A recent meeting with a prospective student spurred me to write this letter. His wide-eyed interest in Wentworth’s Industrial Design program brought me back 25 years to my days at Wentworth. I told the student that my education has provided me with the knowledge to have a great life doing what I love.
I knew from an early age that I wanted to design and build machines. I explained to the student that he would learn theories and prove them in the lab. As an example, I mentioned he would learn to calculate the strength of a steel bar in tension and then go to the lab and stress the bar to failure.
I do consulting for a large company in South Boston, and I enjoy interacting with the engineering co-op students when they ask for help solving a problem. They are amazed when I know the equations off the top of my head, a skill that I attribute to the style of learning at Wentworth. However, it is not just the teaching philosophy, but the teachers themselves that make the difference. As I write this letter, I am looking at the spring 2000 alumni magazine with Professor Frank Nestor’s picture on the cover. It just so happens that my first impression of Wentworth was in physics class with Professor Nestor.
I can’t say that I was a great student at Lexington High School. I got by with average grades without doing much homework.
To this day, I remember the first day of class with Professor Nestor. I came in just before the bell rang and found a comfortable seat in the back. I figured if I sat there I wouldn’t be asked any questions that could possibly embarrass me or put me on the spot. Boy, was I wrong! Professor Nestor wrote his name on the board and then turned around and said, “See those guys in the back row? They won’t be here next semester.”
From then on, I sat in the front row every class. Professor Nestor had a way of making his students look at the bigger picture of the world and life. I remember that he liked to ask the question, “If everything in the world was 10 times larger or 10 times smaller, would you know the difference?”
–Glenn Jordan, MDS ’78, ME ’81
Editor’s Note: Glenn Jordan, president of Machine Design Services Inc., recently reunited with Professor Francis (Frank) Nestor (pictured above left), applied math and science, who was deeply touched that Glenn remembered him. When Professor Nestor first read Glenn’s letter, he was recovering from knee surgery; he says the letter greatly lifted his spirits and aided his recovery.
