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I had the opportunity to read the Inaugural Address of 16th President University of IL B. Joseph White delivered on September 22, 2005. This review of the past history, present realities, and future goals for all Univ. IL campuses, its faculty, support staff, students and graduates juxtaposes well with the upcoming Navy Pier Festivity, my personal undergraduate experiences at Urbana and Navy Pier and subsequent life experiences. These experiences were both joyous and sorrowful for myself and University of IL and this occasion seems appropriate to discuss them in the contexts set forward by President White.

I began my undergraduate LAS education at UIUC in September, 1956. President White notes that one of his predecessors, Dr.! David Dodds Henry, assumed office on Sept. 24, 1956. President White interrelates his own mission with the agenda laid out in Present Henry's 1956 inaugural address.

In spring, 1957, one of the most sorrowful episodes in my entire life took place on the Urbana campus. One tenured professor of biology published an op-ed in the Daily Illini recommending (heterosexual) students cohabitate before marriage. This op-ed created an uproar among parents of UIUC students throughout IL. President Henry responded to the parental uproar by having the tenured biology professor dismissed from his position. The dismissed professor was unable to find academic employment anywhere in the USA but finally did find employment in Mexico. By succumbing to mob anger, President Henry marred what otherwise was a most distinguished tenure at University of Illinois.

After three credible semesters on the Urbana campus, I suffered burnout and withdrew from college. In the fall of 1958, I re-enrolled at the Navy Pier campus in and spent there three consecutive semesters with one summer session sandwiched in-between. This Navy Pier experience rekindled my interest in developing proficiency in the German language, a subject I had found most difficult on the Urbana campus. Those Navy Pier language classes introduced me to the Buddenbrooks novel of my lifelong hero, Thomas Mann and the operas of Richard Wagner like Tristan und Isolde that have impacted deeply my entire adult life. In later years, 1970-2, my postdoctoral experiences in Muenchen, Germany built upon that Navy Pier language and literature exposure. One summer class in sociology exposed me to a Navy Pier/UIC Icon, the late LAS Dean Robert Corley, who maintained in his class that everything we were studying about the societal arena would resound throughout our lifetimes. Amen. I never held ill will against Dean Corley when he rejected years later my application at UIC for an administrative opening at College of LAS. I also became acutely aware in those Navy Pier years of schisms (persisting to this day) between the humanities/social sciences and the "hard sciences" of physics/ chemistry/ mathematics and their engineering spin-offs.

My major Navy Pier focus was the physical sciences and mathematics in the context of my earlier Urbana selection of a major in a specialized chemistry curriculum. The classes I had in calculus and differential equations were superb as was the basic three semester physics sequence. What really highlighted my Navy Pier years was the initial course in physical chemistry, Chemistry 342, taught according to the innovative Urbana guidelines that put theoretical constructs like quantum mechanics, kinetic theory, thermodynamics and statistical thermodynamics at the forefront of instruction. This Navy Pier class shaped my career goal of becoming a theoretical chemist. The late Professor Samuel Schrage who taught this class later administered the LAS University Honors Program on the UIC campus. We maintained a relationship for thirty years up to his death in 1988. I take some pride in having been selected to speak at the 1st UIC LAS Schrage Memorial Lecture in 1988 as a representative of his students.

I returned to UIUC and graduated June, 1961 with a BS in chemical science. To this day, I remember the deep sorrow inside me about 1957 UIUC "Ox Bow Incident" described above (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ox-Bow_Incident One Book Selection Chicago 2004) as I received from President Henry a facsimile of my diploma.

(I achieved subsequently that goal formed during my Navy Pier Years later in 1970 when I received the PhD at NU in physical theoretical chemistry, and then did postdoctoral work at Technical University Munich 1970-72, under a professor with links to the historic Heisenberg Institute for Theoretical Physics at Leipzig in Germany. There, so much of the quantum mechanics and its initial applications to chemistry were developed in the period between the two World Wars. It was the dedicated Navy Pier instruction from Samuel! Schrage motivated me to select a faculty advisor with these credentials. This feedback mechanism between progress in chemical science and adaptation of theoretical constructs continues today on Univ. IL campuses and elsewhere.)

One other subsequent Ox Bow type Incident evolved from my Navy Pier experiences. I returned from Germany to Chicago in 1972 and found absolutely no opportunities to work further in science. In 1975, I held discussions with the person then Director University of IL Alumni Career Center about resuming scientific employment. He urged me to apply for a postdoctoral position in physical chemistry registered with his office from UIC Dept. Chemistry. I phoned the faculty member sponsoring the position and forwarded him the materials requested and this inquiry seemed closed.

However, I learned additional details supportive of my claim above of an Ox Bow type Incident. I attended social events then at an organization Makom sponsored by the! Chicago Jewish Federation (whose current president is another Navy Pier alumnus Dr. Stephen B. Nasatir. See Dr. Nasatir's comments elsewhere in the Navy Pier Memory Board.) The young rabbi in charge of Makom was a personal friend of that cited UIC physical chemist who rejected my application. This rabbi had not known of my UIC application. On his own, he asked the physical chemist to meet me and offer career advice. This request was refused. The rabbi stated he could not understand why the request was refused. Hopefully, the rabbi has matured sufficiently that such refusals today would not perplex him.

One female friend at Makom was then a personal friend and neighbor of the UIC physical chemist and his spouse. On her own, she asked him why I was not accepted for the position. The response was that "he did not want some theoretical chemist like myself coming into his lab and telling him what to do."

Unfortunately, I found this hardline discriminatory attitude commonplace in scientific employment applications I made covering a thirty year span in academe, industry, and government. I never again obtained meaningful scientific employment. What made this specific UIC 1975 Ox Bow Incident so painful was the overt discrimination in employment at a campus of my alma mater. The person responsible is an admittedly distinguished tenured UIC chemistry faculty member who has taught the class Chemistry 342 that highlighted my earlier Navy Pier experiences and shaped a career pathway. Retrospectively, I believe his actions towards me mirrored the 1957 ones of UIUC President Henry, then desperate to assuage outraged Illinois parents, towards the tenured biology professor.

From so many well informed sources today, I have learned how difficult it is now for the young science PhD's to obtain meaningful employment. I question seriously whether this constitutional democracy can endure if we cannot find ways to utilize the capabilities of our highly educated citizenry. In the many conversations I held with the late Navy Pier/UIC icon Samuel Schrage between 1958 and 198 8, I recall this issue was of such deep concern to him. Memories of his instruction, assistance with employment efforts, and his incisive commentary on issues impacting the university and society hopefully presage a brighter future for the new generation.

Dr. Robert A. Rosenstein '61 LAS
Navy Pier Attendee

A long corridor that stretched into the lake, passing everyone you knew at least six times a day, choir practice and performances with Dr. Fissinger, feeling like part of a big family – those are my fond memories of Navy Pier.

What a shock the big impersonal Urbana campus was after that!

Hedda Patzke '65 LAS
Navy Pier Attendee

I remember a lot about Navy Pier. Besides the constant banging of the pile drivers and the occasional wind storms coming across the lake causing the waves to spray up to the windows, I remember the painters when they painted the entire hallway, all 62/100 of a mile of walls. That job seemed to last forever.

It was great having all the classrooms under one roof and we thought it was awful to have to go outside to get to the gym. However, that was nothing compared to the daily trip to the Pier using public transportation. I had to take 3 buses each way from the southwest side of Chicago and I’m sure many others had it the same or even worse. The good part was that it gave me lots of time to get an extra study.

I also had the privilege of playing on the tennis team – something I would never have had elsewhere. Sometimes I had the feeling that the teachers, not grad. Students were bent on flunking out a certain number of students in their first or second year. I know they succeeded with some, but many of us made it to get our degree.

Overall, my experience at Navy Pier (1953-1956) was great and I feel that I grew up faster and learned a lot more than if I would have gone directly to the down-state campus.

Harry F. Waller ’59 ENG
Navy Pier Attendee

I started Architectural School at Navy Pier in February of 1947, eighteen years old and four days out of High School. The classroom and the pier were still painted navy blue and the wind came in the north side and out the south side. After a street car ride from home, I found that I had to walk the entire length of the pier to reach the architectural classrooms located by the main Ballroom at the east end. Upon arriving at my classes, I found that ninety percent of my classmates were veterans who had just returned home from overseas and old men of 35 years. They had been shot at, shot down, and told many stories to a naïve 18 year old. My Instructor said he felt more like a drill sergeant than an instructor.

Another interesting thing, besides everything being painted blue, is that the parking lot at the east end of the pier was full of navy aircraft. This was very impressive to a young man four days out of high school.

I feel that the two years I spent at the Pier were extremely important to me because it helped me to mature as an individual and realize what everyone around me, including my parents, the school administration, faculty, and staff had accomplished to allow me to become a student.

I finished my architectural studies at the Champaign-Urbana campus and became a registered architect in 1954, founded my own firm in 1957, completed projects in 18 states, and retired in 1993. I still maintain my architectural registration. I married in 1950 and have 6 children, 6 in-laws, 16 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren.

Life is great!

Earl R. Larson ’48 AA
Navy Pier Attendee

Navy Pier Memories - I
Perhaps one of my most vivid memory of my Nay Pier experience is when four of us U of I students enrolled in Architecture at the Pier, took a trip up to Wisconsin one Saturday in the fall of 1956.

We went to see the home, studio, and examples of work done by the famous architect, Frank Lloyd Write, about whom we had been studying.

We met in the morning at the Pier, and drove to our destination in Gwen Davies, father’s new 1956 Cadillac! Our destination was Taliesin East, in Spring Green, Wisconsin, the home and studio of one of the greatest of all American architects, if not the greatest, Frank Lloyd Wright.

Our apprentice at Taliesin East (Taliesin West where Wright worked during the winter is in Arizona) and were afforded a guided tour of the facilities given by one of the apprentices who was working for and learning from Wright.

Our apprentice/guide had come from South Africa, paying his own way over to Wisconsin and paying for almost all of his expenses while he was there. For example, when Wright went to his winter quarters he would just load up his materials and luggage in his car, leaving all of the apprentices to get there one their own.

At the end of the tour we were seated in the very large drafting studio where all Wright’s work was designed and put down on paper. As we were looking at some of the models of the various buildings he had designed himself, including a model of this Mile-high building, Frank Lloyd Write himself, walked into the room, unannounced, and cam over to talk with us.

I guess what I remember most was his putting his hand on my shoulder as he described his various works and answered my questions. Our trip home seemed to go very quickly, as we discussed our impressions of meeting Wright, seeing where he was living and then, with all we had learned in a year of architecture classes at Navy Pier, analyzing his work!
All in all, it was a great day and one that I’m sure I would never have had I gone to U of I at Navy Pier.

Navy Pier Memories - II
I was truly spoiled by my education at U of I Navy Pier. I had full professors teach my classes from my first semester on. Therefore, I had the fantasy that when I went downstate to the main campus of the University of Illinois as a junior, my experiences would not only be as good, but somehow, be even better!

My fantasy was destroyed in the very first class I had in Urbana – an Economics class, where I first met a ‘teaching assistant’ (TA). I had never had a teaching assistant before.
The TA in this class must have taken the class himself the previous semester as he was not able to add much to the text and was not able to explain issues very well. He also had a very heavy foreign accent.

One advantage of this class, however, was that it forced me to quickly know the other students fairly well as we ended up having to teach much of the course content to ourselves. However, this experience and experiences with other TAs destroyed any idea I had that I was somehow an inferior education at Navy Pier.

I did have some very well qualified TAs and professors in my experience at Champaign-Urbana, but they somehow seemed to be more of the exception there than the norm with which I had become accustomed to at Navy Pier.

Navy Pier Memories - III
A great course for me is one that makes a significant effect on my later life. This obviously means, tat it was also quite impressive to me while I was taking it.

One such course was Architectural History at Navy Pier. There I learned the ancient ways of design and construction and followed the development of both up to the present time.
As limited information about a given type of style of architecture can be given within the time limits of a course, I felt a strong conviction to learn more first hand.

So, in 1966, when I was thirty years old, my twenty four year old wife and I took a self-designed six-week tour of Egypt and Europe. In Egypt, we studied the pyramids, the temples, and the tombs. We truly became convinced that you could never understand the greatness of such antiquities without seeing them first hand.

We went inside the Great Pyramid and climbed up the narrow stairway into the tomb chamber. We marveled all the way at the genius of the people who were able to design and construct such a huge and wonderful building thousands of years ago without the instruments, equipment, etc. that we have today.

I hadn’t realized the uniqueness of taking such a trip at our ‘young age’ until our guide told us that outside of a special university tour groups; he rarely had any clients that were under 65 years of age.

In our travels to Europe during the second phase of the trip, we went to Rome where we toured the ruins of Roman Forum among other sites. I continue to be pleased with the decision to do all of this when we were young. Some of the sites we visited are even closed now; for example, the passageway on the interior of the Great Pyramid is now off limits to tourists.

My wife and I have maintained an interest in studying architecture and culture as we continue regular travel itineraries.

I am sure that I never would have taken the trip at all or structured subsequent trips accordingly if I hadn’t had the Architectural History course at Navy Pier.

J. Vincent Peterson ’59 LAS, MS ’62, PhD ’70 UIUC
Navy Pier Attendee

Navy Pier is impossible to forget. Never have I been colder in a classroom than I was there. That 1st semester cost me a whopping $90 for 18 hours. All my books were less than $50/semester. Made some great friends in spite of the cafeteria being 5/8 mile into the lake. The one year I was on the soccer team I was the only native born American. I had to learn Greek, Russian, Lithuanian, Latvian ands Ukrainian to play with them. When we were sober we were pretty good. It was there in a classroom that I had that "never forget moment" when JFK was killed. It was there that my buddies and I decided to go into the Marine Corps and Viet Nam. They went but my lungs kept me at home. So instead I was in the 1st graduating class from the Circle Campus. There were only two degrees to choose from in the business school for that 1st graduation in a little room with low ceilings somewhere. The new campus (now 40 years old) was still being built as we morphed from a ju-co campus to a 4 year campus. Fantastic memories.

Frederic William Bovey ’66 LAS UIC
Navy Pier Attendee

My least favorite experience at Navy Pier was trying to get from the Architectural Design classes near the east end of Navy Pier to the men’s Gymnasium across the street and south of the west end of Navy Pier, especially in the winter. Even worse than that was the reverse trip. On the good experience side of things, was the generally high quality of the architecture and engineering staff, many of whom were practicing professionals rather than total academics. That provided a mix of the theoretical and the practical that made the learning experience even better. I remember a sign in the bookstore, which I periodically quote even today. The sign read, “Before I came here, I couldn’t even spell injuneer and now I are one.”

Other great memories include: getting into the Restaurant Show, watching the construction of the water filtration plant north of Navy Pier and sitting with my sketch pad in hand on a divider in the middle of Lake Shore Drive looking south and sketching the bridge for art class.

Stuart Jacobson ’64 FAA UIUC, ’63 FAA UIUC
Navy Pier Attendee

The “Commemoration of the Navy Pier Experience... 60 years,” for me is a sentimental journey into the past. It is hard to believe that 53 years have passed since I enrolled at Navy Pier, a very modest structure and only a two year college. Visionary student activists and the rest of the student body were busy lobbying and signing numerous petitions for establishing a four-year University of Illinois in Chicago. We all wished to continue our education close to home rather to go to Urbana to complete our studies. I and several of my friends were veterans of the Korean War and Chicago provided a great opportunity for some of us to earn supplemental income in addition to the GI Bill. The Navy Pier as a campus did not look as appealing as other campuses in the city but this did not matter – we wanted to get an education and physical structure was not of importance. To make up for this deficiency we enjoyed our lunches at the end of the pier on Lake Michigan. Perhaps most distracting activity at that time was the construction of the water breaker. We endured. Grant Ave. street car was ideal transportation for me.

We had excellent and demanding professors. They were frank and honest.
When, for example, one math professor asked us to, “look to your right and left and said that you might not see these souls in a math class next semester,” or a chemistry professor said, “study hard because there will only be one or two ‘A’s (one for me, the professor), a couple of ‘B’s, if you’re lucky you get a ‘C’ and the rest will get ‘D’s and ‘F’s.” This was, by today’s standards, not an ideal approach to education but it was a warning not to take our studies lightly. We took these remarks seriously. Even though I received a ‘D’ in that class, I must admit that I learned a lot and his approach to teaching gave me a solid base for a successful career in chemistry. One can sight numerous similar examples, but the net effect was to impress upon students the need to take their studies seriously because the fees were minimal and other bright students deserved an opportunity for education.

When I was discharged from the Army in late October 1952 it was too late to enroll for the fall semester, so I decided to go back to work and that gave me a pause to decide what major to choose. Although I tentatively was inclined to choose mechanical engineering, when I enrolled in the spring semester of ’53, I chose chemistry as my major. After two years, I transferred to Urbana. After graduation I went to work at Sinclair Oil, then for Honeywell in Minneapolis, then for 37 years I worked at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington where I had a unique opportunity to work on minerals, meteorites, and lunar samples. Since I could not afford to go to a ‘name’ school, I felt that a good education at any school, combined with hard work and dedication will be recognized and rewarded, and I succeeded. I fondly remember the days at the Navy Pier.

Eugene Jarosewich ’57 LAS
Navy Pier Attendee

I attended Navy Pier Sept '56 to Jan '59, and met my wife (Phyllis McCuen) there. (We now live near Washington DC.) We both were graduates of Chicago's public high schools.
I have many memories of the Pier, but a standout was the World Series game in October 1956 where Don Larsen pitched a perfect game (27 batters only) for the Yankees. It was an afternoon game, and television sets weren't ubiquitous in offices and classrooms as they are now. There was one in the window of the bookstore located about 2/3 of the way out into Lake Michigan. The narrow hallway began to fill with onlookers as Larsen's fantastic game developed. By its end, it was impossible to pass for the mob of people watching. I'm sure many 3 PM classes were only lightly attended that day.

Bruce Powers ’60 LAS
Navy Pier Attendee

No other college or university (except Northwestern) could brag about having Lake Michigan as its campus. I remember an ocean-going freighter having to drop anchor north of the west end of the Pier to ride out a three day lake storm. We could watch them from our chemistry lab for two of those days. When the storm subsided, the entire crew had to be rescued because they were all lake- (not sea-) sick.

I took a physical education course – boating and fishing because it was an unusual phys-ed. course and we did the boating part in Lake Michigan (again north of the west end of the pier, but much closer to shore). We were smart enough not to be out there during a lake storm (well, our instructors were smart enough not to let us be out there).

Richard H. Fields ‘54 LAS
Navy Pier Attendee

The brutally cold winter winds that swept across the parking lot during the long walk from my car to the west entrance to the foyer of the Pier, and the blast of warm air that greeted me there and made my cheeks and ears glow rosy-red and burn and tingle, in the early morning on my way to my first period class. What a bracing way to begin my school day.

Dr. Fred H. Deindoerfer ’51 LAS
Navy Pier Attendee

I attended Navy Pier from September 1950 through June 1952. I then, as others, went down to Champaign-Urbana to complete my undergraduate degree.

I focused on languages with a major in German – which I then used to travel to Germany. I spent almost two years there – met my husband there and then followed him into the practice of law.

I have maintained the friendships formed on the “Pier”.
My most vivid memory was that long, long walk from one end to the other.

Patricia Campbell ’54 LAS
Navy Pier Attendee

1) Was introduced to my husband Frank Cahill (1956 – 1957), whom we still see.
2) Remember 3 sexes at Navy Pier – Men, Women, and Janitors.
3) When storms hit the Pier, many of the classrooms shook.
4) My husband recalls that getting from the men’s gym to the “back” of the Pier for a class was a Herculean effort.
5) Had to work your way through crowds in 10 minutes to go 5/8 of a mile from front to back.
6) Loved the restaurant show when it came to the Pier – they were very “kind” to the students.
7) My husband and I went fishing off the Pier instead of attending our graduation ceremony – June 1959 – Downstate.
8) Loved the student lounge at the front – first one to the radio got to hear their station.
9) Recall all the insects in the library when the weather was warm!
10) We will never forget the unique experience of the Pier

Tom DiCanio ’59 LAS
Lila (Katz) DiCanio ’59 LAS
Navy Pier Attendees

My first memory of "the Pier" was sitting in the huge dome at the far end taking placement tests. I recall the PE entrance test where we had to climb a rope to the top of the gym (Quonset hut) and run around the same building.

When it was stormy the waves that broke on the north side, often splashed on the classroom windows. I remember wondering whether a really large wave would break the windows.

Pre-med at the Pier, carrying upward of 20 semester hours, was a real challenge to me after drifting through high school. It took a while to realize that this place wasn't going to be a shoe-in.

Jerry Chatow MD ’62
Navy Pier Attendee

We were freshmen taking our first accounting class with Professor Sam Fox. One of the students found his biography in Who's Who and we were quite impressed. Several years later we took Business Law at the "Circle." The class was taught by, you guessed it, professor Fox. He remembered all our names from the first class! Years later I met him on Michigan Avenue. We shared coffee. He was living in the Hancock Building. I subsequently moved to California in 1973 and around 1978, while visiting Chicago, again met him walking on Michigan Avenue. He was then teaching at Roosevelt. He remembered my name and others, after all those years! What a great man...

Joe Zolinas ’69 LAS
Navy Pier Attendee

The water from the waves sloshing in the windows of my Philosophy class at the far west end and the long walk to the girl's gym (now Ballroom) for our dance class that was held on the stage of the ballroom. Also, "making out" on the water side of the east end and the boaters hooting at me and my vet boyfriend (now husband). Dr. Nicholson, the Modern European History professor always did his "Napoleon" imitation during his French history lectures and his "Hitler" imitation during the German history lectures. His physical characteristics were just right for both - but he was a great lecturer and had the students in that huge lecture hall on the 2nd floor enthralled. As I recall, tuition was $64 a semester!! - for some of the topnotch teachers of the time.

Tina Butler Geymer
Navy Pier Attendee

Among the many things I took away from Navy Pier for which I am still grateful, I was fortunate to also observe some very basic "avian economics" at work....One very cold Friday morning in January or February of 1957, at the end of a very cold week, I approached Navy Pier from the parking lot to the north of the main entrance and happened to look out on the slip between the pier and the newly built water filtration plant. It was almost completely frozen over with the only exposed water surface being a circular area maybe a hundred feet in diameter, about a hundred feet from the end of the slip and midway between the two facilities. Surely half the seagulls from the south end of Lake Michigan were crowed into that little patch of water, with maybe a few dozen wandering around on the nearby ice. On Monday morning, after a somewhat warmer weekend, again making my way from the north parking lot toward the entrance I again looked out on the slip. This time almost all the ice between the pier and the filtration plant had melted except for a circular patch maybe a hundred feet in diameter and likewise about a hundred feet from the end of the slip and midway between the two structures. It seemed an equally large flock of birds were crowded onto that small, floating island of ice, while a few dozen floated in the surrounding water nearby. While some sort of bird-brained supply and demand effect seemed to be pretty clearly demonstrated right off the bat, I never did figure out how the water/ice reversal worked out as it did with the island of ice occupying essentially the same spot in the slip as the watery surface had only three days earlier.

Clifford Tiedemann '60 LAS
Navy Pier Attendee

I remember….”Harvard on the Rocks”…….

• The small family/working class college campus atmosphere of Navy Pier……

• Five of us sharing a ride in a “Bug” (Volkswagen) from the O’Hare area…..

• Being greeting by the many different lake temperaments i.e. from warm and calm to cold, windy and frozen……

• The smell of fish from spring to fall…….

• Boats from many foreign lands docking along the south warehouse port building…….

• The one way in and out entrance/exit and a seemingly endless hallway…starting at the front pier room eatery, passing the bookstore at the middle and ending at the cafeteria located in the rear rotunda

• My architecture and Art classes were held upstairs at the furthest easterly point of the North Pier building…..

• The large 500 + Armory Building where the men’s gym and physical education professional classes were held and the second floor attic weightlifting room where I spent time almost daily……..

• The baseball team and the sport of my youthful love……..

• That historic day in the November 1963 while in the music listening lounge came the announcement that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas and which forever changed the fabric of our nation and our personal lives……

• My 1965-1969 UIC Era…..Vietnam, protests, women’s LIB and Black Power Movements, etc. etc. etc. ……. Tough decision making times for America’s youth

So after a long incredible journey experiencing life as an adult, it will be nice to go back home to one’s youth…..and fondest memories…..Navy Pier!

Efstathios (Steve) A. Regopoulos (Reggie) ’64 AA, BS ’69
Navy Pier Attendee

Some Alumni take a long time for a degree from the University of Ill. Started: 55-56 Urbana Campus.

‘ 56-‘57 – NAVY PIER – Great Professors, Dr. Radis the best, intelligent, enthusiastic, and interesting. Remember our many discussions and debates before and after classes. He became my mentor.

One evening my husband said, “I think you’re in love with Dr. Radis.” Just then my brother-in-law Charles Meyer- a Navy Pier student – came in, he said “Did I hear you talking about Dr. Radis? You got to love that man.” Martial misunderstanding solved.
Also remember dodging the buckets in the hall collecting rain from the leaking roof.
Courses at other Colleges, and I also had my own company – Interiors by Dusty Meyer, Oak Park, Illinois.

’ 62-’63 – NAVY PIER – More classes with Dr. Radis continuing our discussions and debates. Also met Carolyn Inahara – later Gleeson. We attended the Nov. ’81 reunion also the ’97 reunion.

’ 65-’66 – Urbana campus – studied with Dr. Robert Von Neuman, another fantastic professor. I brought some of my shell and rock collection for him to photograph. He got the honor to crack open on e rock to release an inch long green crystal imbedded in mica, which I enclosed in a 4 sided frame pendant.

1966 – Graduation. Began my teaching career, full time High School in New York.

1968 – MA – Univ. of N.J. – I lived in N.J. Besides full time High School, I just Adjunct prof. At the local College, nights 7PM to 10PM, A real natural high.

68 post grad. Credits – studies at Columbia Univ. N.Y., Suny N.Y. and San Diego, CA a summer in Mexico. Also studied in Rome, Italy-Rome in the Holy Year summer of 1075.

Also did the Alumni trip to Rome – so great – 11 days – Met Helen Weatherwax at Chicago airport. We did a lot of touring on the bust system and a train trip to Florence. Often wished Dr. Radis could have gone there, he wanted so much to go there.
Took Elderhostel trips – summers to – Egypt, Greece, England, and Alaska. Toured Europe (driving) with teacher friends, also same travels in Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand Japan and China. Didn’t drive in Japan or China. Signs hard to read.

1972 – Chairperson – gave up College teaching – it was a bit too much.
My students asked me why I went to school during the summer – I told them that if it’s interesting it’s fun to keep learning. Anyway I can tell you all about these fabulous places.
My students called me the sneaky teacher – I asked why – The said. “”Well, we come into class and have fun and we learn so much. You’re really sneaky”.

During one of my studies in Florence, Italy – one professor took the class to several studios. One, a Japanese prof. Teaching jewelry, saw my pendant. He asked, “Did you make that?” I said, “Yes, in Dr. Von Neumans class.” He said, “You studied with ‘God’ He wrote the ‘Bible’ on jewelry making, you were so fortunate.”

I’m so proud to be an Alumnus of the University of Illinois.

Dorothy Helen Albrecht Meyer ’66 BFA
Navy Pier Attendee

In 1946 I, then Natalie Kandelman, walked the long Pier lugging heavy books, wearing stadium boots and winter clothing as we had no lockers. Water was all over the floors and we balanced all this walking on narrow wooden planks. I was never late or absent for a single class.

As a sophomore in the Commerce Dept. my favorite class was with a gentleman Mr. Smith in English literature. He awakened my interest in literature and I used my interest in literature and I used this knowledge in my classes as a Chicago Public School teacher. In 1993 I retired with thirty-five years toward my pension.

In 1947 Stanley J. Weiman and I were married and went on to instill the love of learning to our two sons. Mark Mitchell Weiman, West Point class of 1971 and Penn State Graduate as a dentist practicing in Chicago.

Our second son Darryl Seth Weiman is chief of cardiac-thoracic surgery in Memphis, Tennessee. As a practicing surgeon he went on part time to the U of I Law School and passed the bar in 2005.

Stanley, my husband is a graduate of Columbia College in Chicago. We are both retired and still enjoying our life in the Chicago area.

Natalie Weiman
Navy Pier Attendee

Three recollections of The Pier, among many:

1. Running—iterally—the seven miles (or whatever it was) from Biology lab at the front of the building, through the locker areas and dawdling crowds, trying to make it on time to Rhet 101 class at the other end -- inevitably arriving sweaty and only slightly late.

2. Sitting in Gilbert Osofsky's U.S. History class—what an inspiration he was—and having it startlingly interrupted by the baROOOOO of a ship's horn as it moved off the dock directly outside.

3. Walking into the Pier entryway during politics season (was it ever NOT politics season?) and being frozen by the sound of a voice coming from a music machine. I'd never heard anything like it. Forty-plus years later, Streisand's "Happy! Days" still makes me tingle...

Alan Solomon ’68 LAS
Navy Pier Attendee

For two years when attending school at Navy Pier, if I left my place to retrieve a napkin, spoon or sugar, my newly purchased cup of coffee was cleared from the table. This happened to me consistently at the entry snack shop, and was the standing joke with many U of I attendees. I remember this so well because in addition to being frustrating, was so funny.

Irene Seligman DesEnfants ’56 ED
Navy Pier Attendee

One of my fondest memories was sharing the space outside the Library with the Housewares Show. My recollection is that, for each of the three years I was there, at the entrance to the Library was a display of toilet seats! And I don't think I have ever been so cold as when leaving the Pier late on a Friday night in winter after choir rehearsal and trying to get my '49 Plymouth started.

Peter H. Slugg, M.D., MD ’66
Navy Pier Attendee

One of my first impressions of Navy Pier was that the Architectural Department was way out at the far end of the Pier – way out into Lake Michigan! It was January of 1953 and I had just been discharged from the Navy a couple months earlier, after 4 years in service.
I could look out any window and see water all around me, farther from shore than I often was on my ship!! Sometimes I would swear I was back at sea, and if I sat real still, I am sure I could feel the Pier occasionally bobble up and down!?!

Many of the Pier’s classrooms were damp – probably due to being over water. Often while listening to a lecture or working on some problem you would look up and see spiders descending on long webs from the ceiling!!
Well, I guess they were there first!!

The Pier had advantages in the Architectural Department we seldom had in Champaign. When we completed a design problem at the Pier, every student’s work was mounted on the walls and several local architects came in to critique our work. We learned what was good (and not so good) about every student’s submission!

All too often in Champaign, upon completing a design problem, you turned it in and (eventually!) it was returned to you with a grade upon it! Not the best way to inform the student how well he did on his design!?!

Richard W. Bernardini ’58 FAA
Navy Pier Attendee

Those were the days! I was just 27 years old; had recently been honorably discharged from the United States Air Force as en enlisted man during the Korean War Era; had just been married to my wife now of 49 years; and was transferring from my home town college of Indiana University to take up the study of Architecture at the University of Illinois extension at Navy Pier because she was doing her student teaching in her final semester at an elementary school in Hammond, Indiana and in this way we could be together and still continue work toward our career goals. It had been my intention to transfer to U of I anyway as I U did not have a curriculum in Architecture, so this arrangement worked out fine! We lived in a zero bedroom apartment in the back of a home by the railroad tracks and just down the alley from a Methodist Church. When the train went by the front of the house the whole place shook!

I had to get up very early to catch a train into downtown Chicago to make my early morning classes. I remember sitting watching people read the paper as the train swayed back and froth and looking out the window at the houses wiz by and how close they were together. You could reach out a window in one house and into the house next to it they were so close together. I remember thinking that these people must grow up just excepting this as “normal”, and didn’t know another kind of life existed out there apparently…which is probably OK and they were happy to be living in such proximity to such a large metropolis! In any case, once into downtown Chicago at the end of the line, I hiked to Navy Pier. I don’t remember how far it was, but it took me a long time walking rather briskly to get to the Pier. We did not have any money as newlyweds; I was on the GI Bill; so we really did not have much choice. When I got near the Pier, it seemed like I had to descend to a lower level to get into the building which was pretty much like a big warehouse with steel girders that I think were light green…steel grated steps to some of my classrooms, etc. I was in “heaven”, taking courses toward my degree of the future I thought, and much appreciative of the University taking me on as a student and having confidence in me etc. I know the building was not much, but I did not care because I was being given a chance to study architecture and really enjoyed the classes I took; could marvel as I walked by the monumental building downtown and by lakeshore; was in love, and had a future to look forward to! At the end of the day, I walked back to catch the train back to Hammond…..and do it all again the next day!

In the fall of that year, I transferred to the main University of Illinois campus at Champaign/Urbana. After another year of study in Architecture, I transferred into Education and graduated with a BS in 1959-60 and a ME a year or so later. I retired in 2000-01 from a 41 year career as a public school teacher, during which time I also used my architectural experience for 10 years to coordinate the design and construction of several of our school buildings, including the new high school I taught drafting and aviation in primarily my last 21 years.

I will always be thankful to the University of Illinois for accepting me as a student….for you see; I had a rough start in college in 1950 and dropped out. After returning from the Air Force, I proved I could do the work at Indiana University for a year, but had a deep hole academically to dig myself out of. U of I had confidence in me and I became an A and B student, which of course allowed me to pursue my Masters degree as well. Barbara, my wife, also taught in the public elementary schools for 25 plus years, and while I was at U o I in Champaign/Urbana she taught school in the Urbana system while getting her ME in Education at U of I. So in a way, what we accomplished at U of I, we gave back to our community through what U of I gave us. We were partners together for the betterment of our society..and that’s what life is really all about! Thank you for the opportunity to share a little bit of our lives with you, and hopefully many other have, and will continue to have similar experiences because of the greatness and integrity of the University of Illinois.

Robert I. Goodwin, ’60 ED, EDM’63
Navy Pier Attendee

I vividly recall riding to the Pier by car with friends, often very early a.m. from the Southside. Usually returning home alone in the dark, via "EL" ride and buses.
Quality professors, despite large lecture classes. We had to work for the grades!
I met some special and great friends there--some became my roommates in Champaign, and we still see each other!

To my children, I have described the classrooms as "no-frills, battleship-like", but I always enjoyed the unique view from the library over Lake Michigan.
A ride on the ferris wheel at the rejuvenated Navy Pier was a neat contrast to the memories of my classroom days there.

Phyllis E. (Schumm) Duer
Navy Pier Attendee

Running the gauntlet of leering, cigarette smoking male Geology, Engineering and Architecture students lining the hall outside the first floor classrooms near the entrance, through near ankle-deep, freezing cold water that seeped in under the exterior walls either from winter waves crashing into the saw wall outside, torrential spring rain, or melting snow!

Beating Roger Bannister’s record less-than-4-minute mile to get to French class, 2nd floor, East end, from the Grand Ave. entrance (west end)…..a truly auspicious day!!

Beverly Ford, M.D., ’61 LAS UIUC
Navy Pier Attendee

Playing double bass with the combo on Friday afternoons. Also the dance band and concert orchestra.

The professor whose enthusiatic lectures brought the Italian Renaissance to life for me.

The dedicated daily bridge players.

The interminable commute from and to the South side each day, rarely getting home in time for dinner because of all the extra-curricular activities, which I loved.

Micki (Minnie Perkins) Grant, '49-51
Navy Pier Attendee

Although I attended the commemoration of 50 years since Navy Pier's start as the UIC branch, I cannot attend the 60th. (I'm teaching in California.)

At the 50th's commemoration, then-President Stukey spoke and resonated with the audience by noting that many were the first in their families to get a college education. That observation struck a deep chord for me.

Together with many friends already made in high school, and others made at the Pier, we were largely an up-from-Chicago's-neighborhoods bunch -- given a chance by the Pier to raise our station in life. Somehow we knew this life-changing opportunity had come our way (I remember $99 tuition for a semester in 1956), and wouldn't have were it not for UIC at the Pier. I'm still grateful.

Bruce Powers, M.D., '56-60
Navy Pier Attendee

The Pier kept me in ecellent physical as well as mental shape. I was a Business major, which forced me to become a sprinter. all of my LAS classses were at East end of the Pier and all of business classes where at the West end.I was never adroit or clever enough to schedule my classes accordingly. That was life, gave us something to comlain about other than the professors. It wasn't the best place to go to college due to the logistics, but what a view. Those were great years and I will never forget them. The best education too! Sorry, I will be unable to make the 60th Reunion,however, I did make the 50th. Please send me a copy of the program and a list of the attendees. Best of luck to all of the Alums.

Albert E. Smith, '56-58
Navy Pier Attendee

Aug.'55. Registration was held in the fieldhouse gym. The lines for each class were so long that it took at least 40-60 minutes each. After about the fourth class, I told my buddies (six of us were registering together) that I'd had it and was going home. They talked me into staying and completing the long, time consuming process. I'm glad they did as I completed my two years, and after three years in the Army, graduated from Urbana returning to "Navy Pier" as the Head Wrestling coach and Physical Education teacher.

George D. Jurinek, '55-57
Navy Pier Attendee

I loved my two years at Navy Pier(1961-1963). The education I received provided me with the foundation I needed to have a long, satisfying career teaching physical education at all levels including the last 30 years of teaching at California State University in Sacramento.

Ohhh, how I remember the long commute by public transportation from the far South Side of Chicago to Navy Pier. During my first semester as a "PEW" major, we were required to take a swimming class at Lawson YMCA. It was our responsibility to get there and be in the water at 8:00 AM sharp. I have a vague recollection of a University bus picking our class up at Lawson YMCA and getting us to the Pier just in time for us to run to the gym (still wet from swimming)to make it on time for our 9:00 AM class. How did we do that!!!!!

I also remember taking a 1st Aid class with Dr. Barton (the head of PEW)in "The Dungeon." The Dungeon was a small dark room below the stage. We loved the room because it reminded us of a secret passage in this wonderfully old building. In fact, I wonder if the Dungeon is still hidden beneath the stage. For sure, my friends and I will plan to look for it during the Navy Pier Commoration.

A wonderful dedicated faculty, lifelong friends, a solid education, and a historical landmark to boot... how could we lose going to this unique university during the Kennedy Era.

Pam Milchrist, '61-63
Navy Pier Attendee

Nelson's creamy ice cream sodas.

Puddles in the halls and classrooms.

Driving to school with Seymour Rosen and his fascination that our German teacher, Frau Braumfeld knew Alma Mahler, wife of Seymour's favorite composer.

A hilarious faux physics lecture by my physics teacher - whose name I can't remember right now.

A grad student physics lecturer who used my test paper as the key to marking the others and overlooked a mistake I had made, thus marking everyone else who had it correct as wrong - and everyone's embarrassment about telling him.

Trying to climb the rope in Basic (gym).

Working as a cashier collecting tuition payments in order to be able to pre-register, so that I could get a better choice of classes and times - and losing more money by miscounting change than I earned.

Having been oblivious to political and world events that I now wonder how I could have missed.

The last reunion at Navy Pier, which looked like a meeting of the Chicago Medical Society. When we took our daughter to look at colleges as she was finishing high school many years ago, all the colleges stressed how they were focused on education and not on getting students into medical school - and then they proudly told us what percentage of their graduates got into medical school. I think Navy Pier beat them all, including the most prestigious and expensive ones.

Laila's Memoroies:

Dr. Nicholson's European History lectures.

Dr. Arnold Hartog's German classes.

Dr. Little's Biology labs.

Taking a P.E. golf class on small grass mats in the Girls' Gym at the end of the Pier

David A. Rothstein, M.D. and Laila Rothstein
Navy Pier Attendee

The long commute from the far south side...two buses, the "L", and the electrified bus at Grand Avenue. The U of I neon sign at the front of Navy Pier. Watching the world series on TV in the student lounge. The way the floor squeaked in the hallway from the crush of students between classes on the second floor towards the far end of the Pier. Sitting in the lunchroom with friends at the time of the Cuban missle crisis. The long walk/run to get to my next class after PE class in the Armory. Workmen coming up through the drainage openings during class. My two years at the Pier were the most memorable of all my academic experiences.

Wayne V. Paulauskis
Navy Pier Attendee

Among the many things I took away from Navy Pier for which I am still grateful, I was fortunate to also observe some very basic "avian economics" at work....
One very cold Friday morning in January or February of 1957, at the end of a very cold week, I approached Navy Pier from the parking lot to the north of the main entrance and happened to look out on the slip between the pier and the newly built water filtration plant. It was almost completely frozen over with the only exposed water surface being a circular area maybe a hundred feet in diameter, about a hundred feet from the end of the slip and midway between the two facilities. Surely half the seagulls from the south end of Lake Michigan were crowed into that little patch of water, with maybe a few dozen wandering around on the nearby ice. On Monday morning, after a somewhat warmer weekend, again making my way from the north parking lot toward the entrance I again looked out on the slip. This time almost all the ice between the pier and the filtration plant had melted except for a circular patch maybe a hundred feet in diameter and likewise about a hundred feet from the end of the slip and midway between the two structures. It seemed an equally large flock of birds were crowded onto that small, floating island of ice, while a few dozen floated in the surrounding water nearby. While some sort of bird-brained supply and demand effect seemed to be pretty clearly demonstated right off the bat, I never did figure out how the water/ice reversal worked out as it did with the island of ice occupying essentially the same spot in the slip as the watery surface had only three days earlier.

Clifford Tiedemann
Navy Pier Attendee

The water from the waves sloshing in the windows of my Philosophy class at the far west end and the long walk to the girl's gym (now Ballroom) for our dance class that was held on the stage of the ballroom. Also, "making out" on the water side of the east end and the boaters hooting at me and my vet boyfriend (now husband). Dr. Nicholson, the Modern European History professor always did his "Napoleon"imitation during his French history lectures and his "Hitler" imitation during the German history lectures. His physical characteristics were just right for both - but he was a great lecturer and had the students in that huge lecture hall on the 2nd floor enthralled. As I recall, tuition was $64 a semester!! - for some of the topnotch teachers of the time.

Tina Butler Geymer
Navy Pier Attendee

I had visited the Navy Pier area in the winter of 1944 or 1945 when the Armed Services had a wartime display of equipment, including an indoor jungle, which was the only warm place. I was in 7th or 8th grade on the southwest side of Chicago and was worried if the war would still be on when I graduated. (For youngsters, this reference is to the real war, WWlI.) In January 1950, my first semester, it was even colder than I had remembered. In June 1950, the Korean war began, and I had this feeling of deja vu all over again! (The good part was that I met Barbara in Spanish 101, taught by Sr. Sanchez, with his green suit and red tie.) Thoughts of ROTC danced in my head, but during that first semester I was not sure ! that English was my first language. Student deferments were available, but ended with a four-year degree. I was heading for law school, so I opted to gather (pick and shovel would be more accurate) 90 hours of credit and then go directly in law school.

So, having traveled thousands of miles eastbound on the 47th Street CTA car, north on the elevated and subway and then again east on the Grand Avenue CTA car (and then reversing to get home) I had my 90 hours of credit by July of 1952. This was followed by three years in Champaign in the law school, resulting in my one and only degree, a J.D. Oh, and a ticket into the Army as a 2nd lieutenant, when and where I was needed. Back to the Pier: I recall Jones teaching history, Sigel in psychology, I. Miller in English and Kusch in Meterology. Also, we had a little Navy Pier dance band and I can recall playing my also sax and some skinny kid, who memory tells me was Jim Montgomery tooting a very good tenor sax. I dropped ! out of the band because one of the local guys from my neighborhood insisted on driving me home, but once was enough. He evidently thought he was still in the military, because he was constantly smoking weed and sucking on a half-pint of rot-gut all the way down Lakeshore Drive. I didn't realize until then that the trip from the Pier to my home could take as little as 25 minutes and not 70 to 80 minutes.

Reading some of the other memories inspired me; the ones with memories, not those with obnoxious self-aggrandizement. If you haven't learned yet (after 40 or 50 years have passed) that life is more than yourself, I doubt that you really learned anything at the Pier. The Pier was for real people, not for intellectual snobs. It was started for returning WWII veterans, and we were lucky to onto their stars.

I saw some names we remember, like Barb Mangel and Ira Sax, and would like to hear from others. One thing that my wife and I cannot figure out is: where was the library? I think I was there once, somewhere out at the east end. Our fri! end, Roberta McGill (valedictorian from the U of I in Champaign in 1954) does not even recall that there was a library! So much for that book-learning. I do recall the Reserve Book Station, that little shack where the street cars stopped. By the way, the street cars did not turn around; there were parallel tracks and there was a cross-over, like a long figure "S". Those Red Rockets could be driven from either end. A couple of other recollections: buying Shaft magazine when exiting the building, when a new issue came out. (I still have the one where Hugh Hefner is mentioned.) Also, when the Restaurant show was held at the Pier, getting an badge from a conventioneer leaving for the day, and then wandering from booth to booth filling up on samples before the long trip home. Lots of good memories of lots of lots of smart, good kids. Keep well.

Terrance Mitchell & Barbara Weprainsky Mitchell
Navy Pier Attendee

I attended Chicago Undergraduate Campus reluctantly for two years. I really wanted to go "downstate". I recall the long train commutes from La Grange. Those long waits for a bus outside Union Station, with the cold wind in the artificial canyons of Chicago, formed a resolve to find someplace, anyplace warm to live. Cold halls and green walls stand out most starkly. We did not need Phys. Ed. to stay in shape! The interior of Navy Pier had only the snack counter at the entrance and the cafeteria at the end that offered social warmth. ROTC sessions, with early morning assembly and inspection, were an experience restricted to one semester. I wanted that extra hour of sleep. I am sure that The Pier had a library;! I do not remember one. Amusements were few: watching the gulls performing awkward landings on the ice where they would skid into the flock like small bowling balls, playing endless games of Hearts that seriously damaged my grade average. Somehow I received important knowledge still useful today. I wish that I had kept with some friends I found there: George who owned an MG/TC, a teaching associate in Chemistry Quiz that kept the class awake with skill and humor. I remember standing at attention in ROTC, aware that my thumb was bleeding on the floor from an encounter with a worn-out M1 rifle. I always wished that I could learn the background of those rifles.

John Peterman
Navy Pier Attendee

Although I attended the commemoration of 50 years since Navy Pier's start as the UIC branch, I cannot attend the 60th. (I'm teaching in California.)
At the 50th's commemoration, then-President Stukey spoke and resonated with the audience by noting that many were the first in their families to get a college education. That observation struck a deep chord for me.

Together with many friends already made in high school, and others made at the Pier, we were largely an up-from-Chicago's-neighborhoods bunch -- given a chance by the Pier to raise our station in life. Somehow we knew this life-changing opportunity had come our way (I remember $99 tuition for a semester in 1956), and wouldn't have were it not for UIC at the Pier. I'm still grateful.

Bruce Powers
Navy Pier Attendee

While at NP I learned that there were three not two sexes. As we walked down the main hallway, we encountered the restrooms: Men, Women, and in between Janitors.

Ralph Eiseman
Navy Pier Attendee

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