MIT
Class of 1963, Class Notes for Jan/Feb 2002 issue of Technology Review:
(Revised 10/05/2001)
At the start of the year your class secretary is flush with things to write about, mostly from Alumni Fund envelope notes. When people are putting their check into the envelope they often jot down a note or two about their doings. It's easy. They already have their pen in hand and the little form on the envelope is inviting. It's an easy place to brag about a professional accomplishment, a book being written, a trip to an exotic land, a milestone in the life of a spouse, friend, child, or, these days, a grandchild or a retirement. Later in the year the news dwindles down, and the creativity of the class secretary is severely tested. What to do?
When my Technology Review arrives the first sections I look at are Alan Gottlieb's Puzzle Corner and the class notes. (This was true even when I wasn't class secretary.) I suspect that most of you look at the class notes section, and like to read about the adventures of your classmates. For class secretaries it's a point of honor to get something into print each issue. So your secretary occasionally resorts to electronic begging to get material for this space. Like troopers a few of you respond. Bravo! You are class heroes.
Our first hero for this month is Paul Berger. Paul says, "Congratulations! You shamed me into a contribution! [No I didn't – I know you were planning to write anyway.] My last submission was over 20 years ago. At this rate I'll be 80 when I write again. I've been working at MIT Lincoln Laboratory for the last 26 years, most recently developing tracking and adaptive optics systems. Our class is well represented here - hard to believe it's almost 40 years. Eleanor and I recently celebrated our 36th anniversary. Our four daughters have fled the nest, pursuing careers in international business, operations research, wildlife biology, and biochemistry/teaching. They are scattered around the country, one frequently on long-term assignments in Japan and France, giving us some interesting travel destinations."
Our second class hero is Harvey Bines, who writes for the first time since leaving MIT. Harvey writes, "I was in NROTC at MIT and went to Pensacola after graduation for training as a Naval Flight Officer. I served in Fighter Squadron 84 in the air wing on the Independence, flew many missions over North Viet Nam in 1965, was in the Mediterranean in 1966, and left the Navy for Law School at UVa in 1967. After I graduated (J.D. '70) I clerked for John D. Butzner, Jr., a judge at the U.S. Fourth Circuit and one of the outstanding jurists in the country. I then returned to Charlottesville to teach law and remained until 1976, when I came to Boston (my home town) to join Sullivan & Worcester, of which I am a partner. I authored a treatise, published in 1978, The Law of Investment Management, the second edition of which is due out next year, and I have written a number of articles as well. I continued teaching for a while as an adjunct professor, and in one of my more enjoyable experiences, I lectured in Eastern Europe shortly after the Soviet Union fell. My practice is essentially transactional, and I have represented a number of large and small technology companies. Recently, out of interest and commitment, I have been doing a fair amount of business in Israel, and I hope and anticipate that that will grow.
More important than my career, my wife, Joan (A.B. Brandeis '64, M.A. '69, Ph.D., U.S. history, '76), and I have four children. Jonathan (born '68, Brown '90), Joel (born '70, Bates '92, HBS '99), Susanne (born '76, Bates '99, UVa Law, J.D. expected '02) and Ben (born '78, Bates '01). Joan delivered and defended her thesis (The United States and the European Balance of Power, 1890-1908) at about the same time she delivered Susanne. Joan is the director of a historical house museum in Weston, The Golden Ball Tavern. Jonathan is a stand-up comedian, writer and author (Bushisms, Self-Helpless), currently in New York writing for Jon Stewart and the Daily Show. Joel runs Peranet, a tech company in Dallas, is married to Audrey Dalas (Bates '92) and has a daughter, Lily, two-and-one-half. Susanne expects to return to Boston to start her legal career. Ben, who was captain of the Bates baseball team and set several offensive Bates baseball records (most doubles, most extra base hits), has given up hitting fastballs for a special Raytheon management training program in Dallas. Coaching youth baseball, squash, skiing and flying my airplane (a Mooney Ovation2) are my main diversions.
I have always been proud of my MIT degree, but not always proud of MIT. On the good side, the accomplishments of the faculty and students are so extraordinary and varied it's impossible to keep up, and MIT's product continually reaffirms my optimism about the future of the human race. It's the carping about either or both the motives and the acts (or omissions) of the government, society and business – often enough found in the pages of TR, incidentally – that irritates me. And it's the failure to take better care of the mental health and well being of students that disappoints me. I am astonished by and appreciative of the good fortune I have experienced."
After reading my pleas I know you'll all be inspired to sit down at your computers and send me an E-mail so I can let your classmates know what you've been up to these last 38 years or 38 days. Your messages will arrive in January and February when I have plenty of news from Alumni Fund notes. I'll stretch out my material to last several issues. You'll be annoyed that your item hasn't appeared promptly, so it will be 7 years before you write again. By the summer I'll have no news at all. And the vicious cycle continues.
Please be kind to your class secretary when you receive his E-Mail solicitations. Even better, send him some news during the dog days of July, August and September. Incidentally, you can see the Class Notes on our alumni web site (http://alumweb.mit.edu/classes/1963/) months before it appears in Technology Review. Class Webmaster Ron Young is very diligent about getting the Class Notes up promptly.
In the November Tech Review and on the web site we had a picture of the MIT freshman basketball team. It's a period piece. We look like ... well ... we look like freshman. If you have an interesting picture from our MIT days send it to me, and I'll try to get it published. Scan the picture in at high resolution and use JPG format – send it as an E-mail attachment. If you don't have a scanner, send me the picture, I'll scan it and return the original to you. And, by the way Happy New Year!
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.