Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI, CDT
Senior Member
Username: rliebing
Post Number: 1406
Registered: 02-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 - 08:11 am: |    |
130619
YOU NEVER KNOW!
by Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI, CDT
Cincinnati, OH
Please forgive the overly personalized message, but just had a most amazing experience [as in “ain’t it a small world”?]. And through an odd blend of the old and the new. Hmmm! and Wow!
Through our company web site, a message came “looking for me”, not as an escapee, but as one who might have more information. The message was passed to me for reply. I found that the “seeker” was looking for a former colleague and saw a mutual reference and then sought me through the wizardry of modern electronic web site-- the CSI web site apparently came up with me through a search. You never know!
Seems a collector/seller/e-bayite ran across some drawings in an antique store in West Virginia, The drawings were found by the store owner in her attic. She put them in the shop, for sale. The gentleman purchased them [curiosity I guess] and now has them listed on e-bay, to make what bucks he can [his business is Harley-Davison memorabilia, but dabbles in everything on e-bay].
He was looking for me in regard to more information about the author of the drawings. They appear to be the senior thesis of the lady who co-authored my book on working drawings-- Mimi Ford Paul. These are vintage 1961, hand –drafted in her meticulous and wonderful style. She was a highly skilled drafter who used 9H lead on 1000H for working drawings [you oldsters explain that to your young colleagues]. Throughout her college career she drove a Riley automobile, which she has depicted on the various drawings! You never know!
This was no ordinary young woman. She was wealthy [old West Virginia coal], had a degree from Smith, was a cryptographer for the State Department during WWII, and must have had some strange “calling” to become an architect [a noble ambition, I might add!]. You never know! She was 10 years older and 2 years behind me in school, but we practiced in the same office before parting ways when she started to teach at Cincinnati. She taught a sophomore architectural history course, where she used parallel routes- one for architecture and a comparative one for the history of the concurrent times. The kids loved her. You never know!
When I began to teach there [adjunct] the kids were in a co-op program working part of the year in offices and part of the time back in school. They were unprepared for the office! Anger-- from students and employers!! Big time! Mimi and I concocted a course, Methods and Materials [the course was no credit, scheduled for off-hours and with no pay—averaged 58 students], in which we addressed each type of working drawing, and later gave lectures on individual materials and systems, collecting product literature as texts. The kinds loved it! Employers rejoiced and even asked where we came by some of the literature the kids were given. You never know!
But we couldn’t find a suitable text. Mimi got the idea to write one [in answer to an ad]. Got a contract without word one of manuscript, Wiley published it, and it has gone 36 years, and four editions [the fifth is now a variation by another publisher] and sales of over 45,000. All of that is typically Mimi. Who thought we’d write a book, much less publish, much less survive and sell like that! You never know!
Mimi passed in 1991-- but she knew, full well! Keep watch and aware, something might be looking for you! You never know! |
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