Technical College Marks Centennial

By Tim Barker, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Sep. 30–ST. LOUIS — Elwood Koebel returned Saturday to the place that trained him for a career in architecture nearly 60 years ago.

Koebel, a 1948 graduate of Ranken Technical College, was one of several hundred people — including a mix of present and former students and their families — who gathered at the campus for a carnival honoring the school’s 100th anniversary.

Ranken wasn’t even on Koebel’s radar when he graduated from high school in 1945. He enrolled first at Washington University, planning to work his way through school to pay the $3,000 tuition bill.

“But they had my classes so split up during the day that there was no chance to work,” said Koebel, who quit after the first week.

After sitting out a year, he heard about Ranken and its lower tuition — about $500 a year at that time, he said.

“I’ve never been sorry about it,” said Koebel, who spent Saturday visiting the school at 4431 Finney Avenue.

The school was founded in 1907 — it cost $40 for a year’s tuition, compared with $11,760 today — as the David Ranken Jr. School of Mechanical Trades. It received accreditation in 1990, allowing it to add “college” to its moniker.

Enrollment was fairly stagnant during much of its early life, but that has changed in modern times with the school looking at record class sizes this year, with about 2,000 students.

The school specializes in teaching students quickly — most of the programs are two years — what they need to know to work in a given field. That means the school has to be ready to adapt to changes in its various career fields, said John Wood, Ranken’s vice president for education.

The school, for example, recently modified its collision repair curriculum to take into account the fact that some new cars — particularly lighter hybrids — are using aluminum parts in their frames. Students are now taught to weld both steel and aluminum.

“They could actually walk into a shop and be the only person that knows how do to it,” Wood said.

And just this year, the Ranken put together a new curriculum — high performance racing technology — catering to the demands of students interested in learning how to get more out of engines.

There have been other changes as well.

Bill Wagner is a 1936 graduate of the school’s carpentry program, and a former instructor.

During his years at the school, students built scaled-down houses right there in the carpentry workshop. Now, students are erecting full-size houses in the surrounding neighborhoods — more than 40 have been built so far.

While Saturday featured standard carnival fare — a sword-fighting demonstration, carriage rides, inflatable playhouses and a guy eating fire — it also offered a giveaway of sorts.

Near the end of the event, organizers sent a hundred balloons into the breezy afternoon sky. Mixed in among them were 10 balloons carrying $250 Ranken scholarships.

tbarker@post-dispatch.com — 314-340-8350

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