Electrical Technology and Electrical Engineering Technology: Roger Lehman

Roger Lehman, professor emeritus of engineering technology, grew up in Sanborn, New York.  He attended Public School #8, which was part of the Town of Lewiston School System. The two story school building he attended was located on the south side of the lot of the present West Avenue School at the corner of route 31 and West Avenue in Sanborn.  After 8^th grade, he was bussed to Lasalle High School on Buffalo Avenue in Niagara Falls, from which he graduated in 1947.

After serving time in the military, Mr. Lehman earned a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from SUNY at Buffalo.  The professor was recruited by Dr. Notar in 1966, and was lured away from a faculty position at SUNY Buffalo, where he shared an office with Wilson Greatbatch. For his Master’s thesis, he researched the application of Heaviside methods to solving differential equations.  Professor Lehman was a first class engineer, and a first class applied mathematician as well. He also knew a fair amount of pure mathematics, physics, and probably something about everything there is to know, or is worth knowing.



According former colleague Charles Fowle, “There are two types of problems in electrical engineering: those that Roger had solved, and those that were too trivial for Roger to solve.”  And, according former colleague Paula Greenwald,  “If you asked Roger for the time, he would tell you how to build a clock.”

Professor Lehman’s brilliance has also been noted by numerous lifelong acquaintances, some dating back to his elementary school days in Sanborn. According to former classmate and childhood friend, Ken Taylor,

“In elementary school, Roger was always showing up the teacher. On one occasion the teacher filled the blackboard with problems, probably in an attempt to keep the children busy so he could grade papers.  By the time the teacher finished writing, Roger had the assignment finished, and fired off all of the answers. When the teacher asked Roger how he came by all the answers so fast, Roger replied ‘You never mind how I got the answers, my answers are correct, aren’t they’.”  Apparently Roger spent a lot of time in the principal’s office.

Professor Lehman was also known for his resourcefulness, specifically in how he kept a wide array of engineering and engineering tech programs running - both during the day and night.  As division chair he was bright enough to know that it was cheaper to run all of the programs, than some of them. The public interest was also well served by having such a robust tech program, complemented by math, physics and chemistry departments second to none.

Throughout this great professor's career, countless students graduated with a 2-year tech degree, became instantly employed, came back to NCCC to study calculus, physics and chemistry at night, and then went to SUNY Buffalo to earn a 4-year engineering degree - much of it paid for by their employers. Such students had a great combination of practical skills as well as a firm theoretical foundation that has continued to serve them well throughout their careers.  Many of them are practicing engineers in Western New York.

More to come.....


Number of technology faculty in the early 1990's: 14
Number of technology faculty in 2016: 1.5
Year in which Tech Prep was cancelled, and federal grant money moved over to the Niagara Falls Culinary Institute: 2008
Year in which the MESA (Math Engineering Science Achievement) center was forcibly closed: 2009
Estimated amount funding for tech that was turned away over the past several years: $6,500,000.