Some Statistics

ACCORDING to college and alumni records, a total of 163 students were registered in, and have been considered as belonging to, the class of 1902 at V.P.I. A list of these, by names in alphabetical order, is given next, and following that are individual sketches on about 77 members.

There were a few who originally entered in 1898 as freshmen and who, for one reason or another, have been later identified as belonging to a subsequent class. Among these was Carter Osterbind who we all remember with affection. He died early in his career after leaving V.P.I.

Also, some of our classmates, because of “academic indolence”, or on account of ingrowing love for V.P.I., or for other reasons, decided not to graduate with the class in June, 1902, and their diplomas are dated subsequently. But because of their ’02 class associations and friendships, they wish to be always identified with our class.

During the session of 1898-1899, the number of freshmen registered was 127. In the next session there were 35 new faces entered as sophomores; and in the fall of 1900 one new member entered as a junior.

The 1899 Bugle listed 122 members in the freshman class. The 1900 Bugle listed 103 members of the sophomore class. The 1901 Bugle listed 72 of us as juniors. Our own 1902 Bugle listed and showed pictures of 53 seniors; of these 42 were engineering students, 5 were chemistry, 4 were general science, and 2 were special students.

It is interesting to note that there were five, possibly six, pairs of brothers in our class. Of these, four pairs attended all during the three sessions, 1899 thru 1902, and graduated. Also, it was unusual that we had only one Jones, one Johnson and one Smith during our entire four years.

It is very regrettable that there is no current record, either college or alumni, on about half of the total belonging to our class. It is possible that some of these are still living.

As this is being written, there are 37 living members of the class, with whom the alumni office at V.P.I. has generally been able to keep in touch. It is interesting to note that eleven of these entered as sophomores in 1899.