From the Tool Room to the Class Room

In this brief memoir, the author re-visits his undergraduate and graduate years in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Ohio State University, as well as his years as a tool and die maker apprentice at the General Motors Fisher Body plant in Columbus, Ohio. The author’s experience as an apprentice and as a young engineer confronted by the task of building a trotting quadruped have had a clear effect on his later work in helping to create a totally new course for second-year students in mechanical engineering.