CLASS OF '57 NOTES FOR NOV-DEC 2000 TECH REVIEW

From Alan M. May

Fred Morefield wrote last spring, "I just celebrated my 64th birthday! As some of you may recall, after leaving MIT in 1958 with my MS in Economics and Engineering (XIV) and working for four years, I returned to Cambridge to study law at Harvard. I never planned to be a lawyer. And I never was a lawyer or even took a bar exam. Upon graduation I returned to the world of business.

I have had a tumultuous career. I was fired three times and I changed industries three times - from international petroleum to healthcare to computer-based information systems. Nevertheless, I feel a great sense of accomplishment and have had a lot of fun. I made a number of special contributions to the organizations and industries with which I worked and, most satisfying, inspired and influenced positively a large number of others, especially young people just entering the world of business. Accordingly, I look back on the years since I left Tech with many wonderful memories.

I am in a position to retire at this point but am just starting to slow down. For more years than I can remember I have been away from home 4-5 days per week. I am looking forward to spending more time with my wife, Betty (we married in 1966), and our three children (all married and independent), and our grandchildren (two so far). I am quite involved with some of the local cultural organizations here in Virginia, where we moved following 21 years on the Upper East Side (the "Left Side") of Manhattan. We continue to spend our vacations at our country home in the east of Holland. In recent years Arthur and Susan Aznavorian and Bill and Sally Brandon have visited us there."

Ralph Reynolds writes "I am now completely retired from consulting but keep busy as president of the Rochester Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. I have also been involved in starting and am now president pro tem of the Secular Humanists of the Rochester Area."

Don Norman's spouse Julie writes that "Donald has just completed his first year as President of Unext.com Learning Systems." After graduating MIT in EE Don went on to earn his PhD in Mathematical Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1962. Thereafter, he was at Harvard until 1966 when he joined the Psychology Department at the University of California, San Diego with which university Don has been associated ever since. From 1974-1978 Don was Chair of its Department of Psychology. From 1988-1993 Don was founding Chair of its Department of Cognitive Sciences and since 1993 Don has been Professor Emeritus. Don has written over a dozen books many of which have been translated into about a dozen languages. His most recent book is "The Invisible Computer", MIT Press (1998). Don has been consulting since 1960 and has spent some time as an Apple Fellow and as an executive at Hewlett-Packard. In 1998 he co-founded the Nielsen Norman Group that does executive consulting on human-centered design (see www.nngroup.com). Unext.com (see www.unext.com) will offer on-line graduate business programs to corporate employees around the world.

The Stevens Institute of Technology press release headline read, "Stevens professor receives honorary degree in Bulgaria" (has Bulgaria become a major?). But, grammar aside, they were referring to our own Ed Friedman. Ed is professor of technology Management at Stevens and is the founding director of its Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education (CIESE), which was established in 1988. Prior to founding CIESE, Ed was dean of the college at Stevens. Ed earned his doctorate in physics from Columbia University in 1963. He recently received the honorary doctorate from Sofia University for his work in sharing educational practices between the United States and Bulgaria. In earlier years Ed was involved in establishing an indigenous college of engineering in Afghanistan for which work he received a medal from the King of Afghanistan in 1973.

Richard Bruce writes that in 1996 he retired as a staff engineer from The Aerospace Corp. Richard and his wife, Mary Ann, live in Newport Beach, CA.

Our superlative Class of 1957 website is located at http://alumweb.mit.edu/classes/1957/ ---Alan M. May, secretary, 3601 Turtle Creek Blvd., Dallas, TX 75219; (w) tel: 214-521-8533; (h) tel: 214-528-8812; (w) fax: 214-521-8544; my new e-mail address is: ammay@jump.net