Originally published October 15, 1981, during the “Great Beanie Raid Controversy”
On the morning of September 12, I stood on M-Hill overlooking Rapid City. This was my twentieth M-Day, and many thoughts were going through my mind. May I share a few of them with you?
Let us never abolish beanie raids, the mud-slide, and whitewashing the M. Surely we can forgive the occasional rowdiness in the name of camaraderie and school spirit. Are any of us so old and self-important that we have forgotten our own college hijinks and the joyful memories we earned from them?
In the effort to burnish up the image of our college, let us remember that professionalism cannot be equated with humorless pomposity. We are professionals–teachers, engineers, students–if we perform our assigned tasks well and honorably. In fact, genuine creativity in what we do demands a certain freedom and even playfulness in order to break matrices and come up with new ideas.
Why is the Hill so important to so many of us? I can only answer for myself, but I suspect that many others share my feelings. It is assuredly not just the festive spirit–the pranks, the partying, the booze. Instead it is the communion of all who have attended Tech in the past, attend it now, or will attend it in the future. It is our moment together in the sun. Our differences vanish, and we attain that rare sense of community which must be the goal of any institution engaged in pursuing truth and wisdom.
I am Irish enough to think that I was joined by a few happy ghosts on that mild Saturday morning. I remember a young man who never touched liquor yet was the life of his last M-Day and who died in Vietnam two weeks before his tour of duty ended. I remember a nineteen-year-old who left the party to help a befuddled freshman down the Hill and who died a few weeks later in a Nebraska plane crash. I remember an Indian fraternity brother who overcame tremendous obstacles to obtain his degree, who did more than anyone I’ve ever known to banish the stupidity of prejudice on our campus, and who died suddenly on his twenty-fifth birthday. These men will always be with me in a special way when I climb the Hill.
Change is often good, and as Tech continues to grow, customs will inevitably disappear. But let us forever celebrate our spirit, our unity, our love of one another as the first rays of Indian summer touch the brow of M-Hill.