One State senator suddenly had a bright idea which would kill two birds with one stone. Julian A. McPhee, Chief of the Bureau of Agricultural Education had become a thorn in the side of many of the senators. McPhee, a city lad who had been sent to the Davis campus of the University of California to study agriculture in preparation for assuming management of the family's extensive land holdings, became disenchanted with the way many agriculture courses were taught at Davis. He had no practical background nor skill in agricultural practice and little provision to counter this deficiency was made for him. So, upon graduation he made a radical turn in his life and goals. He was going to tackle this perceived problem in agricultural education; students were going to learn practice and skills as well as theory and the findings of research. Where to start? At the bottom, of course! Build foundations. This meant starting as a high school vocational agricultural teacher. His energy and enthusiasm gave him a missionary zeal for his cause. He was quickly pulled out for broader leadership, which led to his appointment in 1927 as Chief of the Bureau of Agricultural Education. Now UC Davis was the only institution in California which trained teachers for high school vocational agriculture. McPhee felt their training was too strong on theory and that the classes in the high schools were primarily "book learning." To attack this problem he eventually hit upon the idea why not bring the agricultural teachers into Sacramento on weekends and hold classes on Saturday and Sunday. He would teach the classes. Such a bold program, however, required a classroom, a "free classroom." Ah~l there is the Senate caucus room. It was not often used on weekends.
During Dr. McPhee's tenure as president, Cal Poly developed from a small struggling junior college to a large nationally known and statewide acclaimed college composed of seven schools.
In the early Spring of 1933, Julian McPhee was asked by the legislature if he would be willing to take over the California Polytechnic facility, move his vocational agriculture teacher training program there, and how much funding would be required? He came up with the figure of $75,000. This seemed in the depression like a very large sum to him. Little did he know that the funding for 1932 was $150,000 which had necessitated the release of eighteen employees. The legislature moved quickly on his acceptance of the offer. So, the California Polytechnic was saved as an educational institution.
It is interesting to note in 1989, that Cal Poly and the EL/EE Department would not now be a reality had a few professors at UC Davis responded a little bit differently to the very sharp energetic San Francisco youth, son of a big lumber and cattle ranching operator.
When McPhee and his family arrived in San Luis Obispo and were moving into the president's house on campus, he learned what the previous year's budget had been. To survive, all salaries were cut in half and during the year many of the livestock were sold to survive. Humble beginning to McPhee's thirty-three years of service to California Polytechnic.
Mention needs to be made about early teachers whose influence left permanent marks on the school. C. Elgin Knott holding B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from UC, Berkeley came in 1921. Mr. Knott had a mother and a brother, Walter, trying to stave off starvation while living on a meager parcel of land near Anaheim. Mr. Knott would send them half of his monthly earnings over a period of several years. The necessary frugality of the southern family members reinforced a pattern of frugality for him too. Eventually, Mrs. Knott, Senior, and Walter's wife baked pies and sold them from a roadside stand to help in keeping body and soul together. From these humble beginnings and with the contribution from Elgin Knott's earnings as a teacher at the California Polytechnic came what we know at the famous Knott's Berry Farm. It is interesting to note that Mr. Knott never owned a new automobile. When he acquired a different car, it was always a prior owned one. Upon his retirement, the School of Engineering faculty had an air conditioning unit installed in his well used Dodge sedan.
In time Mr. Knott became head of the Mechanics Department; head of the industrial Division; Industry Coordinator Head, Engineering and Industrial Division; and finally, Dean of the School of Engineering. Perhaps Mr. Knott's greatest contribution to the California Polytechnic came during the depression when he traveled by train up and down the State securing employment for the Industrial Division graduates. His modest personality and intellectual honesty lent credibility to his claims of adequacy in training and worth as persons for the practically educated California Polytechnic graduates. This reputation with industry established so long ago is still attested today. To attribute to Mr. Knott the title, "Father of Engineering at Cal Poly," is certainly deserving and valid.
Another faculty contributor to an early engineering program was G. W. Wilder, Ph.D. Dr. Wilder was responsible for the Electrical Engineering curriculum effort. Fred Bowden credited him with motivating him to leave his home in San Luis Obispo, and transfer to the California Institute of Technology.
The third person contributing to what eventually was to evolve into electrical engineering and obliquely into electronic engineering was John J. Hyer. Mr. Hyer came to California Polytechnic in 1927 following a varied career in industry and international travel. He was long on experience and short on formal education. Lincoln Elementary School which was located at Third and Mission Streets in San Francisco, was his alma mater. He finished the eight grade there, and went out into the wide world to find his place. Just before coming to California Polytechnic, he received a Certificate of Vocational Arts in Electricity, and related Mathematics, Science and Drawing from the University of California. It was not all that sophisticated in those days either.
Mr. Hyer was ingenious and practical as well. While he had no formal training in calculus, he had an understanding of the basic concepts. He would draw the curves to scale for components involved in a problem requiring integration, cut out the area under each curve, determine the weight of each on a chemical laboratory balance scale and from such data arrive at the answer. With scrape metal, wire, and miscellaneous boards, he would jerry-rig projects either to illustrate some principle in electricity or to serve as a shop and/or laboratory exercise.
By 1931, the annual total cost of attendance had risen to $429. It was especially noted that there was no tuition and no school registration fee.
The l929-30 Bulletin lists the Poly Phase Club (electricians). The only other club then listed which still is active is the Block "P" Club.
By 1936, California State Polytechnic was on the quarter system. Beginning with that year besides the junior college division curriculum in electricity, three other programs were offered with the objective to give men the necessary training enabling them to advance into that gap in the electrical industries between the journeyman worker and the college graduate engineer. The curricula were -- degree transfer (3 years); technical certificate (3 years); and vocational certificate (2 years). It is interesting to note that not one of the curricula included mathematic courses.