Every campus icon has an origin story. This one just happens to involve a duck.
It was October 2021, and Simeon Krizan ’23 was making the most of the little free time he had outside his mechanical engineering classes, tinkering with the 3D printers in Wilbur Powerhouse. When he booted up 3DPrinterOS, the cloud-based software linked to the printers, he noticed several duck files designed for quick prints. At the same time, his mind wandered to the scanned model of the Asa Packer statue from campus.
Inspiration struck. He took the head of the Asa Packer statue and put it on the body of the "Professor McDuckley" file included with the printing software.
And just like that, Asa Quacker was born.
What started as a quick experiment soon became a campus-wide joke. The Quacker made its way through group chats, popped up in conversations, and, eventually, became something students recognized across campus. Conner Larocque ’25 came up with the name, and it stuck.
“Any time I needed to test a 3D printer, or a new filament, or sometimes just for fun, I would print Asa Quackers,” says Krizan. “I think they’re the best thing ever, and they also do a genuinely good job of testing the functionality of a printer. I always treated it like an inside joke. I didn’t think it would spread as far as it did until professors started asking for larger versions to decorate their offices.”
Walk around campus today and you’re bound to run into a Quacker or two. Step into Wilbur Powerhouse, and you’ll stumble across Asa Quacker vending machines, dispensing the legend in a variety of colors.
The Quacker has become a small piece of the Lehigh experience — even touring students have joined in the fun, making sure to pocket one when they get the chance.
For Krizan, watching his spur-of-the moment creation become a campus tradition is still a little surreal.
“It brings great joy to my life to see others enjoy a joke I made almost five years ago,” says Krizan. “I'm glad to bring fun into the community.”
Beyond the laughs, the Quacker represents something more to Krizan, too.
At its heart, the Asa Quacker is a product of experimentation: putting two unrelated files together and thinking, “Why not?” And that, Krizan says, is exactly what the Design Labs are there for.
“My greatest worry is that someone shies away from using the great resources we have at the Design Labs because they’re daunted by something, or feel that these resources are only for ‘important’ things,” he says. “Anyone can use them!”
The lesson of the Quacker is simple. You don’t always need a big idea, project, or reason to start making something. Sometimes, you just need a 3D printer, a little curiosity, and a willingness to see what happens.
A duck doesn’t hurt, either.
Get quacking!
