Roger Bacon Bond of Lincoln and Centerville, MA. passed away on March 14, 2008 at the age of 84. His last known address was 34 Agassiz Avenue, Belmont, MA 02478. He was a graduate of Amherst College, Class of 1944, and MIT, Class of 1950, where he received the A.I.A. School Medal and won a Fulbright Scholarship to Italy. He was a veteran of World War II, serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces as a weather officer and air transport officer in Italy.
Roger became a registered architect in 1953 and worked for several local firms. He was an enthusiastic Porsche owner and enjoyed racing on the amateur circuit.
Karl Ahlstrand has agreed to take on the position of Assistant Treasurer for the class.
Mel Gardner writes:
Dear Karl,
Mal informed me that you have agreed to take on this position for the class. We all congratulate you.. You certainly have been a loyal and active member of the class, serving in various roles, for which we thank you.
Please send to me and to Tom Keane at tomkeane@alum.mit.edu a bio of your activities on behalf of our class and MIT and a recent picture that we can use on the opening page of our class web site where the class officers are listed.
Best regards to you and Joan,
Mel
Dear Mel and Tom,
Sorry for the delay in replying to your e-mail of April 8th. Joan and I were in Morocco until April 20th. Since we returned, the calender has been full.
Attached, for better or worse, is a photograph.
As for activities on behalf of the class, you can use information below. Feel free to change or alter as you find desire.
In 2002, Mal Green asked me and my wife, Joan, if we would be part of the 55th Reunion Committee. We agreed to do so. The friendship between Mal Green and I goes back to our undergraduate days studying mechanical engineering at MIT.
Joan and I were in charge of the 55th reunion festivities at the Black Point Inn. With changes in ownership and management at the Inn, this was a challenging but enjoyable assignment.
Last fall, Mal Green asked Joan and I if we would chair the 60th Reunion Committee. We replied in the affirmative as long as the Greens would join us as co-chairs. We have an energetic and talented committee and I am sure the 60th Reunion will be a great success.
Hope the above will be helpful.
Best regards,
Karl
Thank you, Karl, for all that you do for our Class. We echo your comments about the 60th Reunion.
It was great thinking about the idea of 10 guys, some with wives, meeting for the first time for some of us, after graduation 58 years ago. This is how I saw it.
We all met for cocktails at 6 pm at the Marriott, Coronado, CA. and were pleased that is was such a lovely place to meet. The hotel had just been redone. It is on the west side of San Diego Bay looking towards the city. We watched the boats sailing by against the backdrop of San Diego’s beautiful downtown. It was a very pretty sight to behold!
The first person to arrive was a surprise since he was not on our list of attendees. We wondered how Paul Fleming, a San Diego resident, found out about the reunion. But he explained how. What a surprise and fun it was to have him join us.
The others who came were:
Chuck and Betty Herbert
Dick Holmgren
Bill Mooz
Chuck Renn
Hank and Hap (Harriet) Sharp
Hank and Donna Simmons
Bob and Bev Smith
Mel and Kena Zaid
MIT Class of 1950 - Mini Reunion March 2008 San Diego
Back: Holmgren, Sharp, Mooz, Renn, Smith & Zaid
Front: Fleming, Simmons & Herbert
On time and anxious to meet each other, the whole group was there, except for one couple who we were disappointed could not attend. Our Class President, Mel Gardner, had to take a side trip to the hospital the previous day. He is fine now. We all missed him and his significant other, Carolyn Lack, very much, but were glad he was in capable hands.
Cocktails and conversation flowed fast and furious with pictures constantly being taken by 3 or 4 of us. Then we retired to the restaurant in the hotel for an excellent dinner. More pictures were taken with a group picture as well. Conversation was really casual, fun and humorous. It was like we had known each other all our lives after school
We did have to say goodbye after dinner to Bill Mooz. He had driven 2 1/2 hours from Los Angeles because his wife insisted he come although she was ill. He wanted to get back to Los Angeles that night and faced another 2 1/2 hour drive. He was happy wearing his red MIT baseball cap.
The next morning was a gorgeous day to go sight seeing around San Diego harbor, especially since at least three of the guys there were sailors. Bob Smith (a racing champion) and sailed at MIT. After graduation Bob spent much of his free time racing. Also Dick Holmgren was a cruise boater - 'stink pots' as we true sailors called them! Dick and his wife had cruised for years all over Alaska and the Northwest.
Left to right: Betty Herbert, Chuck Herbert, Kena Zaid, Dick Holmgren, Bob Smith,
Mel Zaid, Donna Simmons, Hank Sharp, Hank Simmons, Harriet (Hap) Sharp, Chuck Renn
Many of the people were skiers. Just back from Switzerland were Betty & Chuck Herbert. Hank and I had lived in Italy for 3 years, and we skied there as well as at Northstar at Tahoe up until about 4 years ago. Others are tennis players. Some are bridge players. And then there was our artist, Mel Zaid. He was a Stanford undergrad, and then came to MIT where he received a Doctorate. He identifies with our class, and we are happy to welcome him. He gave up science and went on to become quite a wonderful sculptor. Some others of our group had gone to Stanford as well for post grad degrees. Almost everyone found they had lots in common. We passed out a booklet to all the men which contained their pictures from our 1950 yearbook and one page bios that they had previously sent us of their life after MIT. Some had experiences that were rather different from the norm for guys who went to this great school. Their histories made for very interesting reading for all of us.
Everyone seemed very happy with this meeting and the plan now is to meet, perhaps in Palm Desert, CA., next year at the time of the Tennis Tournament. We shall see about that.
Meantime, we have a whole lot of pictures to be edited, and our true artist Mel Zaid, and his darling wife, Kena, will put them on CD for the rest of us.
After a lunch at Anthony's, we all hugged and said our goodbyes but not before we all agreed to keep in touch. The group asked about how well Mel Gardner was doing, and about whether he and Carolyn will be coming out to our home in LaQuinta to stay in our casita one day.
It truly was a wonderful, fun gathering. If you want to know what people who had not known each other before or had not seen each other for some 58 years talked about, well, mostly it was the same conversations we have with friends that we see all the time. We did not talk about our families but how the guys met their wives, what courses they took, and what they did in the real world with their educations. We talked about the economy, about boats, and about what a great idea this was of our Class President.
I asked the question to many of them about how they felt about holding a reunion like this. We all agreed that it felt so natural, like we have never been apart, and want to keep getting together. The small group of 12 of us found that the intimacy of 'small’ was very likeable by all. We hope others will join us another time.
This is what it was like to have our mini reunion after 58 years for the western half of the world though we have not always all been western. In fact, most of us traveled the world either in service, or in our positions.
Thank you MIT for this happening now after all these years. And we do feel we know each other so well - that is the secret of 'small' - not just getting together with friends we KNEW at MIT but others that we did NOT KNOW.
Donna Simmons
Thank you Donna, for a wonderful report. We’re very happy to report that President Mel continues to progress. He is back in the East and has recently returned to his calisthenics!
As you will recall, our class had a mini reunion last year in Annapolis, MD. A few weeks ago, Stan and Beverley Martin received this letter from Beth Garvin, Executive Vice President of the MIT Alumni Association:
April 4, 2008
Mr. Stanley Martin Jr. '50
Mrs. Beverley Martin
17 Poplar Point Road
Edgewater, MD 21037
Dear Stan and Beverley:
On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Association of Alumni and Alumnae of MIT, it is my pleasure to inform you that the Awards Committee recommended and the Board approved at its March meeting that the Class of 1950 Mid-Course Reunion Committee be awarded a Presidential Citation. This award recognizes the excellent work of the committee in organizing this model event! I am especially pleased to add my personal congratulations for so well-deserved an honor.
The Presidential Citation Award recognizes distinguished service to the Institute and the Alumni Association by alumni groups or committees.
Awards are traditionally presented during the Association's Alumni Leadership Conference which will be held in Cambridge on September 19-20, 2008. Please hold these dates on your calendar. More detailed information about the awards dinner will be sent to you in early summer.
I hope you will be present to accept this award on behalf of the reunion committee. If you have any questions, please contact Bonnie Jones HM, Director of Alumni Recognition Services, at 617-253-8212 or jonsey@mit.edu .
Again, my personal congratulations!
Sincerely,
Elizabeth A. Garvin HM-Executive Vice President |
| cc: | Guy C. and Susan A. Bell |
| Thomas R. and Maria J. Keane | |
| W. Oliver and Margaret Kincannon |
The members of Stan’s team remember the reunion fondly, including the work we did in preparation for it. We are deeply honored by this Presidential Citation.
As MIT alumni who have celebrated our 50th reunions, we are automatically members of the Cardinal and Gray Society. There are special events planned for us at Tech Reunions 2008 on June 5-8. For more information, and to register, check out the Tech Reunions website at http://alum.mit.edu/ne/reunions/index.html and click on the "Cardinal and Gray Society" link.
Katie Gillespie, Administrative Assistant, Annual Fund Leadership Programs, of the MIT Alumni Association advises us that there are 762 living members of our class.
In last month’s notes, we asked Bob Michel for some updated photos of his new great-grandson Liam Callan. Bob replied with a couple of great pix. Bob's note said:
In response to your request for a current photo of GGSon [great-grandson], Liam, I've attached two for possible class note use: one of Liam and me when we first met at Easter and the second with his grandmother (our daughter, Ann) and his father, Chad, Ann's son. Chad had to go back to work last Monday at the Oceanic Institute in Hawaii but Liam and his mom are still here with us for another two weeks before they return home. It certainly makes us feel young again. What a treat to have them with us even for only a short while!
Liam Callan and Bob Michel
Liam with Chad (his father) and Ann (his grandmother !!!!!!)
We hope that you are having a great spring! Let us hear from you!
| Joseph D’Annunzio, Class Secretary | Thomas R. Keane, Assistant Secretary | |
| 16 Treeview Circle | 332 Spalding Road | |
| Scotch Plains, NJ 07076-2436 | Wilmington, DE 19803 | |
| joeviola@alum.mit.edu | tomkeane@alum.mit.edu | |
| Phone 908-322-1785 | Phone 302-658-2095 |