Paying Back, Paying Forward: ESD Member of 58 Years Recalls Teaching Test Prep

Paying Back, Paying Forward

ESD MEMBER OF 58 YEARS RECALLS TEACHING TEST PREP

BY MATTHEW ROUSH

T

he Engineering Society of Detroit is busy preparing the next generation of engineers for the challenges of tomorrow. But it’s also worth noting how ESD, through the years, helped earlier generations of engineers meet the challenges of the technical professions.

One good example is named Stan Beattie. Now 85, he credits ESD with making his career possible, and like so many who have benefited from ESD’s career assistance, he paid it back to those who came after him by working for the Society’s programs.

Beattie attended University of Detroit High School, where, he recalls “a wonderful physics instructor” who inspired his love for the subject: “In four years of high school I had one science class, and that was physics, and I hit the ball over the wall. The subject was so interesting and the teacher was so excellent.” He continued his education at Holy Cross College in Massachusetts on a Navy ROTC scholarship, majoring in physics. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as an ensign in the navy in 1959. “I was obligated to serve three years, which was a bargain for a college education,” he said.

A job interview arranged by his father at Michigan Consolidated Gas Co. wound up turning into a 34-year career, from his hiring in 1962 to his retirement in 1996. With the help of ESD, he rose from junior engineer to manager of several engineering groups at the utility, including manager of gas dispatch.

“I joined ESD in 1963, very early,” Beattie said. “We had a vice president of engineering who had a high opinion of the engineering society and a high opinion of grooming young engineers, so they just automatically signed you up with ESD, and they paid the bill.”

ESD’s engineering exam preparation classes, Beattie said, were a key to his advancement. “I could not have passed Part 1 (today known as Fundamentals of Engineering) without the help of the ESD classes,” Beattie said. “I was happy to get up early Saturday morning and drive to take a class. They were just so good—much better than the classes I took at Holy Cross College.”

Four years after completing Part 1 of the engineer test, Beattie took more ESD classes and passed Part 2, today known as the Professional Engineer (PE) designation. Thanks to the ESD test prep, he passed it the first time, while, Beattie joked, “my boss had to take it five times.”

Beattie would pass his knowledge on to younger engineers as chair of what was then the education council of ESD, where he would teach PE test prep classes. Although, he recalled, his initial delivery was panned by some students as wooden: “I gave my presentation and the students were asked what they thought of their instructor, and one fellow wrote down, ‘Get a human being.’ I had a room full of fellows whose livelihoods depended on them passing the test, so I was really nervous at first. But after two or three years I got more relaxed.”

Beattie would continue teaching ESD exam test prep classes until the state of Michigan adopted the national test for the Professional Engineer designation in the 1970s.

Beattie fondly remembered those days of the ESD in the Rackham Building, where the Society was also a social club with dances, continuing education programs in topics such as astronomy, and exclusive members-only tours and speaking events of scientific interest.

“I am eternally grateful (to ESD), because I never would have become a registered professional engineer without their classes,” Beattie said. “There is just no way. And I was glad to chair their education council. And I loved teaching that class. I liked the money, but even more, I liked having people telling me that it was my doing that they were able to pass the exam. Those are aspects I look back on with great fondness.” Stan Beattie

Matt Roush is Managing Editor of the University News Bureau and Director of Media Relations at Lawrence Technological University, and co-host of the M2 TechCast podcast with Mike Brennan. Before joining LTU, Roush spent more than 30 years as a reporter and editor covering high tech, business, and local government.