by Ed Collier, Graduate of Mechanical Drafting 1962
(L-R) 1962 Classmates Jim Thornhill, Phil Freeman, Larry Leuck, Ed Collier and Delmer Williams in St. Genevieve, Mo.
Fifty years after graduating from David Ranken Jr. School of Mechanical Trades, I stood on the street corner on November 16, 2012 in St. Genevieve, Missouri, awaiting the arrival of four of my 1962 Mechanical Drafting classmates. I hadn't seen these guys for almost 50 years and was anxious to see them again after so long.
Jim Thornhill, one of my classmates, had contacted me to see if I could attend a reunion he was planning. Out of a class of thirty-two students enrolled in 1960, eleven graduated in 1962. He was trying to get as many classmates together as possible. Living in Amarillo, Texas, since 1974, I saw this 800 mile trip as a great opportunity to see my classmates and exchange stories of how all of our lives had unfolded. One by one, vehicles drove up with familiar faces but with a bit more maturity than I had remembered in the past. Five of us out of the eleven graduates travelling from Illinois and from all over Missouri were able to meet and spend some time together. I was happy to see Jim, Phil Freeman, Larry Leuck and Delmer Williams again.
We fell in conversation together again just like we had only left for the weekend. After a couple of hours swapping student life stories, memories of campus and our drafting instructor, Mr. Lane and lots of other stories of our everyday experiences, we began discussing our post-Ranken lives. It seems we all had similar experiences before and after Ranken. But what brought us together was that we had realized that we would need more than a high school education for a successful career. Each of us chose Ranken at a time in our lives when we were beginning to mature and take life seriously. It was this commonality of needs and similar interests that created our close student friendships. From the stories that were told, we learned that most of us had successful careers stemming from a broad range of academic courses, maturity, self-esteem and confidence we had all gained during our time at Ranken.
Larry Leuck attributes his career opportunities and flexibility to his Ranken training. He says, "The respect that local industry has for Ranken afforded me the flexibility to make job changes, and my Ranken trade skills extended in some fashion or another across my entire career." Larry retired from Shell Oil in Hartford, Illinois.
Delmer Williams noted that his education had opened doors for his first assignment as he moved through areas of tool design, plumbing design and fire protection work. Del continued use of his mechanical skills to build a successful career in engineering consulting.
Phil Freeman got his start working as a draftsman advancing to project manager/designer at National Vendors where he worked for seventeen years. Moving to another company in Missouri, he took a position as Chief Engineer. Phil commented, "I feel that not only the education, but the philosophy we received from our schooling at Ranken taught us that knowing just enough to get by on whatever we were doing wasn't enough. We should want to know more and acquire a greater knowledge. The David Ranken School of Mechanical Trades and faculty were no-nonsense educators, you were there to get an education and a job in your chosen field and they wouldn't put up with anything else."
Jim Thornhill started his career working with Phil Freeman at National Vendors where he also had a long successful career in drafting and tool design before moving on to other areas of opportunity.
My post-graduate career began as a technical illustrator at McDonnell Aircraft drawing for air and spacecraft parts catalogs and maintenance manuals. I moved to Emerson Electric in their Air and Space Division illustrating weapons systems. I retired as a systems analyst from Bell Helicopter Textron in Texas. I can also say that "The first fifteen years of my fifty-year career was worked in fields directly related to my Ranken training and the educational experience itself continued helping me throughout my long and interesting career."
Ranken training helped each of us find entry level jobs which we turned into long successful and varied careers. We all benefited from an improved sense of confidence and skills used to face our uncertain future, and as this reunion has shown us, helped us form some long lasting friendships. We are planning to meet again as time permits continuing our Ranken friendships but won't lose touch with each other again.
