Lycoming College Report, January 1984

              LYCOMING COLLEGE REPORT January, 1984
Hobby takes
'65 alumnus
underground
Spelunking — the sport of cave exploration It started as
a fluke For Richard Kranzel '65, and turned into a full-time
hobby.
Kranzel enjoys crawling around dark, wet caves by the
light of a carbide lamp — just for the tun of it. He finds
the mystery, suspense, and adventure of exploring
uncharted grottos very exciting. It's a challenge to map out
new caverns and explore the echoes in the surrounding
darkness of nature's recesses.
Unless you ve experienced total darkness, you don't
Richard Kranzel spelunking in Bucks County Record, Doylestewn
know what it's like. "Kranzel said. "Once you reach the
total darkness area, you can see absolutely nothing Your
eyes don't get used to it You can't even see your hand one
inch from your face
"
Kranzel, a pharmaceutical salesman, began his
spelunking career in 1963 at Lycoming
It was a lark, " he said "Everyone piled in an old hearse
and headed up to a cave somebody heard about."
That was the start of a hobby which has taken Kranzel
into 24 caves throughout Bucks County and into several
caverns in Virginia and West Virginia. He is a member of
the Bucks County Grotto, a local chapter of the National
Speleological Society, Inc
In a study he published last year, "Caves of Bucks
County, Pennsylvania, " Kranzel lists 24 caves or rock
shelters, although some have been destroyed and listed
only because they once were known to exist
"I've been in all of them that are accessible," Kranzel
said. 'The adventure comes in when you enter somewhere
in Bucks County that has never been seen before."
A 1974 pamphlet titled "Caves of Pennsylvania, " which
listed only three caves in Bucks County, prompted Kranzel
to search for unknown grottos in his area.
The biology alumnus and his team began their research
with newspapers and old scrapbooks, looking for long-forgotten
information about the surrounding terrain The
team also visited taverns, seeking tips to neighborhood
caves, sinkholes, and abandoned quarries from older
generations of adventurers.
In searching for caves, Kranzel suggests looking for
limestone, since most of the famous caves of the world are
limestone formations. Caves form easily in the rock
because limestone dissolves in ground water that has
become acidic as it filters through soil,
Kranzel points out that there are two main dangers in
exploring the underground wonders — to the explorer and
to the cave Most caves are on private property, and too
many explorers could cause landowners to shut them
(Continued on Page 2, Col 3)
Faculty focus: David K. Haley, mathematics chairman
To many people, just the thought of mathematics and
computer science is frightening Ideally, thus, they look for
a patient, knowledgeable teacher to help them unravel the
mysteries of the complex formula1, and sophisticated
technical equipment At Lycoming, a good choice for this
assignment is Dr, David K. Haley, associate professor of
mathematii s,
The soft-spoken department chairman has a diverse
background in mathematics and computer science,
acquired at several outstanding foreign universities
A Canadian citizen. Haley, 41, was bom in Nova Scotia
but raised in l. alifomia where he spent 18 years He then
travelled lo Wesl Germany where he attended the
University «>i Marburg for a year He returned to Canada
lo transfer to Acadia University in Nova Scotia, where he
earned .1 bachelors in mathematics Then he went back to
Germany ami the University of Bonn to begin his graduate
studies He finished up back in Canada at Queen's
in Ontario where he earned both his master's
and doctorate degrees in mathematics
The world- traveling educator then leapfrogged back to
Germany and the University of Mannheim, where he
taught graduate students tor nine years while earning the
habuitation .1 o<>st-doctoral degree—given in European
schools M.i lev dW .ill this alter starting out as a
pre-med student
I wasn 1 -!- excited about biology as I thought I d We.
he said "My uncle was the chairman of the math
department and invited me to take courses.
t laley came to Lye oming m 1080 from Mannheim with
his German-bom wife, Ellen, his Canadian-bom daughter,
Alexa, 15, and his German-bom son, Geoffrey. 12 That
was ,1 year alter I ycoming launched its computer science
program, which he says "is growing by leaps and bounds "'
It is second only to business administration in inquiries
from prospective students according 10 the admissions
Office he said.
The computer science program is expected to continue
its rapid growth, he added, because of the tremendous
popularity of the field, and because Lycoming is in the
middle of vastly improving its computer center with the
installation of a computer system that will support
computer graphics.
With computer graphics, the picture is painted by a
program that computes the color and intensity of each
individual picture element, he explained For example,
many of the graphical displays used by TV networks in
their advertising and news broadcasts are computer-generated
Lycoming students soon will be learning computer
graphics on a system that is a network of five central
processing units, and that supports up to 32 users
simultaneously
This type of system is rare in a small college, Haley said.
It gives Lycoming up-to-the-minute, state-of-the-art
technology" for students.
"We are unique in what we are doing in the area of
graphics," he said You'd have to go to a large graduate
school to find comparable facilities
All ol this sophisticated equipment bodes well for future
Lycoming graduates in computer science and
mathematics, he added Haley feels, however, that
computers should not be limited only to majors He highly
recommends that all students take at least one
introductory course in computer science regardless of
major.
Computers involve mathematics, of course,"' Haley
said Bui, as information processors, they involve abo
language and communication, in the broadest sense A
course in computer programming will help sharpen one's
organizational abilities and communication skills."
It is the analytical and problem-solving skills of
(Continued on Page 7, Col. 1)
David K. Haley