November 2008 Class Notes

2008 HOLIDAY PARTY IN DEDHAM

Dear Classmates,
Susan and I just returned from a meeting of our 60th Reunion Committee and the enthusiasm was high. We were reminded of the pleasures of seeing our classmates and their guests and want to tell you about an opportunity to share a similar experience when we celebrate our ninth annual holiday party at MIT's beautiful Endicott house in Dedham, Massachusetts.
On Sunday, December 14, we will once again enjoy Endicott’s lavish buffet in a beautifully decorated mansion. Paper invitations will be sent to all classmates in the New England area by USPS but those outside the area are encouraged to attend if possible. If you would like to receive a mailed invitation, please let us know at malgreen@alum.mit.edu or tel. (508) 358-1145. Remember, save the date, December 14. Festivities begin at 11:30 AM. We hope to see you there.

Mal and Susan

P.S. More about the 60th Reunion later

The End of a Long Story

NOMAD

After almost 40 years of boat ownership, we decided in July that the time had come to change course. We found that for a variety of reasons, we were using NOMAD less and less and Jean has found it more and more difficult to cope with all the activity necessary to prepare for cruising and being on the water for extended periods of time.
We've always enjoyed having friends and family on board and sharing with them all the things we liked about life on a sailboat, but the negatives have started to outweigh the positives recently.
And early in the year I became very concerned about the risks in the economy and the negatives I anticipated for 2009. Owning a large boat is a major investment as some of you know firsthand and creates significant negative cash flow. I didn't want to be caught in a down market where we'd have to virtually give her away.
So, in July, we put NOMAD on the market expecting that we might sell her by the end of the year. This would have provided ample time for cruising into the fall and fulfilling our invitations to some on this list. To my surprise, we had an offer that we found acceptable by the end of August and after a survey, some repairs to our genset and a few other details, we closed yesterday and sold our boat to a commercial pilot and his wife who were brave enough to put a significant amount of money on the line at this unsettling time.

John at the Helm (photo by Mel Gardner)

The old saying goes that the two happiest days in a man’s life are the day he buys a boat followed by the day he sells her. The first was right up there in my case, but I'm not sure about the second. This will be a real change of life for us. One of the issues is what to do with all the stuff we had on board and had accumulated over our sailing years. We now have a very full basement although I left a lot of parts, tools and other single purpose gear on board for use by the new owners. The other issue is what to do with the time now available during the sailing season. Some time is committed to class activities and I spend quite a bit of time counseling small business owners though SCORE, but there's still time left over.
I'm sure that we'll charter sailboats from time to time as we have in the past in the Caribbean, or Maine and probably our son from Raleigh and our grandson who will likely miss NOMAD as much as we will can find a boat on the Outer Banks. Maybe I'll start flying again provided that I can still pass an FAA physical and find someone to write a liability policy at age 80.
I've always liked the idea of getting a sailplane ticket. The concept of thermal soaring in a high performance sailplane with its freedom and aesthetic virtues coupled with a challenging skill set is a real positive for me. So, maybe I'll try that and maybe the orchids will find that they're receiving a lot more attention than usual! And the house might get painted. Stay tuned.

Stan Martin replies to John:
John: I can well appreciate how difficult it was to part with your boat. We are in the same situation, except I remain an incurable optimist! Our problem is physically keeping up with a sailboat so we are window shopping for a power boat. I hate to consider going over to the dark side, but we have to be realistic. We've been sailing with the Sailing Club of the Chesapeake, a really good group of people. For that, we must have a sailboat. We've set a two-year goal for making the decision--assuming of course, that the economy straightens out, a big assumption. As for the time you now have available, how would you like to help me with our 60th Reunion Class Gift? I believe you have some experience with fund-raising and I sure could use some help from someone who knows a bit about it. Why don't you give me a call or Email so we can talk about it? In any event, good luck as a land-lubber.

Stan

And John also heard from Mal Green:

John,
It would be a copout for me to say "I feel your pain" but never having owned a boat, large or small" I can't really feel what you are feeling. Nevertheless I empathize with you and all of our classmates who are, or will, face large changes in their life style. Susan and I will be entering a CCRC (Continuing Care Retirement Community) next summer and will be giving up our spacious condo. We are faced with downsizing by 50% and divesting hundreds of books, perhaps thousands of photographs, and worst of all, for me, is my workshop where I have built many pieces of interesting furniture.
I'm not worried about filling my time. I've been taking courses at local colleges which have ILR's (institutes of learning in retirement), belong to a book club, and have participated in activities encouraging middle school kids in science and engineering projects. The CCRC we're moving to has formed an association with Brandeis University to offer courses there and I have volunteered to be on a technical liaison committee. Also I expect to continue with MIT related activities. I'm sure you will continue to keep busy and find new things to do.
Thanks for the newsy email and letting us share in your activities and feelings.

Mal

And Bob Michel writes:

John,
I'm sure this is a sad moment in your life with the parting of "an old friend". I know how much you, Jean and the family have enjoyed your sails and cruises together for such a long time. I'm sorry I was not able to sail with you and do appreciate having been invited.
We all come to the point in life when we must "move on". Even with my small boat, each year it becomes more of a burden and less of an enjoyment. If it weren't for son, nephew, grand nephews and grandsons, I wouldn't bother to put it in. We only used my boat about a half dozen times this year and my nephew's sailboat was only in for about two months because of his conflicts which also are increasing each year as he gains more family and business responsibilities. His move from PA to NJ this summer also took away sailing time.
My brother and I maintain our parent's summer home on LI because it brings together our families and serves as an escape for all. We hope we can keep it going as long as there is family interest.
I don't think you'll have any problem with things to do. I am constantly torn between reading, Port Jefferson, home maintenance, church work, web site maintenance and family affairs. I also enjoy walking a couple times a week in the county park nearby. I'm sure you'll find new interests or expand on the old ones. I think it's important we keep active, both physically and mentally. Our best to Jean and the family.

Bob

OUR NEW CLASS TREE

Mal Green has some more info on our new Class Tree:

MIT's Buildings and Grounds Dept. have advised us that the new tree planted in front of Baker House to replace our willows is a Katsura. Native to Japan and China, there are two varieties of Katsura and we do not know the variety they planted. Depending on which species, Katsuras grow between 30 ft. and 75 ft. high. Most likely ours is the smaller variety. It was transplanted to make room for the site of the new Koch cancer research center
The Katsura is a deciduous ornamental tree and in the fall has bright autumn colors with a mix of yellow, pink and orange-red leaves.

IS THERE A CLASS OF 1950 BOOKLET?

Mariano A. Romaguera recently wrote stating he was trying to get the addresses of our class members. He said in recent years there was a booklet with that information. I don’t recall that. Do any of you have such a book and if so send the information to Mariano. He is located at Apartado 1340, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico 00709–1340. His residence phone is 787 832 8267.

Although it is not in the form of a booklet, it is possible to obtain many names and addresses of MIT alumni through Infinite Connection at http://alum.mit.edu . If you are not a member, it is necessary to sign up (membership is free). If you sign in and put “1950” in the search field, you will get the names of all people who are identified in any way with our class (currently, there are more than 1900).

Ed Kruse writes:
Thanks for the class notes. I enjoyed the correspondence and stories that were shared. The obituaries (I don't think I knew any of the people personally) were interesting; they made me grateful that I was associated with such wonderful persons, even if tangentially. Some also made me feel like an under-achiever, but, at my age, that doesn't worry me anymore. I'm grateful for the cachet I have as an MIT graduate; people give me credit for greater intelligence than I actually have.
As my high school class (1944) historian, I'm often (well, sometimes) asked how many classmates are still living. It's about 48%, as of July, 2008. [2.5% were status unknown.] I wonder what the average is for our MIT Class of 1950. I remember there were over 1,000 graduates in our class (but I don't remember if that included graduate degrees, too.).

We replied: Ed, the short answer to what percentage is still living is "I don't know".
Here is a longer answer: We were advised in May 2008 that there are 762 living members of the Class of 1950. According to the alumni directory, 1917 people were in the class. This puts the current survivorship at just under 40%. But we have 85 "missing" members currently, which is a little over 4% of 1917. (Your high school class seems to be doing better at keeping track of alumni with its 2.5% uncertainty.)
Complicating all this is that we think of our "class" as those folks who graduated when we did. The 1917 total for the class of 1950 includes a lot of grad students, and the figure for baccalaureate degrees looks to be somewhere between 1200 and 1250. (There were 1210 SB's in the group, plus 22 Bachelors of Architecture and 4 Bachelors of City Planning.) There are also 176 people who consider themselves members of the class of 1950 who did not receive degrees. One such person is mentioned in our October class notes. So in some ways, the answer to your question depends on exactly what you mean by classmates. I have no idea how the 762 number breaks down. I'll spend some more time on this question and maybe we can do better. (Maybe the short answer was the best answer after all). Incidentally, for your information, the 762 living number came from Katie Gillespie and is in the May Class notes. All of the other numbers came from the Alumni Directory at http://alum.mit.edu
I certainly agree that the obituaries are interesting, and I have the same reaction as you at being even slightly associated with such outstanding people.

Ed had some closing remarks to this dialogue:

Tom,           (Yom Kippur October 11th)

Thanks for the extended reply.
I was reminded that today is Yom Kippur. One of the advantages of going to MIT for me was the diversity of the student body. My late roommate - junior year -- Edward Cohen, introduced me to many things I didn't previously know about, including Jewish culture. He got up early on Yom Kippur, went to Temple, and fasted all day there, till sundown.
And I learned about Ed's passing in 2005 because of information in the June class notes;
I had missed the extensive New York TIMES death notices. Incidentally, he was on the Board of directors for the "MIT and the Arts" (something like that) committee (that I think is affiliated with the MIT Museum, brings lecturers to campus, encourages artistic participation among students, etc.) Ed's obit mentioned that memorials to that MIT Council for the Arts would be appreciated. I made one, and got a wonderful acknowledgement from his widow, Rhea, whom I last saw at our 50th reunion. Incidentally, she has been appointed to Ed's position on the Council, a good choice.
Incidentally, in my high school class of 80 there were four SMITHs (5%). Then two of the girls married guys named SMITH, so Google searches are almost impossible. You're doing a wonderful job getting so much information.

P E A C E    Edwin Kruse    MIT 1950   Course Xb

CREATIVE CAPITAL

President Mel Gardner reports on a book that he has recently read:

I just finished reading a recently published book, CREATIVE CAPITAL, which I found interesting and thought others in our class might find it a worthwhile read. MIT, Karl Compton, and particularly our classmate, Ken Olson, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, make important contributions to the story.
The book has been extensively reviewed including in the July/August issue of Technology Review.
Several months ago, I met the author, Richard Ante, who writes for Business Week. The 259 page book is focused on the life of Georges Doriot, a long time professor at the Harvard Business School and his role in the birth of venture capital as we know it today. When Richard told me of Ken’s role in the narrative, I perked up since Ken and I were lab partners on a special project late in our careers at MIT – Ken did most of the creative work I must admit – and he and I had some brief business exchanges during the early years of DEC.
Doriot founded American Research and Development Corporation (ARD), the prototype of the modern venture capital firm. It’s most spectacular investment was in DEC, providing an initial $70,000 for a seventy percent interest in Ken’s company that grew to be worth some $400,000,000. Further of interest to me was an explanation of why Route 128 was supplanted as the hub of technological innovation by Silicon Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula.
If you receive this Ken, please weigh in with whatever comments you have of the book and its presentation of events as you knew them.

Mel Gardner

Note: The July/August issue of Technology Review may be reached on-line at http://www.technologyreview.com/business/20945/

We hear from Chuck Herbert:

At the September meeting of a Sons in Retirement (SIR) chapter in San Rafael, CA, three members of the Class of 1950 met. Pete Petrofsky had been a member and officer for years before talking Chuck Herbert into joining. Chuck, in turn, has just convinced Dick Fox to coming in also. With all three of us living within a few miles of each other in San Rafael we are looking forward to meeting monthly for a long time.

Chuck Herbert (Course II)
cherbertnsp@yahoo.com

NOSTALGIA

This is a photo I took that night as a Class of '50 member wishing Karl Compton good luck in the Truman administration. In 1955, I had the good fortune to meet ex-President Truman at breakfast on a train in Independence, Missouri, and mentioned Dr. Compton's service in Washington. He had only complimentary things to say about Dr. Compton's service.

Chester Claff, Technical translator
http://mysite.verizon.net/cclaff/
Favorite quote: "If all is not lost, where is it?"

Looking ahead to 2010

Our 60th Reunion Committee is very busy at the moment, working out the details for 2010. In anticipation of a detailed announcement, here is a snippet of correspondence between Sam Raymond and Karl Ahlstrand :

Karl and all, thank you for keeping me on your email list for reunion minutes . Sorry that I cannot participate in person due to distance and Busy-ness. I just turned 80 and Holly and I are fortunately both healthy and happy. Our regards to all with congratulations and thanks for doing such a good job of planning, researching and choosing good venues for all the events. We are looking forward to being with you all on our 60th. I volunteer to do a sing-along if you wish. We have the compact disc of song lyrics (which was unfortunately misplaced last time) and we now have our own digital projector which we can bring as well as our projection screen, microphone with stand and amplifier with speaker. I will make a copy of the CD of lyrics and mail it to Mal for safekeeping as a backup, just in case.

Love, Sam and Holly

Sam,

I, and all members of the Reunion Committee, thank you for volunteering to do a sing-a-long at the 60th. A sing-a-long with Sam has always been a very enjoyable part of the Class of 1950 reunions. We heartily accept your offer. It is too early in the planning process to say whether the sing-a-long will be in Cambridge or elsewhere. Mal or I will be in touch as the planning process proceeds.

Give my best to Holly.

Thanks again,

Karl Ahlstrand     kahlstrand@aol.com

Address & Telephone Change for Anne & George Twitchell

Email address remains MIT50@YAHOO.COM

PREVIOUS ADDRESS 106 Spring Lane & 1256 Farmington Avenue Apt A2, West Hartford, CT 06107

NEW ADDRESS & TELEPHONE
400 Seabury Dr Apt 2138,Bloomfield, CT 06002, 860-243-3397

Thanks - George Twitchell

Our classmate Martin Cornish recently had a serious email problem, which we were fortunate enough to help get fixed. The following correspondence tells the story:

Joe and Tom

You guys have finally gotten me to write you. The circumstances are not all that good.
I am currently retired and have very little computer knowledge. Consequently, my problem escalated since I don't use my computer except to play freecell.
My problem started about two weeks ago. I now introduce my wife Nell for an explanation.
Hi this is Nell. We have been getting 300 to 500 emails a day indicating we sent them from MIT i.e. from MCP13@alum.mit.edu . Martin never used that address and has not sent any of the messages. Some of the names appearing from MIT are "Michele" and "Naomi Honnicut". I have never known these people. I am at wits end. Can you help me solve the mystery? I will surely bless you for any efforts.

Martin Cornish

Hi Martin,

As I told Nell on the phone, the problem has been fixed by Greg Bourne at MIT. He did this by changing your username.
What has been happening is that a spammer, using the fake name Noemi Honeycutt, has been sending out some sort of message. This spammer put your MIT email address, MCP13@alum.mit.edu , in a field called the Return Path. Quite a few of the recipients detected the fact that it was spam, and “bounced” the message back to the return address, which was your MIT email. The MIT system automatically forwarded these messages to you at your personal email address. And, as you told me, there were a great many of them.
Greg changed your username. In the future, if you want to log into your account at https://alum.mit.edu , it will be necessary for you to use this new username. Your password is unchanged.
All these messages that are directed to MCP13 will no longer be forwarded to you, but will instead die in cyberspace. The important thing is that you will not get them anymore.
Thanks for letting us know about the problem. I’m glad we could help. Getting in touch with Greg Bourne is the key to whatever success we have had.

Tom Keane

We received the following note from the granddaughter of one of our classmates, Victor Sciaky. Victor has been listed as missing by the Alumni Association. As the note points out, Alina would be very grateful to hear from anyone who remembers her grandfather.

Hi,
My name is Alina Thouyaret and I am writing on behalf of my grandfather Victor O. Sciaky who attended MIT around 1950. I found his name in a missing person list in the web and I thought you might like to have some information about him. I am from Argentina, as is he, but I now live in Washington DC. I work as a first grade Spanish teacher in a public school in the district. My grandfather is very ill these days; he is in a nursing home in Buenos Aires, the city he has lived in all his life. Victor graduated from MIT, went back to his country, married Lily Ventura and had 2 daughters and 4 grandchildren. He has had a very happy life.
My grandfather told me stories of his college life when I was little. He also showed me pictures in the year books. When I grew older I got more interested in MIT because of Noam Chomsky. I studied Linguistics in the University of Buenos Aires. Last year my parents came to visit me in the US. and we went to Boston to visit the place Victor spent some great years of his life.  Please let me know if you need more information about him. I would love to help you with anything I can.  
Victor is a great man, the most intelligent man I ever met. He taught me so many things! He was passionate about Math, History and Geography. My brother used to know all the capitals of the world when he was 6 because of my grandpa.
Sadly he is now going through the end of his life and it is hard to see him like that. 
I hope you all remember him as I do. I would be glad to hear about his life in Cambridge if you know somebody who shared with him those years.

Sincerely,

Alina Thouyaret.    athouya@gmail.com

John L Anderson passed away on October 23, 2005. His last known address is 181 Salem St Apt 117, Boston, MA 02113.

Dr John Forgrieve died on August 6, 2007. His last known address is 14319 Misty Meadow Lane, Houston, TX 77079

Mrs Patricia Cautley Hill passed away on July 3, 2007. Her last known address is 381 Cleveland Ave, Petaluma CA 94952

Robert J. Muzzy

Robert J Muzzy died on January 27, 2008. His last known address was 28554 Bearhaven Court, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275

Robert S. Smith

Robert S. Smith, formerly of Newark, DE and currently of the Jenner's Pond Community in West Grove, PA, passed away unexpectedly on Wednesday, January 9, 2008. He spent a year in the US Army after his first year at MIT. After graduation in 1950, Bob joined the DuPont Company Textile Fibers Department; his first job was in Waynesboro, VA, where he met his future wife and companion, Kathryn Hawthorne. They enjoyed a long and loving relationship for 56 years, until Kathryn's death in August of 2007. While living in Newark, Bob was elected to a 3-year term on Newark City Council, and he also served 5 years as president of the New Castle County Board of Elections. Bob is survived by his daughters, Kate Watson and her husband Lew, and Lex Mellon, her husband Tom, and their children Leigh and Michael.

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