OCTOBER 2008 CLASS NOTES

Luncheon with Class of 1950 Scholars on Friday, September 19th.

Six classmates and five guests met for lunch with a group of Class of 1950 Scholars, those legacy students who receive scholarships from the income generated by the Class of 1950 Student Aid Fund. Representing our class were classmates and guests Karl and Joan Ahlstrand, Frank Ferrigno and his daughter Anna Ferrigno, Mal and Susan Green, Stan Martin, Bill Murphy and Joan Patten, and Carolyn Lack and I. We met in the Stratton Student Center for the buffet lunch. Each student spoke about his or her background, course of study, hopes and expectations, where they were from, and who in their family had preceded them at MIT. Our classmates told about their education at MIT and what they had done since graduation. Our guests also described their life activities

Mal and Mel

ALC Awards Dinner, Saturday night, September 20th

The dinner and preceding reception was held in Walker Memorial where many of us took our meals, or worked there as I did, when we were students. and where some of the great formal dances were held in our day. Well over three hundred alums and guests were in attendance to accept or witness the presentations of Bronze Beaver, Lobdel, Kane, Morgan, and Presidential Citation Awards.

Our class was represented by Stan Martin, Karl and Joan Ahlstrand, Guy and Susan Bell, Mal Green, Carolyn Lack and me, all seated together at our class table. Stan accepted the Presidential Citation awarded to the Class of 1950 Mid-Course Reunion Committee on behalf of the committee which included Stan and Beverly Martin, Guy and Susan Bell, Tom and Maria Keane, and Ozzie and Margaret Kincannon.

The more than well-deserved citation read:

"After a successful 55th Reunion, the Class of 1950 just couldn't wait to do it all over again and developed the concept of the Mid-Course Reunion, celebrated at fifty-seven and a half years after their graduation in September 2007 in Annapolis, Maryland. These dedicated alumni and their equally dedicated spouses met monthly to create a three-day program filled with activities that leveraged the beauty of Annapolis with the bounty of MIT. From their choice of hotel and tours to their collaboration with fellow alumni and Institute staff, the committee utilized all the knowledge and resources available to them to insure the event's success and the enjoyment of more than 80 attendees. The program was such a huge success that other classes are using the model to develop their own mid-course activities."

Here is a picture of Stan being congratulated by MIT's President Susan Hockfield after accepting the Citation from the President of the Alumni Association.

And here is a picture of those classmates and guests who were at the awards dinner:

standing l to r: Guy and Susan Bell, Mel Gardner, Carolyn Lack, and Karl Ahlstrand

seated l to r: Joan Ahlstrand, Stan Martin, and Mal Green

It was a grand affair, and a delicious dinner.

Tom and Maria Keane missed the ALC because they were on a very interesting MIT Alumni trip to Italy. The title of the tour was Bell’Italia, and it was hosted by MIT Professor Emeritus Samuel Jay Keyser and his wife, Nancy Kelly, who retired after 33 years as an administrator in the President’s Office. We were joined by smaller groups from Smithsonian Journeys and the American Museum of Natural History. Jay Keyser claims that he does not like to travel. Let us refer you to his blog at http://travelreluctantly.blogspot.com/ and you can decide for yourself. (The blog is festooned with wonderful pictures, most of which were taken by Nancy, who is a world-class photographer.)

The Sea Cloud

Our tour began in Rome with a welcoming dinner in a restaurant which overlooks the forum. The feature of the Roman leg was a private (just 40 or so of us) visit to the Vatican Museum, including an extended visit to the Sistine Chapel. The next leg of our tour was 5 days on the Sea Cloud, a magnificent ship with a rich history. (One day they let us get into small boats and circle the ship, where I had an opportunity to take the picture on the right.) After leaving the mainland of Italy, we visited Sardinia, Corsica, and Elba, all the while enjoying magnificent weather, outstanding food and drink, and getting to know a lot of very interesting fellow tourists. We were accompanied by two art historians, Inge Reith of the Frick Collection and Jennifer Neils of Case Western Reserve, who presented lectures (about 1 per day) that tied in with and helped us better to appreciate what we were seeing. We disembarked at Genoa and proceeded to Pisa. I am happy to report that the tower, although still leaning, appears to be ok for the nonce.

Finally we had three nights in Florence. We had a wonderful time there. For me, the high point was a visit to the Conservation Laboratory of the Uffizi Gallery, where they are restoring art works that have been damaged or have deteriorated with time. It is very high-tech and also very hands-on. Since the horrific flooding in Florence in 1966, they have gotten very good at this sort of thing. The whole trip was quite an experience. I recommend that you consider it if they do it again in the next few years.

James Goff writes:

Dear Joe,
The following is a short note that you may want to use in the Class Notes.

James and Barbara Goff celebrated his 80th birthday the First of August by a cruise along the coast of Maine and islands off-shore. The boat was small; there were only sixty passengers, and left Portland, Maine the last week of July for an eight-day trip. His birthday was celebrated on board by cake and singing. Along the way we were rather personally introduced to more lighthouses than I ever knew existed. We went ashore to visit one and spent most evenings ashore visiting small towns. An evening in Belfast was memorable: we listened to two young women play the Celtic fiddles on one corner and down the street watched a man do a shuffle dance. I had no trouble with gaining my sea-legs on board but had a problem at the end of voyage regaining my shore-legs. Here at home I spend time being active with a group of retired physicists who meet monthly at the headquarters of the American Physical Society (APS) nearby in College Park, Maryland. We bring scientific talks to the area so that retired APS members can be kept up to date on developments in physics. Although I now qualify to be classified as an antique because I am over fifty, my wife and I are in good health and rather amused to find our young neighbors discovering things that we discovered many years ago.

James F. Goff   (Course VIII)
3405 34th Place NW
Washington DC 20016-3135
e-mail: jamesfgoff@att.net

Bud Simpson writes:

“Tom :
Some classmates may have known my best friend and wife since Sep 9, 1950. After over 9 months in a hospital bed, she decided to eliminate all life support. Our entire family gathered in her suburban Milwaukee hospital room to celebrate her wonderful life with family stories, family songs, a trombone playing some of her favorites (When the Saints Go Marchin' In and God Bless America), jokes and prayers. During the nine-plus months I was with her every day, she never once complained. The next day she died with dignity with our three children and me holding her hands. That was April 23, 2008. I was truly blessed during our 63 years since juniors in high school and 57-plus years of marriage.

Bud Simpson”

Bud and Betty Simpson

Mauritz C. Blomberg died on September 13 at his home. His Last known address is 915 N Eagle St, Naperville, IL 60563-2501.

At his kitchen table, using a slide rule and cardboard as a template, Mauritz, known as "Bob", had created and designed the web-folding assembly for the printing industry that improved on the crease down the middle of the paper as it comes off the printing press. In the 1960s, as a principal engineer for Miehle-Goss-Dexter Corp., which printed the Chicago Tribune and other large and small newspapers at the time, Bob saw how much time was wasted as the presses were stopped to adjust the tension. "He would then come home, sit at the kitchen table and spend hours and hours on it," said his wife, Elizabeth. "He then used cardboard to make a mock-up of it. ... It saved the companies a lot of downtime and money because they didn't have to keep stopping the presses."

Shortly after World War II began, Bob enlisted in the Army Air Forces. He served as a celestial navigator and bombardier in B-26 Marauders and flew 70 missions, including one in the lead group during D-Day over Utah Beach. After the war, he attended MIT for two years but was forced to leave because of financial reasons He returned to Chicago and started to work while he attended night school, first at Northwestern University, but later finishing his bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1958. In 1950 he started as a draftsman at Goss Printing, which was bought out several times during his career. He retired from Rockwell International as principal engineer in 1987.

Bob was also a member of the B-26 Marauder Historical Society. "They didn't have the publicity that the other planes did. He liked to meet with his old group to touch base with them at these reunions. They used to call these planes the widow-makers," said his wife.

Other survivors include two sons, and six grandchildren.

Richard George Counihan died on Tuesday, September 9, 2008. He was 81 years old. His last known address is 350 Ponca Pl #469,Boulder, CO 80303-3802. He served in the U.S. Navy in 1945-46. In the month of June, 1951, Dick was awarded an MS degree by MIT, married Barbara Ann Ormerod, whom he had known since 7th grade, and began a 30-year career as an electrical engineer with IBM. During his career he was awarded five patents for computer memory devices and integrated circuit technologies. He and his wife and children moved in 1966 to Boulder from Poughkeepsie, New York. Dick was a longtime member of the Boulder Meeting of Friends (Quakers), and in 1987 he received the Jack Gore Memorial Peace Award from the American Friends Service Committee. He was also one of the founders of Friendship City Projects, a sister city organization connecting Boulder with Jalapa, Nicaragua. For the last 25 years of his life, he participated in the Gandhi/Marx book group, which focuses on non-violence and social justice. He was known as a compassionate counselor, a social and political activist, and also a quipster. His interests included sports cars, motorcycles, and hiking, and he loved the mountain cabin near Nederland that he and his family have owned for nearly 40 years. Dick is survived by Barbara, his beloved wife of 56 years, 3 children, and several grandchildren.

We have been notified that Faye Richardson Howell, the widow of Capt. Jay S. Howell, died on June 26, 2007, in Silver Spring, MD. Her last known address was 634 Goldsborough Drive, Rockville, MD 20850-1907.

Louis A. Morton

Louis A Morton passed away on April 26, 2008. His last known home address is 77 Wellington Circle, Lebanon, NH 03766. Before entering MIT, Lou served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in WWII. He was captain and center of the MIT Basketball team in his senior year. After graduation in 1950, Lou was recalled to active duty in the Korean War. Subsequently he received an MS Degree in Business at Columbia University, after which he began a 35-year career with the Ford Motor Co. During most of that time, Lou was a resident of Plymouth, MI, where he was a prominent member and officer of the Lion’s Club. Lou was predeceased by his wife Janet. He is survived by two sons, Kenneth and Craig, and four grandchildren.

Albert W. Rader

Albert W. Rader died in an accident while hiking by the Blue River in Missouri. His body was found September 2, 2008. His last known address is 196 Seaton Rd #4, Stamford, CT 06902. After service in the U.S. Army, he earned Bachelor degrees in food technology and biology from MIT and a Masters in chemistry from the University of South Carolina. His career included work in foods, pharmaceutical sales and chemist/analyst for Union Carbide from which he retired. A prominent member of The Unitarian Universalist Society in Stamford, Connecticut, he sought the truth, reading the Holy Bible, scientific research, archaeological findings, and about the world. He is survived by his sister and her husband, Elizabeth and William Dulaney.

John Allen Reid, 83, of Oklahoma City, died in his home on September 12, 2008. His last known address is 12804 St. Johns Dr., Oklahoma City, OK 73120. John’s education was interrupted by WWII, when he was drafted at the age of 18. He proudly served under General Patton in the U.S. Army 11th Armored Division, Company B, 21st Armored Infantry Battalion. He fought in the battle of the Bulge, helping liberate Bastogne. He was decorated with the American Theater Campaign Medal, EAME Campaign Medal with 2 Bronze Stars, and Purple Heart with 1 Oak Leaf Cluster, among others. After returning from the war, John continued his education, earning a degree in architecture from MIT. and attending the Harvard School of Business. He embarked on his career as an architect, first working with his father before starting his own architectural firm in Oklahoma City. His work took him to many exciting places such as Alaska and China, but the focus of his practice was designing schools across his home state of Oklahoma. John enjoyed traveling, tennis, animals, and playing cards with his many friends. Most of all, he enjoyed his family. John was preceded in death by his wife, Wyn Vaden Marsh Reid. John is survived by his wife, Linda Campbell Reid, three sons, and one step-daughter.

Roger S Smith, 81, died on August 26, 2008, at Massachusetts General Hospital. His last known address is 29 Farmer Rd., Windham, NH 03087. He was a US Navy veteran of WWII. After the war, he received an SB degree in engineering and general science at MIT and an MS degree in engineering at Northeastern. He joined the Adcole Corporation in Marlboro, MA, where he was involved in many projects for the space industry. Allan Eisenman of JPL states, “(Roger’s) sun sensor (for the Cassini Jupiter orbiting spacecraft) is still working perfectly after many years in a very difficult environment.” Roger worked at Adcole for 43 years, where he had recently retired from his position as vice president of engineering.
Roger was predeceased by his wife Barbara. He is survived by a son, two daughters and eight grandchildren.

Return to Home Page