackerman? On another topic – I’m overjoyed there are some old football films online now. Haven’t looked at any yet, but I’ll bet they are pretty interesting.
The Arriflex movie camera was state of the art for a very long time. I expect they are still in use for film-based cinematography. So, maybe not obsolete, even today.
The women talking The Hack is wearing a name tag in the shape of an Erlenmeyer flask, so I would guess this is a Chemistry Department function.
The man third from the right (second from the right who’s facing the camera) is another chemistry prof, John Kilpatrick.
I recognize the fellow at the far right, but don’t recall his name. (“Cooper” comes to mind … could he be the poli sci prof, Joseph Cooper, who was acting provost 1973-74? The sideburns look too long, though.)
The man facing away from the camera (who is second from the right) looks like it could be Ken Pitzer. But Richard Turner is also a possibility. Both were chemistry professors.
It would appear that the gathering is at an off campus house. If you look carefully behind Dr. Hackerman’s head, you can see a residential electric meter, and above his head against the sky is the overhead power drop. Nothing on campus would have had an overhead, separately metered power feed, other than perhaps a temporary construction shack, which this clearly is not.
Perhaps the reason that there are so many Hackerman photos is simply that he liked to wander around campus a lot. It was not uncommon to be head down in a lab (not necessarily Chem lab either) and have Norman walk up behind you and ask “So, how is it going?”. And he really wanted to know.
Lucky for him, he didn’t have my mum around. Hands in jacket pockets were verbotten unless you were outside in the cold.
The man with the necktie around the open collar is indeed John Kilpatrick, whom I knew because he was one of the founders of the Rice Computer Project,and spent so much time there between 1959 and 1967 or so.
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