In 1944 Fisher, having passed 70 years of age, faced mandatory retirement from academic duties. In fact, Fisher was the first "victim" of the recently adopted mandatory retirement age. Fisher remained active taking on several new non-teaching obligations, most notably an even more active role with the alumni association. Fisher remarked that now that he was retiring, he could enjoy "working only 12 hours a day instead of his usual 10." Almost immediately after Fisher’s retirement, the math and physics faculty formally went their separate ways.

Partlo and Harrington, who had had parallel careers up to that point—both graduating from MCM, both receiving a Ph.M. degree from the University of Wisconsin, both hired as instructors at MCM in 1923 with every promotion entirely in sync.—served as the two separate department heads. Fisher's retirement also left the Dean position open, which was also filled by Partlo. Harrington remained Head of Mathematics into the 1960's.

Partlo, as did Fisher, served simultaneously as Department Head and Dean for the first few years. Partlo then gave up the Department Head position, to be taken up first by Jerry Service and then Tom Sermon. In doing so, it appears that Partlo became our first Dean who had no other administrative appointment (e.g. department head). Thus, quite literally, it ultimately took three new administrators to replace Fisher. While one should not diminish Fisher’s contributions, when interpreting this statement it must also be remembered, however, that MCMT had grown significantly. Also at this time one was not generally promoted to professor without an administrative appointment and there were several 20-year faculty who had been waiting in the wings for their chance.

The separation between being Professor and holding an administrative position is seen across the campus in the late 1940's and demonstrated in Physics for the first time in 1949 with the promotion of Longacre and the return of Service from the Headship to faculty status. While there were at least two professors throughout most of the history of the department, one of them would have a significant administrative position outside of the department (i.e. McNair as President, Duggan as Registrar, Partlo as Dean of the College). Now it became acceptable to have additional professors in the department who did not also have an outside administrative position.

During the post World War II years the College’s total enrollment increased dramatically. The Sault Ste Marie campus of MCMT was opened in 1946, initially to provide the first two year’s worth of courses. Also in 1946, BS degrees offered by the department in Physics, Engineering Physics, and Geophysical Engineering first appear, with a curriculum expanded to match. By 1948 the total College enrollment had topped 2000. With this growth also came a flurry of new faculty hires.

Previous Page

page 10

Next Page