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Celebrating 150 Years  |  Alumni Memories

Bill Campbell '72

Mister Science I am not.

I remember a Chemistry 101 lab assignment in 1969. We mixed so-many "moles" of this with "moles" of that. Does anybody know what a "mole" is?

In any case, accurate weight of powdery stuff was critical. I think I remember we melted down some cloves for this (or maybe that was some other) experiment. I liked wearing lab coats, boiling watery stuff, and working under the thing with the fan that sucked all the air out from above.

By the way, since graduating from Lake Forest, I have been instrumental in some major chemical breakthroughs. Unfortunately I ingested the stuff before bringing it to market. Ha ha, only kidding.

By the way, I had a crush on all the women I was "friends" with in college. Not a platonic relationship in the whole bunch. I didn't know that at the time, though.

Anyway, I think we were there late in the day. The view out the window at the autumn leaves was spectacular. The shadows were now descending over the Johnson Science Center. Except for three students, the rest of the class had finished the project and  left. Dr. Klingbeil, our very patient instructor, was shepherding us through our final calculations.

"So, what do you have here?" she asked, holding aloft the enigmatic brew.

She had a little bemused smile on her face. She knew all three of us had messed up with cooking the stuff, or measuring the stuff or weighing the stuff. There was no known substance corresponding to the numbers derived from our belabored calculations. We peered into our notebooks in desperation.

"It could be one of three things....," she said finally. After all, dinner will be over in just an hour or so.

We each had a guess. If the first one got the answer the rest of us could furrow our brows in reflective agreement and make it to Commons in time for dessert.

"No, that's not it." Wrong guess.

It was our last chance, my turn. One of the substances, I had remembered from class, was as-sil-i-si-tic acid, the chemical name for aspirin. I looked at the pained faces around me.

I said, "It's got to be the aspirin."

"Correct!" she said happily.

And I thought to myself...

Two moles of as-sil-i-si-tic acid and a glass of water is what we all need right now.

"As-sil-i-si-tic."  I am not even going to attempt to spell it.

Aren't big words what college is all about?

I haven't thought of that word in almost 40 years.