UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #523
HIGGINS, THOMAS

HIGGINS, Thomas (1911-1998)
Professor of Electrical Engineering
At UW: 1946-1983

Interviewed: 1998	
Series: College of Engineering
Interviewer: Paul Morledge
Length: 03:12:47
Indexed by: Rebecca Rodriguez

Thomas Higgins speaks about his childhood and early education in Virginia, his decision to pursue electrical engineering, his teaching positions at a number of universities, his decision to move to Madison, and his career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He talks about his position in the College of Engineering, how it has changed over the years, how he has been involved in the expansions and improvements. He mentions former students as well as deans and speaks about his work outside the university and his retirement.
Keywords: College of Engineering, electrical engineering, nuclear reactions, World War 2

First Interview Session (May 27, 1998): Tapes 1-2

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:21	Question: Can you briefly describe your childhood and early years of schooling in Virginia? Answer: TH was born on July 4, 1911 in Charlottesville, Virginia.  His brother was born 18 months later.  In 1916, his parents decided to return to Ithaca, NY where TH’s  Irish ancestors had first settled in the 1860s, and where, TH’s mother believed, the public secondary schools were much better.

00:02:04	No question: TH explains how he taught himself to read at age 4.  He would line animal crackers up under their titles like “giraffe” and “zebra."  In second grade, his teachers grew tired of him “piping up with all the answers” and sent him into the third grade class.

00:04:11	No question: During the post-World War I recession in 1921, TH’s father, a merchant tailor, worked for the foremost men’s clothing store in Ithaca.  He was laid off, and the family moved to a town near Ithaca.  Soon thereafter, TH’s father was re-hired by his former employer, and they returned to Ithaca, where TH attended parochial school and began learning Latin.

00:06:05	No question: TH had a choice between taking the “college curriculum” and the “working man’s curriculum” in high school—he chose the former.  TH read many of the classics in high school, such as Livy and Cicero.  He also became enthralled with math and then physics, and he was particularly concerned with the notions of mass and weight.

00:09:00	Question: Did any family members and/or teachers influence the direction of your studies in high school? Answer: TH read a biography of the electrical engineer, scientist and socialist Steinmetz during his senior year in high school, and it inspired TH to become an electrical engineer.

00:10:45	Question: Why did you decide to enroll in Cornell? Answer: Due to his family’s poverty, TH believes that had he not grown up in close proximity to Cornell, he would likely never have attended college.

00:11:12	No question: TH paid for his college tuition at Cornell by working odd jobs during summers.

00:13:10	No question: TH received an F in calculus his freshman year at Cornell.  He took it again the next semester and got an A.  He also had difficulty with physics, but he managed to get a B.  Soon, he no longer had any difficulty with courses at Cornell.  He graduated with a degree in electrical engineering.

00:19:04	Question: Can you briefly discuss your experience teaching and how it influenced your later career choice? Answer: TH said that there were no jobs available in 1932, due to the Great Depression, so he decided to pursue a graduate degree in mathematics at Cornell, which he thought would help him better understand electromagnetic theory.

00:20:54	No question: TH worked on finding the mathematical solution to the capacitance of an elliptical washer— a problem which had vexed many theoreticians.  TH found the solution and published his findings.

00:24:29	No question: TH’s mother had befriended the mayor of Ithaca, who had the inside scoop on a job teaching mathematics at a high school in Auburn, a town just outside Ithaca.  TH applied for the position and was hired.

00:26:52	Question: This was your first experience as a teacher? Answer: TH says he had always planned to be a professor. 

00:28:28	Question: In 1937 you did receive your master's degree? Answer: TH published his proof of a certain mathematical formula in the now defunct journal Scripta Mathematica in order to earn his master’s degree at Cornell.

00:31:03	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2 

00: 31:11	Question: Talk about the time between Cornell and Purdue. Answer: After one year of teaching math in Auburn, TH started to hitchhike around Ithaca looking for work.  AGFA, a German company that made photographic film, finally hired TH as a shop draftsman and detail man.  He made sure that film manufacturing tool designs worked properly and could be implemented appropriately.  He worked for AGFA for one year.

00:36:24	No question: Soon thereafter, TH was hired by Wyomissing Polytechnic Institute in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania—a small, introductory engineering school opened by the Berkshire Knitting Company.  He taught introductory courses in circuit theory and electromagnetism to company employees who were slated to become shop foremen.

00:42:10	No question: After a year at Wyomissing, TH sent out inquiries to many engineering schools about entering a Ph.D. program in electrical engineering.  During that year, he was unanimously rejected, but after applying a second year, he received a flood of acceptances from top engineering schools.  He decided to enroll at Purdue University in Indiana.

00:44:12	Question: You enrolled at Purdue to obtain your doctorate in electrical engineering? Answer: When TH entered the electrical engineering Ph.D. program at Purdue, it had 12 faculty members.  TH comments that the educational level of the engineering faculty was not very high at the time.  

00:45:34	Question: What did your dissertation research focus on at Purdue? Answer: TH studied the nuances of electromagnetic theory during his Ph.D. work at Purdue.  He found a mistake in Maxwell’s original textbook on electromagnetic theory, and his dissertation focused on the correction of that mistake.  He was also required to pass examinations in French and German technical reading in order to earn his Ph.D.

00:50:42	Question: During your Ph.D., work at Purdue you served as an instructor? Answer: TH served as an instructor of basic electrical engineering courses while enrolled in the Ph.D. program at Purdue. 

00:51:23	Question: After receiving your doctorate from Purdue you went on to a tenure track academic position at Tulane University? Answer: After receiving his Ph.D., TH applied for a tenure-track faculty position at Tulane University.  After meeting Tulane’s engineering dean in Lexington, Kentucky, he was hired. 

00:54:46	No question: TH mentions the beginning of World War II in 1941.  He claims he knew from the start that the US and its allies would have no trouble winning the war, since the US had superior abilities of war production through industry.

00:58:56	No question: TH met his wife during his second year at school in Purdue, and they were married in 1942.

01:00:35	No question: After a year at Tulane, TH moved to Chicago and taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he studied the development of radar.

01:02:05	End of side.  End of tape.

Tape 2/Side 1

01:02:08	No question: The two men who headed radar research and education at Illinois Institute of Technology left for jobs at other universities.  TH took over as the head of the radar division at IIT.  He stayed at IIT from 1942-48 and taught both basic and advanced courses in electromagnetic theory.

01:06:31	No question: TH also taught courses in rotating machines, or Krone’s Theory, at IIT.  TH relates a detailed story about Krone and his discovery of the General Theory of Electromagnetic Machines.

01:11:40	No question: Krone wrote five books on electromagnetic machines, and TH became fascinated with his work.  Krone soon became chief consultant at General Electric Company, and TH became one of the foremost experts on Krone Theory.

01:16:02	No question: When TH’s child was born, TH began to look elsewhere for a faculty position, since he had no desire to raise his child in Chicago.  After three years and many job offers, TH accepted a faculty position at UW’s College of Engineering in 1948.

01:21:15	No question: TH was paid $8600 during his first year in the electrical engineering department at UW.  He refers to Madison as the “paradise of the middle west.” 

01:24:44	No question: TH describes his daily routine while a faculty member at UW, like taking the bus to Walgreens and sipping coffee at McDonald’s before work.

01:27:03	Question: Would you like to discuss Dean Withey for a moment? Answer: TH speaks highly of former College of Engineering Dean Morton Withey.  TH claims that Withey revitalized the engineering department after years of stagnation under former deans.

01:32:01	End of side.  End of tape.  End of interview session.

Second Interview Session (June 3, 1998): Tapes 3-4

Tape 3/Side 1

00:00:12	Question: I'd like to discuss some of your research interests and how they evolved over time. Answer: TH’s main research interest when he arrived on the UW campus was electromagnetic theory.  He started out by reviewing everything related to telegraphy, then telephony, then power transmission, then wireless telegraphy (radio), then Einstein’s Specialized Theory of Relativity.

00:02:59	No question: TH then began studying nuclear reactions.  He said that it had always struck him that the main application of fission would be in power generation.  He went down to Blacksburg, Virginia, where Professor Turner at Virginia Polytechnic Institute helped to familiarize TH with nuclear reactors.  He came back to Madison and recommended that the College of Engineering start a master’s program in nuclear engineering.

00:06:00	Question: You mentioned earlier when we talked about electrical engineering, many of the professors took the “cookbook approach”, could you comment on that? Answer: TH claims that when he started studying electrical engineering in 1928, all engineering educators took the “cookbook approach” to engineering instruction—they knew the applications of physical principles but really did not understand the underlying principles. 

00:08:18	No question: TH says he became interested in cybernetics—which means “helmsman” in Greek—by studying the life and work of Norbert Weiner, who specialized in automatic control theory, the backbone of cybernetics.  TH insists that nothing kills an academic field faster than having a Greek nomenclature; thus, cybernetics disappeared from the ivory tower.

00:13:41	Question: You also listed history of technology/ electrical engineering/ electrophysics as an area of interest. Answer: TH thinks that in order to truly appreciate an area of academic specialization, one has to study its historical development.  Therefore, he studied the history and prominent figures in the fields of the physical sciences, engineering and technology.  He estimates he has read over 6,000 books relating to these topics.

00:16:26	Question: Where do you obtain funding for your research? Answer: TH has long fought against the pressure to do applied research as an engineering faculty member.  He believes engineering still needs pure thinkers. 

00:16:58	Question: Could you discuss the research climate at the UW College of engineering and how it's changed over the years? Answer: TH talks about his efforts to improve the engineering library and its holdings.  He discusses the Engineering Library Committee’s effort to build the Wendt Engineering Library.  He reports that the committee managed to raise over $5 million to build and stock the new Wendt Library.

00:20:56	No question: TH explains that the whole engineering complex was “run down” when he came in 1948, so former dean Kurt Wendt formed a new Engineering Building Committee.

00:24:08	No question: TH describes the layout of the UW campus during the early part of the 20th century.

00:28:50	No question: He says the impetus for faculty to conduct research has increased greatly since he arrived at UW in 1948.

00:29:47	No question: TH mentions that the Wisconsin Alumni Research Fund played an integral role in making research dollars available to UW faculty prior to the founding of the National Science Foundation.

00:31:02	End of side.

Tape 3/Side 2

00:31:05	Question: You were talking about the National Science Foundation and the University Club? Answer: The push toward acquiring federal research dollars from the National Science Foundation destroyed some of the camaraderie that once existed between UW faculty.  TH says that other major universities also saw socialization between faculty members extinguished by a sense of urgency to obtain federal research dollars.

00:33:21	Question: Are there any items of your publishing record that you think deserve special mention? Answer: TH mentions his only book he wrote during his academic career—Advanced Basic Automatic Control Theory.

00:36:55	No question: TH insists that his very accommodating typist made writing the book much easier.

00:38:39	Question: Is there anything else in your publishing record that deserves special mention? Answer: TH discusses taking required courses in French and German as a graduate student at Purdue. He later reviewed technical manuscripts in Romanian, French and German.

00:42:36	Question: You've been referred to as a “book man”? Answer: TH describes himself as an avid reader of the literature of many genres, finishing nearly three books per day throughout his adult life.

00:46:13	Question: Do you care to comment on how your reading of many different genres in literature influenced your career? Answer: TH reiterates how reading about the life of Steinmetz compelled him to pursue a career in electrical engineering. 

00:48:27	Question: How did significant historic events of this century affect both the funding and direction of your research? Answer: TH explains that WWII mandated that many electrical engineers researched radar.  He also mentions the significance of the British-invented magnetron to the development of consequential radar in the USA.

00:52:03	Question: What courses did you teach most frequently in the College of Engineering? Answer: TH describes his teaching load and the courses he created while a professor at the UW.  

00:55:10	Question: You were the first UW faculty member to receive the George Westinghouse Award for Excellence in Teaching? Answer: TH briefly discusses his George Westinghouse Award for Excellence in Teaching.

00:57:43	Question: In your opinion, has the quality of engineering students at UW changed over time? Answer: TH identifies Thelma Estrin as one of his most successful female students at the UW.  Estrin became a professor of computer science at UCLA.  TH says Estrin was one of the first women to become president of the American Society for Electrical Engineers.

01:01:40	Question: Do any of your former students come to mind for their engineering aptitude and resultant successes? Answer: TH mentions George Swenson as one of his exceptional former student.  Swenson became an assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

01:02:14	End of side.  End of tape.

Tape 4/Side 1

01:02:15	No question: Swenson went on to join the University of Illinois’ College of Engineering as a full professor in electrical engineering.

01:03:41	Question: Are there any other students that come to mind? Answer: TH mentions his former student Don Pierre, who is now chairman of the electrical engineering department at Montana State University in Bozeman.

01:04:49 	No question: Another of TH’s students, Dan Reitan, had been a WWII navigator who flew bombing missions in Europe.  Reitan soon became a UW electrical engineering faculty member and had an ancillary interest in wind-generated power systems.

01:06:42	Question: For many years you taught engineering courses for the UW extension? Answer: TH helped to form the UW-Milwaukee School of Engineering.  He was also an advisor to the fledgling Ph.D. program in engineering at Marquette University in Milwaukee.

01:11:29	Question: Would you discuss any committee service that stands out in your mind? Answer: TH was appointed to the University Committee for one term.  He was chairman of UW Physical Sciences Committee for three years.

01:18:02	Question: You've been a member of a number of professional organizations? Answer: TH mentions some of his many professional society memberships like the American Society for Electrical Engineers, the American Society for Engineering Education, and the American Society for Professional Engineers, which aims to maintain engineering certification through periodic written examinations.

01:20:41	No question: TH discusses how the Grainger family of the Grainger Company of Illinois has given a huge financial boost to the development of engineering at the UW.  The Graingers are also helping to finance the upcoming Center for Engineering Research, a new addition to the College of Engineering.

01:26:39	Question: Can you discuss major changes you've observed or helped to direct in the direction of the department? Answer: TH claims that ever since he has been on the electrical engineering faculty at UW, the electrical engineering department has continually risen in national prestige.

01:27:35	No question: TH mentions James Watson, along with Professor Clamp and Professor Peterson, as notable electrical engineering faculty members who were well established when TH arrived on the UW campus in 1948.

01:31:02	Question: Could you discuss subsequent deans? Answer: TH describes former College of Engineering dean Wendt as a man of great integrity who was strong-minded and fair.  TH says Wendt’s most important contribution was creating the design of the new engineering building.

01:33:20	End of side.

Tape 4/Side 2

01:33:24	No question: TH discusses former College of Engineering dean Bob Marshall’s academic training at the Illinois Institute of Technology.  TH describes Marshall as a very effective dean.

01:34:52	Question: How about John Bollinger who is the current dean? Answer: TH discusses current Dean John Bollinger, who collaborated on a number of engineering textbooks with current College of Engineering faculty members.

01:36:38	Question: You've served as a technical consultant to numerous private firms, could you give examples of some of the issues you consulted such private companies about? Answer: TH discusses some of his consulting relationships with private companies like John Oster and Johnson Controls in Milwaukee.

01:43:11	No question: TH discusses his days working as a technical editor for publishing houses like McGraw-Hill and John Wiley.

01:45:42	Question: When and why did you decide to retire? Answer: TH discusses his reasons for retiring from the UW College of Engineering in 1982.  TH has not worked for UW since his retirement, but he has reviewed a number of engineering textbooks and Ph.D. theses from foreign institutions.

01:48:25	Question: Have you been involved in any other work since retirement? Answer: TH says he has given a number of lectures since retirement, and he still enjoys keeping up with academic trends in electrical engineering, since electrical engineering will play an increasingly vital role in the future.  He also envisions controlled fusion-generated power in the near future.

01:50:21	Question: Do you have any closing comments you'd like to make? Answer: TH says in closing that he has always wanted to be a college professor; he has tried hard at it and has had a “pretty successful career.”

01:50:46	End of side.  End of tape.  End of interview session.

END of Oral History #523