The Drift Of Things - The Cover Story

Many months ago, the ME staff began thinking about what to put on the February cover of the Centennial Commemorative issue. We have considered photographs of mines, equipment, symbolic artwork and various collages. Our theme is "the next 100 years in mining" and the cover ideally should convey a related message or idea. All of us are convinced that there are many exciting technical changes that will be coming. But even so, we decided that, in our opinion, the engineer is the most vital factor. For this reason we chose to put a man on the cover of this issue. At first it was going to be the face of a man with whom each member could conceivably identify himself. It was one of the Bobs on our staff (we have four) who came up with the thought that since it's the future we are talking about, we should have a young man's or a student's face. Of course we firmed up our idea at the ninth hour, and it was too late to canvass the mining schools. However, by a stroke of luck, we were rapping with a group of University of Arizona students on the terrace of the Pioneer Hotel on December 7, 1970, and met Dave Bolles.