CLASS OF '57 NOTES FOR SEP-OCT 1998 TECH REVIEW
From Alan M. May
In the May-June issue I reported that Jean de Verrier's son had asked to
make contact with classmates who remembered his dad. No sooner had the issue
appeared than a letter was received from one of Jean's fraternity brothers,
Peter Carberry (Class of 1958!) who remembered Jean well and looked forward
to communicating with Jerome.
Ralph Reynolds writes from Rochester, NY that he retired after 38 years with
Eastman Kodak, lastly as manager of health issues: health, safety and
environment. Ralph is currently a consultant in toxicology for the
International Life Sciences Institute and he is President of the Rochester
Chapter of American's United for Separation of Church and State. Beside the
aforementioned Ralph's other interests are skepticism and travel. Which is
interesting because Fred Epstein who writes from St. Louis, MO says that his
interests are tennis, travel, civil liberties, urban mass transit and
on-site day care. Fred is President of Indeeco, a family owned and operated
company founded by Fred's father in 1929. Indeeco manufactures electric
heaters and controls. Fred has 300 employees but he is proudest of his
not-for-profit on-site day care center for children and grandchildren of
employees. Established in 1985 as Missouri's first day care center in an
industrial setting "Zelda's" started with seven children; today it serves 49
children, ages 2 to 5 with a long waiting list and with plans to expand
capacity to 108 children. Fred practices what he
preaches.
Larry Young writes from Rumney, NH that he was made the Apollo Program
Professor of Astronautics by MIT in 1995. In 1997 Larry added the position
of Director of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute with his
headquarters in Houston, TX. This barely leaves Larry time to ski race, one
of Larry's favorite pastimes, but may help explain in part why NASA is so
interested in whether there is ice on distant planets.
Daniel Borenstein writes to say that he is a practicing psychiatrist in
Brentwood, CA. Dan has served as a Trustee of the American Psychiatric
Association for the past nine years and is currently Vice President of the
American Psychiatric Association. Dan has been a member of the Board of
Trustees of the California Medical Association for over five years and is a
Clinical Professor at the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral
Sciences. Dan is a Founding Director of the Foundation for the Advancement
of Psychiatric Education and Research and Founder and Past Director of the
UCLA Mental Health Program for Physicians in Training. A list of Dan's other
professional affiliations would fill two closely typed pages without even
mentioning his various articles, publications etc. Dan and I are fraternity
brothers, as well as former roommates, but hadn't spoken since graduation.
Recently, I attended a conference in Westwood (next door to Brentwood) and
visited Dan (he squeezed me in at 2:30pm on a busy Thursday). I met Bonnie,
Dan's wife of over thirty years. Bonnie is a Registered Nurse, a volunteer
for several medically related groups and a docent at The Getty Museum. Dan
came to MIT from the New Mexico Military Institute to be a Chemical
Engineer. Dan was the most laid-back people oriented guy I ever saw at MIT.
Dan took a freshman year elective that resulted in his reading some Freud.
Dan says that in his freshman year he conversed with two fraternity brothers
(not Class of 1957) both deeply disturbed whom he could not help. Those
events led to Dan's interest in psychiatry and his determination to become a
psychiatrist. Dan says that I had urged him as an undergraduate to run for
elective office in the fraternity and that that in turn had led Dan to a
lifelong interest in medical association politics. Just like a psychiatrist
to remember that; I had long forgotten it.
Hank Salzhauer writes that "in early February a pleasant lady turned to my
wife and me in an art gallery in Ubud, Bali, and said, "I think I know you
folks from someplace." It turned out to be Maria Stata, and standing next to
Maria - lo and behold! - was Ray. We were staying in the same hotel, and
enjoyed a nice visit together." Speaking of Ray Stata, MIT honored Ray and
Maria at a Building 20 dinner on March 27th. Hank reports that among our
classmates registered for the dinner were John Psarouthakis, David Wolsk,
Paul Carr, Terry McMahon, Renata Cathou, William Doughty, Ira Holtzman,
Arthur Bergles, Joe Rocchio, and James Havender.
Martin Zombeck asks what else would you like to see on the Class of 1957
Home Page? To access our Home Page one goes to
http://alumweb.mit.edu/classes/1957/ on the Internet. Several classmates
have suggested that we add a chat room. Gary Dischel would like a page with
the latest info on the 42.5th reunion. Lester Gimpelson suggests that we
provide space for personal information on individual classmates in the Class
Directory for those who wish to submit it. By the time you read this, Martin
will have activated our Class Notes page as a part of our Home Page. Now you
can read past Tech Review class notes and also read forthcoming class notes
before they appear in Tech Review. For example, this article had a submit
deadline of June 1; thus, had you known it was already on our Class Home
Page, you could have been reading it three months
ago.
As this is being written, Gary is considering a 42.5th Reunion somewhere in
the west, such as Lake Tahoe or San Diego or somewhere in between. He is
considering holding it in June 1999. Gary would like to hear from as many
classmates as possible as to whether you (and family or friends) might
attend so he can start making hotel arrangements. He'd also like to know
whether you would prefer somewhere else. You can locate how to contact Gary
and Martin on our Internet Class of 1957 Home Page under class officers.
Please note that I have changed my e-mail address. ---Alan M. May,
secretary, 3601 Turtle Creek Blvd., Dallas, TX 75219; (w) tel: 214-746-4677;
(h) tel: 214-528-8812; (w) fax: 214-746-4754; e-mail: alanmay@wtd.net