Dr. Owens on the Old Library

I graduated with my undergraduate degree (BBA) from West Texas State College and my graduate degree (MBA) from West Texas State University a year later. Some of your readers may not remember when the library was in the building now attached to the Panhandle Plains Museum. It was relatively small and, as a graduate student, I had full access to the “stacks” in the library where all of the books were shelved. At that time, you filled out a card and gave it to the librarian who would then get you the book so being able to access the stacks meant you were a superior student. My thesis adviser, Bob Chester, challenged me to read and annotate every book in the library relevant to the study of Business Finance which I managed to accomplish during the 15 months of my MBA work. You cannot imagine how much that experience came to benefit me when I went on to Doctoral work since very few of my fellow students were nearly so widely read because their larger institutions did not permit graduate students to simply prowl the shelves and sit in the aisles reading. I seem to recall a circular metal staircase that took you to the multiple floors and you frequently would sit on one of the steps since the light from the windows was much better than the small overhead bulbs.

I also recall that Prof. John Kahler (photo, right) was newly arrived on campus at that time and was quite the talk. He would wander across campus in this huge great wool topcoat wearing a Russian fur hat that had a miners lamp attached so he could read at night. I never personally witnessed the event, but all the students took it as gospel that he would be engrossed in his reading and periodically walk straight into a tree in the dark at which time the lamp would jiggle about and he would go wandering off in another direction.

The computer center was in the basement of what is now Old Main and the business school was on the second floor. Dr. Callarman was the Dean of the Business School and had a background in office practice which meant that all of us took classes in shorthand and in operating manual calculators. There was an entire room full of the old Monroe calculators and the din was amazing when everyone was working on the machines in class.

I also recall that at the start of the Fall Semester in 1964, one of the students of the cowboy persuasion had the opportunity to apprehend and dispatch a very large rattlesnake from the lawn in front of Old Main. He made a real impression on the female students by displaying the remains in the bed of his pickup for a couple of days.

Dr. James Owens is Professor of Finance and Head of the Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance at West Texas A&M University.