This is an oral history interview with Thomas A. Elliott, class of 1939 and 1954, conducted by Marilyn Summers on November the 10th of the year 1999. We are at Mr. 

Elliott's home in Atlanta, Georgia, and the subject of our interview is his life in general and his experiences with Georgia Tech. Mr. Elliott, thank you so much for letting us join you here today. I'm happy to have you. We have another beautiful day in Atlanta, Georgia, and we're looking forward to hearing your story. Please tell me, where did this all begin? 

Well, I was born in Atlanta, I believe on West Peachtree. 

This was back in 1917, and six months later, my mother and father moved to Athens, Georgia, and I lived there until I completed high school. 

So you were only in Atlanta briefly. I don't remember a thing about it. Not a thing. 

So here you were growing up then in Athens, Georgia. That's correct. 

Now, some people would call that enemy territory. You were exposed to UGA right from the very beginning. That's correct. Did you live right in the city of Athens? 

Yes. 

Well, what high school did you, what elementary school did you go to in high school? 

Well, we went to Barrow Street Elementary School, and then I went to, no, I can't remember. There were two more grades in another school, and then I went to high school. And where was that? 

What high school? 

That was Athens High School. Athens High School. There was only one there. Only one there at that time. And, of course, the huge university all around everywhere. 

Well, it wasn't quite as huge as it is now. Did you have any brothers or sisters? 

No. I was only a child. 

What did your dad do for a living in Athens? 

He worked for the Atlanta Paper Company, which is now the Mead Corporation. and he sold paper goods. He traveled. He was a traveling salesman, and he sold paper goods to people all over Georgia. 

And did he raise you to think you were going to go to college? 

We never did talk about it, but I think it was anticipated that I would. And did he try to influence you to go right there where you were living? 

No, no. Never a question of that? 

No. 

So how did you make up your mind to go to Georgia Tech? 

Well, I first went to the Citadel. They did suggest that I go to the Citadel, and I went there two years. What kind of an experience was that? 

Well, I didn't like it. That was very military, wasn't it? 

It was very military, and that didn't suit me. 

But after the end of two years, I transferred to Georgia Tech. 

Okay, so you came into tech as a transfer. 

Before we get that far along in the story, we're here in a house that's full of wonderful things and I noticed this coach that's sitting above your head on this shelf up here. You told me that you made that coach. Tell me the story about that. 

Well, the Fisher Body Company had a contest. The coach is a logo of the Fisher Body Company. They had a contest for several years. And the first prize was a $5,000 scholarship. I didn't win that. I won the first prize over in the junior division for the state of Georgia. And what did they give you? 

They gave me $100 and a trip to Detroit. And then they gave me $20 for tips. And I didn't even know what a tip was. And they let you keep it. That's the best part. I kept it and bought a Model T cut -down for it when I was at high school. 

Did you really? 

Now, is that made out of wood or plaster? 

Well, it's some wood, yes, and some metal, some castings on it. 

And you designed it, came up with it, did the whole thing all by yourself? 

Well, no, they had plans and a design, and you just followed their plans. I did make the little ornaments on the wheels. I made a little die and stamped those out of soft brass. 

So you were always into doing creative things with your hands? 

Yes, I could always do that. I made model airplanes and all kinds of things like that. That's so interesting, and it's a beautiful, beautiful mine. And it looks like it's an antique, and you told me it is an antique. 

Well, that's the coach, a copy of the coach that Napoleon gave to Josephine. Oh, I see. I see. 

Well, it's very, very elegant. 

So here, okay, now let's go back where you graduate from high school and you've gone to the Citadel. I went there two years and then transferred to Georgia Tech. And did you transfer as a junior then? 

They let you come in? 

No. They didn't. They didn't take all your credits, huh? 

They didn't take very many of them. 

I took, well, most of my civil engineering courses I took there, they gave me credit for, but nothing else. I had to take them all over at Tech. Oh, boy. 

Anyway, do you remember your first impression of Tech? 

What did you think? 

I don't really remember that. I remember just going in the dormitory and being there. You were in the Brown dormitory when you first moved in. You just remember being there. 

Do you remember it being challenging? 

Were the classes difficult? 

Yes, they were hard, and there were a lot of them. There were a lot of them? 

I went to school nearly 40 hours a week, the labs and so forth. Was that more than you had done at the Citadel? 

It was more classwork, yes. It was. 

And were the classes harder? 

Well, in the class that I was in, there were 900 enrolled and 300 graduated. 

So that's a third of you getting out or surviving. That puts me in the upper third of the class. Yeah, it does, doesn't it? 

I think I was at the bottom of the upper third, but I was there. Yeah. Do you remember any of your professors from that time? 

Yes. There was one named Black, Rip Black. There was a man named Bogle. And I'm trying to think of the head of the mechanical engineering school. Everybody doesn't come to me right at the moment. 

By and large, did you think they were good professors? 

Did you respect them? 

Well, they taught me, I guess. Yes. They taught everybody. They made you learn. Is that what you're saying? 

They made us learn. 

Well, we had to. You were out. 

So you worked constantly under the idea that if you didn't achieve, you'd be out the door. Is that it? 

Well, we knew that. You did join a fraternity, though. I did join the Chi Psi fraternity. My cousin in Athens had been a member of that, and so I joined that. 

So that gave you some social life. In fact, you moved into the fraternity, didn't you, in the last... You moved in the last few years? 

The last two years I was at Tech. I was in... lived in the fraternity house. 

What was that like? 

What kind of a lifestyle did you have there? 

Well, the fraternity house was right there next to Peter's Park, and it was a nice fraternity to... 

We had sleeping dormitories in there, and then everybody slept in the dormitory, but you did your studying in a room. You had a private room where two people were in the room. You studied together. And did you take your meals there, too? 

Yes. They had meals. 

So did they have a house mother or somebody who looked after you, or did they hire a cook? 

You were there in 1937. It seems to me I just hired a cook. We didn't have a house mother. Okay. 

So that was 1937 and 38. That you were living in the fraternity house. What was your social life like? 

Well, we had dances. We went to those and had dates. And then there were three or four of us that went around, five of us that went around together. And we were all from different fraternities. That was interesting. I have. You were actually the president of the fraternity. I was the president of the Chi Seifert. Right. 

So you were on the Interfraternity Council, right? 

Yes. 

Now, wasn't that the group that planned out the big dances? 

I guess they did. I don't remember. You don't remember? 

We had big dances, though. You can remember that. I have a picture of the classmates there. Would you like to see it? 

I'm sure. If you've got that handy, we'll look at that. What did I do with it? 

There it is. Okay. Just hold it up and back. Lean back and hold it in front of you. Okay. There they are. Let's see. It's Homer Hutchison, Dillard Munford, Henry Telford. Dillard is now dead. Ed, Claude Daughtry, he's in California, and me, and I don't see. It was Dean Spratlin was also in that same group. That's part of that group. Okay. That's fine. I'll just set that back down. 

So what do you remember of your days at Georgia Tech? 

What's your best memory of that time, the early session? 

Did you have to take our OTC? 

Yes. Yes, I took ROTC, and I was in the Coast Artillery. And were you thinking about, probably not yet thinking about war? 

No, no. 

So was it a pretty happy time? 

Well, yes. Did you have an automobile? 

I think I did. 

I had a Ford, which I wrecked in Bogart, Georgia, and then I had a Franklin, which I bought from somewhere. Franklin was an old, all -aluminum automobile, a very old, but they were good. And my roommate, you know, somebody borrowed it and went down and broke it up in Macon, Georgia. Sounds like you boys were rough on the cars. I guess we were. Did you have a good social life? 

Did you go to the football games? 

Oh, yes. I went to all the football games and all the, most of the dances. And what else would happen in your life at that time? 

Well... What was going on at Georgia Tech? 

Well, we had just had to... I don't... 

I know we went around and the group that I showed you the picture of, we all run around together to have dates and we just go out together and have a good time. 

So you had good friendships at that time. And then you graduated in 1939 with a mechanical engineering degree. Correct. 

What was your plan? 

What did you plan to do with that degree? 

Well, I hadn't really planned a career. I took a job with R. G. Letourneau in Tekoa, Georgia. At that time, the salaries were kind of low. It was $60 a month. You were probably glad to be working, though, right? 

I was glad to be working. 

There wasn't much to do in Tekoa, So I worked about six hours in the evenings in the machine shop at Leterno had just to make more money. 

So you were working 16 hours a day then? 

Just about, 14 to 16. Wow. 

And how long did that last? 

Well, it lasted until about — let me refer a minute to my records here — about six, eight, nine months. 

And the lieutenant was a very religious man, and he started having everybody come in at lunch hour and listen to his preaching. And I didn't particularly like that. 

So I left and went to the Bemis Bag Company in Talladega, Alabama, where I was made assistant plant engineer. And I worked there until I was called into the Army. 

So you did get drafted? 

Well, I was a second lieutenant. I don't know what. I was drafted. Oh, you had a commission then? 

I had a commission, yes. 

Okay, so you got called with your commission. Did you get that commission when you graduated at Tech? 

Yes, at Tech. 

So that's where your ROTC paid off then? 

Yes, it did. 

And that would have been what year? 1940? 

When did you go into the military? 

Uh, 1941, and it was May of 41, along in there somewhere. 

So it was before Pearl Harbor that you went active duty. 

And where did you go? 

What was your assignment? 

In the military? 

Well, I was sent to Camp Davis, North Carolina, and I wrote training films for the 90-millimeter and the 120-millimeter anti -aircraft guns. I was not in the actual coast artillery. 

Now, the coast artillery had these big, heavy guns that were on the coast. You were in the military for about five years, you'd say? 

That's correct. Correct. 

And over that period of time, did you go abroad at all, or did you stay in training? 

I was abroad a good bit. Tell us about that. I married my wife in Virginia. Is that where you met her when you were stationed there? 

No, I knew her. She was from Athens. Her family was from Watkinsville. They were actually there. Oh, yeah. 

So you knew her for a long time before you married her. All through high school. Oh, and then you had a quarter all over. She waited for you to go to college? 

Well, she was going to college in Georgia. And we got back together and we were married. I went to, I guess, Fort Bliss, Texas. That's where my daughter sent me. And then they sent me back to Camp Davis. overseas, and then I went to overseas, and I was in Hawaii, New Caledonia, Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Timor, Lady, and it took about five years of time. You were in a lot of hot spots, weren't you? 

Well, it was interesting. I wasn't in too much action. There were some hot spots. I had, I guess, four battles, three battle stars, they called them, and got a bronze star medal. in New Guinea. I was there a long time. I was in the town of Finchhaven. And then there was a U. S. Air Force there at NADZAB and another Australian Air Force at LAE, L-A-E. And I had business in all of those towns. And then I went up to Hollandia, which was the headquarters orders of I shall return, General. And then I went on to Biak and on up the line to the Philippines, and I was there when the war ended. And you must have had plenty of points to come home by that time. 

Well, I had a lot of points, but it took me a while to get here. In fact, I was, came on a, what did they call those boats? 

And it took... It took a long time? 

Six weeks to get home. 

So you had a cruise back, is that it? 

Well, we came back and went through the Guadalcanal, went through the Panama Canal, went up to Camp up Kilmer in New Jersey, and then down to Fort Mac where I was discharged. 

And did you come back to Atlanta, or where did you go back to? 

You hadn't really lived in Atlanta by that time, so. 

I had been married, and I had one child when I came back, Tommy, and then we had another daughter, Lynn, and we had another son, John, and then we had a third, second daughter, Carol. 

So you had a lot of responsibilities. 

Well, when I came back, we stayed in an apartment out near Emory for a while there, and then I finally got an opportunity to buy a house, and I bought it. I was one of the original founders of the Munford Company. 

So that's what you came back to do. You knew him from school, so you were going to test this. the plant and operated the plant that we made. At that time, the product of the Mumford Company was rock wool, and we made rock wool. Were some of your other tech buddies involved in that, besides Mr. Mumford, quite obviously? 

No, he was the only one. He was the only one. 

So you came back from the military and went right into business with him. I believe that's correct. Let me refer to these notes I've made. 

Well, that's fine if that's your memory of it. Yes, that was it. Yeah, that's your memory of it. 

Well, how long did you stay in business with Mr. Mumford? 

About a year and a half. Oh, not very long. No. What did you decide you wanted to do instead? 

Well, we didn't get along. He didn't get along with anybody. It was one thing to be a friend, it was another to be a business partner, huh? 

Yes. Yes. Then I went to work with Harry Vaughn as a design engineer. Harry Vaughn was a former head of one of the departments, the ceramics department there at Tech. And we did, we automated the manufacturing operation of M. A. First. M. A. First made pencil lids. And so we automated completed that process. 

And then after that, I went back to Georgia Tech, I guess in 49, and went to work in the engineering experiment station and was made head of the mechanical mechanical design section there. And I stayed in that situation until I went, I was lent to Stone Mountain. Yeah, we have to talk about that. 

But initially you went back to Georgia Tech for that position with what we call GTRI now. Yes, that still was GTRI then. GTRI. That's what it was called then? 

Yes. Okay. 

So you were hired. Was Mr. Vaughn, Harry Vaughn responsible for finding you that job? 

No. 

How did you think about it? 

I decided I wanted to go back to school and get a degree, an additional degree. 

So you were going to go for graduate work and then heard about this position and applied for that? 

Yes. And then were you going to go to school at the same time then? 

I went to school. 

At that time, they had a school that you worked all day and then at 5 o 'clock you went to school for two or three hours, and that was an industrial engineering department. and Colonel Groskloos was running that school at this time. 

So that turned out good for you then. Yes. 

So you were supporting your family and still gaining some more education. Yes. 

But it was mechanical engineering design, you say, that you were working with. 

Well, yes, and I designed a right good many things while I was there at Tech. Tell me about some of them. 

What do you remember? 

Well, one of the things I designed was a TDL slit sampler, which sampled the staph germs. It would count the staph germs in hospital rooms and in things. The CDC came to Tech and asked me to redesign. They had one that the English had designed, and it was so complicated the nurses couldn't use it. 

So, I designed a simple one, and then they came back and ordered 50. 

Well, Tech didn't manufacture for anybody, so they gave me permission to start manufacturing those and I manufactured them. I guess we sold a lot of them. The American Hospital Supply also sold them to hospitals all over the country. Wow. And they... 

So, you started this little company up then to make these right here in Atlanta. Yes. 

Is that the beginning of Elliott Engineering? 

Well, I was in Decatur at that time, lived in Decatur, and that was the beginning of it. Did you take on other products besides that? 

Yes. What else did you design? 

I made furniture for nursery schools. How interesting. I made a little refrigerator and a stove and a sink, I guess. 

And were these for children to play with, you mean, or to actually use? 

Well, Jim High School was working at that time for the Coca -Cola Company, and his wife was running a nursery school, and she felt the need for some better products. The children would tear everything up, so I built some very sturdy little things. 

Well, now there's a range of products, from staff counters to nursery school. Then I made those until I think the Jim had to quit. The Coca-Cola Company made him quit selling them. He was traveling around the Coca-Cola Company time and selling them to nursery school. Uh-oh. Conflict of interest. And so then I started making them for the American Seeding Company and they sold them. 

But then my boy that was my woodworker quit and I just went out of that business. I couldn't find another good woodworker. What are some other things you designed? 

Well, I designed the paint thickness gauge. 

Raymond Tuck was at Tech, and he had an idea for a paint thickness gauge, which would measure the thickness of a coat of paint, or if you had several coats, it would give you the thickness of each coat. You could measure that through this little device. And I helped him, because I really designed that for him, but he sold them, and I sold right good. He sold right good many of those. You had very eclectic interests that went from one thing to another. 

Well, in the engineering experiment station, you always, I didn't, I worked for the peanut industry. 

I designed, the first thing I designed, this was the only company, I guess the only job I had that wasn't an industrial business. 

And I designed the system for sampling peanuts all throughout Georgia and all over the peanut from Texas to Virginia. And they still use that system for sampling the peanuts. 

See, when the farmers come in with a truck, they have a big truckload of peanuts and they have to, the buyer has to make a sample, take a sampling of them to make sure how many They're what they call sound material kernels, and they're shrivels and pops. And so they would take a sample, and that system, I say, is still in use. Did you patent these ideas that you had? 

I had about 12 or 13 patents. You did? 

Well, wow. 

Well, most of the patents were assigned. 

See, when an industrial company came in to do work with Georgia Tech, we did a project with them, I'd get a patent, and then I would assign that to them. MS. I see. I see. MR. I had a few patents in my own name. MS. 

But mostly you were working for tech and not for yourself at that point in time. MR. MS. And you, meanwhile, were taking your classes, and in 1954 you got your master's degree. That's correct. 

What was the difference between going to school in the later years compared to going in the first years? 

MR. 

Well, I think I made better grades. MS. I made all A's. MS. Something about being married, having children, and being responsible, huh? 

MR. 

So you did enjoy going to school the second time? 

You learned a lot? 

Yes, I learned a lot. 

Do you remember any of your professors from there, from the 50s? 

Joe Mota was one, but I can't remember many of the others. Then, in 1966, you had an opportunity. 

Well, now, let me give you some of the things that I designed while I was at Tech for industrial accounts. 

Okay, I'm listening. 

Well, I did the air samplers, and I designed a chicken meat processor. 

You know, the people that cook chickens, the necks have meat in them, and they wanted a machine designed that would separate the meat from the chicken neck bones. My goodness. 

And you invented that kind of machine? 

I built a machine that worked for them, and it went up to New Jersey, and they made three more, I believe. I'll be darned. 

But that was quite a hard process because there was very little difference between the specific gravity of the meat and the chicken, the neck bones. 

But we did design a machine. I designed a machine to make diapers. 

For a company up in North Georgia, the normal diapers were sewed, cut the cloth and sewed them all around. 

Well, I designed a machine that would, the sides had a, was sealed, but then when you cut it off, you had a loose edge and I would stamp those first with a, with a plastic. 

Then they'd move to the next point and the heating bar would come down and cook the plastic And then the next thing they'd chop them off and they'd put six of them in a package. That was a pretty neat machine. Yes. And I designed the first high -speed dental drill. Wow. This is such a wide range of things. 

Well, see, I didn't control the work that came into Tech. 

People would come in And in all of the industrial accounts and private individuals, I would work with them. Most of the government work was done by other groups there at Tech. 

And so I designed this high-speed dental drill, and you know, it used to take an hour to get a filling with one of these new high -speed drills. You can just go zip. Oh-ho, so you're the one that makes that. I'm the one. 

Your job was certainly not boring, was it? 

No, I always enjoyed it and had different things to work on. Always. Something new every day, all the time. Are you ready? 

Some other things I designed at Georgia Tech for Georgia Tech. 

I designed the tilting flume for the Civil Engineering Department, which is about a 150 foot flume that they could change the angle on and increase or decrease the flow of water through it and make measurements. And that had to be designed so it had no deflection. 

So that was a challenge. And then I designed the low -turbulence wind tunnel for the aeronautics department. How would you get these jobs, Mr. Elliott? 

Well, most of the professors had good ideas, but they weren't sure. 

They said they didn't have time, but really they were afraid if their idea didn't work, they'd get fired. Oh. 

So it was better to take it to y'all and say, here, this is our idea. Do something with it. 

I did have one professor from the mechanical engineering department that I worked with a good bit, and he worked more at the experiment station than anywhere else. 

I went to a faculty meeting one time, this is a little bit of an aside, and I suggested that they take their classes. A lot of the classes could be taught by remote control, but the faculty didn't appreciate that. Didn't like that idea. Didn't like that. Then I designed the, let me refer to my thing, a subcritical reactor for the physics department. 

This is a reactor that the students could run, but if they made an error, it wouldn't explode or blow away. Oh, that's good to know. 

So you were getting around all over the campus. Yes, and then I designed a, for the Osmos Company, they make treated wood. And that plant used to cost, oh, $275,000, $300,000. Back in those days, that was a lot of money. 

And I designed a plant for them that could be a smaller unit that could be put in nearly any lumber yard. And so those were very successful. That revolutionized the way they... That helped their business considerably. Their main income was from the chemicals that went into the treatment thing. Tell me about the gates at the stadium. Oh, it used to be that when you went to the football games, they had one gate. You'd line up and buy your ticket or stand in line with a ticket. And it sometimes took 30 minutes to get in one person. You know, you're in the line. Oh, my. 

So I just designed multiple gates and put more people on them, and you could get in in two or three minutes now. Oh, I see. 

So it's a system we have now, whether around the perimeter of the state. It's still the same system, it is. 

So you actually saw that as a reality then. And I worked with Bobby Dodd, and I advised him. He was on lighting the football field. Had it not been lit prior to his time? 

No. No. Oh, so he took that on and consulted? 

I didn't physically design it. 

I got electrical people that made the lights to do it, but I advised him on it and told him what it was going to cost, which at that time was $80,000, and he nearly fell out of his chair. Did you know him well? 

Yes. What did you think of Bobby Dodd? 

Well, he was a nice fellow. You saw him in a different way than the football players saw him then. You saw him as a businessman, helping him out. 

Well, yes. He was, I think he was a very good coach. Yeah, that was one I'd forgotten. 

But just as a human being, was he as? 

As a human being, and he was a good man for you to know? 

You enjoyed the relationship? 

Yes, I enjoyed my relationship with him. Did you ever know George Griffin? 

Oh, yes. I was mad with George Griffin. You were? 

Why? 

Well, at Citadel, I went out for the track. I was a pole vaulter. 

And I came to Tech, and the spring started, and I trained and ran and ran up and down the steps and did everything, getting conditioned. And at the first track, me said, Elliot, you're not eligible until next year. Oh, no. Oh, you'd gotten all ready for nothing. Yeah. 

Now, I was about to omit one design that I made that was very interesting. I designed the first cobalt unit for Emory University. This was for the treatment of lung cancer. And I got the cobalt, I guess, up in Tennessee at a place up there. And I went out about every two months to check on the operation of this machine. And the doctors started showing me the lungs of people that had lung cancer or had smoked. And they were just black. 

So at that time, I think that was 1956, I quit smoking. I just quit cold. You had firsthand evidence it wasn't a good idea, huh? 

Well, it still isn't a good idea. 

But I did design that machine for them. It's interesting. You did things for the food business and for the medical, for the medical profession. Yeah, I thought I forgot one for the food business. You know the little bacon packages that you see that have a wonder in them there? 

Right, yeah. I designed that for them. Did you really? 

I certainly did. 

So everybody could see what they were buying. And a funny thing happened. It was being tested up in Cummings, Georgia. they were making bacon up at this plant, and they were putting it in these little packages. Bacon was coming down the line. All of a sudden, they'd change packages, and they'd never just change a line. The same bacon went into another company's package. Oh, no. How did they make good on that, I wonder? 

I don't think there's a great deal of difference there. No, probably not. Yeah, I designed that package for a company in St. Louis. I don't remember the name. Is that through Georgia Tech again? 

Yes. I see. 

Well, I'm amazed at how wide your influences were, from peanuts to bacon to medical profession to cobalt machines. My goodness. Even to football stadiums. 

Which invention or design gives you the most pleasure? 

What are you proudest of? 

Do you know? 

Well, I just enjoy designing things. All of it. I designed a machine to wind up the string on yo-yos. Oh, really? 

And that's a difficult job. It sounds simple, but it's hard to do. And a machine does it? 

Yes, a machine does it. 

It would get the two halves, stick them together with the string in there, and then it would wind the string up. I had some help on that. a retired engineer from Chrysler Motor Company came in my office and he said, I'd like to go to work for you. I said, well, are you qualified? 

He said, well, I was the chief engineer for Chrysler. And he worked for about six months to a year, I don't remember. 

But he enjoyed it. He just said he had to have something to do that was interesting. 

So we, that was one of the machines we designed. And it just happened the company wanted you to do that. 

So he got an assignment for that. It was pretty interesting. 

But somewhere along the line, was it 1963, Georgia Tech asked you to do something unusual? 

They did. 

They lent me to Stone Mountain Park to ascertain that the contracts they had for building the various buildings and things out there were being complied with. 

In other words, the builders had a set of standards, and I I had to see that they met those standards. Is that when they were in the process of building new buildings there? 

Yes. 

The buildings we know today? 

Was it the? 

Well, they were building the hotel, and they were— The museum and— The auto museum was being built. I think the Skylift was built at that time. I'm not sure. I don't remember. And then the railroad was built, and the plantation was partially built. 

So you were actually keeping tabs on all the vendors that were... 

I just would take the contracts and look at the work they were doing and assure that they were fulfilling the contract. And you tell me that you did that part-time for a few years. About two years. 

And then what happened? 

Then the Stone Mountain Authority asked me to be the general manager at Stone Mountain Park, and I did that. 

Well, did you have to come back to Tech and negotiate? 

No. No? 

I just... 

Now, I did do some things part-time while I was working part-time at Stone Mountain. I did some things for the company up. Wait a minute. You were the general manager of Stone Mountain Park, meaning you had to oversee the whole operation. The whole operation. That's correct. And you still had time to go do a job somewhere else? 

Well, no. 

When I was out there as a part-time consultant, I wrote the procedural manual for the Southwire Company. Oh, okay. Southwire developed a process for continuous casting of copper wire. 

And they had all the patents and they controlled it and they decided to start leasing the process out. 

And I had to write a procedural manual that they would give to the people that were buying their machinery. 

Now, there was a tech connection there. Southwire was owned by a tech graduate. Yes. That's correct. That's correct. Do you remember his name? 

No, I don't. It was Roy something. Roy. You're right. I can't remember his name. I'll tell you something funny. 

I went out there, and they ran three shifts, and so I monitored the three shifts and made notes, and all of them did different things. Really? 

And I told the engineering department there, and they didn't believe me. 

But they finally decided that whatever they were doing was all right. 

So they had to get their own stuff all lined up so they could export the process then to something else. Right. I see. 

What was it like to be the general manager of a huge park like that? 

Well, we had, I guess, about 300 people working full -time and 300 more during the summer months. Most of the income at Stone Mountain came in during June, July, and August. Then we had the carving going on. Because it wasn't completed at that time. No, we were working on it. The original carver, when he left, blasted everything he had done off. There were just two figures on the mound. Then he went out to North Dakota and did that out there. 

And Stone Mountain had hired, had a contest, and Walker Hancock from up above Boston was selected as his design was the best design. And his design was such that it was a big, tall copper casting. 

It would have been the biggest one in the world, and nobody in America could do that, so we went to London and contracted with a company over there to do the casting. 

At that time, prices kept rising and moving, and so we got away from that design and went to the next design, which Walker Hancock designed. 

But But the carving was going on, and when I went to Stone Mountain, they were getting $400,000 a year from the state of Georgia to operate with. 

At the end of the first year, I had made enough arrangements and making enough money so that we didn't have to get that from them. 

So you made it a little more independent then? 

Yes. 

Are you telling me that when the first carver left, he took everything away that he had done? 

He blasted everything off. 

So the carving that's there now was never from the original one then? 

It was the first man, Guts and Borglum, that was his name. 

Then they had a man named Lugman that came in and started doing this second design, which is the one that's on there now, but he never finished. They gave out of money. 

But Borglund's design is all gone. It's all gone. Isn't that interesting? 

I didn't realize that. 

How many years did it take for them to come up with what they have right now? 

Well, they started, it was funny, they started work when I was out there and they put these steel beams out and had wires go down so the workmen could work on platforms. 

Well, the man that I tried to, I went up to Elberton to get granite workers, and they'd go up on the elevator we had there, which was about 30 stories, and they wouldn't even get off the elevator. They were too scared, huh? 

They just said this wasn't for them. And the boy that was doing the distil work was named Roy Faulkner, and he said, I can do. I can help you." And they developed a process of, originally, to carve the mountain. 

They would drill holes in it and take these tapered pins and drive them in, and then they'd drive another one in. They'd split off sections of the mountain. Oh. 

But then they changed that. We changed that and went from that to a process where you used a big kerosene, oxygen kerosene torch. And if you heat, all rock has what they call a water of crystallization in it. 

And you heat the water of crystallization and the water then expands to steam, which which expands 144 times, and that flakes, cracks the rock off. And so... 

So they switched to that system to do it. We switched to that system. 

And Walker Hancock supervised the carving of the mountain, but his main interest was in the area down below. And Roy Faulkner did it all. He did the whole carving. And so you were right there watching this whole thing take place then over the years. And as the carving started to show up, did more tourists start to come then? 

Yes. 

And one of the things that I tried to do was to get more people to come to Stone Mountain during the off season. 

So I started the Yellow Daisy Festival. You did? 

Yes. And I started the Scottish Games were out there, which were the biggest Scottish games in the South. I had an art show, which is now something else. 

Well, your ideas worked well, didn't they? 

You brought lots of people for those things. 

Well, we were making money. 

See, if you get people through the gate, see, we had a gate fee, and that's where we made the majority of the money. It didn't cost much to run the gates, I think. Yeah. As I remember, it cost about $80,000 a year, and we took in about $2 million a year at the gates. 

And I guess next to Disney World, we were the largest tourist, became the largest tourist attraction in the South. Was it fun to run a park, or was it a lot of work? 

It was hard work. 

It was hard work, huh? 

And I had to attend to all the business and all the people, but we did a lot of things. I have one picture that might be of interest. When the carving was nearly completed, this is a picture where we had lunch on Robert E. Lee's shoulder. Really? 

Yes. Where are you? 

I'm here. And then the next one was Bill Kenny, my assistant manager. 

The next one was Ben Fortson, the Secretary of State. They were on the Stone Mountain Board. 

The next one is Tommy Irwin, who is a commissioner of agriculture. Who's waving a chicken leg, it looks like. Yeah. And this man is Lane Mitchell. He was the head of the ceramics department, I believe, at Georgia Tech. He was on the board. And the last one was Arthur Bolton, who was the attorney general for the state of Georgia. And you literally set a table up and brought all that food out on the shoulder of... That's it right there. You can see it in this picture. My goodness. My goodness. That's quite a picture to have. You remember that well? 

Yes, I remember that. That was a big celebration because it was done. And we had one or two people fell off of the scaffolding while they were working. They stepped back to admire their work. I don't know what happened. Oh, dear. They fell off. And then we had several people fall off the mountain. 

If you get, the mountain is so cheap that if you get down beyond a certain point, you You just go on down. 

So there was tragedy to deal with during that time. There were several people killed, I think. 

Well, so you stayed there from 1963 part-time to 66, then full-time. To 75. Until 75. In 75, you decided to retire. 

Well, it was time to retire. It was time? 

Yes. 

Now, I have gone over some things in the industrial engineering field. 

I did a study for the engineering development products, who were the world's largest design of oil refineries, and I increased their production of their engineering department 25 percent. You know what a hard job it was. I bet. I had them change from regular T-squares to use a drafting machine, and that saved a lot of time. 

Then I made a study for the expansion of the American Sawmill Manufacturing Company in current Mississippi. 

I did a study for NASA at Huntsville to show the need for remote controls up there for different things. Then I designed a system to track reports through our photographic lab. 

See, the engineering experiment station, everybody did a job, or a poet, and it had to go through the photographic lab. 

They had to put the photographs and the writings and the opinions all together, and I designed a system for them which was later picked up by a right good many colleges. Then they were having trouble down at Warm Springs. 

They had a brace shop down there, and they weren't producing the braces fast enough for the people that were coming down. 

So I went down and laid out their production lines so that work would be compatible. 

Then Then the National Academy of Sciences, based on that, sent me all over America to look at the methods used in applying external braces for people. 

So you were an efficiency expert on these kinds of things. 

Well, that's what industrial engineering teaches you to be. 

And then I did a study to evaluate whether the Southern Association of Colleges wanted a study made to know whether to use their own print shop or whether to form the work out to individual printers. And those, I think, were my primary. 

Well, but your career wasn't over just because you retired. No. 

Well, I did a lot of interesting things at Stone Mountain that I haven't mentioned yet. We built the riverboat there, the paddle wheel riverboat. Did you build it on site right at Stone Mountain? 

We built it on site. Wow. That's interesting. It was a big job, and we built it upside down. Really? 

Well, the hull. 

We did that because it was easier to put the steel work on it rather than try to hold it up underneath. And I had an English boy who supervised the building of that and was in charge of it. 

Boy, that must have been exciting when the paddle wheel got put on and it actually went, huh? 

Well, you know, we had a problem with that. 

But I had been down to Miami, and we saw these dinner boats down there. You get on them, but they weren't paddle wheel boats. 

But I had that company design the hull, and then I couldn't find anybody that knew anything about paddle wheels. Paddle wheels. Mercy. 

Well, how many? 

That's got to be a limited market, paddle wheels. 

Did you go to the Mississippi and look at the paddle wheels there? 

Well, I finally found a man up in Lexington, Kentucky, who made models of riverboats, and he knew more about them than anybody that I ran into. 

See, most of the bigger paddle wheel boats, when they're loaded, don't sink down very far, but our boat was not as big, and it would go down maybe two feet. 

And we ended up using the same mechanism on it to turn the paddle wheels that they have on the cement trucks. trucks. 

We had an engine down in the hull, and it would run the pumps, hydraulic pumps, and then we split the paddle wheels. 

So there were two there, two pumps, and this would enable you to handle the boat better in limited turning areas. Then the, I did the, let's see. Was it the Carillon? 

Yes, the Carillon. Carillon, Carillon? 

That was given to Stone Mountain by the Coca-Cola company. The actual thing itself or the money to build it? 

No, the actual thing. The carillon was in New York at the World's Fair. And I went up and got the components for it and brought them down. And then Robert and company designed the tower that the carillon bells were put in. They weren't bells, really. They were. 

Well, they had underneath the place where they were played, they had steel or copper brass tubes, and when the player would hit that, they'd hit the copper tube and the sound would go out to the carillon and it was amplified there through speakers. 

Now, where they played the carillon was about 500 feet from where the sound came out. And so we had to make that entirely soundproof. The man who first ran and played the carillon for us was Herbie Cook. He was the original. He used to play the music for Amos and Andy way back in the old days. 

And then Herbie decided to retire, and I got a girl who played in the symphony orchestra but worked in the engineering department, and she came over, and I sent her up to learn how to play the carillon. And so we ended up making money with the carillon, selling the records. 

Is it still played by somebody? 

It isn't automatic? 

Well, it can be put on automatic, or you can play it, either one. How about the museum? 

You mean the auto museum? 

I was thinking of the Confederate museum. Oh, yes. The battle flags and the guns and all that. We got Beverly DeBose, who was here in Atlanta, to help us with the design of that. And it was most interesting to me, the soldiers were all little bitty fellas. We had all, you know, these old uniforms and things. They were about five foot six or something like that. 

So you started noticing that they were all tiny. They didn't have any great big people. 

It gives you a whole different perspective of what it must have been like, doesn't it? 

And I went on one of my trips to England, talking about some of the things, I went up to Oslo to the Tivoli Gardens and looked at that. That's an operation that just runs three months out of the year. Yeah. 

So you wanted to see what they were doing. And they have all kinds of attractions there, marching bands and opera and, uh... 

So did you get any good ideas? 

Well, I just wanted to see what the other people were doing. I traveled a lot in my capacity of Stone Mountain. We were in a group that traveled to different places. 

One of the things that I did not mention earlier while I was at Tech, I designed a Fugernia belt for the Cleveland Wire Weaving Company. 

They made these belts out of metal, and they wanted me to build one, design one for them made of plastic, and I did that. The Fuginier belt is what's used in paper making process. The paper pulp is spread out on a belt, and they draw air through it, and then it's rolled smooth. And now they're made out of plastic. Right. Ah, that's interesting. I did design a fuel injection system with Bob Allen. You know, I told you this part from the Mechanical Engineering Department professor. We designed a few things together, and one of them was a fuel injection system for automobiles. Which is a very important part of automobiles today. Yes, they're using a lot of them. Then I haven't told you about my family. My wife and Virginia and I were married in 1942, and we have four children. Tommy is the oldest, and he went to Tech on a football scholarship. He hurt his knee, and then he was also the captain of the track team. He was very fast. He ran the 109.7, and I think the Dallas Cowboys asked him to come out and work with them, but he decided he had enough football. 

So he went to North Carolina and got an MBA in the Master of Business Administration there. He went two years. He was married there, and then he went to California. 

And he started up a company, a magazine called Research Magazine, which was about an article, lengthy articles on different companies that they would pay to be in his magazine. thing. 

Then he designed a, he had a database, and he could give you the data, give you a report, a written report about eight pages long on any stock or mutual fund in existence. And that was very successful. 

He recently sold part of his business, and then he started at this company called Multics, which is now they had an IPO, and the price went up and the price went down. It's still in there. It's going up again. 

So he's a very successful businessman. He's very successful. And still has connections with Georgia Tech. 

Well, he was on the board of Ivan Allen's business school for a while. I don't know whether he still is or not. Does he have any children? 

He has three children, three boys. The oldest is Linton, the next one is Chad, and the next one is Jonathan. 

Linton graduated from Davidson, Chad is still going to school, and Jonathan is going to the University of Richmond. No more tech guys there, huh? 

No more tech. Couldn't talk them into that. Then the next child we had was Lynn. 

She has one son, Tom, and she's working here in Atlanta for a company that does scheduling for construction companies. You know, they're scheduled to work now, so they order things in as they need them. And she keeps quite busy. She's working for two different companies. I bet. A lot of construction going on in Atlanta. 

And then her son, Tom, went to Sewanee and graduated there in geology, and he's working with an Atlanta firm, but at the present time he's up in North Carolina in Charlotte. 

And your next son was? 

You had boy, girl, boy, girl, right? 

The next one was his son, John, and he went to Georgia and graduated finally from Emory. And he is a computer expert. 

He worked to design the computer system for Coca-Cola and Southern Bell and the check company out there. And then he was down in Tampa for about a year with a company. I can't remember their name, but they were accountants. 

Does he have any children? 

Well, he's now working in Tullahoma, Tennessee, for a company up there that's redoing the way they keep the books and everything. 

And he has two children, one son, John, who is about to graduate from high school, and a daughter, Leigh Ann, who's, I can't remember what grade she's in, but she's coming along. Coming along. Okay. And then your last child? 

My youngest daughter was named Carol. That's her picture right up there. and she is a songwriter and a singer in Nashville. Wow. What a wonderful crowd of folks you've produced. And she was married, but they didn't have any children. She's now divorced, but she's been very successful in Germany. She went over to Germany and started singing. Does she sing as Carol Elliott? 

Yes. Okay. We'll watch for her to be in the big times. 

Well, she was listed at number 43 on their list of singers. And I think she'll go back. She goes about every three months over there and sings for a couple of weeks. In Germany. Mm -hmm. That's interesting. 

After you retired from Stone Mountain in 1975, retired from the state of Georgia, you got another job. You didn't just sit around and do nothing. You became an interesting job. 

Well, I went back to Stone Mountain and put in the laser show for my supervisors. I had been working on that. Back in those days, they called them light and sound shows, and now they call them laser shows. The one at Stone Mountain is probably the best one in the world. Nobody else has a screen that size to show laser actions on. It's a wonderful thing for Atlanta to have. 

So you came out of retirement to go supervise that? 

Yes, and then I went to work with a friend of mine who was in the engineering consulting business and we mainly analyzed accidents. And you became what we call an expert witness? 

An expert witness, that's correct. 

And that means that you would go in and evaluate what happened? 

We would evaluate automobile wrecks, plant accidents, and we did do some fires. 

Now, would this be in the legal context to go to court and testify? 

We would go and analyze, for instance, in South Carolina, they had the biggest egg-laying plant in the world, and it caught on fire and burned. and they had two million chickens there oh my goodness but they all went zip they all perished in the fire yes they raised the chickens in little pens and there were so many of them in there they had to pull air through there all the time and when the fire started in the main plant it went down the hallways and went out in all these separate chicken houses and just burned them slap up. And we had to analyze that file. It was pretty interesting work. 

Well, it was interesting. I ended up mainly analyzing automobile accidents, you know. As to whose liability? 

As to who was liable and who was fault. In all serious automobile accidents, you always have a lawsuit just without fail. Certainly today. And I worked for either the plaintiff, lawyer, or the insurance company that had the cars insured. And that was an interesting business. I found out one thing that I think not many people realize. 

A regular car going 55 miles an hour with ordinary brakes can stopping 155 feet, a car with ABS brakes, which a tire doesn't have a skid, will stop at 135 feet, and a tractor trailer going 55, it takes it 300 feet to stop. Not many people know that, but something should be done about that. We need to advertise that point. It sounds like it. Oh, my. Oh, my. 

When we think about all the careers you've had, there's still another one that even today you're very, very handily busy, as busy as you want to be, and then some, right? 

And that's your wonderful ability to work with wood. I make woodwork, and I make these little pieces of furniture called hunt boards. They're just beautiful. 

And the hunt board originally was used in plantations when they'd go hunting, and they'd come back and their feet were, boots were, they'd hunt the fox, and then they'd come back and their boots were dirty, and so they put these hunt boards out on the back porch and put, I think, whiskey there for the hunters to drink. 

So they wouldn't track into the house. They wouldn't track it into the house. And you buy the woods? 

I buy the wood locally here. What kind of wood are you generally working on? 

I use it mahogany. A mahogany. 

Well, I use some of the wood. It's plywood, and I just put the mahogany. See, this mahogany with a grain like that, you just can't buy it anymore except in ply. 

So you make a veneer. A veneer. I put the veneer on. Yeah. 

Now, those date back to, what, 1700s probably, the originals? 

Is that where you got your model from? 

No, I guess it was around before the Civil War, the plantations all had been. Early 1800s then? 

So, did you ever see one? 

And then you decided? 

I have one. You have one. And then you modeled? 

Okay. 

So then that's where you got your idea. Yes. And I've copied that almost exactly. I changed the drawer system on it and the opening, the door openings. And you make these even now, today? 

Yes. You work a few hours every day in your workshop. 

The material that you use to make the grain, you know, the comparison of the grain is called potassium dichromate. And you make up a mixture of that and put it on the wood. and it enhances the difference in the grain. 

So it shows up better. It looks more dramatic. And you can sell all of those you can make. 

Well, I'm 10 behind. I don't advertise them. No, I guess not. All you can make. 

Do you make any other types of wood in your shop? 

I mean, are there other pieces, or that's your specialty? 

No, that was my specialty. 

I did make, back in, I forgot that, But back when I had a shop out in Decatur, this friend of mine came to me and he said, how about making these things to pick up pecans with? 

So I made what I call stoop nuts. I made 4,000 of them. Wow. Then he came back and said he decided he didn't want them. And I had 4,000 of those things. I'll give each one of y'all. Oh, my goodness. I'm still getting rid of them. You're still giving away stoop nuts, huh? 

That's wonderful. It's good that you have a sense of humor about that. 

Well, I sold them. 

Whenever I went down to South Georgia on peanut business, I'd stop at everybody that had pecan trees in the front yard and sell one to them. You've had a very interesting career, Mr. Elliott. 

Well, it has been interesting. Not one boring day in the whole lot, I don't think. 

So much variety, so many things to challenge you and to think about. 

And certainly your experience with Stone Mountain benefited all the rest of us who enjoy going to Stone Mountain. 

Well, we got Stone Mountain where it was making money. How do you feel about what happened to it today? 

I didn't like that. That was purely political. You would have rather it had stayed the way it was. It should have stayed under one management. Yeah. Have you been out there lately? 

Not for about six months. 

So you don't know what the changes brought over the summer, huh? 

I don't think the changes brought anything different. It's just different people handle the money now. It's privatized, is that not what we call it? 

That's right. 

They privatized the hotels and all of the rides and things, and they didn't leave the Stone Mountain management much to do. 

So the state still owns it, but it leases everything out to somewhere else? 

It leases it out. Mm-hmm. And then the state gets back a percentage of it. Oh, I didn't tell you when we were there, I built a golf course. Oh, which is a big part of it now. Yes, and a lot of the golf course was over rocks. 

So we had to get it. I bought a crushing plant. We crushed up 7,800 tons of rock which had come off the mountain and used that. We'd put it over the rock, and then I had to get dirt to put on top of that. and I used all the dirt we had available. 

So I went down from Stone Mountain to Snellville, and anybody that wanted a shopping center made, we'd level it off for them, but we'd get the dirt. And that's what we used to build a golf course with. Robert Trent Jones designed that golf course, and it was a very good course. And it still is. It's an excellent course. Yes. They've added some more holes to it, I believe. 

And now with Evergreen Conference Center out there, the golf course is used with people who come in for the conferences. I think it's a big thing. 

Was Evergreen built during your time? 

I think that came after your time, didn't it? 

That was after my time. Yeah. 

Well, you certainly have made an impact on the city of Atlanta with your Stone Mountain work, not to mention Georgia Tech with, if nothing else, the stadium gates. We're all grateful for those, aren't we? and the flumes and all the other things. Your story is very, very interesting, Mr. Elliott, and we're extremely grateful to you for taking time to share it with us today. 

Well, you're quite welcome, and I'm glad to do it. Great. Thanks so much.