CLASS OF '57 NOTES FOR MAR-APR 1998 TECH REVIEW

from Alan M. May

Hank Salzhauer writes with an idea which he would like to share with you. Now that so many of us are in our early 60s and either approaching retirement or already retired, Hank reasons that many of us may have excess idle or leisure time. Hank asks whether the Class as a group might wish to adopt some worthwhile community or national project or projects which we as a Class might undertake to do together. At the September MIT Class Officers conference the Nozes, Salzhauers, Keefes, Dischels and yours truly discussed this possibility and decided to ask the Class through this column whether 1) you might be interested in working on such a project ? and 2) do you have a particular project to suggest we work on? Hank asked that his letter regarding his reflections upon the Alumni Officer Conference be printed verbatim so here it is in Hank's words: "1. The Research Lab for Electronics did a great job. 2. Gary Dischel will chair a semi-reunion somewhere around 2 1/2 years from now. Since everyone around Gary always enjoys themselves, I think we can look forward to some good companionship and fun. 3. We spent a good amount of time discussing the question of our class doing something collectively or in small groups in some kinds of projects that will utilize the skills acquired in 40 years of life after MIT for the benefit of others who might need the help. (This is not to be a fund-raising source for MIT.) The issues are as follows: A. Many of us have free time, more or less, or time that can be made free for a worthwhile project, a certain amount of financial freedom, and a great deal of acquired education and life experience. B. Communication by people in a wide geographic area is now easily accomplished with e-mail, fax machines, and even the old-fashioned telephone. C There are things that we might do as a small collective group that would accomplish a great deal more than we can do by ourselves. Can we identify a project or projects? Can we identify the people who have an interest in these projects together with their skills and resources? This is still amorphous, as you can see from the above wording. If you have any thoughts concerning the above, please contact either Ron Keefe (phone: 617-523-6040; fax: 617-523-0977) or Henry Salzhauer (phone: 212-334-8700; fax: 212-941-6024). I have not yet arrived on the Internet myself, but my son's e-mail number is msalzhauer@aol.com and I can be reached there."

Speaking of the Internet and computer literate children, did you know that the Class of 57 has a home page on the Internet, well sort of (see: http://alumweb.mit.edu/classes/1957/). It appears to me to be almost a dummy page established by MIT (it even appears to have a dummy class secretary - and not this dummy either!). At the Alumni Officer's Conference it was obvious that the thoroughly computer literate alumni from the classes which graduated in the 90s have thriving home pages on which numerous of alumni participate each with his or her own subsidiary home page, e-mail flying back and forth etc. (for fun explore the Class of '90 homepage). The problem is that the Institute expects each class to establish its own home page and appoint a WEBMASTER to maintain it. Now I know enough about computers to be able to type these notes with one finger. However, I've never designed a home page and scarcely have the related experience to do so. When I was a child a WEBMASTER was merely someone who gave Spiderman a hard time. So this is a PLEA FOR HELP. Urgently needed, one volunteer to design our Class home page and, thereafter, if so inclined, to be Class Webmaster as well.

Charles Murray writes that he has retired from the clinical practice of medical oncology at the Nicollet Medical Center and is now a Senior Research Consultant in Oncology at the Institute for Research and Education of HealthSystem Minnesota. as well as serving as Medical Director of a 32 hospital tumor registry. Charley has presented or published over a dozen medical technical papers in the last 3 years alone. Charley and his wife Hilda live in Golden Valley, Minn.

Arnie Orange writes that he is President of AOA Geophysics, Inc. Arnie's main interests, besides his grandchildren, are exploration geophysics, travel and flying. Arnie and his wife Margit live in Austin, TX.

Bob Rosin writes that after getting his MS and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in 1964 he spent 12 years as professor of computer science at four universities in the US including two years in Denmark. From 1976 until 1983 he was with AT&T Bell Laboratories. Then, after a three year stint in office automation systems with Syntex, Bob joined Bellcore where until 1989 he helped form and lead the XIS Architecture Task Force and Project. Bob currently provides consulting services in the area of software system architecture, telecommunication system software and the design and implementation of sites on the World Wide Web. Bob helped establish Enhanced Service Providers, Inc. where he serves as Consulting Architect. Bob has nearly 100 publications to his credit, is a founding editor of "Annals of the History of Computing" and serves as a trustee of the Software Patent Institute. It sounds like Bob knows how to keep a kosher website since he manages websites for numerous Reform Jewish organizations including the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Hebrew-Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Central Conference of American Rabbis and Jewish Lights Publishing among others. Bob and his wife Rosalie live in Fair Haven NJ and can be reached through the Class of '57 Alumni Home Pages of the MIT Alumni Association pages on the Internet.---*Alan M. May, secretary, 3601 Turtle Creek Blvd., Dallas, TX 75219; (w) tel: 214-746-4677; (h) tel: 214-528-8812; e-mail: alanmmay@aol.com.