Alumnus James Wolfe (’66 BIE) wrote with these great stories about Slip Slider:
“Knowing Slip Slider for years, I have some stories about Slip that speak to his likeability, and concern for others.
“I was 12 years old in 1955 when my parents purchased their first home for $12,000 at 368 Loveman Avenue in Colonial Hills, a subdivision in Worthington, Ohio. Slip Slider lived across the street from us. The Slider family found out that I was just old enough to make a perfect baby sitter for their children. At that time, baby sitters were paid approximately 50 cents per hour. I never charged for the service by saying, “what ever you think”. By saying that, I got more than 50 cents per hour from the Sliders! I continued to baby sit for the Slider family until I graduated from Worthington High School. While baby-sitting over the years, I and my family became good friends of the Slider family.
“It always intrigued me the way Slip would answer the phone. He was hard of hearing and wore an amplifier box with earplugs. When the phone rang he would pick up the receiver and place the phone next to the amplifier box located around his waist and sit back in his chair to relax while talking on the phone.
“Speaking of Slip’s concern for others, I got a date for the Junior/Senior Prom. When I asked my father if I could use the family car for the dance he said “no”. I got the idea of asking if I could use Slip’s car. When I called Slip, he said, “Yes, that would be great and we will have the car cleaned for you”. When I told my father, he got mad, then embarrassed, and then decided to let me use the family car. When I called Slip to cancel the use of his car, I think he had a little chuckle as if he knew what would happen.
“When the Science Fair was planned at Worthington High School, I went to Slip and asked his thoughts about a possible project. He popped up and said he had a great idea. It was how to determine the total oil in a core sample. I agreed. Next thing I knew Slip brought home all the equipment from Ohio State to test the core samples he provided. He explained how to set up the equipment, how to perform the test, and how to make the calculations. The judges at the Science Fair wanted new ideas rather than an explanation of old sciences. While the judges had one opinion, the general public was extremely interested and wanted to see how the oil was extracted from the core sample. The demonstration was requested many times during the science fair. Most people thought oil was in big pools under ground and not in porous rock.
“When Slip found out I was going into engineering at Ohio State, I spent hours listening to him explaining the benefits of getting a degree in Petroleum Engineering. Very few colleges, if any, offered Petroleum Engineering degrees. The classes were small, and the graduates were in great demand, high salaries, as well as quick advancement within an organization. I explained to Slip that Chemistry was very difficult for me. Slip kept trying to sell me on Petroleum Engineering saying I could easily handle the chemistry. The sales pitches kept coming up until we had to declare our field of study in the second year of the 5-year Ohio State engineering program. While having a successful career with my BIE degree, I have thought many times over the years about the opportunity that I missed by not taking Slip’s advice. If I could go back in time, I would have taken Slip’s advice and become a Petroleum Engineer. Although, maybe, my decision was correct because Bill Lowrie would not have liked the competition. Bill, congratulation on your award. I am sure that Slip’s advice guided many of us through life.
“Slip was a great friend and is missed by all who knew him.”
Author’s note:
Over the years, I have been involved with Ohio State. My father-in-law was Garvin Von Eschen who started and was Chairman of the Astro and Aeronautical Engineering Department at Ohio State. My brother-in-law is Art Bolz, the son of the former Dean Bolz of Engineering at Ohio State.
In 1980, my company did the engineering and provided all the equipment for the fire alarm systems in all 26 dorms at Ohio State. At the time it was the largest Fire Alarm Project in the USA with 8000 smoke detectors.
Jim Wolfe
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| ABOUT Hartzel C. “SLIP” SLIDER: |
| Beginning in 1957, H.C. “Slip” Slider taught industry reservoir engineering courses at Ohio State University, Japan, Columbia, England, Peru, Trinidad, Tobago, Canada, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Angola.Professor Slider was a WWII pilot with many medals. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mining engineering from Ohio State University in 1949. In addition to his industry teaching experience, he served Texaco, Shell, Exxon, Schlumberger, Dow Chemical, Aramco, Caltex, DuPont, the U.S. Congress, and many other groups as a reservoir engineering consultant.Slip is one of the reasons that William G. Lowrie came to appreciate chemical engineering and the ChemE Department at Ohio State. Bill, who enjoyed a successful career at Amoco, credits Slip for much of his mentoring and guidance, and established the H.C. Slip Slider Professorship in his honor.The H.C. Slip Slider Professorship has enabled the William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering to attract professors the likes of Jessica O. Winter and Lisa M. Hall.Slip passed away in 2007. |
I took Slip’s course in 1975, and I always wish I’d gone into petroleum engineering (instead I went to law school and became a patent attorney). In class Slip would tell us stories of his WWII flying days. I think he was a B17 pilot. The best story was when he had to land in bad weather and was supposed to listen to the radio signals in his earphones to tell him if he was on the right landing path. Even back then he had bad ears, and he told us “Hell I never could hear those darn beeps in my ears!” So, I guess he was always lucky enough to land the plane on his own, even when he couldn’t see the runway.
That’s very interesting! The Fall 2018 Koffolt News has a story about another alumnus, Tom Hornish, who was a pilot and had interesting stories to tell.
Thanks for sharing.