Spring 1999

Alumnus finds slide rule, 38 year after it's lost

Modern technology and the keen eye of a colleague helped Willard Holland ('65,EE) recover the slide rule he used almost 40 years ago as a Rose Poly freshman.

When the slide rule turned up missing his freshman year in 1962, Holland never imagined that 37 years later he'd use something called the World Wide Web to relocate it.

"A friend and colleague of mine in Toledo, Ohio called to tell me he saw my slide rule offered for auction on an internet page," explains Holland, chairman and CEO of FirstEnergy Corp. which is based in Akron, Ohio.

"I told him, 'it can't be mine,'" he said.

But his friend convinced him it was. Some distiniguishing marks on the slide rule left no doubt about its owner.

"My friend e-mailed me the photo from the auction web page. I could see my name and social security number I had stenciled on the slide rule," said Holland, who is a member of the Rose-Hulman Board of Trustees.

The slide rule is back in Holland's possession.

Now when he's accessing the internet, Holland can look at the slide rule as a reminder of how technology has changed since his freshman days on campus.