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In This Issue:
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Prof. Mort Friedman's 50 Years at Columbia
Professor Morton B. Friedman in his office in 1968
Scores of colleagues and friends of Vice Dean Morton B. Friedman gathered at a dinner in Low Library hosted by the School to mark his 50th year on the faculty of SEAS. Professor Friedman, who holds B.S., M.S., and Eng.Sc.D. degrees in aeronautics from NYU, came to Columbia’s Department of Civil Engineer-ing and Engineering Mechan-ics in 1956 as an associate professor and member of the Gug-genheim Institute for Flight Structures. Colleagues, former students and family spoke about Mort, citing his boundless energy, vision, statesmanship, wit, intelligence, common sense and diplomacy as some of the qualities that continue to make him an invaluable asset to the School.
He was widely quoted as saying, many years ago, that “engineering is the liberal arts of the 21st century.” In his role as Vice Dean, he has made that belief a reality. His changes to the engineering curriculum brought engineering design, service learning and pre-professional courses into the first year of the engineering curriculum, created a minors program in more than 20 liberal arts subjects, and provided opportunities for undergraduate research. But the most cherished accolade came from his 10-year-old grandson Chason Goldfinger, right, who said, “Grandpa, you’re my inspiration!”
Many long-time colleagues joined the celebration for Dean Friedman at Low Library. Shown here are, l. to r., Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering Robert D. Stoll, Carleton Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering Frank DiMaggio, Fu Foundation Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics C.K. (John) Chu, former Professor of Civil Engineering William Spillers, Professor Friedman, Professors of Civil Engineering Rimas Vaicaitis and Rene Testa.
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