Rose-Hulman Scholar is a Digital Commons open access repository containing a wide range of research and scholarly output. It is a central showcase for the scholarship of Rose-Hulman’s faculty, students, and professional staff. It also serves as a publishing platform and increases visibility and access to published works. Disclaimer: Archived Rose-Hulman content may contain stereotyped, insensitive or inappropriate content, such as images or text, that reflected prejudicial attitudes of their day--attitudes that should not have been acceptable then, and which would be widely condemned by today’s standards. Rose-Hulman is presenting the content as originally published because they are an archival record of a point in time. To remove offensive material now would, in essence, sanitize history by erasing the stereotypes and prejudices from historical record as if they never existed.
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Carl T. Herakovich Professor Virginia Tech 1967-87
Carl Herakovich
This fourth book in the author’s memoir series discusses the twenty years he was a professor at Virginia Tech, rising through the ranks from assistant to associate to full professor. He reviews his role in conceiving and developing the NASA-Virginia Tech Composites Program. A program that had a major impact on graduate education and the production of engineers capable of working with fibrous composite materials. According to a NASA administrator the program was “one of the most significant contributions to the country coming out of Langley’s composites research”. The author discusses his leadership role in the Virginia Tech personal computer initiative. This 1984 initiative resulted in Virginia Tech being the first public university in the country to require freshmen engineering students to purchase their own personal computer. The initiative is considered to be a major academic advancement at Virginia Tech. During his years in Blacksburg, the author became an Atlantic Coast Conference football official. He discusses many of the highlights of games he worked including, then TV announcer, Coach Darrel Royal, commenting on national TV during the 1974 Blue Bonnet Bowl game “look at that official, he’s the only one that can keep up with the runner”. The book includes details of the year that he was on sabbatical at École Polytechnique in Paris, France, including highlights of his families travels throughout Europe when he would give lectures. The book also includes discussion of rental property ownership in Blacksburg and Sunset Beach, NC. The Appendix has listings of graduate students, scholarly publications, officiated football games, crews and coaches, and details of the Virginia Tech personal computer initiative, the NASA-Virginia Tech Composites Program, and real estate transactions. In 2020, the author was recognized with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.
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GRADUATE SCHOOL YEARS: A Memoir
Carl Herakovich
This portion of the author’s memoir covers the time beginning in February 1960 when he was discharged from the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers until September, 1967 when he took a teaching position at Virginia Polytechnic Institute - with the exception of the two academic years 1962-63 and 1963-64 when he was the football coach and instructor/assistant professor of civil engineering at Rose Polytechnic Institute (now Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology). The time at Rose is discussed in his memoir “Rose Poly and Me”. The early years of his life are discussed in his memoir “Rocky in Whiting”. Both of these books can be downloaded from Apple Books, at no charge. A few print copies of both books are available from the author at cost. The current book discusses the six months he worked for the Indiana State Highway Department, his marriage to Marlene Vukowich (April 23, 1960) and the growth of their family, attending The University of Kansas for a master’s degree in Mechanics (1960-62), attending Illinois Institute of Technology for a PhD in Mechanics (1964-67), National Science Foundation summer graduate programs at the University of New Mexico (1963) and Oklahoma State University (1964), summer work at Miller-Miller Architects in Terre Haute (1962) and the Whirlpool Corporation (1963), and participation in the formation of an investment firm Polyventure Inc. Polyventure developed Founder’s Square, a tourist destination, in Fish Creek (Door County) Wisconsin.
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ROCKY in WHITING A Memoir
Carl (Rocky) Herakovich
This book covers the author’s childhood through his time as a 2nd Lt. in the U. S. Army Corp of Engineers (1937 - 1960). The book complements his previous book Rose Poly and Me that details his college years at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. The author discusses growing up in Whiting Indiana, a Chicago suburb on the shore of Lake Michigan, his heritage through the Herakovich and Buckley families from Europe, his immediate family and their vacations, his forty aunts and uncles, Sacred Heart grade school and Whiting High school, his athletic achievements, and his life as a teenager in the 1950s. As a high school senior, he was a multidimensional player on the 1954 Indiana State Championship Football Team. He was a quarterback and halfback on offense, a defensive safety, and returner of kickoffs and punts. He was designated as one of fourteen Ironmen who were the only players with significant playing time during the successful season. He also started on the basketball and baseball teams and was designated as the Whiting High Athlete of the Year for 1954-55. He talks about his coaches, high school teachers, honors, publicity and summer vacations with friends. He discusses his jobs in steel mills and oil refineries, during summers and Christmas breaks from college. An appendix includes a wealth of information on the extended Herakovich and Buckley families.
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ROSE POLY and ME A Memoir
Carl (Rocky) Herakovich
Author discusses his time as an engineering student and football player (1955-59), and then football coach, track coach, athletic director, instructor and then assistant professor of civil engineering at Rose Polytechnic Institute (now Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology) (1962-64). As a football player in 1958, he led the nation in scoring with 168 points in 8 games. Sixty-two years later, the 168 points continues to be the record for points in a season by an Indiana college football player. His 21.0 points per game were the national record for thirty years (1958-88) until broken by Barry Sanders of Oklahoma State. In 1957 and 1958, the Rose Poly football team won fifteen games in a row over two seasons while the defense held opponents to 5.4 points per game. In 1958, the team led the NCAA Division II in defense holding opponents to 95.8 yards per game and a total of 31 points (3.9 points per game). As the football coach, he rescued the team from a disastrous previous year in which the team lost all of its games and scored only six points. The author concludes with his afterthoughts on his alma mater after a career of more than 60 years in engineering education.