Glocker Stories
Era of Glocker Tribute
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David Knapp
Class Year: 1967,
Major: Accounting,
Degree: B.S.
Story: In 1964, I was working in a bank in Indiana as a computer programmer and learned about The University of Tennessee from a UT catalog in the local library. My decision to attend UT and what I learned there as a student has enabled me to enjoy a very successful career and satisfying quality of life. I will always hold Glocker in a special place in my heart, since much of my education and learning success took place in that great old building. Continuing to attend football games, I have enjoyed watching the transformation of the new Glocker take place
(Submitted: 02/06/2008)
David Patterson
Class Year: 1988,
Major: Finance,
Degree: BSBA
Story: I was taking a 3000 level stats class in Glocker during June of 1987 when I met my future bride. Rose Michel Gardner. She was a GTA and was finishing up her Masters in Statistics. We got married the following year on August 13, 1988 and have been married ever since. We now live in Conroe, TX.
(Submitted: 01/03/2008)
Jason Hicks
Class Year: 2001
Major: Economics
Degree: B.A.
Story: I can remember entering into a Glocker classroom of my International Economics class. I walked to a desk positioned against the wall which stood parallel to the hallway. Upon sitting down, to my surprise, small pieces of plaster landed on me and my desk. Thank God for the Glocker Renovation. It is an exciting time for UT!
(Submitted: 09/02/2007)
Deborah Daniels
Class Year: 2006 Major: Education Degree: Masters
Story: My story is simple, sweet, and memorable. I met my wonderful husband in a Stats class we had together in Glocker. He moved his seat to right next to mine by the end of the first week of class. By the end of the semester we were engaged.
(Submitted: 03/06/2006)
Louise McMurray Young
Class Year: 1982
Story: I remember my first Spring as a freshman. I had finally taken home my winter sweaters, freeing up valuable drawer space in those tiny built-in dorm dressers. The tulip poplars and daffodils were in full and glorious bloom. A spring cold snap came and with it a surprise snowfall. I was freezing without my winter clothes! But I remember walking to class at Glocker the next day (which was sunny), seeing the white snow on the pink tulip poplar and yellow daffodil blossums out front, thinking how pretty it was next to the old brick. Needless to say, I ducked inside and warmed up quite well in the overheated classrooms.
(Submitted: 12/30/2005)
Joseph T. Wyrick
Class Year: 1976
Story: This story is told by my very good friend, Valerie Groseclose Duncan, about the two of us in class together: Dr. Woodruff was returning Marketing tests we had taken earlier. My friend, Joe, who always made A's, was gloating over the 100 he had received on the test. He and I had a fierce though good-natured rivalry in class. He was certain that, as on previous tests, he had earned a higher score than me. I said, "Joe Wyrick, just once before we graduate I am going to beat you on a test!" Overhearing my comment, Dr. Woodruff began to laugh. In the end out of the entire class there were two perfect scores on that test - Joe's and Valerie's! Footnote: I did make a lot of A's but so did Valerie.
(Submitted: 10/28/2005)
Belinda D. Carter
Class Year: 1973
Story: Glocker Computer Lab - Circa 1971. The hallway outside the lab had trash cans overflowing with discarded greenbar paper and punch cards. Yes, we "wrote" our programs, used key-punch machines, and turned them in to be run overnight. Ever hopeful, we arrived the next day to pick up our programs.......alas, more often than not the result was "did not execute". I joined many of my fellow students in reviewing the discards of our classmates. You could often find at least one line of code that worked better than one you had been using. The process has changed, but I would guess that current students are getting their own version of "it does not compute"!
(Submitted: 6/24/2005)
Charles Cwiek
Class Year: 1983
It was my first day of classes as a freshman, and I had a class in SMC room G2. Not being too familiar with the building codes, I suppose I ignored the SMC part and looked up what building “G” was. Well, “G” is for Glocker. So, as the start time of my class was approaching, I was looking for room “2” in Glocker. As I entered Glocker from the Volunteer Blvd. side, I saw room numbers were in the hundreds. So, I assumed my classroom was one floor below. As I wandered around the next level down, I could not find any single-digit room numbers, or, if I did, I could not find a “2”. So, I conjectured that my classroom must be on the next floor down. I found a door that looked like it might be a stairwell. It was, but it lead into the scariest basement I had ever seen. “This can’t be where room “2” is!” I thought. I pulled my class schedule and campus map back out, and decided that the “SMC” part might mean something. After wandering Stokely Management Center for some time (luckily it was close by), someone must have seen my lost look, directed me to a door with no room number on it, and told me this was G2. Up until the last semester of occupation in the old Glocker building, new students could be seen wandering the halls of Glocker on the first day of classes looking for room “2”, as I did 27 years earlier. I would lend these poor souls a hand and direct them to SMC G2, as someone did before me. The door in Glocker that lead to the scary basement has long since been locked, and a sign placed on it that says “NO EXIT”, probably because of the many freshmen wandering down there looking for room “2”. I’m sure that when the new Glocker is finished, the tradition will continue, and I will redirect these new students to SMC G2 and think of that scary basement I wandered into in 1978.
(Submitted: 6/24/2005)
W. Kirk Taylor, CFP
Class Year: 1988
I was in Glocker sitting in my real estate finance class (I think Dr. Goolsby was the professor) when my professor walked in and announced that the stock market was down over 500 points. I was shocked but could not truly appreciate the magnitude of the event. Upon graduating seven months later, I went to work as a financial advisor, eventually earning my Certified Financial Planner's designation. I like to tell client's that I remember where I was sitting when I heard the news. I will never forget that day!
(Submitted: 6/17/2005)
Karl Sammons
Class Year: 1966
On November 22,1963, I heard about President Kennedy being shot while I was having lunch at the student center. Shortly thereafter, I was in a journalism class in the lower level of Glocker. Across the hall from the classroom was a teletype machine behind a glass window, and when it announced the death of the President, the alarm bell on the machine rang continuously...I can still remember that sound as if it happened yesterday!
(Submitted: 6/13/2005)
William M. (Bill) Hewgley, Jr.
Class Year: 1973
The early 1970s was probably the most unique time in UT's history. The age of college innocence and set career paths had just ended, Vietnam was raging, radicals, Hare' Khrisnas, hippies, and protest signs marked every lightpole, doorway, and event held, including Billy Graham's Nixon rally/sermon at Neyland Stadium. There were streakers and couples caught by our diligent security forces making love on top of Taurus the Bull in the fountain. It was peace, love, and general uselessness across the street in the liberal arts camp. I, like many of my business school mates, was married, holding a full-time job and paying my own way. Many were returning veterans who definitely had become tough-thinking men. We older students would always gather outside the front door between classes for fresh air, a smoke, a laugh, or, particularly in the spring, to enjoy the view...what a view it was with the new invention of the tube top! The hippies would slump across from McClung past the library, occasionally flashing both good and bad hand signals to us capitalist pigs. On one bright spring day in 1973, there was a beautiful girl lying on her stomach reading a book on the bank across the street at the base of the library building. She was clad in one of those long, flowing peasant dresses and had a few flowers braided into her hair. We were all watching her closely as a "Jim Croce" hippie dude scuffed toward her with his dirty bare feet and worn bell-bottom denims and tie-dyed shirt. He stopped right behind her, then turned to face the Glocker crew for recognition and moral support for what he was about to do. He leaned over, lifted her dress up over her head, then knelt down and planted a big kiss right on her bare-bottom side! He gently lowered her dress back into place, turned back to the cheering crowd, smiled and flashed us a peace sign as he continued his shuffle along towards Cumberland. I have always wondered if that girl grew up to have a great story to tell her own daughter when she brought her to UT as I did my son Joe in the 1990s. That was my favorite memory of that era.
(Submitted: 6/11/2005)
Jan Wagoner Kercheval
Class Year: 1964
My first favorite moment of the Glocker Business Administration Building was one Sunday when I was young. My father, George Wagoner, taught at UT for approximately 35 years, and his office was in Glocker. He was a totally dedicated professor and lived most of his life in that building. My mother, sister, Dad and I were all dressed for church at Church Street Methodist. Dad was driving and took his usually daily route to UT, pulled into his regular parking spot, got out of the car and started toward the steps when he turned around and glanced into the car and saw us all in our Sunday finery wondering when he would realize that it was Sunday, and he would have to return later to be in his favorite spot. When I grew up, I attended UT and walked those same halls as my Dad and realized, after having him as a professor, the devotion he had to his profession. He made a positive difference in so many of his student's lives. He is missed by all of us.
(Submitted: 6/10/2005)
Phillip Cantrell
Class Year: 1982
I recall with fondness many days in Glocker. Management professor Dr. Whitlock instructed several classes of mine. Several were of the multiple-hour type with periodic breaks. Believe it or not, back then, one could actually smoke INSIDE the buildings, just not in the classrooms (sections of the lower floor of the undergraduate library were designated smoking areas, too). I recall that during those short class breaks, Dr. Whitlock could always be found in the hallway outside the classroom puffing away on a cigar and expounding upon various management theories. It was certainly a different time then. Can't say the ability to smoke inside was really that great, but the one-to-one time was invaluable. Without doubt, it helped my comprehension of the subject matter, especially I/O Psych.
(Submitted: 6/7/2005)