Meet Mike E.

Assistant Professor / Education Specialist

Assistant Professor Mike Engle wasn’t one of those kids who hung out in greasy spoon diners during his youth, but when a friend dragged him to the Miss Johnstown Diner some 30 years ago, something clicked.

“I guess it was just the experience of the diner and the architecture. My parents never really went to restaurants. McDonalds was a big thing for us,” he said with a laugh. “Back in the 90s, I used to go to the Miss Troy Diner when it was still out in Albia; just a counter and a few tables by the window. There was a cultural history there, and I wanted to learn more about it.”

Fast forward some three decades, and Engle, an assistant professor and education specialist who works in the college’s Learning Assistance Center, might be considered one of the go-to experts on the diners and diner manufacturers of the Northeast and Midwest during the 1920s through the 1950s.

He is the author or co-author of three books – Diners of New York (2005), Diners of the Capital District (2008), and Diners of the Great Lakes (2018), his most recent book.

Engle has worked at Hudson Valley since 2009, first in the Collegiate Academic Support Program and now in the Learning Assistance Center, since the former merged into the Center for Academic Engagement. He’s a mainstay in the lower level of Marvin Library Learning Commons, where students come for tutoring and assistance in a variety of subjects.

When not busy helping HVCC students understand the intricacies of Calculus or Differential Equations, for over 20 years he’s explored the history of the once ubiquitous roadside diner and even helped save a few of them from the ravages of time. He’s travelled from New York to Chicago visiting halls of records, city clerk’s offices and historical societies, all in the service of capturing and celebrating a bit of cultural and culinary history.

All three of his books are a deep dive into diners of a particular region. His newest, Diners of the Great Lakes, also covers the once-thriving diner and lunch wagon construction industries that helped manufacture these unique eateries. Engle said the pre-Depression 1920s were the heyday of diner construction, with dozens of small and medium size manufacturers building and delivering pre-fabricated diners and smaller lunch wagons in cities across the Northeast and Midwest.

“In the 1920s and 1930s, when you got into your car and took a trip, it was a totally different experience than today. There were no McDonald’s, and this might be the only place that was open at night when you arrived (in a town or city),” he said.

Finding and recognizing those faded architectural gems from the 1920s, 30s and 40s – a diner that may have survived the onslaught of fast-food America - also fuels Engle’s interest and imagination. Almost 30 years ago when he first started his research, Engle came upon a closed diner in small-town Wellington, Ohio, that was slated to be torn down if no one could be found to take it over.

“I said if no one in town wants it, please tell me and I’ll come move it out of here and save it. I moved it, saved it and a friend of mine restored it and moved it to Minnesota. I later found out that (heavyweight boxing champ) Joe Louis ate at that diner. He was on his way back from a boxing match with his wife and child, and goes into the place and asked if they would serve a black man. And, they did.”

It’s that kind of cultural history, Engle said, that’s worth saving.

“I get hooked,” he said. “I find one thing and that leads to another question. When I first got into this everyone was focused on New Jersey and New England but there really is a whole history here upstate and out to Ohio, and I just wanted to find out more about it.”

For more information about Engle’s books and more diner history, visit his website: http://nydiners.com.