CLASS OF ’57 NOTES FOR May-June 2002 TECH REVIEW

From Alan M. May

I hope that I will see you at our 45th reunion in Cambridge beginning with a class reception and dinner on Thursday June 6th, 2002 followed later that evening by Tech Night at the Pops. On Friday tours of MIT Labs or Boston are planned with the Class Dinner that evening. Saturday is Technology Day. On Saturday June 8th, after the Technology Day luncheon, those class members who wish to are going to the Bretton Arms Country Inn on the grounds of the Mount Washington Hotel & Resort in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire where Nelson Disco, our reunion chairman, and his committee have planned a two-night get-together.

John (Wes) Wills writes: “Since this is the first time I have written in 45 years, I will attempt to condense this mini-autobiography. First, I did graduate from the Institute in 1958. As some of my friends may remember, I was somewhat "academically challenged" in those days and found myself on the decelerated track.

After graduation, I worked a year for Curtiss-Wright in New Jersey doing aerodynamic design work on a vertical take-off aircraft that never materialized. I then worked for GE's small aircraft engines dept in Lynn. Although by nature a conservative republican, I became fascinated with President Kennedy's Peace Corps, and left GE to begin Peace Corps training at Columbia University in New York. In January 1963, I arrived at a small rural school in the then Eastern Province of Nigeria where I would teach physics and maths (as the Brits say). Being the school's first physics teacher, I developed the curriculum. These two years were truly life-changing for me. Then I sailed from Lagos on a French mail boat up the west coast of Africa, arriving in Barcelona just before Christmas, 1964. I spent three months leisurely touring several European countries and sailed home on the soon-to-be retired Queen Mary in the spring of 1965.

By now I had decided to give up my GE leave of absence and get involved in education. In September I began a two-year teaching stint at a large Southern California high school in Rubidoux near Riverside. I suffered a bit of culture shock to find that American high school students did not call me sir nor offer to carry my books. In 1967, I got an NSF grant to study physics at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. There, I happily discovered an Iowa girl, Adelle, my wife-to-be. We were married in June 1968.

After graduation in August we packed up all our worldly goods, mostly books and some wedding gifts. We set out for suburban New York's Westchester County, where I had a job teaching physics at Briarcliff Manor, a pretty little suburban town on the Hudson just north of New York. Adelle found a job teaching at a nearby school and we settled into the then-typical suburban lifestyle; i.e. a nice house, car, station wagon, and an old English sheepdog. In 1973 our daughter, Kirsten, was born. In 1974 I was appointed assistant principal at Briarcliff and principal in 1975. During the years at Briarcliff, I had taken evening courses to qualify as a school administrator in New York State. By 1977 I got the notion that it was necessary to get a doctorate to be successful in that field. In retrospect, this was a somewhat dubious idea, but as the old Cunard ads said, "Getting there is half the fun."

In 1977, I quit my job. We sold our house, and moved to Manhattan so I could work full-time on my doctorate at Columbia. We had a wonderful year in New York. Adelle continued her suburban teaching job, Kirsten was in pre-school at the prestigious Dalton School (made possible with the help of an old friend and colleague who was then headmaster at Dalton), and I happily pursued being a professional student mornings and evenings, and spent afternoons with Kirsten in Central Park, at the zoo, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, etc.

In the spring of that year, through a series of chance encounters, I was appointed high school principal of the Frankfurt International School in Oberursel, Germany. That summer, we once again packed up, and headed across the Atlantic. (I finally completed my dissertation in 1984, and got my EdD degree). We had a wonderful experience in Germany, and what we at first perceived to be a two or three year stint, ended thirteen years later when in my last act as principal, I presided over the graduation of Kirsten's class of 1991.

Kirsten was off to St Olaf College in Northfield, MN. Adelle and I took jobs teaching as part of a skeleton faculty to reopen the war-ravaged American School of Kuwait. After a couple of years teaching, I was appointed high school principal, a position from which I retired in 1998. We retired to our small condo in suburban Minneapolis, which we share with our three-continent cat, who unlike her caretakers is fluent in German, Arabic, and English. In retirement we enjoy the cultural environment of Minneapolis in such things as the Guthrie Theater, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Minnesota Orchestra. Kirsten, her husband Nelson Moore, and our grandkids Jonathon (4), Bethany (3 going on 30), and little Jessica (4 months) live about twenty minutes away and we see them often. I'm not sure how my time goes, but I keep busy reading, playing with the computer, watching our stock market investments plummet, and occasionally travel.

I haven't been vice president of anything except our condo association, certainly haven't made big bucks, and have invented absolutely nothing. However, I have few regrets. My life so far has been a series of varied and interesting experiences, and we have acquired friends literally around the world. We have run into former students most unexpectedly on a corner on the upper east side of Manhattan, on the Paris Metro, and on a back street in Florence. Our most recent surprise encounter was two years ago in Singapore. In a crowded bookstore, Adelle heard herself called by name. It was a former student we had both taught in the early nineties in Kuwait. That evening Naji and his Malaysian girl friend took us out to a wonderful ethnic restaurant that we would never have found on our own. It is truly a small world.

One of my regrets is that I have lost track of many MIT friends from Burton House and Phi Sigma Kappa. You are all vivid in my memory, and I would love to hear from you.”

Ira Holtzman writes: “Michael Schneider '57 died of colon cancer on September 6, 2001. He earned his Masters in Electrical Engineering from MIT, worked on his doctoral thesis at Lincoln Laboratory, and received his doctorate in engineering and applied physics from Harvard University. Mike had a very successful career at Data General, holding senior management positions including vice president of Systems Integration, Field Service, Technical Products Division, Professional Services and Special Systems. He supported Mercury Computer System's plan to develop a high-performance array processor. In his honor, in 1988 Mercury established the Michael Schneider Award of Excellence, presented quarterly to associates who go beyond the call of duty to ensure customer success. Mike had been active on boards of several local start-up companies and up until his passing had been actively engaged in consulting to early stage technology firms. Present at Michael's funeral in Framingham, MA on September 9, in addition to Michael's wife Jane, his two children (Jeffrey and his wife Sarah, and Valerie), were many friends and relatives, including numerous MIT alumni and classmates.”

I am grieved to report the death of two additional classmates: Trond H. Kaalstad who was a Senior Administrative Officer at MIT and who died on November 23, 2001 and is survived by his brother Oscar (Class of 1952); and William D. Couper who died on August 27, 2001.

I am thrilled to report that this will be my last appearance in these columns as your Class Secretary (oh, I may write this column for the next issue or so as well; but, by the time that appears I’ll be a lame duck, and you will surely have a new Class Secretary). I’ve enjoyed writing these columns; doing so however has taken much precious time away from Egyptology (I’ll tell you something about that in the next issue), music appreciation (see the June 2002 issue of Audio Video Interiors for an article about our Listening Room), and grandfathering. I could not have kept these columns reasonably full for the last five years writing from Dallas, Texas had it not been for all the assistance and input you, my fellow classmates, have given me – for which I say a most grateful thank you! And, thank you Martin Zombeck for establishing and maintaining our Class website. At our superlative Class of 1957 website http://alumweb.mit.edu/classes/1957/ you will find a plethora of information about our 45th reunion, your classmates, and the last five years of these columns---Alan M. May, secretary, 3601 Turtle Creek Blvd., Dallas, TX 75219; (h) tel: 214- 528-8812; (w) fax: 214-521-8544; my e-mail address is: ammay@jump.net.