FEEDBACK SUSTAINABLE LESSONS
I read every issue of the Alumni Magazine, but I was really amazed at the articles in the Winter 2016 issue (Vol. 92, No. 4) about sustainability! I had no idea what was happening on the campus. Reading about Tech’s sustainability efforts moved me to become heavily involved in a project at St. Frederick High here in Monroe, La., to significantly reduce energy consumption at the school as part of a renovation of the 54-year-old main building. We are working with a consulting firm in New Orleans to do a complete energy audit. My initial survey indicates a simple energy management plan could easily save the school 15 percent on utility costs. For example, leaving thermostats on 60 degrees all day in the chapel after a one-hour morning mass is wasteful! I am also looking into a rainwater collection and distribution system similar to those at Tech, but on a much smaller scale. I reached out to Tech’s Howard Wertheimer, JuliAnne Williamson and [Alumni Magazine Assistant Editor] Melissa Fralick, and they have all been very helpful in assisting me with these endeavors. So, I have a lot of balls in the air—and all because of your outstanding articles. I feel like I’m back in 1959, studying ME and sweating out graduation. ARMAND BREARD, ME 59, MS IM 62 MONROE, LA
IT’S A SMALL TECH WORLD
My daughter Tiffany Poole, a Tech graduate like me, attended a wedding in Arlington, Va., this past November. Her sorority sister Kathleen was getting married, and Tiffany flew in early in order to make the rehearsal dinner on Friday night. Ru n n i n g a fe w m i n u te s l a te ,
Tiffany hurriedly checked in at the hotel’s front desk to find the dinner location and made her way to the elevators, trying to remember the complicated directions she was given by the receptionist. She heard a couple approaching and held the elevator for them. However, since she was in a hurry, my daughter didn’t initiate any small talk with them like she normally would. But soon as the couple got onboard the elevator, the woman asked Tiffany: “Are you heading to Kathleen and Sean’s party?” To which Tiffany replied, “Yes, and I guess y’all are too?” They agreed, and Tiffany offered up that she knew the bride from college. The man mentioned that he was a friend of the groom’s father. Dismissing a connection since the groom is from the D.C. area, Tiffany smiled politely and got ready to exit the elevator. But just before the doors opened, the man asked: “Remind me where Kathleen went to college?” “Georgia Tech,” Tiffany replied.
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The man then exclaimed: “I went to Georgia Tech!” Tiffany said, “I did, too, and so did my dad.” She then asked the man’s major and the year he “got out.” He answered, “Civil, ’73.” “Oh, my Dad was ME, ’71”. “Well, what was his name?” “Jack Poole.” “You’re kidding me—the Jack Poole from Sparta, Ga.?” Tiffany, taken aback, replied “That’s the one!” “We were college roommates for a few years!” Before she could stop the words from coming out of her mouth, Tiffany said “You’re not Fat Har....” “Yep, I’m Fat Harv!” he said with a big laugh. Now it was that booming laugh—similar to Bill Cosby’s Fat Albert character—not his weight that earned him that nickname. Tiffany had heard me tell countless stories about Fat Harv from my days at Tech. Tiffany then took a selfie with Fat Harv to send to me. How else was she going to prove that my favorite college roommate, James Harvey Markley, CE’73, who had moved to Alaska and then Idaho would be riding the same elevator as his daughter, 45 years after he last saw him? What were the odds? (Someone at Tech should be able to figure that out!) Yellow Jackets scatter all over the world after graduation. And Fat Harv was truly the most unforgettable character that I ever met at Tech. I truly regret not staying in closer contact with Harv after Tech—a regret I intend on correcting in the near future. JACK CHESTER POOLE, ME 71 MARTINEZ, GA
Want to get in touch? Send letters to: Editor, Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313, or editor@alumni.gatech.edu. Share your personal news, birth and wedding announcements (with photos!), out-and-about snapshots and in memoriam notices at gtalumni.org/magazine.