My co-op experience at Cincinnati Gas & Electric set the direction of my professional life. While there, I was introduced to utility accounting and rate-making as well as computers. Upon graduation I joined IBM, where I was assigned to the utility team (a real plum job) because of my co-op experience. IBM continued to train me in both areas. Later, I was recruited by Prudential to join their investment division because of my knowledge of utilities. There, I built the utility merchant banking division of Prudential Capital Corporation.

Wilbert F. Schwartz, COB '64

Cincinnati, Ohio

Successful alum may never have attended college without co-op

The co-op program allowed me to attend college -- period. My father was a blue-collar laborer in the steel mills of Youngstown, Ohio, and was laid off just before I started school.  My co-op experiences at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. were fun and of high learning value.

As a faculty member at the University of Colorado, I helped start a co-op program here. I am very proud to be the 1976 Herman Schneider Medal recipient. The co-op program is truly the ultimate scholarship.

Alan Weimer, Eng '76

Boulder, CO

Joining the co-op softball team a home run for alum

On one of my first days of work as a co-op student in 1980, a young lady, also a co-op student, from the University of New Mexico came up to my office to invite me to join her co-op softball team for the summer. 

She was pretty and friendly and funny, so I joined. I already had a girlfriend back in Cincinnati, but over the course of the summer I grew very close to this softball captain, and ultimately we were married less than a week after I graduated from UC. We moved back to California where we both worked for NASA.

We have shared many great experiences including the birth of our six children (now ages 6-21), getting our graduate degrees at the same time and traveling around the world to exotic vacation spots. If not for the co-op program, I would have never found such a great job, but more importantly a great wife and family.

Tom Davis, Eng '83

Mountain View, CA

 

Study abroad leads to lifelong travel habit

My best co-op wasn't a co-op at all, but was the incredible opportunity in 1983 to participate in professor John Hancock's London studies program, followed by a summer quarter traveling the European continent.

And here's the best part. That summer of traveling the European continent counted for co-op credit, with the stipulation of an approved itinerary and review of my journals and sketches at the end. So what if the itinerary included architecturally significant locations that also happened to have great beaches.

Seriously, those two quarters abroad provided me with an infinitely expanded base of experience and wonder lust that have never left me. UC's co-op program provided me with both the practical work experience of the architectural profession and the mind-expanding experience of exploring different places and cultures. Thank you, UC co-op program.

But really, the ongoing travel expenses are steep. Why didn't you tell me architecture doesn't pay enough to support a travel habit?

Michael Nelson, DAAP '85

Huntington Beach, CA

Co-op launched CFO's career

I often wonder what career path I would have journeyed if it had not been for the co-op program at UC.

Despite my rather ambivalent attitude, I had been accepted in the co-op program. I was unsure that I really wanted to extend my college experience an additional year. However, when I was assigned the spring/fall session, I experienced a conversion of sorts, fueled by the attraction of laid-back Clifton summers, light class loads, party time, afternoons poolside, top down on the 1969 Camaro, etc.

To this day, I'm surprised that Federated Department Stores and Thriftway Food Stores even offered me co-op positions in their accounting offices.

So there I was, one Saturday afternoon, taking a break from my Kroger bag-boy duties, when the personnel manager for Kroger, Mr. Jack Overbeck, came into the break room and struck up a conversation. Among other things, I told him I was considering those two offers.

Imagine my surprise when he called me during the following week to ask if I was interested in an accounting co-op position at Kroger. I interviewed and received an attractive offer.  In addition to the co-op position, I could continue to work in the stores on alternate quarters.

The rest is history -- various progressive financial positions at the Kroger Co. over 21 years, before joining the UC Foundation as its Chief Financial Officer in 1987.

The co-op program at UC was a launching pad for a professional life that has been both gratifying and rewarding. I am immensely grateful for the opportunity.

William Henrich, Bus '72

Cincinnati, Ohio

Engineering grad shares co-op's 100th birthday

Since the co-op program began in my birth year (1906), it follows that I arrived at the College of Engineering (or Engine School as we called it) in 1924. The quadrangle consisted of Baldwin Hall and the Chemistry Building. We pitched horseshoes where the Electrical Building (Swift Hall) now stands.

The co-op sections were on two-week cycles, so you had to remember which days were for school or work. I began at the Peters Cartridge Co. in Kings Mills, Ohio, which was not far from my home in Lebanon, Ohio. I was in the machine shop for the first year and then the drafting room. Peters manufactured small arms ammunition (.22- and .32-caliber and shotgun shells). This experience helped during World War II when I was involved in developing equipment for shell loading of .20-calibers, mortars, artillery, bazookas and bombs.

In 1928, I started co-oping at Cincinnati Grinders (later purchased by Cincinnati Milacron). When the Depression came, it was the end of the Grinders, so I went to school full time until I graduated. Our daily school schedule was from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. At lunch we ate at a place on Calhoun Street near Clifton. A sandwich and soup soaked with oyster crackers cost just 30 cents.

After graduation I worked at American Can Co. I was an officer in the Civilian Conservation Corp for two years and then began my career as an engineer with Procter and Gamble.

Although I didn't blow up anything as a co-op, I enjoyed the experience and recommended it for all students. I still go to the football and basketball games. Thanks UC.

Marion Brant, Eng '30

Cincinnati, Ohio

Link:

Brant gives back to UC

Freshman joins space race

I was an "old" freshman of 26 when I started engineering college in 1961. Through connections, I co-oped at GE Aircraft Engines in Evendale. There was no alternate co-op when I was in class. We worked on space power projects for NASA Lewis in Cleveland –– very interesting and challenging work developing a potassium test turbine for use in outer space employing refractory and alkali metals.

After my fourth year, my wife and I had three children. So I worked for GE full time and completed my BS in engineering in Evening College in 1968. It was good work at GE for 38 years until my retirement in 2000. The co-op program is great, and I had a wonderful co-op job!

Manfred Schnetzer, Eve '68

Cincinnati, Ohio

Knee-deep in flood control

In 1962, I began my career as a water resources engineer. As a cooperative education student with UC's College of Engineering, I went to work with the Miami Conservancy District in Dayton, Ohio. My major was civil engineering, and the district had a rich engineering heritage, which proved to be a powerful learning experience.

The Miami Conservancy District was created after the 1913 flood in Dayton to prevent the reoccurrence of such floods. The district designed and built five retarding basins on the Great Miami River and its tributaries, constructed levees along the rivers, and cleared the river channels to pass flood flows more effectively. The result was a flood management agency without equal in its time and which was responsible for maintaining these flood control features for future generations.

As a co-op student, I was fortunate to perform fundamental civil engineering tasks such as surveying and drafting before they were taught in class. I also witnessed flood forecasting on the first model of a computer manufactured by NCR, which is headquartered in Dayton.  

After I graduated, I went to work full time for the district and was given a key responsibility for developing an innovative water quality management program for southwest Ohio.  I am continuing my career in water resources engineering with the Department of Public Utilities in Toledo, Ohio.

Tim Troutman, Eng '66

Toledo, Ohio

Coming through in the clutch

I was scheduled to interview at Armco Steel in Middletown (now A.K. Steel). It was May of 1964, spring of my freshman year in the College of Engineering. I had no car at school, so I asked my friend Dave Kiefer if I could borrow his car to go to the interview in Middletown. Dave said sure, and on the morning of the interview, we came down the stairs of Dabney Hall to his car, a little Ford Falcon, as I recall.

Well, Dave had not mentioned that the little Falcon had a manual transmission, which I had never driven! My interview was in about an hour, so I said, "Dave, if it's all right with you, I'll teach myself on the way to Middletown." Dave said, "OK, you'll be all right. The clutch is a little tight, but you'll make it."

And I did. I somehow taught myself between the curb next to Dabney and the parking lot at Armco. I do remember stalling the car at a light in front of General Electric with a LONG string of honking cars behind me. (The interstate wasn't built yet). So I made it to Middletown, got the co-op job and ended up working 29 years for Armco. The things we did when we were young!

Dave Francis, Eng '68
Lebanon, Ohio