Roper, Frank Edward, 2011 February 22

This is a Living History interview with Frank Roper, class of 1961 and 1962 and faculty from 1962-2000, conducted by Marilyn Somers on February 22, 2011 at Mr. Roper’s home in Smyrna, Georgia. The subject of the interview is the interviewee’s life and experiences at Georgia Tech.

Mr. Roper was born in Birmingham, Alabama on July 23, 1938. Mr. Roper remembers his father’s store, McCrory’s Five and Dime, in Columbia, South Carolina. He attended Blessed Sacrament Academy in Birmingham and Marist for high school in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Roper participated in Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at Marist. Mr. Roper decided to go to Georgia Tech after speaking with one of his friends’ older brother who was an Industrial Engineering major (IE) at Tech. His first two years of college, Mr. Roper commuted to school. He was a co-op student, so he was only taking classes during the summer and winter quarters and co-oping with Lockheed Corporation for the fall and spring quarters. While Mr. Roper was interning at Lockheed, there was a strike going on, but he got to work in a lot of different positions. There was also mandatory ROTC at Tech, but Mr. Roper’s knee was injured. He was in a car accident after going on a road trip with some of his friends during high school when he first hurt his knee. Mr. Roper took IE classes at Tech with Colonel Frank F. Groseclose, Dr. Paul T. Eaton and Raymond M. Trowbridge. After finishing his first two years of school, Mr. Roper moved into the Newman Club. He was also a member of the Co-op Club, which was very active on campus while he was there. When Mr. Roper was at Tech, women started coming on campus. He had classes with Paula Stevenson and the Starr twins. After Mr. Roper graduated from undergraduate school, he went through the placement office and interviewed with a few companies, but decided to go to graduate school. He had an assistantship with Colonel Groseclose and he taught a few classes and also made the schedule in the registrar’s office. Mr. Roper was also on campus for the integration. President Edwin Harrison spoke to the students and told them there should not be any problems with this. Mr. Roper worked in the library with Dorothy Crosland. After Mr. Roper graduated with his Masters, he went through the placement office again, but Colonel Groseclose asked Mr. Roper if he wanted to work for Tech mentoring undergraduate students and scheduling the classes. There was an opening in the registrar’s office and Mr. Roper was offered the position. Mr. Roper became the Assistant Registrar and coordinated the night school and day school schedules. While working in the registrar’s office, Mr. Roper got to know a lot of the administration very well. Mr. Roper helped the athletic coaches with scholarships and admissions for athletes. After two years of working at the office, he was promoted to Associate Registrar. When Mr. William Carmichael decided to retire as Registrar, Mr. Roper applied for the position and was given the job. Everything was done manually in the registrar’s office until Mr. Roper hired a larger staff and they began using microfiche. Mr. Roper and a few people in the registrar’s office were responsible for registering George P. Burdell in every class one semester, but the students thought they did it themselves. Mr. Roper was good friends with Neil P. DeRosa, William Sangster and Scotty P. Kezios, and they used to take trips together. Since Mr. Roper helped with athletic scholarships, he worked a lot with the coaches, and he butted heads with Coach Bobby Ross but got along well with Coach O’Leary. He also met with students who were having problems at Tech to see what their best options were. Mr. Roper also butted heads with President Crecine because he made a lot of changes and also brought the Olympics to Tech, which Mr. Roper was not happy about. With the beginning of the HOPE Scholarship, standards for admission went up. Mr. Roper told students who did not get into Tech to go to another university for a few years and then transfer. Mr. Roper’s favorite part of being the registrar was seeing the students succeed, and there were not any low points. During a period of time as the registrar, Mr. Roper signed diplomas, and he has signed about 78,000 diplomas during his time. Mr. Roper retired in 2002, but still help Coach O’Leary as an academic advisor for about two years. Mr. Roper is still involved with the Silver Jackets and comes down to Tech about three days a week to work out.