Founders of Engineers' Day Commemorated Address Delivered at Unveiling of Plaque Commemorating Edmund Kneisel and Joseph Stubbins By HUGH STUBBINS "It is indeed a great privilege and honor for me to stand here today to help you pay tribute to two of our number who lived and fought for God, our Country, and our way of life. In founding 'Engineering Day' on the campus at Georgia Tech, Edmund Kneisel and Joseph Stubbins have done great service to their Alma Mater, to us, and to the citizens of our community. This day was inaugurated to awaken the interest of people not readily aware of the newest developments and advances in engineering. It has now become an annual institution here and I understand that in unison with other technical colleges a movement is on foot to make it a national occasion. May it be a help to the lay public in keeping abreast of the unfolding frontiers of human knowledge in Science and Engineering. Perhaps it doesn't hurt to remind ourselves again that the advances in basic science and its application in technical fields, that have been made in the first half of our century, were hardly dreamed of a mere 100 years ago. Truly we live in the age of Science and its effect upon our way of life has been profound. At the beginning of this century a new world, full as much of hazard as of promise, was coming into being. When the century was young the United States went through an unprecedented period of technical development and industrial expansion. The internal combustion engine, the radio-telephone, and the airplane, the high speed elevator and the tungsten lamp were among the early inventions that launched us into an era of mechanization. Engineers harnessed Niagara Falls, awesome wonder of earlier generations, as a source of hydroelectric power and America was on its way toward creating the highest standard of material living of any people thus far inhabiting the earth. But being an architect and feeling somewhat diffident to discuss engineering and scientific development before such authorities in these fields, I should like to mention very briefly the deep effects they have had on the architecture of our time. Engineering has, in fact, helped to bring us back to basic and fundamental concepts of that exacting and universal art. It would be hard to name a single engineering method or achievement that doesn't in some was affect our physical environment or that does not in some way influence our thought and methods of building. March-April, 1950
Hugh Stubbins, Jr., Arch. '33, M.S.Arch. Harvard, '35; Prof. Harvard Graduate School of Design, shown making address before Tau Beta Pi plaque commemorating his younger brother Joseph Stubbins and Edmund Kneisel. Imagine what technological advances in structural systems and materials have made possible! What changes they have made in our physical environment! Great rivers can be spanned with delicate threads of steel and large spaces can be enclosed with uninterrupted spans of thin concrete. Man is inquisitive and in his search for the WHY of things he has shown an aptitude to solve the mechanical and material problems of life. His aptitude in approaching the moral issues have unfortunately not developed at the same rate. It is to be regretted that our life moves faster and faster, that our civilization is so complex that it leaves little time for relaxation, for contemplation into the meaning of life and for spiritual development. Let us not forget that technique is not an end in itself, but should be, rather, a means toward the fulfillment of a better, more balanced life, a means toward making the world a better place in which to live. We in America have gone far in many fields and we have been through two great wars in order to preserve the way of life that we have developed in a system of democracy and free enterprise. As we look ahead into the next half century we face another new era, which seems also to be as full of hazard as of promise. Vannevar Bush, in his recent book, has said: "The future will be influenced by the ways in which science affects the material things of man's existence; it will also be determined by the way in which his interpretation, or misinterpretation, of the
t e a c h i n g s of s c i e n c e a f f e c t s h i s philosophy of life by its effect on the choice before him. M a n k i n d has come to a fork in the road and two courses lie ahead — on the one side are those who see life only a harsh struggle, whose fatalism now rests on the materialistic fallacy that science teaches us all there is to know or feel. On the other side are those who have faith that life has meaning, who would follow science where it applies but reach beyond in aspiration." Science builds instruments ever more intricate and powerful to delve into the inner recesses of matter, and to search beyond the edges of space. It speculates on cause and effect and the probability of chance even in the interrelation of physical things. But when it comes to why forces exist, to the definition of consciousness, to such things as free will and choice of action, it pauses. Nor does it deal with faith. Such things are beyond the realms of science. Let this memorial remind us to aspire, in our search, for truth in all things. Let it remind us to reach beyond the immediate task at hand and to keep our country in the vanguard of Christian civilization. It is with a great deal of humility that I now reveal this memorial plaque to Edmund B. Kneisel and to Joseph B. Stubbins who founded 'Engineering Day' on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1940 and who later gave their lives in defense of their country in World War II."