Robert Schroeder ’76 is a TCNJ alumnus who graduated during a time when TCNJ was known as Trenton State College (TSC). Schroeder recently received the 2009 Bill Orr Technical Writing Award from The American Radio Relay League (ARRL). This prestigious award was given to him based on the article he wrote for ARRL’s magazine QST on the subject electromagnetic pulse (EMP) protection. Schroeder credits this achievement to the technical writing course he took as a student at TSC.
Although he graduated from TSC, Schroeder was originally a student at the University of South Carolina, which like many universities of its time, taught a very traditional curriculum; in fact until 1971 a typical engineering curriculum was based on 90% theory and little if any practical experience or exposure. Fortunately a friend of his from Ewing High School told him about a new program being pioneered by Dr. Allen Katz, and Schroeder soon transferred to TSC.
What separated the Department of Education and Industrial Technology (DIET) program (as it was called) from other engineering curricula was its balance between classical engineering theory and modern day accepted practice. As part of the program, Schroeder spent much more time in laboratories. Unlike most other universities of the time, TSC gave its engineering students significant laboratory time with equipment that an engineer would encounter on the job. DIET’s curriculum also included a required technical writing course which was then taught by Dr. William Brown. Dr. Brown taught a particular style of writing that is unique to writing concise reports, expository documents, technical manuals and step-by-step procedures that an engineer would be called upon to write.
It is fair to say that Schroeder was deeply affected by Dr. Brown’s course and he vividly recalls a number of his classes. During one particularly memorable class, his professor explained the hazards of oversimplification. In order to prove a point, Dr. Brown used the illustrative anecdote of how an average person would explain the process of making a peanut butter jelly sandwich. According to Dr. Brown an average person would say “Take two slices of white bread and a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jelly. Put the peanut butter on one slice and the jelly on the other.” The practical demonstration that follows is that the lecturer puts the jar of peanut butter atop one slice of bread and the jar of jelly atop the other slice – exactly what the procedure says. The crucial point that was omitted is to take a butter knife and SPREAD the peanut butter and the jelly.
Schroeder went on to serve many organizations and companies including; NJ Network, the NJ Office of Emergency Management, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Institute of Electric and Electrical Engineers (IEEE), QST and served as a contract maintenance engineer for TSC’s FM station WTSR. This year he is celebrating 27 years at the NJ Office of Emergency Management and plans to write a book on the subject to inform the public about the little known topic of emergency management. Later this year he will give a presentation at the Trenton Computer Festival (TCF) on the subject of EMP Protection. Thanks to this award he was approached by the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) to contribute to their national continuing education program. He continues to work with the SBE to provide them with the material they seek.
Mr. Schroeder attributes his success to Dr. Katz’s DIET program and said “Regardless of the occupational discipline, the ability to communicate and write well is indispensable.”