MIT Class of 1962

Class Notes, November, 2003, Technology Review

Received a nice obituary for classmate Richard A. Queeny, from his wife, Donna. You may recall that his passing was mentioned in the June, 2003 class notes sent out by e-mail in March. Dick was a good friend of mine while we were undergraduates at MIT and then we were both in graduate school at Penn State, where he received his Ph.D. in solid state technology in 1967. He served as a member of the faculty in Engineering Science and Mechanics at Penn State from 1965 until his death on February 5, 2003. A distinguished scholar who authored over 60 journal articles during his tenure at Penn State. Donna and his family request that memorial contributions be made to the Centre County Community Foundation, P. O. Box 824, State College, PA 16804, for the benefit of the Queeny Fund for Educational Enhancement of the State College Area School District.

Dr. Thomas H. Gawronski dropped us a note that he was elected to his second term on the Ocean Beach Planning Board. We obviously share a similar commitment to public service - I served two terms on the Birmingham Planning Commission from 1974-1986 and am now serving as a member of the Gloucester (MA) Planning Board.

Received a long e-mail message from Jean-Pierre Frankenhuis detailing his activities with the World Cup in Asia and Europe. He met Mia Hamm, the U. S. Captain last December in Madrid where she was named best female soccer player of the year. You may recall that J-P served as the host and liaison for the Brazilian World Cup Team awhile back. He was named Honorary Consul for Brazil in Bordeaux where he will arrange cultural exchanges and assist business activities between Brazil and France. He has been traveling with the Brazilian National Football team and served as host again during the Confederations Cup in France in June. After some editorializing on the U.S. boycott of French products, he mentioned that he expects to finish a novel (in English) by this fall and will shop it around with some agents in New York and Los Angeles. His granddaughter Tainah will be a senior in college in Rio, where she is studying costume design for the theater and movies.

I might mention that my own granddaughter, Sarah Jo Maisel, is a senior at the North Carolina School of the Arts, in Winston-Salem, NC, studying costume design. While J-P's family has a long history in show business, Sarah is cutting a pioneer path in show business as far as my family is concerned. We certainly wish both granddaughters the best in their chosen careers.

Received a notice of the death of Vivian Ann Parsons who passed away on March 22, 2003. She was a freshman with our class in the fall of 1958 but did not receive a degree from MIT. She was living in St. Petersburg, FL, at the time of her death. Vivian graduated from Brandeis after attending MIT, and received a master's degree in teaching from Harvard University in 1963. She served for 34 years as an assistant professor of Russian at Eckard College in St. Petersburg, Florida, and served as a director of a Russian language program at Leningrad State University in the USSR (now St. Petersburg, Russia).

One last personal note - I was elected Secretary General of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution at the 113th National Congress of the SAR in Chicago in July, and will be serving in that capacity for the 2003-2004 term of office.
To contact the secretary.