MIT Class of 1963, Class Notes for November 2003 issue of Technology Review
I'm slowly working my way through the notes from our 40th Reunion, but it's enough for several columns. What a luxury to have more material than I can use in a month. If your name doesn't appear this time, I haven't forgotten. Friday afternoon of the Reunion I went to a reception for Course 8 (Physics) alums. *Stan Stokowski was there. Stan is at KLA-TenCor in San Jose, where he's director of advanced development in the field of reticles for semiconductor lithography. In the 90's, after many years in the MIT physics department, *Eric Cosman took over his family's medical device business. He told me that compared to academia, this is "a whole new world." I spotted *Ned Brush, but didn't get a chance to talk to him. *Tony Dralle is living in the Pittsburgh area. He's been at Bettis Atomic Power Labs for 34 years. These days he's doing programming, mostly in Fortran. He first learned Fortran in 6.41 at MIT. "It's still called Fortran," he said, "but it's evolved a lot." *Gene Sprouse is on the faculty at Stony Brook, still active in physics research, working on trapping cold atoms. Gene's wife H'y told Barbara that their son Steven is living in the Bay area, and their daughter Emi is in southern Florida, where she and her husband run a fly fishing business.
On the shuttle bus to dinner I chatted with Emma and *Calvin Yee, and *Harold Ingels. Harold was the best man at Calvin's wedding. Barbara discovered that Calvin grew up in the same Bronx neighborhood that she did, and they were at the same junior HS at the same time. Calvin went on to Stuyvesant HS while Barbara and I went to the rival Bronx HS of Science. After MIT Calvin worked for CBS, the management consulting firm of Drake Sheahan, Pathmark Supermarkets and Federated Department Stores, and for 21 years he and Emma were principals in their own software development company. Their daughter Wendy was MIT '92, son Edwin MIT '93. After many years in Columbus, Ohio, Calvin and Emma recently retired and moved to the Seattle area where they are enjoying history, travel, and their two grandchildren. *Frank Verlot and his wife Marian are living in Los Altos, CA. During cocktails before the Friday dinner with MIT President Charles Vest I saw *Sung Park, who I haven't seen since graduation. He came all the way from Korea. I met his wife, Yvonne, and daughter Millie, who works in Boston. Sung looked very trim. He's now semi-retired, and spends a lot of time hiking in the mountains of Korea, New Zealand, Nepal and other places. He serves on the boards of several companies and as chairman of one. Sung's son, Charles, was at the Pops on Saturday. For the last 7 years *Mike Merel has been a partner in an engineering and electrical consulting practice in Chicago. Until 1982 he owned a mechanical contracting business. Mike has a daughter in NY who has given him 2 grandchildren, and another daughter in Chicago, who is finishing a fellowship in gastroenterology, and is the mother of a 7 month old son. *Hatem Mostafa and his wife, Janet, divide their year between their homes in Pasadena and Cairo. They keep a boat in Newport Beach, and enjoy sailing along the California coast. They have 2 children, and expect to become grandparents for the first time early in 2004. Congratulations! Hatem is on the board of the American University in Cairo, and is active in the planning of the new, expanded campus being built there. After dinner I talked with *Frank Cocks. He and his wife, Pamela, are living in the Triangle area in North Carolina. Frank is in the mechanical engineering department at Duke. For the last 10 years *Woody Bowman has taught at Depaul University. Prior to that he spent 14 years in the Illinois legislature, and 4 years in government in Cook County. Woody and his wife Michelle live near Chicago.
Saturday morning Barbara and I had breakfast outside the Stratton Center with *Tom Anderson and his wife, Juli. Tom is semi-retired from a career in civil engineering in the Seattle/Tacoma area. They have a son 31, a daughter 24, and are in the process of adopting a grandnephew, age 20 months. That must make them the most recent new parents in the class of 1963. We were eating breakfast with the Andersons when our daughter Amy Candell MIT '87 and her husband, Larry Candell MIT '88 came by with Allison age 5 (MIT 2020?) and Jeffrey (MIT 2023?) almost 3. It was better than showing grandchild photos. Our family bumped into *Bob Kurtz's family at the Stratton Center too. I met Bob's son, Michael, 10, and his grown daughters Holly and Elizabeth. Elizabeth has a twin sister, Amy. I told Michael that Bob had been invited to Barbara's sweet 16 party, but I had not, and that I had a photo to prove it. Bob's wife, Ketly Michel, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Cornell Medical Center in NY, was in New York, receiving a professional award. *Tony Fiory,after many years at Bell Labs, is on the physics faculty of the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Next we went with Amy and Larry to the Class of 1988 Barbeque in Building 10 where we ran into Elaine and Alec Jessiman MIT '88. Alec, who DOES go to class reunions, told me that his dad, *Bill Jessiman, who DOESN'T go to class reunions, is still with American Airlines in Dallas, organizing crew scheduling. Although I haven't seen Bill since we graduated, I've met his grandchildren, Grace 4, Celia 2, and John, 2-1/2 weeks.
At our luncheon on Saturday, *Paul Cohen, *Pat O'Neil and *Jim Reisa entertained us as the IOXI trio. The group's name was derived from some of the more obscure letter grades used back then; it stood for two incompletes on the part of two of the members, sandwiched around "O" and "X" grades earned by the third. If you haven't seen the recent film about a reunion of 60's era folk singers, "A Mighty Wind", rent the video – Paul, Pat and Jim are MIT's own Mighty Wind. Many of us joined in singing old favorites like "When the Saints Go Marchin' In", and we chuckled when they sang "The Song of the Salvation Army." *Fran Dyro taught at Temple and Harvard until 1993 when she retired. She thought she'd go home to Maine where she could concentrate on writing dirty books. She did for a while, until New York Medical College came calling. For the last few years she's been teaching at their Westchester, NY campus. She says it better than writing books, it's living in paradise; the campus is in Valhalla, NY. Hahaha Fran. During lunch Fran got together with 4 of the other 13 women who graduated with our class, *Ruth (Entine) Nelson, *Pat (Selby) Marzilli, *Cynthia (Kolb) Whitney, and *Betty (Hall) O'Neil. Betty is married to Pat O'Neil. Their daughter Kathy is a postdoc in the math department, and is married to a math professor at MIT. More reunion stories next issue.
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.