A Surprise Warrior

What my sister and I learned about our dad, Sheldon, during our visit to Cooper Union’s Archives department.

In anticipation of the annual Cooper Union C’73 reunion at McSorley’s in December 2023, my sister and I ventured to the Cooper Union Archives & Special Collections department to dig for photos of our dad, Sheldon Lefkowitz. We hoped to surprise him and his Mechanical Engineering buddies with some long lost treasures over mugs of light and dark ale. We sat down at the Archives table to leaf through issues of The Cable, film negatives, and yearbooks spanning 1969-1973. The Archives associate sweetly intervened to ask if Sheldon belonged to any clubs as a way to focus our search. Katie and I laughed at the prospect of Sheldon in a club of any sort and without pause returned to our haystack of memories.

We only found two other photos of Sheldon in addition to the one featured as the hero of this article (a photo we were already shown a decade earlier). Here’s what we bumped into along the way.

We Learned what Learning Looked like at Cooper Union in the Early 1970’s…

Cooper Union students could face down any machine, drawing strength from their big brains and big hair. They were also talented at creating signage to indicate where coffee could be found during a group debate. Katie was really amused by this coffee sign.

We Learned about Three Men who Shaped these Funk-era Engineers: The Dean, The President, and the Professor who enjoyed a Luncheon.

Meet Professor William Vopat, Professor Emeritus and Dean of the Mechanical Engineering Department in 1973. We saw photos of him encircled by students but only grabbed this solo photo where his eyes are perhaps darkened beyond recognition. We hope the McSorley’s gang knows who this is and included one of his most influential books to jog the memory. Perhaps Dr. Vopat’s book – Power Station: Engineering and Ecomony – is how Sheldon ended up wading in the plutonium spilling out of Three Mile Island, Hanford, and Fukushima?

We also encountered depictions of President White smoking a pipe while looking upon his flock and of Professor Griswold’s students celebrating him with a surprise luncheon. We learned Professor Griswold was gifted a typewriter by these students and quipped, “Maybe I’ll write a book with this.”

We Learned there was Unrest over the Closure of Green Camp and America at Large as well as a Cave Dwellers concert…

There was heavy coverage in the 1973 Cooper Union Cables about the demise of Green Camp, an oasis of greenery in Ringwood, New Jersey reserved exclusively for C.U. students and staff. Students were also protesting America’s misadventure in Vietnam. We noticed a sign that well-captured the tone of complaint still grumbled by New Yorkers when they encounter mashuganas and mashugana situations: “Get the hell out now.” Despite these hardships, the band the Cave Dwellers powered on and performed multiple nights that December. We are skeptical that Sheldon sat in for Green Camp or Vietnam…ex-nay on the group social causes. We hope he took a study break to enjoy the concert, though!

We FINALLY Found a Photo of Sheldon in the Cooper Union Archives!!! And He’s Doing Something Truly Out of Character…

It turns out Sheldon was a Green Camp warrior! He sat rapt listening to Cooper Union trustees’ issue their statement about parceling Green Camp into lots to sell to the highest bidder. Watch out, Bernie.