Memoirs of Roger Max Zimmerman Volume 5 Volunteer Activities

By Roger Zimmerman

This volume highlights activities that occurred outside of those required to make a living. Activities are summarized in three categories: engineering society related, engineering accreditation process related, and history. The engineering society functions were related to the American Society of Civil Engineers and the New Mexico and National Societies of Professional Engineers (NSPE). I served as presidents of the state societies in both organizations. I was an accreditation evaluator for Civil Engineering and an accreditation team chair and a member of the board of directors as a representative of NSPE. I served as president of the Albuquerque Historical Society and wrote two history related books

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roger Zimmerman
• Release date: Feb 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781735959696

Book preview

MEMOIRS OF

ROGER MAX ZIMMERMAN

VOLUME 5: VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES

by

Roger Max Zimmerman

Smashwords Edition

Published on Smashwords by:

Roger Max Zimmerman

Memoirs of Roger Max Zimmerman

Volume 5: Volunteer Activities

Copyright 2021 by Roger Max Zimmerman

ISBN 978-1-7359596-9-6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020922418

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

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• • •

About the Cover

The cover shows four mountains that represent places that have greatly influenced my life. Four were selected to recognize the sacred mountains that represent the thinking, knowledge, and the way of life for the Navajo Indians, who were the dominant culture in my early years. The Navajos use these mountains to understand stories of the past, present, and to deal with the future. I find that the mountains I have selected represent things that were part of my past and hopefully these interpretations will be useful to those in the future who might be interested in engineering, education, and some history related happenings around the turn of the Twenty First Century. The Navajos selected the four mountains along geographical directions to indicate foundations for their ways of life. The Sacred mountains were Blanca Peak near Ft. Garland, CO (East), Mt. Taylor near Grants, NM (South), San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff AZ (West) and Mt. Hesperus near Durango, CO (North). I have selected Hosta Butte, near Mariano Lake, NM (West), the Flatirons near Boulder, CO (North), the Organ Mountains near Las Cruces, NM (South) and South Sandia Peak near Albuquerque, NM (East).

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION VOLUME 5

STUDENT ACTIVITIES IN BOULDER

ASCE ACTIVITIES IN LAS CRUCES

Honors

NMSPE ACTIVITIES IN ALBUQUERQUE

President of Albuquerque Chapter of NMSPE

President of NMSPE

AMERICAN COUNCIL OF ENGINEERING COMPANIES/ NEW MEXICO

Honors

ACCREDITATION BOARD FOR ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (ABET)

Accreditation Exposure at CU

Basic Accreditation Functions

Accreditation Participation

Observations During PEV and Team Chair Visits

Summary of Accreditation Activities

RECOGNITION OF ENGINEERS

Recognition Issue

NSPE Review of Umbrella Concept for Professionals

American Engineers’ Association

ALBUQUERQUE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Introduction

President

Major Program Initiatives

Summary

Tribute to Outgoing AHS President Roger Zimmerman

BOOKS

Kitchen’s Opera House, Gallup, New Mexico

A History Lover’s Guide to Albuquerque

Summary

CLOSURE ON MEMOIR SERIES

APPENDICES

Appendix A – Rerouting Route 66 Through Tijeras Canyon

Appendix B – Albuquerque and the Yazoo

Appendix C – Theoretical Texas Boundary in New Mexico

Appendix D – Principal Publications

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MEMOIRS OF ROGER MAX ZIMMERMAN

INTRODUCTION VOLUME 5

This fifth volume on Volunteer Activities ends the Memoir Series. I like to do things with people, and I like to see organizations do well that support things I am interested in. I started volunteering in student activities at the University of Colorado and have continued volunteering through my working years and into retirement. Volunteer work has been interesting, challenging, and personally satisfying. I have been in a number of volunteer school, church, and neighborhood activities through the years that I won’t write about because I didn’t have the heavy leadership involvement in most of them. I was a ready worker, particularly when Betty and I were involved.

The volunteer activities that I discuss seem to be driven by my desire to put more than time into technical activities. I was in the engineering profession and I found that much of my volunteer work was dedicated to various facets of it. I don’t deny that I realized that involvement in organizations that showed my leadership or organizational potentials was useful in resume-building, but the record will show, that I was still volunteering when my career-building days were over. I have assumed leadership roles in many of the organizations and those responsibilities have provided me with an opportunity to try to add value to whatever the organization was trying to do. Some dear friendships have risen out of these activities.

The major chapters, which were first drafted in 2020, are: Student Activities in Boulder, ASCE Activities in Las Cruces, NMSPE Activities in Albuquerque, American Council of Engineering Companies/New Mexico, Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), Recognition of Engineers, Albuquerque Historical Society, Books, (that I have written), and Closure on Memoirs Series.

The first four chapters are activities in engineering related organizations. The last of these discusses being chairman of a committee that recognizes engineering accomplishments. My activities with engineering accreditation occurred over a period of 32 years and continued past my retirement. The section of Recognition of Engineers is a stand-alone segment that illustrates how I thought the engineering profession could improve its image to the public. As you will find, this will display more hope than accomplishment. Finally, my volunteer activities in history started with the writing of a book on Kitchens Opera House Gallup, New Mexico in 2002, and they continue to this day. I served as president of the Albuquerque Historical Society (AHS) from 2013-2019. In 2019, my new book, A History Lover’s Guide to Albuquerque, came out

A Closure chapter is my attempt to explain the goal of providing time-dated accountings of youth, education, engineering, and history related personal experiences that I had the privilege to participate in over a span of 8 decades.

The Appendix of this volume contains three research articles that I prepared in responses to different stimuli. I prepared articles on Rerouting Route 66 Through Tijeras Canyon and Albuquerque and the Yazoo to enhance the understanding of Albuquerque history. The third article, Theoretical Texas Boundary in New Mexico, was written in my capacity of being President of the AHS in response to a request from the President of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. They wanted to establish a boundary marker in Albuquerque commemorating the Republic, and I made the case as to why they shouldn’t. I try to describe my involvements in these projects in such a way that brings out what we were trying to do and how the results turned out. I share personal experiences that were both good and bad.

STUDENT ACTIVITIES IN BOULDER

As I settled in as a new student in Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado in the Fall of 1956, I became aware of the presence of the student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Some of my professors and fellow students were involved in activities of the society and I was encouraged to join the student chapter so I could gain access to professionals in the field. Leo Novak was the long-time sponsor, and he was my advisor. Needless to say, I received encouragement from him. A main feature of the student chapter was to give students the opportunity to interact with practicing civil engineers from outside of academia. This was considered important in the practice of engineering. There were chapter meetings and field trips. There was a real push to make sure that we would graduate and enter into the practicing profession of civil engineering. This meant we were being prepared to design structures or water treatment plants or dams or airports or other features within society’s infrastructure.

As I got involved, I found that the purpose of ASCE is the advancement of the science and profession of civil engineering and the enhancement of human welfare through the activities of society members. The society promotes the advancement of technology and encourages and provides tools for lifelong learning. It promotes professionalism and seeks to advance the profession of engineering. It is dedicated to the advancement of the individual civil engineer and advancement of the science and profession of civil engineering through education. I adopted those goals.

I found that ASCE was founded in 1852 and is the oldest national engineering society in the United States. As a student, we proudly advertised that fact as we interacted and competed with students from the other branches of engineering. A major competition occurred during Engineering Days games, which was around St. Patrick’s birthday. St. Patrick is the Patron Saint of engineers. The games included sack races, tugs of war, and various other engagements where students could compete. I remember participating in a Scottish originated caber toss and several tugs of war. Generally, the civil engineers did well in the competitions because the ASCE student societies were better organized.

I joined the student chapter and got active. There was a feeling of togetherness in the chapter and clearly the faculty were supportive of our activities. One of the competitions with the other student chapters was an evening skit competition in the fall. Each society was to develop a humorous skit and perform it. I was involved for two years. I remember the first year that I participated was in 1956, the fall after Betty and I got married. The skit was about student life at CU. I don’t remember the details, but I do remember one scene because Betty and I contributed to it. Remember this was the era where there were panty raids on college campuses. The scene was where a guy got into a girl’s room in the dormitory and was going through her dresser and showing the undergarments to the audience. He was looking for something that would add humor to the skit. In the script, he reached into the drawer and pulled out a pair of underpants and of course the audience laughed. He would reach into the drawer and slowly pull out a bra. I was the only one on the skit team that was married, and the team captain asked if I could bring a bra. I said, of course I could. In my naivete as a new husband, I went to our apartment and told Betty that I needed a bra for the skit. She wasn’t the least bit interested in having one of her bras displayed in public. She came up with a better idea. She made a bra with three paper cups. When the student pulled the special bra out in the skit, the audience howled. We won the competition that year.

The next year I was the organizer for the skit. I decided to do something risqué. There is a cheer during football seasons that was called The Buff Clap. It was well known to all who attended the football games. I got the crazy idea to develop a skit where a student would be wheeled into a hospital emergency room on a gurney. The doctors and nurses would gather around, and one would pick up the covering sheet and in unison they would say: Oh my goodness, he has the buff clap. I outlined this idea at the student chapter meeting one evening and it was accepted because nobody had a better idea. The next morning, I was in class and the professor gave me a note saying that the department head, Warren Raeder, wanted to see me.

Of course, I was dumbfounded. Why would the department head want to see me? He was just a guy that sometimes showed up to student meetings, but I had not had any interactions with him. Well I went up to his office and got to meet him personally. He asked me to sit down and then said that he was at the student meeting the previous evening and heard my presentation. He said that he thought that the skit was kind of risqué and he had a question. He knew I was married, and he asked me what I thought my wife would say about the subject of the skit. I said: I didn’t think she would fully understand the potential social problem. He didn’t push me to change the skit, but I knew he was concerned. We kept the skit, as it was, and it was a flop. The audience didn’t make the intellectual transformation to the football cheer. We didn’t come out very good in the competition. My days as a playwright were short lived.

This skit was in the fall of 1957. I graduated in January of 1959 and started correspondence with Warren Raeder about becoming an Instructor in Civil Engineering that March. Fortunately, he didn’t carry a grudge about my student stage production. He knew of my interests when I graduated so this was no surprise. He was the department head that offered me a job in April of 1959. Warren was retiring that year and Roland Rautenstraus was the incoming Department Chairman, note the difference in titles. Roland was a teacher of surveying and we had worked together during the summer of 1958. He knew of my surveying capabilities and was receptive of me becoming an Instructor for the fall of 1959. My main focus would be in teaching surveying and lower-level engineering science courses while I went to graduate school.

Somehow, I got elected to be the secretary of the ASCE chapter during the 1957-58 school year. I wasn’t smart enough to know that the major responsibility of the secretary was to write the report in the spring for the yearly activities. I remember doing this, and this started my deeper involvement into the society.

A student chapter was supposed to have a lot of local and regional activities and account for them. There were monthly meetings where practicing civil engineers shared their experiences and projects. Professional engineers came in to talk about the licensure process in engineering. The student chapter had field trips and social functions. The student chapter competed in the Engineering Day competitions with other engineering student groups and this was a lot of fun. If you were 18, you could legally drink 3.2% alcohol and the chapter didn’t miss out on those opportunities.

There was a student paper contest. I entered with a talk about the construction of the unique Albuquerque Civic Center. The roof of the center was cast in concrete over a mound of earth that had been built up. The earth was removed, and the structure was supported on columns at the perimeter. The structural dome had a unique texture with good sound characteristics. I didn’t win. The winner went to the regional contest and I don’t remember how he came out.

As secretary, I needed to account for how many students and faculty attended the various events. It took a lot of work to get the report in. As I recall, we didn’t get any kind of commendation.

I joined the faculty as an Instructor in Civil Engineering in 1959 and soon became the assistant faculty advisor to ASCE. As I recall, Leo was on leave for a semester and I kept the chapter running.

One of my responsibilities was to take the student officers to the regional ASCE Student Conference. I drove a carload of students to Rapid City, SD for a two-day meeting. I used a university automobile. I had never been there before and neither had they. We saw Mt. Rushmore and a lot of buffaloes, which were all over the highways in those days. It was a fun trip and we all got back safely about 3 days after we left. I don’t think our student paper contestant won the regional competition.

ASCE ACTIVITIES IN LAS CRUCES

ASCE records indicate that I joined the society as an Associate Member in March of 1959, which was just after my graduation, I continued in that capacity until January of 1974. An Associate Member had a bachelor’s degree from a school which has an Engineers Council for Professional Development (ECPD up to 1980) accredited program. The University of Colorado was accredited by ECPD. To become a Licensed Member, I needed to have a professional engineer’s license. I became a licensed member in 1974 and continued in that capacity until I was elected to Fellow in 1989 and Life Member in 2001.

For purposes of this discussion, initially I am going to talk about things that I did at New Mexico State University as an active member of ASCE. I became active in the New Mexico Section, which consists of ASCE members from all corners of New Mexico. The section was active and had annual meetings. A feature of the meetings was to sponsor student activities, which included a student paper competition in the early days and a concrete canoe race in later days. I made several presentations on my research activities at the meetings.

The section was active in promoting historic civil engineering projects and the board of directors was active in sponsoring dedications. The following is a list of historic projects that were identified in the 1970s when I became involved in the board of directors of the New Mexico Section.

• Embudo Stream Gage Station

• Cumbres-Toltec Railroad

• Elephant Butte Dam

• International Boundary Marker #1

I don’t remember when I went on the board of directors of the New Mexico section, but I was president of the section during 1974-75 and president-elect the year before. This was a busy year as I was asked to be the Acting Dean of Engineering in June of 1974 after the sudden passing of Dean Frank Bromilow.

The section had