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ADAMS 6 - 5 7 6 5 SAVANNAH LIBERTY 3 - 3 4 6 7 SHERWOOD 6 - 9 6 9 1 ATHENS MACON G E O R G I A ROBERT THARPE '34
J. L. BROOKS '39
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• INCREASINGLY over the past three or four issues of this magazine, the byline, Frank Bigger, has been attached to feature articles. Before you reach an apoplectic state from wondering who Frank Bigger is and what connection he has with Georgia Tech, we would like to take a few lines and brief you on the man. Michael Franklin Peter Clifford Bigger, to use his full name, is a six-foot redhead with the temper and disposition to match his hair. He joined the Tech staff in August as assistant director of publications and editor of the science and technology news bureau, a new branch of the public relations department. Since his graduation from the University of South Carolina some seven years ago, Frank has been a newspaperman with a great interest in science and little opportunity to write science-oriented articles. He came to Tech from Augusta where he was news editor of The Augusta Chronicle. In the few months that he has been on the campus, Frank Bigger has done a fantastic amount of good for Georgia Tech. His weekly feature series, "Science and Technology/Today," has been used by papers all over this country. His work on the recently redesigned Research Engineer magazine has already started to attract more attention to Georgia Tech's research and educational programs. (If you want to keep up with Tech's research and educational programs through The Research Engineer, we will be happy to send you a free subscription. Just send your name and address to The Editor, The Research Engineer, Georgia Tech, Atlanta 13, Georgia.) And his general news sense has been invaluable to Tech's PR Director Fred Ajax and to us in the publications office. The influence of Tech on a man is sometimes amazing. When he came here, Frank made it known that he wasn't much of a sports enthusiast. Three months later, he and Placement Director Neil DeRosa drove all night to see the Gator Bowl game in Jacksonville. This quarter, he began taking undergraduate courses at Tech. Within a few weeks, he will find out first-hand why Tech has acquired its reputation for turning out top-flight graduates. Meanwhile, he keeps on adding to his own reputation by his
capacity for work and his ability to get to the bottom of a tough science story. On page 6 of this issue, Frank Bigger reappears with a story of "The Saga of the Coosa Valley," and on page 11, he demonstrates his science writing ability with an article on "Project Firefly."
A ANOTHER friend of ours named Frank died in mid-December. Frank M. Spratlin, Atlanta realtor and civic leader, suffered a heart attack at his office and was dead before they could get him to a hospital. Frank Spratlin attended Tech for just one semester back in 1902, yet, he became one of the staunchest supporters in the history of the school. He was a past president of the Alumni Association, and a member of the Georgia Tech Foundation Board. He received the Alumni Distinguished Service Award in 1945. He was at one time Tech's tower of strength on the Board of Regents and was the first member of that Board to manage WGST for Tech. He was instrumental in developing the annual TechGeorgia freshman game as an important instrument of financial aid for the Scottish Rite Hospital. He was one of the top workers on the Alexander Memorial Fund and hundreds of other funds, large and small, for the benefit of Tech and of the City of Atlanta. But, the thing that we most remember about Frank Spratlin was his genuine charm and concern for his fellow men. He was one of the few truly gentle men we have been privileged to know. And we shall miss him as much for that as for all he did to help Georgia Tech.
• THIS YEAR'S Gator Bowl might have been a bust as far as the final score went, but in every other detail it was a smashing success. George Olsen and Joe Livingston and all of the officers and trustees of the Gator Bowl closed out the year as the best hosts Georgia Tech has ever had at a post-season game. The City of Jacksonville is to be congratulated on the way that the Gator Bowl activities were handled this year. And, we hereby take back all of those things we said two years ago about the bowl ticket situation. Now, if we could only do something about breaking Tech's TECH ALUMNUS