Becky

I just did a search for Ben Lippen and found one name in the guest book I knew. Norman Luke and I were at Kings College in NY at the same time (1959?). I remember talking with him about BL where I went for one year 1946-47 (8th grade) before going on to Bob Jones Academy. Sorry to say but I flunked out of both.

Ten years ago I retired from the Post Office in Croton-on-Hudson, NY and now live in the White Mountains of NH where I continue to hike. In 1970 I was the 50th person (later adjusted) to complete the entire Appalachian Trail.

I do have very pleasant memories of Ben Lippen.

Dick Hudson
rhudson@ncia.net

– Signed on Thursday, June 19, 2003 22:34:23 (EDT)

Attended BL 1947 and 1948, but graduated from local high school in Bluefield, West Virginia. Attended LeTourneau Tech in Longview, Texas in 1951 & 1952, served in US Army in 7th Army Corps of Engineers in Germany 1953-55, graduated from North Carolina State College 1958 and Johns Hopkins University in 1961. Employed in Systems Engineering at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, Honeywell, Inc, and Westinghouse and retiring from Honeywell in St. Petersburg, Florida in 1986. Developed computer systems for doctors and hospitals under a corporate name of Automated Claims Service Centers, Inc. from 1987 to 1999. Now retired "full time" but building and upgrading computer systems for friends.

Good to hear about Ted Eckman who was roommate during first year at BL. Thanks Becky for such a good job with this site.

– Updated on Saturday, June 10, 2000 at 21:48:51 (EDT)

– Originally Signed on Friday, May 26, 2000 at 22:54:19 (EDT)

---------- Original Entry ----------

What a great surprise to find the BL web page. I was just wondering if Ben Lippen still had a Bible Conference in the summer or not and then when I saw Ted Eckman's signature and article, I really got excited since Ted and I were roommates at good ole BL. Thanks, Becky for a great job with this site.

I, like Ted Eckman, left in 1948 and graduated from High School in Bluefield, WV in 1950. Have specialized in military and medical computer systems finally retiring last year. Enjoy bike riding, ham radio, and morning and afternoon walks with my Jack Russell Terrier.

Went to BL from the Christian Academy in Japan for my senior year. From there, went to King's College, then to Toronto and the Niagara Peninsula. Married in '64. Came to Australia in '66. Lived in Sydney, Tamworth, Brisbane and Toowoomba. Attended Bible College of Queensland, then came to Toowoomba. Have spent most of my working life teaching and working as chaplain and guidance officer in private schools. Was director of YFC here for a number of years. Have a family of wife Ginny, son Richard (systems analyst) and daughter (married) who teaches Japanese at a high school on the Gold Coast. Son also works on the Gold Coast.

I am now semi-retired and am teaching Japanese at a couple of elementary schools (Japanese is taught from grade five onwards in most schools in this state, Queensland.) I am also part-time pastor of a small Baptist church in a rural farming community about forty miles from our city of Toowoomba (eighty miles inland from Brisbane).

Norman
Class of 58

– Signed on Monday, November 15, 1999 at 06:51:03 (EST)

Would like to hear from other Alums of 1958-1960.

– Signed on Friday, April 32 1999 at 23:56:00 (EST)

Great work Becky. Browsing the web, I never expected to find anything about BL to say nothing of something as neat as this Alumni Guest Book. Having left "The Mountain" in 1948, that's right NINETEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY EIGHT, I feel like an intruder since in all the 38 pages of entries, there isn't a single entry earlier than the early '70s. My contemporaries must be disinterested, computer illiterate or dead!

Well, in the early years of BLBS (Ben Lippen BOYS School), things were a bit different than many of the later alumni could ever imagine. It was no prep school for boys or a finishing school for girls. As a matter of fact, there were no girls. There were about 60 of us guys in 6 grades. In order to keep some semblance of order, discipline was severe. I don't know how it worked later, but we were kept in tow by the mark system, whereby if you got 75 marks (demerits) in a semester (or maybe it was a year) you got shipped, that is, kicked out. Any of a number of dumb things you could do, got you demerits, the more severe the goof, the higher the number of marks added to your tally. For instance, I got an instant 25 for getting caught smoking on the roof of Lippen Lodge (a derelict pavilion sort of structure on top of the mountain). You worked off your marks by doing schlep work, mowing grass, scrubbing floors etc. If your misdeed really irked the faculty, you got to "walk the log." They gave you this heavy log, maybe 36" long and 6" in diameter and you had to walk down the hill path in front of the lodge (the main building) to the road, turn around and walk up to the lodge and do this over and over again, 30 minutes for each mark. No stopping since the eyes of the administration were glued on you coming from the lodge offices. When you walked down, you couldn't wait until you walked up, and when you walked up carrying the hideous log, you couldn't wait until you walked down. This today perhaps would be constitutionally barred as "cruel and unusual punishment," I think.

Money was scarce. The faculty were lucky if they ever got paid. On one occasion, a Mr. Bass, a farmer living down the mountain a mile or so, gave a cow to the school. A live, mooing cow. Mr. Schumm and I got the school old WWII Army stake truck, got the critter in the back of the truck, tied a taut rope around its hind quarters and parked the truck, with Bossy standing in the back, under a tree behind the lodge. We tied the other end to a low tree limb. I shot the thing between the eyes, Schumm drove the truck out from under the cow leaving it swinging in the breeze. Schumm jumped out and slit its neck, draining its blood out. We dressed it and the next day, it was on the table in the dining hall. And, a few days thereafter.

Fights were more than common. About anything. I had one really bad one with a classmate who pastored a prominent church in Dallas. On another more friendly occasion, he and I were hitting empty .22 shells with match heads stuffed in them with a hammer (BANG!) (real smart) in a stairwell in the lodge when he caught a nice piece of the brass casing right between the eyes. He bled like the cow.

I left BLBS before my junior year and graduated from Dwight Morrow High School, Englewood, NJ. Spent four years in the USAF as an air traffic controller. Went to Wheaton (got kicked out, smoking again! Quit in '69 for good) but graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit. I have spent practically all my professional career as an Automotive Test Engineer at General Motors Proving Ground in Michigan specializing in fuel consumption and combustion. Retired in '95, went to Tanzania for a brief stay with the Peace Corps, then to Gboko (Benue State), Nigeria with Christian Reformed World Missions. I now do consulting for a chemical firm in Detroit and spent last week in London and a condensate refinery on the northeast coast (North Sea) of the U.K. trying to bring Formula 1 racing fuel, currently used on the continent, into the US racing circuit.

Thought mere survival was tough at BL, it got through our thick and rebellious heads that the men in the faculty really cared for us and their insistence on having us leave with a full understanding of the privileges and responsibilities of a commitment to Jesus Christ never left us, not me at least. We learned earthly survival and gained the knowledge eternal salvation.

I could write a book on early BL. Maybe some day, I will.

- Update August 13, 2003 -

Hi Jane, (and Becky, if you're watching.)

Thanks for keeping me posted.

I wonder if Hank remembers this item.

As you know, down the hill from the main building was Stegall's residence. Well, anyhow, for some reason or another, there was this BIG rock not far from their home. I mean BIG! I don't know what it was doing there, but the Stegall's decided the rock had to go. So, they got some dynamite and blew it apart. As a boy of 15, anything that exploded was something high on my list of priorities of things that were not only useful, but, also highly entertaining. Does anyone remember this incident?

I wish Henry remembered me, but, of course, he can't remember everyone. He taught me how to handle a gun. Ask him if he still thinks of a shotgun as a "smoke pole." We used to hunt rabbits and crows. He also helped me tan the hide of the calf we butchered. It resided in a barrel of brine behind Stegall's house for I don't know how long. When I brought it home, my mother kindly let me have it in my room until she relegated it to the attic.

Ah, yes, memories of Ben Lippen BOYS School, "the little school with the funny name."

When I baby sat for you , I'll bet two bits it was so I could work some "marks" off. I collected marks like some people collect loose change. You got kicked out "shipped," they said, when you got 75 of them and believe me, I knew how to stare the number 75 right in the face. Getting caught smoking was one way to pile a whole bunch on instantly.

And then there was the time where the headmaster, John Blanchard, got me in his office and made a deal with me that he would erase a number of marks (don't remember how many), if I would go down to the goat barn and shoot with a .22 a litter of puppies that were there. Honest!! You don't believe it?? Well, it's the truth. It was a no-brainier for me. Either shoot the dogs or walk the log. I shot the dogs. Blanchard told me he didn't have the heart to do it. I wonder why he thought I did. I'll bet the re-invented BLS in SC doesn't give any kid a life enriching experience like that.

Ask your dad if he remembers students having to "walk the log." If he doesn't remember this clever and humiliating form of punishment, I don't think he was ever at BLBS and my recollection of him being there is only a figment of my imagination.

Ted

- Update February 28, 2005 -

Hi, Becky!! Guess who, it's me Ted again.

I thought I might as well throw a little more junk on my Guest Book entry. Nobody ever reads it so machts nichts!!

I was in the 9th grade and lived in the "wing" The year was 1948. One of the residents of the wing was a boy I'll call "Penny Buddington". Well, it seems Penny sent a sweater to the laundry in Asheville. They picked up and delivered each week. Well, wouldn't you know that all of a sudden Penny was running around hollering someone stole his sweater. Now, stealing at Ben Lippen Boys School was a chargeable offense just a tad short of murder.

Accordingly, the administration was determined to find out who the thief was. They announced the theft at supper and noted that if the sweater didn't show up in a noted time a "fession session" would be imposed.

No sweater so, on Saturday all students were assembled in the study hall/chapel and instructed to sit at a desk and keep your mouth shut and sit there and sit there and sit there unit someone confessed or the cows came home. I don't remember how long it was " 'till the cows came home", but come home they did and the criminal was still at large. After sitting in a wooden desk half the day, they let us go and promised "further action would ensue"

Shortly after, during the week, Penny's roommate noticed that after opening his Asheville laundry, Penny surreptitiously and quickly shoved something under his bed. The roommate got down peered under the bed and THERE IT WAS" the purloined garment. Penny's lapse of memory would not go unnoticed.

He didn't say anything to Penny but, within the shortest time span since creation, everyone in the wing did. Did they ever.

If it hadn't been compassion on our part, and woul;d have made such a mess,we would have done away with Penny right there on the spot. We did assemble and constituted what could only be called a kangaroo court. After considering torture, amputation of limbs, blinding and a few other appropriate measures we came up with a plan.

THE PLAN: It being the dead of the winter, we figured we could put the elements to our use. We would trick Penny to come out in front of the Lodgein the darkness of evening. We would then seize Penny, pin him to the ground, strip off has clothes, all of them, and run them up the flagpole. Everything worked as planned. To give the proceedings a semblence of legality, the charges were read before commencing justice. Penny was helpless to extricate himself from his predicament. A short but futile struggle ensued.

Now, in the matter of running the clothes up the flag pole, the scheme was to run them to the top and then secure the lanyard as high up on the pole as possible. Being the tallest boy on campus, I had little chance to escape the honor of tying that knot on the pole. As a matter of fact, we thought it better and another lad stood on my shoulder tied the knot and justice was served ted feet up. We all fled the scene. Penny, having no clothes on and nearing death by freezing, chose a route to his safety we had not anticipated. Here is where the Law of Unintended Consequences arrived. He did not run through the lobby as we expected, but ran to the headmasters home down the road and presented himself at the door late in the night as a spectacle neither the headmaster or his wife had ever seen.

Whether he was invited in or not, I do not know but his somewhat unusual lack of attire begged the question of what was going on. Buddy with no reticence explained exactly what was going on. Identifying the assailants, at least in one case, was no problem since, my height not only stood out on campus, but it also was the first name his memor coughed up at the faculty inquiry.

I was dead in the water.

I and other kangaroos got our own just punishment. Back in the study hall again, sitting on those hard wooden chairs, the administration obliged us to write 2000 times, are you ready for this?, "A MOB IS THE SCUM OF THE CROWD THAT RISES TO THE TOP"

Two thousand times and none of this writing one word repetitively down the paper vertically, and then doing the same thing going on to the next word and so forth, a scheme that could up the process substantially. Nope. it was sentence by sentence 'till the whole bloody thing was done.

Was my punishment effective? Well, it's been 57 years since I finished writing the last sentence. I haven't forgot it for one minute neither have I run anyone's pants up a flagpole.

Ted Eckman

– Updated Monday, February 28, 2005 18:25 (EDT)
– Previous Update on Wednesday, August 13, 2003
– Previous Update on Wednesday, August 12, 1998
– First signed on Tuesday, December 02, 1997

Index of
Entries by
Class Year:

1950s:

1959
Armilda (Royston)
Young

1958
Norman Luke

1956
Don Dahlquist

1951
Richard Hudson

1950
Ted Eckman
Ted R. Jefferies