Fred Gessner
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Professor Gessner was teaching at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and they expected him to stay there. But his wife, Virginia, is from Seattle, and wanted him to come back here. Professor Gessner left his position at VPI, moved to Seattle and persuaded Charles Kippenhan of the UW Mechanical Engineering department to hire him to teach for the summer quarter, 1967. This led to his appointment as Assistant Professor in September 1967.
When they moved to Seattle, Professor Gessner and Virginia lived with her Mother while he began building a house of their own. Professor Gessner is very precise, thorough and methodical in everything he does, and the house was no different. This project consumed him, and he spent endless hours comparing prices and materials so he could get exactly what he wanted at the best price. He spent weeks collecting data on telephone wire and searching for the lowest price per foot, working every angle before finally making his purchase.
With all the time he spent on the house it is a wonder he had time to get his research done and get promoted to Associate and Full Professor. His passion for precision served him well in this area. One of his colleagues commented that, of all the researchers they have known, Professor Gessner is the only one in whom he would have absolute faith in his experimental results.
Professor Gessner's father lived in New Jersey. For years, Professor Gessner always had a paper ready to present at the ASME conference when it was held in New York, as it was a trip home for him. His enthusiasm for presenting papers waned a bit after the ASME decided New York was too expensive and began having conferences in other locations.
Professor Gessner has a well-deserved reputation as a superb teacher. His lectures are extremely organized, logical and complete. The students love both his teaching methods and his personality in the classroom.
Now back to that house. Virginia and Professor Gessner did move in and raised four children there, but is it finished yet? Well, let's just say that Professor Gessner is still fine-tuning things a bit. Recently, he bought a nailer to install flooring. It cost about $400, and Virginia was not too pleased with his extravagance. But this is Professor Gessner, the person known for working every angle. He used the nailer for a few months, completed his job, then sold the nailer on eBay for $360. At a cost of about 67 cents a day, that nailer was a real bargain.
