May The Fourth holds a little extra juice in the Bagci household as the force of a Tennessee Tech professor’s role in Star Wars remembered.
Cookeville Council Member Ali Bagci’s father, Dr. Cemil Bagci, served as a Mechanical Engineering Professor at Tennessee Tech. Ali said his father contacted by the creator of Star Wars, George Lucas, to work as a consultant on the production team. Ali said his father worked specifically R2-D2.
“He advised them on the mechanics of R2-D2, focusing on the animation and robotic models and the drive motor functions and linkages, and all of that which kind of helped with the design and brought R2D2, you know, some say brought R2D2 into fruition,” Ali said.
Bagci said when his father went off to California to help with the production of Star Wars, his family really did not know how big Star Wars would turn out to be. Bagci said his father was very humble about his connection to Star Wars.
“He just, I think, just considered it just another one of his little accomplishments that he has contributed to some degree and some realm and really didn’t speak a whole lot about it, honestly, up until the re-release of it,” Bagci said. “Then of course, we had local news and Nashville news interviewing him, and you know, we as kids realized, hey, this is pretty neat.”
Ali said when Luke Skywalker’s Aunt tells Luke that if he goes to get a translator to make sure it speaks Bocce in 1977’s “Star Wars: Episode IV” is a tribute to his father. Ali said Bocce is a made-up language that is forever tied to his father, as his father had a strong Turkish accent that sometimes made it hard for people to understand what he was saying.
“If you weren’t used to speaking with him, you know, sometimes you almost felt like he had a language of his own, and also with his intelligence and his engineering background, he would also speak in those technical terms as well,” Bagci said.
Bagci said every year on May 4, he thinks about his late father.
“I’m always proud of him, you know, every time May the 4th rolls around, we always like to post a little something, a little trivia that kind of thing that really honors my dad and remembers him for his contribution to Star Wars,” Bagci said. “We enjoy it and we have a lot of fun, and as a son, you know, it’s a moment to honor my dad.”
