MIT Class of 1963, Class Notes for Mar/Apr 2001 issue of Technology Review:
In my November column I made a plea for news by parodying a tune sung by the IOXI trio, an MIT folk singing group. A response from Sandra Lensch Cunningham informed me that the correct name of the song is "Rum by Gum." You can find it on the Chad Mitchell Trio's "Mighty Day on Campus" album. Since she had broken her silence of many years, Sandra included some fodder for the column. Her husband, Frederick E. Cunningham, is president and chief engineer of Cunningham Industries Inc. (cunningham-ind.com), designing and manufacturing noncircular gears. Sandra and Fred are rapidly approaching empty nest status. Their oldest daughter Heather graduated from SUNY Purchase with a major in furniture design and is a programmer with a San Diego aerospace company. Their son Michael graduated last June from Northeastern with a major in computer technology and went to his co-op employer, Polaroid. The graduation was made miserable by the security precautions necessary for the guest speaker, Secretary of State Madeline Albright. Sheila Evans Widnall ('60) who was the RA at the freshman woman's dorm on Bay State Road when Sandra was a freshman received an honorary degree at the ceremony. The Cunninghams still have two in college. Rosanne is a senior at Pratt Institute majoring in animation and Sharon is a sophomore at UMASS Amherst majoring in Japanese.
Paul Cohen, one of the members of the IOXI trio, along with Patrick O'Neil, and Jim Reisa, was surprised to see himself mentioned in the '63 column. Even more astounding, Paul said, was that I remembered any of the songs the group sang. Pat is living in Cambridge, doing software work, and Jim left after sophomore year to enter the Merchant Marine Academy. Their signature song was "A Freshman Named Charlie" based on the Kingston Trio song "Charlie and the MTA." It was a protest against the tuition hike to $1500. The name (IOXI Trio) was derived from some of the more obscure letter grades used back then. Paul is living on Long Island, working as a software consultant for JP Morgan and married for 36 years to the same BU girl he met in 1960. The Cohens have 2 daughters, one a psychiatrist in Boston and the other an opera singer in the San Francisco area. Other than 3 years of Gilbert and Sullivan about 10 years ago, Paul said his singing career ended back at Tech.
Mike Maul saw my plea on the class web page and sent some news. After leaving Lucent (NJ/Pa.) in 1995 Mike joined TI in Houston, leading their DSP design group. Houston in the summer was not his favorite place so he migrated west to Silicon Valley and National Semiconductor Corp. He doesn't plan on moving any further west before he stops working – he likes the California weather. [Your class secretary discovered California weather in 1968.] Mike's recreations are still racquetball and long distance horseback competitions of 50 to 100 miles on trails in the wilderness. He rides the 100 miles in less than 24 hours. He has 4 horses now between homes in Texas and California. If anyone wants to get in touch contact Mike at mmaul@alum.mit.edu
Ray Soifer retired last year from Brown Brothers Harriman, where he was Senior VP for investment research in financial services. Now he's consulting – offering strategic advisory services. Check out his web site, http://www.soiferconsulting.com. Ray's wife of two years, Laurie, is a development economist working for the US Agency for International Development. She's based in Washington but spends a lot of time in Eastern Europe. For the present Ray and Laurie have a "modern" commuting marriage, with homes in New Jersey and DC. Ray's two sons from his first marriage are both doing well. Don (Colgate '90), who lives in Washington, is Executive VP of the Lexington Institute, a policy-research think tank in Arlington, VA, and Brian (Bates '95) is a partner in @Stake, Inc., a fast-growing digital security company with headquarters in Kendall Square. He and his fiancée, Julie, a Bates classmate, live in Somerville
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Bob Edelson was another classmate moved by my plaint in the November/December column. He decided he should send in news every thirty-seventh year, whether he needs to or not. Fitting 37 years in his allotment of inch-and-a-half column space requires a bit of capsulation, but he's giving it his best effort. Bob left MIT in September of '63 with his S.B. and S.M. (Course XVI) and spent four years at Caltech learning the social skills he previously neglected, while going A.B.D. in the Aeronautics Department. Applying those social skills, he got married to his wife, Susan, with whom he celebrated his 33rd anniversary last May. The Edelsons have five children, three girls and two boys. All but their youngest, a college freshman, are out in the world, failing to supply their parents with grandchildren. Bob spent most of his career as a middle manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with stints at Hughes Aircraft and GTE Laboratories. With one or another of these firms he's lived in Southern California, Northern Virginia, and Massachusetts and worked on things from security systems to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence to planetary spacecraft and the Deep Space Network. On the way, he received an M.B.A. from UCLA and last May, a Ph.D. in Executive Management from the Peter F.
Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. In August 2000, he retired early from JPL, moved to Dover, Delaware, and took a job as an Assistant Professor of Business and Director of the M.B.A. Program at Wesley College, a small liberal arts school. Bob warned me to stay tuned for his next communiqué in 2037, and, who knows, maybe he'll break his string and make it to our 40th reunion. "40 years?! Shocking!" he wrote.
In May 2000 Steve Kaufman relinquished his duties as CEO of Arrow Electronics, but remains with Arrow as Board Chairman. Over the past 18 years Steve guided Arrow from a $500 million dollar company to its position today as the global electronics industry's preeminent distributor, with sales currently exceeding $11 billion per year. Fortune Magazine named Arrow as one of the most admired corporations in America and one of the 100 best companies to work for. Pat White was promoted in 2000 to Associate Director of USP's Research and Development Lab. Larry Renger lives in Cerritos, CA with his wife of 20 years Jeannette. The Rengers are preparing for the upcoming marriages of their two sons. Larry is chief engineer at Namkung Promotions, a toy company. "35 years of toy design and still loving it!" he wrote.
Hope you are all doing well in the first days of the new century. Thanks for the notes, E-mails, Alumni fund flaps, and occasional phone calls. If you don't see your news here it's because I have more material than the 1200 word limit allows. Your note will be in an upcoming column. You can reach me at: Mike Bertin, 22 Gillman St, Irvine, CA 92612. E-mail: MCB1@aol.com. If you want to schmooze, call me at (949) 786-9450.