Tag: Southeast Missouri State University

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SEMO Through a Long Lens

SEMO Academic Hall

Cape was a Honeywell Pentax town. I’m not sure if Nowell’s Camera Shop even sold Nikon. When I left town, I had two or three camera bodies and at least three lenses: a 35mm wideangle, a 50mm normal lens, a 105mm telephoto and (I think) a 200 mm telephoto.

The 105mm magnified about two times and the 200, about four times.

This shot of Academic Hall taken from in front of Kent Library in 1966 or 1967 was probably done with the 200mm. Click on the photos to make them larger.

Closeup of dome

SEMO Academic HallIf you couldn’t afford a long lens, you could buy extenders that would effectively increase the length of the lens by two to three times. The tradeoff was that it made the lens a lot slower and there was some degradation in quality. I’m guessing I must have just gotten a 2X extender to make this shot of the dome. It would have converted my 200 into a 400mm lens, which would have magnified about eight times.

This caused some head scratching

SEMO Academic HallThis one had me calling in Wife Lila and Neighbor Jacqie for second and third opinions. This is south and west of SEMO. As best as I can figure it out, I must have shot it from one of the hills around Gordonville Road with the extender reaching out into the distance.

Academic Hall is easy to pick out in the middle. The water tower and smokestack to its left are at the university’s power plant north of Academic Hall. The white building at the top left is the Foreign Languages Building. The large building below and to the left of Academic hall is Southeast Hospital.

Jacqie and I thought the building on the left above the Riverside West sign was Central High School, but after looking at the photo more closely, I determined that Central is the dark, multistory building on the far right. That makes the building on the left a mystery. Anybody want to make a guess? Did Notre Dame have that shape?

Academic Hall links

Here are links to earlier stories about Academic Hall.

 

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1967 Sagamore Ball

Sagamore Ball 04-08-1967This has to rank as one of the three worst queen crownings I ever shot. When two out of three of the main players have their eyes closed and you can’t even SEE the eyes of the third person, then you should hang it up.

The April 10, 1967, Missourian caption under this photo said Mrs. Steven (Janet Brasier) Curtis, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth E. Braiser of Robertsville, is pictured as she was crowned Sagamore Queen in festivities Saturday evening at the annual Sagamore Ball held at the Arena Building. Officiating at the coronation was, at left, Miss Sandra DeClue, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas DeClue of Hazelwood. Miss DeClue has been editor this year and last of the Sagamore, college yearbook, in which Mrs. Curtis will be featured. At right is the queen’s escort, her husband.

Convoluted Missourian style

Sagamore Ball 04-08-1967 7Married women usually didn’t didn’t have first names in The Missourian: they were always Mrs. Steven Curtis, never Janet Curtis. I’m sure it threw the society editor for a loop when she had to figure out what to call a married college woman. Even as a married woman, she was still identified as the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. so-and-so. Notice that her husband didn’t have his lineage traced.

The shot of them approaching the steps is a nicer picture, but I guess you had to have the actual moment of coronation.

Photographer usually tipped off

Sagamore Ball 04-08-1967 3

Someone generally came up to the photographer in advance to let him know who the winner was going to be so we could be in the right place. We had to do it without being obvious. In this case, I wonder if I didn’t get the advance warning. That would be odd, because I shot for both The Sagamore and The Capaha Arrow while I was working at The Missourian.

Women with crowns

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John C. Bierk

SEMO English Professor John C. Bierk 1966This is going to sound like a contradiction that John C. Bierk would have marked me down for, but the English professor was one of the handful of instructors I remember from SEMO, but, for the life of me, I can’t recall why.

I had him for Freshman English, the year before I shot this photo of him for The Sagamore (which has been consigned to the dustbin of journalism). He wasn’t an engaging lecturer like Arthur Mattingly, the history prof who taught American History in the present tense and could make you see the enemy sneaking up over the rise. He didn’t have the easy style of speech and debate teacher Fred Goodwin.

He was a man who set high standards for his students and wouldn’t accept anything less than their best. I ran across my old SEMO transcript not long ago, but don’t know what grade he gave me. I had a 3.75 grade point average when I transferred to Ohio University, so I couldn’t have done too badly in his class.

I did quick Google and Southeast Missourian searches without finding much. One surprising thing was that he became a prolific Letters to the Editor writer after his 1957-1987 academic career. He was a lot more liberal than I would have thought from his class demeanor.

Did anyone else have him? What do you recall about him?

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Academic Hall Gets New Hat

Academic Hall dome 03-02-2013Academic Hall has been undergoing some major fixing. Surprisingly enough, the university hasn’t used “structural problems” as an excuse to tear down the iconic building as they seem so prone to do with other Cape landmarks.

Here’s a view of the dome from the north, looking south. You don’t often see it from this side.

Academic Hall Stories

 

 

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