Buck's College Years

My time in the U.S. Navy was very useful to me as I went through the pre-radio and advance radio schools and then completely through the radar training program graduating as a first class radar technician. 

     While being processed through the U.S. Navy discharge activities in the summer of 1946, I applied for admission to MIT and was accepted.  I chose electrical engineering as my major and my studies went well with high grades.  While I was there MIT started the new Tech Flying Club. With my Commercial Pilot’s license I became an active member.  I did as much flying as time and studies allowed, including a couple of flights from Boston to Toledo and St. Louis in the club’s 1946 Cessna 120.   By the end of my junior year the “GI Bill”, which paid my college tuition, had run out, and my flying activities were beginning to interfere with my studies.  

     During my years at MIT I received regular letters from my loving aunt in Toledo.  As my freshman year was coming to an end my aunt invited me to go with her to her cabin in Colorado for the summer.  Her husband, who was a research engineer and inventor working on Sperry bomb sights during World War II, had passed away.  She wanted to return to the cabin that they had built in the Colorado Mountains but didn't want to make the trip alone.  I accepted and we drove to Colorado in her car.   During the summer my Aunt introduced me to her good friend, Professor Klint Duval, who was the head of the Electrical Engineering Department at the University Of Colorado.  I wrote to Professor Duval as I was finishing my junior year.  I told him about my situation and he responded very quickly and asked me to come to CU in Boulder to finish my engineering education.  I went to Colorado and worked for the Public Service Company of Colorado as a draftsman for a year to build a saving account.  Then I went to Boulder and finished my Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering.  Shortly thereafter I enrolled in the CU Graduate School to work on a Master’s degree.  After enrolling I was offered a position as an Instructor in the Applied Mathematics Department which I accepted.  This helped me handle my expenses while in the graduate school but it also slowed down my graduate work as I was required to teach two night classes in the Denver Extension Center.  After three plus years of mixing graduate engineering classes and teaching I finally earned my Master of Science in Electrical Engineering.

     While still teaching Applied Mathematics I considered continuing my education working toward a doctor’s degree and I began to realize that I was less oriented toward theoretical research work and more interested in applications.  That led me to an interview with IBM in New York.  My new wife made the trip with me.  While teaching at Boulder I became involved with an analogue computer that the department had.  During a fascinating interview trip to Poughkeepsie and Endicott I was introduced to the great progress that IBM was making with early digital computers.  After returning to Boulder I received an offer from the IBM Data Systems Division and we moved to Poughkeepsie in 1956.  

Buck's Early Years

Buck was born to Dr. & Mrs Leonard Nippe on February 23, 1927 at Flower Hospital in Toledo, Ohio.  Buck's dad was an eye, ear, nose, & throat surgeon.  When Buck was born his dad was reading the biography of Frank James, Jessie's brother.  Frank had moved to Kentucky after Jessie was killed and had changed his name to Buck. Buck's mother, a house wife, didn't want two Leonards in the house so they started calling the baby Bucky.  That was 86 years ago.

Buck's Grandfather age 91

Buck's grandfather was born in Germany in 1860 .  He emigrated to the US through Ellis Island, probably in his twenties or thirties.  He went to Toledo, married, and opened his own business, a cleaning and dying business called the Persian Dye House.  In his later years he and Buck were good friends.  Granddaddy knew English well but he always preferred German whenever possible. 

Grade School and High school were good in Perrysburg, a suburb of Toledo.  Buck's favorite high school teacher was his math teacher.  He encouraged the students to work hard and plan to take the Ohio State High School math exam.  Buck and two classmates took the state exam and Buck scored second in the state, and his classmates scored fourth & ninth.  Paul Abke was a great teacher.

Buck flew his Dad's 5 place Stinson many times

While still in high school Buck took flying lessons and obtained his private and commercial licenses.  He has always thought that flying was one of his greatest and most enjoyable and relaxing activities.  


In 1944, during his senior year in high school Buck received a notice from the local draft board that he would be drafted on his 18th birthday in February.  Since Buck had his commercial pilot's license he talked to the Air Force but they wouldn't take him for pilot training because he wore glasses.  Then he talked to the Navy and they offered to let him finish high school and then take him in June and put him in electronics training. 

Hiroshima occurred while he was just finishing secondary radar school.  As a radar technician first class he was waiting for assignment to a ship when the navy was told to cut costs and he was offered an honorable discharge.  He took it and started his  college education at MIT.

Honorable Discharge - US Navy - World War II