Long We’ll Remember (nostalgia)

Barry Romich ‘67

Larry Sears ‘69

FROM TINY ACORNS, MIGHTY OAKS

My recollection of ‘Barry and Larry,’ Caseys who never forgot the opportunities that let them soar.

By James R. Banks ‘65

As a teenager growing up in the '50s, I was a hands-on tinkerer. Radios, clocks, mower engines, hi-fi. That stuff was my life.

My first semester at Case in electrical engineering was a radical departure from my high school days. Math was everything—the only thing. My needs for the hands-on part of my life went unmet. I felt no sense of accomplishment. Failure became a real option.

In the beginning of my second semester, February 1961, the Engineering Design Center opened. Included in the maze of labs and shops was the Student Projects Lab. It provided space and equipment where students could work on projects and develop skills using machine tools. It changed my life at Case.

By the end of that semester, I was hired as the lab’s maintenance person. The next year I became the student manager, a role I held until I graduated in 1965. I became an advocate for the Student Projects Lab and would speak about it to the freshmen during orientation.

During the first week of school in 1963, a freshman named Barry Romich came to the lab to check it out. He said he had grown up on a farm and had long dreamed of making his own steam engine. Before the first semester was over, he had realized his dream. He could hold it in his hand and watch it run on compressed air.

Soon after, Barry took a student job in the Design Center, working on projects to enhance communication capabilities for persons challenged by birth defects or injury. He worked with Ed Prentke, an engineer at Highland View Hospital. Ultimately, the two of them formed the Prentke Romich Company, today the world leader in speech augmentation.

I put together a free non-credit course in elementary electronic circuit design, including lab access. Freshman Larry Sears showed up at the first session. He was excited and eager to learn more about electronics. He particularly appreciated the access to professional laboratory instruments. I was impressed by his quick grasp of all things electronic.

Since the year 1969-70 was to be my last at Case, I hired Larry to be my understudy, to make sure the Junior Lab program continued. Through his input, we added a “Patent Office” to the cost-competitive lab, raising the level of student excitement and making their experience even more real world.

In 1971, IEEE, the world’s professional association of electrical and electronic engineers, published a journal highlighting innovations in laboratory teaching. The Case Junior Lab was showcased as the lead article, “The Junior Electronics Laboratory, Opportunities for Invention.”

It is not at all surprising that these two men, who way back then took advantage of the hands-on opportunities at Case, have today enabled those opportunities to continue and flourish for today’s students. Both were instrumental in the creation of Sears think[box]. They shared the fruits of their success to make sure today’s students enjoy opportunities to tinker and discover.

I got to know these two men when they were tiny acorns, just sprouting roots. Now they are mighty oaks! Thank you Barry and Larry.

James R. Banks '65 is a hands-on technical volunteer in Lee, New Hampshire, where he retired from his business of designing and manufacturing temperature controls.

Have a Case memory to share? Email Robert.Smith@casealum.org.

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