For a forward-thinking Institute that’s always seeking to “Create the Next,” preserving the past hasn’t always been on the top of the list.
Over its 134-year life-span, the Institute can claim scientific and technological advancements and incredible alumni who’ve changed the world. But it wasn’t until 25 years ago that someone stepped up to record first-hand accounts of these achievements in one place.
The Living History Program, established in 1994, has been going strong for the last quarter century collecting, preserving and presenting the stories, history and traditions of Georgia Tech.
It all started when a phone call that no one quite knew how to handle ended up at the desk of Marilyn Somers, Hon 08, who at the time was serving as the Georgia Tech Alumni Association’s director of communications and public relations.
A nursing home in Baltimore had reached out in search of a recording of the Ramblin’ Wreck fight song to play at the birthday celebration of a 100-year-old Tech alumnus. “I of course agreed and said that I would send him a little birthday present and a recording,” Somers says.
From there, Somers could have easily crossed it off her to-do list and moved on. But she began thinking about this 100-year-old Yellow Jacket and the interesting stories and memories he must have from his time at the Institute so long ago.
A fan of the informational kiosks at state parks, Somers thought that the Alumni Association may be able to implement something similar to share stories and interviews with alumni.
When she pitched the idea, her boss at the time wasn’t initially sold. But a member of the Association’s Board of Trustees caught wind of it and liked the idea so much that he offered to donate recording equipment from his business to get the project going.
Not knowing exactly where to start, Somers reached out to the National Park Service for guidance, and was connected with Dr. Suzanne Williams, an oral historian teaching at Reinhardt University for the summer. Williams thought Somers had a great idea, and agreed to come to Atlanta to help kick off the program. Williams introduced Somers to the intricacies and legal parameters of collecting oral history, and put her in touch with national oral history organizations.
The program, established as the Georgia Tech Oral History Program, was quickly taking shape. Somers assembled a list of alumni who graduated before 1925, and sent out postcards asking them to share their stories. A handful of Georgia Tech students were hired to interview alumni, with Somers overseeing the program.
Somers followed industry best practices to set up Tech’s oral history program, with one exception. The standard at the time was to capture stories by audio recorder.
“The one thing I deviated from was that I didn’t think it should only be audio,” Somers says. With video cameras becoming lighter and more portable by the mid 1990s, “I decided to do video, because what could the harm be?”
Several interviews in, it became clear that using multiple students as interviewers provided inconsistent results, so Somers began conducting the interviews herself. She’s done more than 1,150 since.
For several years, Somers split her time between interviews for the program—which was later renamed Georgia Tech Living History—and her public relations role at the Alumni Association. But by 1999, the program had grown and Somers transitioned into the role of Living History director full-time.
In 2005, Scott Dinerman, STC 03, was hired to capture the stories of his fellow Ramblin’ Wrecks as the Living History program's video producer and editor. He’s been an integral part of the program ever since, capturing more than 600 interviews, editing the program’s fascinating documentaries, and producing other multimedia projects.
Though students no longer conduct interviews, they are still an integral part of the Living History team. Each year, a handful of students work for the program transcribing and indexing video interviews. Thanks to their hard work, each of the Living History interviews can be searched by keyword and are available with a written transcript and timeline. This exhaustive effort is what makes Living History’s body of work such a treasure.
“What we’re trying to do is record as many interviews as we can and get those in a word-searchable database so that researchers can find first-person accounts of just about any subject they can think of,” Dinerman says.
Today, the Living History team records an average of one interview a week, for a total of 40-50 a year. They travel to their subjects, and Dinerman has compact recording equipment that fits onto a hand truck for transportation.“We prefer to go to their homes so they are more comfortable,” he says.
Somers’s Living History interviews are expansive. They cover their subjects’ entire lives—before, during and after their time at Georgia Tech—to give a complete picture. This provides details that, while not Tech-specific, are fascinating in their own right.
“Some of our tales told as secondary stories are just priceless,” Somers says.
After the interview, Dinerman makes DVD and MP4 copies of the tapes and then students begin the process of transcribing and indexing the stories to preserve them in the vaults of Georgia Tech history. “I learn something new about Georgia Tech history with every interview that we do. We interview people who’ve done amazing and interesting things,” Dinerman says.
In addition to collecting alumni stories, Living History also creates an annual 50th Class Reunion video and produces documentaries about Tech history and traditions. These 50th Class Reunion vidoes go all the way back to the class of 1944. Dinerman says these the videos are unique to each class, featuring class photos and snapshots of campus, stories from class members, and popular music and culture—a time capsule for each year. “If you were to watch them consecutively, you would see a slow progression of campus over time,” he says.
They’ve also created dozens of documentary videos about topics ranging from the history of the Ramblin’ Wreck to Tech’s most famous animals and references to Georgia Tech in movies.
The early history of Georgia Tech soon became Somers’s passion, and she has conducted extensive research to add to what we know about the Institute’s formative years.“I do love the history of Georgia Tech and enjoy finding more and more about it,” she says.
The mission of Living History has expanded over the years as Somers was asked to give presentations. She's a natural storyteller and began regularly presenting the history and traditions of Georgia Tech to groups both on and off campus.
She often fields obscure questions from people around campus as well as alumni and the media. If she doesn’t know the answer, she’ll do a deep dive into the records to try and find an answer. Her ability to find just about anything has garnered her a reputation as the keeper of Georgia Tech’s history.
Somers says one of the most meaningful aspects of leading the Living History Program has been keeping up with the many student interns who have contributed to its success over the years. She puts together an annual newsletter that shares updates and photos from 47 of her former students.
“I’m very proud of the fact that I’ve kept up with so many of the former interns,” Somers says. “I’m so touched and happy to say that’s a part of what we do. It’s a labor of love.”
Somers also keeps in touch with all of her living interview subjects and their families. Her correspondence list is extensive, to say the least: She sends close to 900 birthday cards every year. Many of these birthday card recipients are elderly and don’t have many living friends or family members.
“I think it’s so important to the Institute that alumni know that they’re important, so they feel more closely attached to Georgia Tech,” Somers says. “I think that’s part of our mission, at both the Alumni Association and the Institute.”
Still working in her 80s, it hasn’t always been easy for her to keep going. But Somers is committed to continuing the Living History Program and doing the work she loves for as long as she can.
“History is a hard sell. It’s been a hard, hard sell at Georgia Tech,” Somers says. “But we are a remarkable Institution with remarkable graduates. And my dream is to see the Living History Program become a permanent part of the Institute so that 50 years from now, researchers and families can continue to see and hear the stories of those Ramblin' Wrecks who make the history of the Institute.”