#9 It Begins in Kent
11/08/23
It was now the fall of 1969 and I found myself fully ensconced in a small town called Kent, located in N.E. Ohio near Akron and less than an hour South of Cleveland. I had always imagined Ohio to be a gritty blue collar state. Never did I ever think I would be living there but here I was with my girlfriend Sandy, a cat named Acceber which is Rebecca backwards, and very little money.
Before I get into the nitty gritty of starting a new glass program at a large university I should tell you my first impression about my new digs, Kent. We had driven from Madison, WI with one stop in South Bend, Indiana for the night and from there directly to Kent a distance of 280 miles. The Ohio Turnpike, Exit 13, Kent, the home of Kent State University the sign said. I paid the toll and exited to Rt. 14 and drove a short distance to a right hand turn on to Rt. 43. That 5 mile stretch on Rt. 43 took us onto a two lane road that was lined with large maple trees and bordered with many single family homes with well manicured lawns. At that time, when entering the city limits you found yourself on a road lined with 100 year old elm trees. The tree canopy was just magnificent. It was so dense that it almost blocked out the sunlight. This was not what I had expected. It was, to say the least, a very bucolic setting. I found out, later on, that Kent was the home of the Davey Tree Expert Company and as one would expect the trees in Kent were a source of pride. When entering the city the sign on the side of the road proudly states, Kent, the Tree City. Unfortunately some years later the city decided to widen this beautiful tree lined road and cut down all those 100 year old elm trees to make way for two more lanes. For a short time the students at the university renamed Kent, Stump City. It was not a pretty sight seeing all those stumps lining the road.
Here we were, and as I said in an earlier blog we stayed with our new friend Brinsley Tyrell his wife Lillian and their two kids Sophie and William for about a week until we found our own place. Brinsley was the sculpture teacher and had started teaching the year before. Both he and his wife were British and had also made Kent their home. In time our two families became very close. While I was teaching summer school Sandy rode around town with a real estate agent looking for a place for us to live. Well, Sandy did find a house and we moved what little we had into our new digs on Chelton Drive.
Lincoln Center
Although Kent State University had an art school it did not, at the time, have an art building to house all its programs. The programs were located in facilities scattered around the campus as well as off campus. The ceramic facility was located in the basement of a building on N. Water St. next to some of Kent’s finest watering holes and a few doors down from the Williams Bros. mill. The mill was Kent’s oldest business still in operation. It had opened in 1847 and was still producing cake and cookie flour. But I digress. The glass and sculpture facility was located in a shared facility on Gougler Ave. The building was an old Lincoln Mercury garage and it was fittingly renamed Lincoln Center. The building itself was in poor condition but it was a nice big open space. The sculpture area occupied most of the building and my glass area was a 30 ft. wide strip that ran the length of the building. Although the university wanted to include glass studies in its offerings it provided a very meager budget. I was stuck with having to build a glass studio on a shoestring. In a word or two, I did. I managed to scrounge the bricks needed to build the furnace and ovens from a refractory company in Cleveland. From that I had bit of money left over to buy the other odds and ends needed to complete the glass studio. The maintenance department ran the gas and air lines and the electricians did all the wiring. My students and I cobbled together an exhaust hood. The one element lacking was a safety system for our furnace and lucky for us we never had a problem. A glass furnace is not turned on and off, it burns 24/7/365 and because of that I spent many a sleepless night wondering if the furnace was lit or if it went out and if Lincoln Center was going to blow up. Our furnace burner system as well as the furnace itself was patterned or copied from Dominick Labino’s design that he had provided to Harvey. Our studios occupied Lincoln Center for over 10 years and after we moved out of Lincoln Center it sat empty and was eventually torn down to make way for duplex apartments.
Nick
I should say a few words about Dominick Labino. Nick lived just outside Toledo in Grand Rapids and was a glass chemist for the Johns Manville Corp. Nick lived a mere one and a half hours away from me and I visited Nick many times over the years and he taught me a lot about the technical aspects of glass. Besides being a glass chemist he was a self styled glass blower and maintained a glass studio at his home. As I mentioned, Nick was the guy that had provided Harvey with the technology that made the small studio possible. I don’t think Nick ever got enough credit for his contributions to Harvey as well as to studio glass. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominick_Labino I believe Nick felt the same way and I also believe those feelings clouded the relationship between Harvey and Nick. If you wish to read more about Labino go to the link provided above.
The day came for us to light our furnace. The burner was a simple affair. It consisted of a one and a quarter inch black pipe affixed to two insulating firebrick that had been carved into a crude Venturi and had a small blower attached to it. (See the diagram below). The burner system was affixed to the crown of the furnace. Crude would be an understatement, but it worked. In order to light the burner we had to use an acetylene torch inserted into the front opening of the furnace then turn on the gas and hope the burner would light. After a few false starts the burner ignited with a dull roar. I can still remember that moment, my first glass furnace. My students and I just stood there mesmerized by what we had accomplished.
The Inspector
Unknown to me at the time the university required me to get our glass furnace inspected before I could start my classes. To be honest I never imagined that we could pass an inspection as there was no safety systems in place and our glass furnace would probably look pretty crude to an inspector. We were given a time that the inspector would arrive and knowing that it took a bit of Jerry rigging to get the burner to light we set to work and prepared the furnace by lighting the burner and getting it good and hot before he arrived. We then turned the furnace off and awaited his arrival. We hoped the residual heat in the furnace along with the torch would be enough for the burner to light without much trouble. We knew that if we couldn’t get the furnace properly lit while he was inspecting we could be out of business. The inspector arrived and took a look at our studio asked a few questions and then asked us to light the furnace. I lit the acetylene torch and had a student turn on the gas. The burner ignited instantly. It seemed our preheating the furnace did the trick. The inspector looked at our furnace and finally asked what was this furnace for? I had no idea that he had no idea what he was inspecting. I told him that it was a glass furnace and I was going to teach my students to blow glass. His eyes lit up and he said that his wife collected glass and could he and his wife come visit when we were up and running and watch us blow glass. Oh happy day. Needless to say we passed inspection with flying colors. Kent State University had its glass program. To be honest I do not remember if the inspector or his wife ever returned to watch us blow glass.
As you can imagine that first academic year was an exciting one for me. Not only was I now an associate professor at a university I also married my sweetheart Sandy. We lived in our little house in the woods with our cat and all was well. Little did I know that a day before my 32 birthday on May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard would shoot 4 students to death and wound 9 others on my campus.
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The Labino Burner - Nick Labino - Kent State Glass Studio - Henry, Sandy, Brinsley, Lillian - Ohio National Guard
Before I get into the nitty gritty of starting a new glass program at a large university I should tell you my first impression about my new digs, Kent. We had driven from Madison, WI with one stop in South Bend, Indiana for the night and from there directly to Kent a distance of 280 miles. The Ohio Turnpike, Exit 13, Kent, the home of Kent State University the sign said. I paid the toll and exited to Rt. 14 and drove a short distance to a right hand turn on to Rt. 43. That 5 mile stretch on Rt. 43 took us onto a two lane road that was lined with large maple trees and bordered with many single family homes with well manicured lawns. At that time, when entering the city limits you found yourself on a road lined with 100 year old elm trees. The tree canopy was just magnificent. It was so dense that it almost blocked out the sunlight. This was not what I had expected. It was, to say the least, a very bucolic setting. I found out, later on, that Kent was the home of the Davey Tree Expert Company and as one would expect the trees in Kent were a source of pride. When entering the city the sign on the side of the road proudly states, Kent, the Tree City. Unfortunately some years later the city decided to widen this beautiful tree lined road and cut down all those 100 year old elm trees to make way for two more lanes. For a short time the students at the university renamed Kent, Stump City. It was not a pretty sight seeing all those stumps lining the road.
Here we were, and as I said in an earlier blog we stayed with our new friend Brinsley Tyrell his wife Lillian and their two kids Sophie and William for about a week until we found our own place. Brinsley was the sculpture teacher and had started teaching the year before. Both he and his wife were British and had also made Kent their home. In time our two families became very close. While I was teaching summer school Sandy rode around town with a real estate agent looking for a place for us to live. Well, Sandy did find a house and we moved what little we had into our new digs on Chelton Drive.
Lincoln Center
Although Kent State University had an art school it did not, at the time, have an art building to house all its programs. The programs were located in facilities scattered around the campus as well as off campus. The ceramic facility was located in the basement of a building on N. Water St. next to some of Kent’s finest watering holes and a few doors down from the Williams Bros. mill. The mill was Kent’s oldest business still in operation. It had opened in 1847 and was still producing cake and cookie flour. But I digress. The glass and sculpture facility was located in a shared facility on Gougler Ave. The building was an old Lincoln Mercury garage and it was fittingly renamed Lincoln Center. The building itself was in poor condition but it was a nice big open space. The sculpture area occupied most of the building and my glass area was a 30 ft. wide strip that ran the length of the building. Although the university wanted to include glass studies in its offerings it provided a very meager budget. I was stuck with having to build a glass studio on a shoestring. In a word or two, I did. I managed to scrounge the bricks needed to build the furnace and ovens from a refractory company in Cleveland. From that I had bit of money left over to buy the other odds and ends needed to complete the glass studio. The maintenance department ran the gas and air lines and the electricians did all the wiring. My students and I cobbled together an exhaust hood. The one element lacking was a safety system for our furnace and lucky for us we never had a problem. A glass furnace is not turned on and off, it burns 24/7/365 and because of that I spent many a sleepless night wondering if the furnace was lit or if it went out and if Lincoln Center was going to blow up. Our furnace burner system as well as the furnace itself was patterned or copied from Dominick Labino’s design that he had provided to Harvey. Our studios occupied Lincoln Center for over 10 years and after we moved out of Lincoln Center it sat empty and was eventually torn down to make way for duplex apartments.
Nick
I should say a few words about Dominick Labino. Nick lived just outside Toledo in Grand Rapids and was a glass chemist for the Johns Manville Corp. Nick lived a mere one and a half hours away from me and I visited Nick many times over the years and he taught me a lot about the technical aspects of glass. Besides being a glass chemist he was a self styled glass blower and maintained a glass studio at his home. As I mentioned, Nick was the guy that had provided Harvey with the technology that made the small studio possible. I don’t think Nick ever got enough credit for his contributions to Harvey as well as to studio glass. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominick_Labino I believe Nick felt the same way and I also believe those feelings clouded the relationship between Harvey and Nick. If you wish to read more about Labino go to the link provided above.
The day came for us to light our furnace. The burner was a simple affair. It consisted of a one and a quarter inch black pipe affixed to two insulating firebrick that had been carved into a crude Venturi and had a small blower attached to it. (See the diagram below). The burner system was affixed to the crown of the furnace. Crude would be an understatement, but it worked. In order to light the burner we had to use an acetylene torch inserted into the front opening of the furnace then turn on the gas and hope the burner would light. After a few false starts the burner ignited with a dull roar. I can still remember that moment, my first glass furnace. My students and I just stood there mesmerized by what we had accomplished.
The Inspector
Unknown to me at the time the university required me to get our glass furnace inspected before I could start my classes. To be honest I never imagined that we could pass an inspection as there was no safety systems in place and our glass furnace would probably look pretty crude to an inspector. We were given a time that the inspector would arrive and knowing that it took a bit of Jerry rigging to get the burner to light we set to work and prepared the furnace by lighting the burner and getting it good and hot before he arrived. We then turned the furnace off and awaited his arrival. We hoped the residual heat in the furnace along with the torch would be enough for the burner to light without much trouble. We knew that if we couldn’t get the furnace properly lit while he was inspecting we could be out of business. The inspector arrived and took a look at our studio asked a few questions and then asked us to light the furnace. I lit the acetylene torch and had a student turn on the gas. The burner ignited instantly. It seemed our preheating the furnace did the trick. The inspector looked at our furnace and finally asked what was this furnace for? I had no idea that he had no idea what he was inspecting. I told him that it was a glass furnace and I was going to teach my students to blow glass. His eyes lit up and he said that his wife collected glass and could he and his wife come visit when we were up and running and watch us blow glass. Oh happy day. Needless to say we passed inspection with flying colors. Kent State University had its glass program. To be honest I do not remember if the inspector or his wife ever returned to watch us blow glass.
As you can imagine that first academic year was an exciting one for me. Not only was I now an associate professor at a university I also married my sweetheart Sandy. We lived in our little house in the woods with our cat and all was well. Little did I know that a day before my 32 birthday on May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard would shoot 4 students to death and wound 9 others on my campus.
. . . The Labino Burner - Nick Labino - Kent State Glass Studio - Henry, Sandy, Brinsley, Lillian - Ohio National Guard