Ralph Baird knew the School of Mines was going to be a challenge from the moment he arrived for his admissions interview in the spring of 1967. "I took the bus out from the airport," says Baird 71, "and I got off downtown and called up to the admissions office to tell them I'd arrived. At every other school where I interviewed, people chauffeured me around. But at Mines they just said: 'We're at the top of the hill. Look for the gold dome. We'll be waiting for you.'" Baird had to hoof it up to Guggenheim with his heavy bags in tow. And he decided right then that Mines was the college for him. "That impressed me," he says. "I knew I'd have to work for whatever I got. I knew I'd have to earn it. And I found that attractive."
展开▼
