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A
Litton Education.
Was It Worth It?
This is a portion of a letter which Jack Lee Smith, Class
of 1950 sent to the Isaac Litton Alumni Association. He wanted to share
with others what he had experienced and what he had learned about his
four years at Isaac Litton High School.
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I am
Jack Smith, and I went to Litton. I wasn’t an exceptional scholar,
mainly because I worked evenings and weekends at Candyland and Gardner’s
Garage. That’s why my hands were always smudged with grease because
it wouldn’t all come off.
The time at work meant not enough time to study as much
as I should have, nor to do all of the homework. Some of the teachers tried
goading me with negative reinforcement, "If you don’t study more,
you will never be accepted in any college.”
I was firmly convinced that the need for more study and
the lack of money would keep me out of any college. Little did I know about
the real world and how well I had actually been taught at Litton.
A few months after graduation in 1950, I was drafted
and sent to Fort Leonard Wood, MO for Combat Engineer training. I scored
high on the Army Entrance Exams and was assigned to responsible positions.
At first, I was a squad leader and got to know fellows from high schools
around the nation. I had no trouble at staying ahead of them.
All of us were trained as qualified riflemen. When basic
training ended, 5,000 of us were shipped to Korea. While most of the group
was assigned to the front line as riflemen, two of us were given other
duties. I was assigned to a MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) unit and,
much to my surprise, I was trained to be a medic.
This turned out being the dirty end of the war with so
many wounded and dead troops coming through. The doctors taught us how
to handle the injured soldiers who would be sent back to major hospitals.
As the war was slowing down, our unit was transferred
to northern Japan and we served as a clinic. Two of the men with whom I
worked were college graduates with masters degrees. One had graduated from
Michigan State University and the other one from American University in
Washington, D.C. After working a while with them I told myself that, as
a graduate from Isaac Litton and when compared with these two, I would
have no trouble entering college.
After my Army discharge, I went home and found that things
had changed so much, I didn’t seem to fit in, so I went to northern
Wisconsin where an older sister and her family lived. The small town was
home to the University of Wisconsin, Stout. I qualified for the GI Bill
which meant I could afford college.
Stout specialized in industrial education and, even though
I had always thought of a degree in civil engineering, I enrolled. With
my strong background from Litton, I was accepted with no questions.
I began in January of 1952 and went to summer school.
During my final semester, I enrolled in graduate school. My strong educational
background from Litton was again a great help. I graduated with honors
in June 1955 and was listed in the College Book of Who's Who.
With the graduate credits I had already earned, I figured
that by attending a six-week summer school which was scheduled for that
year, I could earn enough credits to complete the requirements for a master
of science degree. I checked and found that I had enough GI Bill remaining
to cover both the summer school and final semester; so I went for it and
completed both my BS and MS degrees in four calendar years . . . |
and I'd
had my doubts after graduating from Litton. In the semester when I was
completing my work on the MS degree, the professor who taught freshman
mechanical drawing was scheduled to travel, so I was assigned to teach
the course in his stead.
While
I was at Stout, I met students from high schools from all over the Midwest.
I was amazed that much of their education was so weak. All were weak in
mathematics, yet all were accepted into college.
Following graduation, I accepted work at the AC Spark
Plug Division of General Motors. AC was involved in defense work, providing
electronic systems for the US Air Force. I met several men who had electrical
engineering (EE) degrees from colleges and universities from all around
the country. My educational background was as good as or better than all
of them, and a lot of my educational strength was due to Isaac Litton
High School.
After 15 years with GM at Milwaukee, I still had the
Wisconsin GI Bill. Marquette University offered an evening graduate extension
program leading to a doctorate in education (DED), and I earned an additional
15 graduate credits. This, combined with my MSEd degree totaled enough
credits for my doctorate; however I did not submit the required thesis,
so I didn’t qualify for a DED.
While completing the additional 15 graduate credits,
I was able to study with several students who were working towards a DED.
This provided another opportunity to compare my Litton education with
that of others.
During my 35 years with GM, I worked on various projects and trained several
USAF personnel including pilots and astronauts. These projects included:
- Aircraft
fire control systems (F-86 through F-100)•
IRBM-ICBM internal guidance systems (Thor-Titan)
- Apollo
primary guidance and navigation system
- Seventeen
lunar missions
- Several
Skylab missions
- Apollo-Soyuz
Test Project (ASTP—the first US/Russian space mission)
- Digital
computers for F-16 and C-117 aircraft
- Flight
control system for C-117 cargo aircraft
- Armored
personnel vehicle turret fire control system
Within
those 35 years at GM, I attained the position of Manager of Product and
In-house Technical Training. I had 20 EE and ECE (electrical and computer
engineer) graduates reporting to me. Many of them conducted training for
Apollo astronauts and NASA flight controllers. They also trained personnel
from several other countries. Some were assigned to other countries to
provide product support and training support for those countries’
personnel.
I found this was an opportunity to compare my educational
background with that of people from other countries, and Litton proved
strong.
Of course, we always knew that Litton was the best school
in Nashville/Davidson County. Throughout all of my experiences, I have
concluded that Isaac Litton High School proved to be one of the best schools,
not only in the nation, but also in the world.
I hope I have not bored you with this letter; but I
did want to explain how lucky I feel to be a graduate of Isaac Litton
High School.
I would like to have attended our 50th class reunion
in 2000, but medical problems prevent my traveling. Had I been able to
attend the reunion, I could have expressed my pride at being a Litton
alumnus. However, since I could not make the personal contact, please
convey this expression of pride and experience to any of those teachers
from whom I learned so much and pass on my regards to any and all of my
classmates.
Respectfully, Jack Lee Smith
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