My mother was a college president at the same school where she got her degree.
After years in academia, she was asked to bring the old college into the new age.
That would mean infrastructure improvements, modernization via technology, and even analysis of the long-standing industrial boilers used to supply boiling water to the dorms, sterilization to the science labs, and sanitization methods to the laundry facilities and even the school cafeteria! Soon after becoming president, her head of buildings and grounds came to her to explain that the industrial boilers were in need of respected repair. In the past, the school had done separate from the industrial steam boilers when repair was needed. That sometimes even entailed shutting down the cafeteria and the science labs until the boilers were up and running once again. Not to mention the fact that the dorms ran out of boiling water incredibly fast. As a bookish kind of lady, our mother knew nothing about such matters. She was unimpressed with the idea of a boiler – a piece of mechanical equipment – bringing the school to its knees just because it needed an official repair! She said to the repair head that she should get a rental boiler to hook up while the other was down. She laughed at my mother because at that time, temporary boiler rental was not even thought of! You know that expression, out of the mouths of babes? Well, that’s what our mother was – a babe when it came to things like chillers and boilers. To her mind, though, temporary boiler rental should have been available. They got to work on the idea, and by the time the boiler had to be shut down to do repair on it, the nearby industrial boiler and chiller supplier had worked out a plan to bring in a boiler on a sizable truck. The temporary boiler rental became an actual thing in that town, and now it is official all over the nation.