Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Speaker A: Welcome to The Sound Bearier Northeast State Community College's official podcast. My name is MacKenzie Moore, Gent, Co hosting today alongside my colleague Thomas Wilson. And today we have a guest who goes all the way back right at the very beginning of Northeast State Community College, in fact, before it was even called Northeast State Community College.
Mr. Tom Jarrell retired in 2000, spent all the years, all the decades, from 66 all the way up, he saw 10 year anniversary, the 15th, 20th, 25th. And with that came a lot of change. Mr. Jarrell, it's such an honor to have you on the show today. Thank you so much for joining us.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Well, same here. It's an extreme honor to still be around and to be able to share how it was in the beginning.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: So and so let's start right there then right at the very beginning, how did the opportunity to work at the newly found at the time college? It was a technical school at the time. How did you get word of that? What led you here to begin with?
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Well, a little beginning. I was a machinist and tool and die maker here in the tri cities in industry. And I heard of the new Vocational Technologies Technical School that was to be built near the airport. And so I sent a letter of application to the University of Tennessee. Lo and behold, in the fall of 1965, there was a fellow got in touch with me. His name was James M. Pierce. He said, I've been trying to locate you. I'm in need of a machine shop instructor and I understand that you might make a good teacher. And I said, well, I like to consider myself a fair craftsman. I understand machine shop work and tool and die work. I've had experience with that for about five years.
And he said, let's talk some more. He said, can you meet me in Bristol in a parking lot off of weaver Pike, Bristol, Tennessee.
He says, I'm finishing up a house for Dr. Nicely.
Now come to find out, Mr. Pierce was a builder. He was a carpenter by trade.
Of course. He had also graduated from University of Tennessee and had been a lieutenant commander in the Navy, maybe World War II, but so I said that's a little unusual, but sure.
So I met him in the parking lot there off of Weaver Pike. I think it was maybe a bowling alley at the time.
And so we chatted. And so he told me a little bit about what was to take place.
There's going to be a new vocational technical school built near the airport.
And it was one of 20 some schools to be built across the state of Tennessee to wherever resident within the State of Tennessee would have be within 30 miles of one of these schools.
And so I said sure, I'm interested.
So now that was probably in October of 1965.
We I actually went on the payroll in January 1st, 1966 and the school we started out with five vocational programs. The technical wing had not been added at that time. It was a year or two later that what was considered technical was added.
The first five programs were vocational. We had of course the machine shop where we trained machinist.
And then across the breezeway we called it, the vocational wing was auto mechanics. Lloyd Hash was the first automotive instructor.
Matter of fact, Jim Pierce.
Mr. Pierce asked me, he says I'm in need of someone to teach auto mechanics.
And I said well, I know a fellow that's got about 20 years in Dealer, mechanic from Kingsport. I said his name is Lloyd Hash. I said he make a good automotive instructor. And so he got in touch with Lord Hashtag.
And so it sort of went from there. Then we had to have electrical instructor to teach electricians.
And so he had. Mr. Pierce had taught some night classes at Bristol Tennessee Vocational School.
And so there was an electrician there that taught some knock class and was also a union electrician.
His name was Harold Jarrett and he was like myself. He was from Bluff City.
So seemed like all the instructors that we needed were right here in the Tri Cities.
Had to have a welding program, somebody teach welding. And so Ray Dixon from Blountpole was interviewed and hired. Okay. The fifth one was in the building up front. Where the offices administration was, was secretarial program.
That's where Patty Parker was a graduate of.
And so we called it office occupations.
Edwinna Powell was the first secretary. Office occupations instructor. I think that was five. We started with those five programs. Let me back up just a little bit. At the time I came on the job January 2 of 66. The building the shop programs were built. There was cover over a concrete breezeway that led up to the administration front office. It was brick on the outside, but the inside was cinderblock. And one of the reasons I can recall I guess is the size of the shop was 40ft by 80ft and there was nothing in it. It was just empty. I was given a list of machines, machine tools, we call them lathe milling machines and drill presses and that sort of thing that we would receive that would be coming in. And so right from the get go I had to do the layout on the concrete floor as to what would be a good lay out for the machines. Several things were involved There, of course, safety was always a big thing.
And then to a flow of traffic. Having a list of all the machines that would be used in the preparation to prepare adults to be machinists. Well, then I started doing the layout. And so, long story short, it was April before I had the shop set up. I had seven students that were still in high school. They were graduating seniors that wanted to be machinists. They gave them release time from their respective high schools here in the Tri Cities. Those that wanted to be machinists, they came in in April of 66, as did the other five. We made it open to high school graduating seniors.
[00:08:40] Speaker C: You had 12 students total in the first class?
[00:08:43] Speaker B: I had seven students.
[00:08:45] Speaker C: Seven.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: They might have been a total of 30 students in all the five programs that we started there in that spring.
And then by fall we'd added some night classes.
And other programs were being thought about as.
As far as grafting and tool design, maintenance, technology, everything requires maintenance along that line. I would normally think of maintenance as being building maintenance. And so to start with, we had one person that was on maintenance.
His name was Edward Burchett. So he was sort of semi retired, super nice guy. He also just happened to have a 37 Ford truck that he was willing to sell. And so I've always been partial to Ford trucks for some reason or other. And so I bought that Ford truck from him and drove it to Bluff City. Now, this was in the summer of 66, and Edgar Burchett was our first maintenance man. Of course, I'd mentioned Jim Pierce. James M. Pierce was our first director. That was before they were noted to be called the president of the college. And Tommy Halls was his assistant. Evelyn Bowers was Mr. Pierce's secretary.
And so that was the crew. We felt like we had homesteaded this school because the state bought it from the Wagner family.
Just a pasture field out here.
And so they had.
A road had been graded from the airport road up beside the school.
Well, in the spring of 66, it was still mud. Must have been a special rainy April because the students would park over in the parking lot at the Methodist church. I would load the seven students in the back of that Ford pickup and I had big mud grip tires on it. And we'd come spinning up the muddy road.
I don't think it even had any gravel on it. We had gravel it. It may. It probably did, but the gravel was out around the shop.
There was no concrete walks and grass. And so it was just gravel and mud. And so I'd get them as Close as I could get them to the back door. And we would come in the back door and make sure we didn't have any mud on our shoes to come in the shop. So that was in April of 66 when we were getting the first students from the parking lot at the Methodist church into the machine shop. And I was, that was my focus. And so I'm not sure how the other students fared, but we actually felt like we had a homesteaded place. I mean we've converted a pasture field into place of learning. So.
[00:12:19] Speaker C: Wow, your 1937 Chevy or Ford truck Farts. Forgive me, the Ford truck, not the Chevy.
[00:12:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:26] Speaker C: Shuttle them shuttles.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: No, not that, no. I had a 56 Ford pickup.
[00:12:31] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: A little more reliable than the old stroke. But the 37 Ford is still sit in the shed behind the barn.
[00:12:41] Speaker C: You still have it?
[00:12:42] Speaker B: I still have it. All right, yeah.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: Wow. And how long did it take that first graduating class, what did that look like once they were finished with all their courses? Did they earn like certificates in that day or.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: We didn't teach courses as such.
We were giving them the knowledge and skills that they needed to go to work in industry at that particular trade. And so we had exit points at different levels.
We had a six month certificate program and so in six months time, you know, they had covered enough of the knowledge and skills to be employed as entry level. We didn't think of it as teaching courses as we were preparing adults for vocational skills to be employable.
And of course at that time, to my knowledge, none of us knew how to teach.
We knew our trade and we found out later that oh well, we needed some teaching skills. We knew the technical, the trade skills and knowledge that was needed. But there's no guarantee that just cause you're a good craftsman that you're going to be a good teacher. We had a connection and professors from the University of Tennessee would come here and teach us teacher skills, how to be a teacher. That went very well. It was good philosophy of, you know, teacher trade. We were told that it's hard to teach something that you haven't experienced. We had the experience, we just need to know how to impart it. I felt most fortunate to be able to teach my trade.
[00:14:59] Speaker C: When you look at those couple of those early classes and you were, you were, you knew the trade, of course, and you start learning, learning how to teach the trade. What were the students like as far as how they picked up on things?
Did they understand the technology you had at the time? Were they pretty much able to to get it and move on. And how did that kind of to develop from your experience?
[00:15:23] Speaker B: They were mature, they were getting ready to graduate high school.
They were looking to be employable, and they were adults. They were highly motivated and had the ability to learn. Discipline was never a problem. They were highly motivated and they had a strong respect for authority, the teacher. That was a new role for me and other instructors as well. They respected our knowledge. They were just like young sponges. They were eager to soak it up. And so everything that we shared with them and we had the students five days a week, from eight to three, I had them all day long. We had a classroom right there in machine shop. We had workbenches with stools. And so let me back up a little bit here too, because we had advisory programs, representatives from industry for each program. And so the machine shop we had an advisory committee that was made up from people that was going to be hiring our graduates that knew what skills they were looking for. And so the role of the instructor was to create a learning environment so that these graduates of our program could, would be employable and had documented and proven that they had the ability to learn new things as well. So this they had proven themselves on the front end that they're going to be a valuable employee. We would start the day in classroom pretty well, had it divided up to three areas, really. The trade theory. We have textbooks and a workbook. We would discuss what we were going to do if it was, say, on lathe, how you would turn a shaft down.
And we would look at it in the textbook and answer questions and talk about what we were going to do. And then we'd go into the up there in the same area on the machine and do a little show and tell.
HART here's this is an engine lathe and this is a piece of raw bar stock. This is a steel bar, this aluminum bar, and this is how you mount it between centers. And here's the way you turn it down. Usually operate the machine and then let them do it under my supervision. Show and tell and do.
We found out that it's the doing that makes the learning permanent. You can hear and see, but until you do it, then it doesn't stay with you. And so that was the philosophy, the attitude that we had early on. And they loved it. One thing that made it even more interesting was in another part of the preparation was blueprint reading and that little blueprint reading book. We had little tools that would be helpful in the trade later on. And so they would make what they were going to use instead of buying it, they could see a purpose for what they were doing. And then they got to keep it after it was graded. So that was the blueprint reading aspect of it. In addition to technical theory, textbook and blueprint reading came the math. All right, now here's the way. You won't be going to make this part. It's got to be made this size, these dimensions to this tolerance.
And so then we're going to set this machine up to do this. This part has an angle to be cut on it. So then I didn't tell them that was geometry and trigonometry, but this is applied trig.
And so they couldn't spell trigonometry, but they knew how to set that machine up and get the desired dimensions on the workpiece.
Then of course the math came along with it. So we had. That was later divided into courses.
And of course along came the accrediting agencies. And so we had to develop lesson plans. And we took the curriculum, developed the curriculum from the advisory committee into teachable sections.
And so CHOP theory and its application and the math and blueprint reading was all part of it. Then it expanded into courses.
So we were preparing adults and so we were teaching adults. So we didn't think of it as teaching courses.
[00:20:36] Speaker A: It really sounds like you weren't just teaching the adults who were taking your courses, you were also laying out the foundation for courses at the college for future faculty and instructors as well.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: Absolutely. And a few of the great graduates of the program did come back and became instructors.
[00:21:00] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: So Alex hall was a tool and die major and the students in the tool and die design had to come to the machine shop to see if their theory of the tooling design was feasible. They'd come, whatever they designed, they come back to machine shop to make it.
And so they had some hands on as well.
And so that worked well. Charlie Bloomer was a graduate of the welding program and so those are two that outstanding. Ernie Morlock was a graduate of the automotive program.
[00:21:48] Speaker C: Ernie's still here teaching, still faculty. Yes.
[00:21:52] Speaker B: So yeah, so many of them when they left, when they graduated from the program, they went into industry and worked at the trade and then came back as instructor.
[00:22:08] Speaker A: Okay, and how did your classes grow over the years? You said you started with seven. What did they look like? What did the courses look like? Maybe in the 70s. So like a decade later we had
[00:22:22] Speaker B: a six month program. I mentioned then we also had an offer one year diploma program. Six months was a certificate. And so you Got a diploma early on and then as the school evolved then they were divided up into what was required for college credit.
And I think we were probably on the quarter system to start with and then that evolved into semesters.
So looking back you can see the development, the changes in the curriculum is like we could in the physical facilities. You know, I mentioned Tom while ago, I think there was a plan for expansion called a five year plan.
About time one we got started there was already and the leadership of the maybe from Nashville or local advisor input here in the Tri Cities to expand, offer more programs.
And it seemed like we've had a major expansion every five years since the school has been here.
And so it's been, you know, it's been great to be involved and be part of that serving the community.
I recall what Teddy Roosevelt commented and he was, went down in history as a great president, you know, but he had an attitude of servitude, he enjoyed serving and to the point he was quoted as saying that every one of us have a responsibility to serve the community in which we live, to give back.
And so that attitude changed prevail. You know, all of this was for citizens of the Tri Cities area.
And so how big is the Tri Cities? You know, so the world is shrinking. I mentioned to Tom also that 15 miles from Johnson City, Bristol or Kingsport out to the airport was a pretty good hike on a daily basis.
A lot of the students at ETSU stay in the dormitory, but.
People will and that's part of the preparation as well, I guess. How much effort are you willing to put into something to buy into it?
[00:25:46] Speaker C: So I know we were talking a little bit earlier about you mentioned how much the area has grown and how much I guess how things are certainly different as far as population, traffic, movement, all that kind of thing from those first couple classes you had in say 66, 67 to when you were teaching in the mid-90s.
How much, how much of the students changed, if at all?
And how had your method of teaching changed? Did you like to go out and look at kind of new tools for how to teach machining and die making? How did those things kind of evolve over the years?
[00:26:33] Speaker B: Well, the, I think maybe the basic philosophy didn't change and hasn't changed. You know, the school is still meeting needs of the community, the needs of the individuals preparing them for employment for life.
And so that philosophy hasn't changed as look, you know, the technology has changed for sure.
You know, in tool and die making, while, you know, we were building one prototype so to speak, you know, building the tooling that would be used in production.
And then along with production came along the biggest change, technically was the computer.
And so I can recall we were all excited about the little handheld pocket calculator that would do multiply, divide, add and subtract, you know, and so.
And as we expanded into the technical program was why we had engineers pretty much teaching in the technology.
They were really excited when the little handheld calculator came about, like $700 and.
Yeah, per calculator, Per calculator. And so we take so much for granted, you know, but it was like fifteen hundred dollars. And that was back in the seventies. They could have this little computer in their hand, you know, and when it dropped to 700, why, I can remember George Frederickson, some of the fellows couldn't get over how cheap that it was. I can remember the first computer course I took was through University of Tennessee when I was working on my master's and so was how to write a program.
And I think maybe we were using COBOL language or something, and so very elementary.
So we've come a long ways, technically speaking, but the premise is still there, Prepare people for employment.
[00:29:06] Speaker A: And so you mentioned you had retired in 2000, and we're recording today from the library. How long has it been since you retired, since you've been on campus? Are you still a frequent visitor? Do you stop by and is there anybody?
[00:29:21] Speaker B: I got acquainted with the young fellow in mechanical technology back there. And so the program is in good hands. His name escapes me now, but is now head of the program. He came in early on with some CNC skills, Sam Rowell. Sam Rao. Yeah, he was just a young engineer early on, you know.
[00:29:53] Speaker C: Sam.
[00:29:54] Speaker B: Well, and so he took the machining into the next generation of computer control. Of course, now the computer is.
He's led that into the new technologies program.
This is also 250 years of our nation. One of the things that I've come to understand as to why this nation is still a great nation is because our motto, that's on our money. As I get older, I look back and see that underlying theme, the truth.
This nation has been blessed so many ways. Of the early instructors, although we didn't talk a whole lot about religion, but getting to know the instructors, I came to believe that every one of them were in church. I had some of my students that also taught in Sunday school at church. And although Jim Pierce and I didn't get acquainted at church, I've heard him comment that the best place. And he didn't use the word networking, but the best place to get acquainted for a spouse or to get acquainted on a professional level is in church.
I came to realize that all of this could be the result of a divine plan.
[00:31:44] Speaker C: Was. What was the.
The era of Wade Powers like? Because a lot of building took place. I know at that time. A lot, a lot, a lot of changes during that area, that area.
And of course Also during when Dr. Locke, Dr. Bill Locke was here.
[00:31:59] Speaker B: A lot of changes begin with a humorous event. We were at his home one year for mere Christmas. He's treating the faculty.
And so I guess I've always had an inquisitive mind or willing to get out of the box, so to speak. And so his wife, I'm sure, had everything set up real nice and candle lit. Then the evening meal until Christmas time.
And so the wife and I were there with another couple. I noticed this little paper sticker on the side of that candle.
And so I pulled it off. I don't know if it was a price tag or something that stuck on the candle. And so I took it off and so sticking on my finger. And so I'm just waving it back and forth across that flame on that candle.
The sticker got on fire.
Everybody got a good life out of that.
Wade Powers was a very practical person. I got acquainted with him when he was still with Walter Stake in Morristown meetings before he was selected as president here. And characteristic of our leaders.
They were highly motivated.
And he called me into the office one time and when I was in Sam Rao's job and he said, we got to do something about this truck program and got to get some enrollment in there.
And we'd addressed the program in our advisory committee. And so I was always, from the get go, getting the word out to the community. We didn't like the word advertise, but informed the community of what was here.
Seems strange now, but. So one of the things that came up and I endorsed was there was a time in America that smoking was big, especially among truckers. And so different companies would advertise on the little matchbook covers. And so the advisory committee and we came up with the idea we just need to advertise around the truck stops. And so we'll put Tri City State Area Vocational Technical Schools truck program on your books on this little matchbook.
[00:34:59] Speaker A: Genius.
[00:35:00] Speaker B: So we covered all the truck stops around. Free matches. Wow. And of course, all the truckers smoked.
[00:35:08] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:35:09] Speaker B: And so I can recall that. And so Dr. Powers supported it or he allowed it, although he never smoked and I didn't smoke but.
So we did things like that to get the word out about the program and. But eventually it was decided among the leadership, Powers that be Powers that the program would be relocated to a list back then, yeah, the truck program is where the automotive program is now.
[00:35:47] Speaker C: It seems like I knew that but I'd forgotten it because either maybe Ernie, Ernie probably told me that at one time.
[00:35:53] Speaker B: And Dr.
Bill Locke, he was also thinking.
Interesting thing about Bill Locke was he was.
Looked like a leader. Dr. Powers is more Teddy Roosevelt type sort of stocking. Get her done. Bill Locke was.
He's a little more of a. He was a good horseshoe pitcher.
I mean he enjoyed getting out and putting these Northeast State shirt on and pitching horseshoes with the guys.
And I always considered myself a good horseshoe pitcher but had a hard time keeping up with Bill Locke when it comes to horseshoe pitch. But Bill never moved here.
I don't know if he commuted every day or whether he just stayed here, but he went home in the Morristown area on the weekend and. But he was a dynamic leader as far as carrying the school into the next era. And I'd mentioned, you know, five year growth and seemed like all of our leadership has been involved in that growth mode division area. One of the things that my wife remembers about me working at Northeast State was every spring along about this time prior to the final exams, somebody came up with the idea that the faculty needs to have a tricycle race.
[00:37:32] Speaker C: There are photos of this.
[00:37:34] Speaker A: There are photos. I saw the photos in the archives.
[00:37:37] Speaker C: How did that, how did that come about?
[00:37:39] Speaker B: Now the tricycle racing, I'm not sure how that got started, but of course boys and her toys I think.
And so.
Well, and that's back when NASCAR was big at Bristol. Word was to get a ticket to a Bristol race you had to inherit it. I mean it just sell out for 50 straight races or something like that. And seemed like all the men in the shop barriers had a NASCAR hero. A lot of folks thought Dale Earnhardt was the ultimate and so did Ray Phillips, who was electrical instructor at that time. I was a little more conservative. Bill Elliot was my hero, which he drove a Ford. Oh yes. And so we soon found out if we're going to have this tricycle race, then it needs some modification and some of these tricycles wouldn't hold up to the likes of Alex Hall.
And so we had to reinforce those tricycles and to get them to hold up if you wanted to even finish the race. I forget now how it all came about Ron Smith probably had something to do with it, setting up the little track.
[00:39:07] Speaker C: Remember Ron? Yes.
[00:39:09] Speaker B: And so, but I had my red Bill Elliott coveralls on and that little tricycle was painted red and that was color of his Thunderbird, that or Ford that he.
And of course Ray Phillips, his hero, was wearing black number three. And so, so we tried to copy our hero.
And so.
But Ray Phillips was the guy to beat. I mean, he was saying, tough as a pine knot. I mean, redheaded, all lean, there's not a bit of fat on him. And so you knew the old man was going to be tough to beat.
And of course, I was a young kid, you know, I was, I think maybe about 27 year old when I first started here and these other fellows were older than I was. I had a little youth on and so I could give the old man a run for his money. Although he was tough as nail. And he wasn't a bit bashful about nudging you in the corners either.
[00:40:26] Speaker C: Truly Earnhardt, truly Earnhard. He lived Earnhardt. He did.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: Square Earnhardt attitude.
And so we had a lot of fun. And it was fun for the students to see their teacher out there acting like little boys.
By the way, that red tricycle still hanging in the barn.
[00:40:48] Speaker C: You still have it.
[00:40:49] Speaker B: Still awesome hanging that back. And of course we had to reinforce everything had new bearings and we experimented with the different things to try to improve the cornering. And so we just stay together, you know, for whatever, five laps or whatever would run. It was foolish, amazing. April shakeout before final exams. And you know, there's always hot dogs and stuff around, you know, for Ron Smith and different folks with grilling burgers and stuff. And so it was just a sort of a little spring activity.
[00:41:23] Speaker A: Oh, it sounds like a real, like a real sense of community too, around a really busy time. I mean, end of the semester it's easy to kind of get lost and just overwhelming.
[00:41:35] Speaker B: In Rome now is what, 6,000 or so?
[00:41:38] Speaker C: Yes, I believe so.
[00:41:39] Speaker B: Yeah. So we're coming a long way from there.
20 or 30 at students that we had in the spring of 60 years ago.
[00:41:48] Speaker A: So what can we do now to continue this trajectory? You said every five years there's great growth and we want to continue that growth.
[00:41:58] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:41:59] Speaker A: You know, for the well being of our community, our workforce, employers, and for the individuals who come here to seek better for themselves and their families. How can we continue that trajectory, that
[00:42:12] Speaker B: upward trajectory, maintain their basic philosophy of preparing citizens for employment for life to give them the skills which is more so than just technical skills. Teach a positive work attitude as well along the way the technology will come along with it.
[00:42:32] Speaker C: Have you been. I'm sure you've been in the new technical education complex a few times. What was the first time you walked in there? What was kind of your. How did you feel? Was it like blown away by it or.
[00:42:44] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. Wow. You know, this is something that we used to couldn't imagine, you know, try to dream of, you know for the metal removal operations were going to go, you know, the manufacturing of detail parts to put them parts together to make a machine. And so just the ultimate realization of what I used to be involved in. My early experience as a machinist was somewhat high tech.
We were building the control guidance systems for the early space rockets. As a young apprentice machinist I had no preconceived ideas. And it was ironically 20 in that class. And we had 20 was a maximum class that we had in each trade program as well. I don't know why that 20 came about because you know, Jesus Christ was a master teacher and he only chose 12.
I think we're on a course have been for 60 years. And so this school will proper leadership preparation.
It'll continue for 60 more.
So I think we're in good hands. The key for success on about anything I've come to narrow down into 6P's proper preparation prevents poor performance if it's wrapped in prayer.
Six P's for success. I'd like to think it's part of my maturity.
Servitude and attitude is everything, you know, ancient out again.
[00:44:38] Speaker C: So you can't say that enough really
[00:44:40] Speaker B: if you got the right attitude by I like what Henry Ford said. Henry Ford was very instrumental in development of our nation mechanically. He put us on wheels with the T model Ford you realize at the time that he got into mass production and probably stole some ideas from Eli Whitney and mass assembly interchangeable assembly on his car.
And he was selling that first T model for about $350 which is about half of what the other manufacturers or offering. He was serving the people. He wanted to put the people in transportation mobility.
And of course I'm sure he had a little profit incentive in mind along the way. You know that's always good motivation. Henry Ford, I'm told was a personal friend of Dr. Henry Durthick. He was Milligan president back in the 40s. Wow, okay. Maybe 30s. So Dr. Durhic invited Henry Ford to be guest commencement speaker one time. My take on that was Henry Ford was quoted as saying that whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right. Yes, Positive mental attitude is everything. So we're in good hands. I think we're in good hands. Off the wall.
We've got five granddaughters, and they all enjoy reading and have done well. But early on, while they were excited to find a history book over Mr. J's in bookstore in Johnson City and Mr. Case maybe, and they saw grandpa's picture in the history book of Sullivan County. Joe Tennis had written a update, and so he wanted to put my picture in there as, you know, not only the first instructor, but also the last man standing. He referred to it. And there was the girl's grandpa when he was a young man, the black hair and all. I couldn't imagine 60 years ago sitting here today, you know, 60 years down the road, so.
[00:47:07] Speaker C: But here we are.
[00:47:08] Speaker B: Yeah, here we are. Yeah. So my mom lived to be 94.
Got acquainted with mom on an adult level after I had retired. She lived next door, and I'd go over and fix breakfast, and we'd have breakfast and sit and chat about life.
And she can share things with me on an adult level that she couldn't as a wayward kid. Mom reflected on her life, said seemed like she dreamed it all. One night went by so fast, so I'm beginning to understand what she was talking about. I'll be 89 in November, so it's important to select good parents.
[00:47:53] Speaker C: Yes, sir.
Get the right genetics.
Tom Jarrell. Wow.
60 years. He started here in Northeast State, one of the pillars of this college, and saw it through. Thank you so much for joining us on The Sound Bearier podcast today. Really been just a fabulous, fascinating, and an impressive trip down memory lane. And just getting to know you has been fantastic. Thank you for coming on.
[00:48:17] Speaker B: Thank you much. I'm humbled by being invited.
[00:48:21] Speaker C: Well, you're more. You're more than welcome. Well, that wraps up another episode here with The Sound Bearier but 1966. 2026, that's right. 60 years of history. So much history. We just tapped on it a little bit today with Tom, but so many things happening here at Northeast State. If you want to learn more About Northeast State, NortheastState. Edu. That's NortheastState. Edu. As for The Sound Bearier you can subscribe and listen to this episode and all our other episodes on your favorite place to get podcasts, from Amazon Music to Apple podcasts to Pandora, Spotify. We're on them all. Look us up, listen, review, and like, thank you to Tom Gerald, and thank you for the listening to The Sound Bearier And remember, here at Northeast State, we're just getting started.
