MIT Class of 1963, Class Notes for February 2006 issue of
Technology Review
*James McCloskey*, a 1963 Course 5 PhD recipient, was honored this past June by the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. James received the Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry award for his fundamental contributions to nucleic acid analysis. Since the late 1960s, his work has focused on the analysis of nucleic acids and modified RNA, with over 200 publications on this subject. The citation identified James as a leader in the practice of mass spectrometry, and said that he has provided the scientific community with a wealth of understanding, methods, and creative leadership. Congratulations.
Our class sleuth, *Rick Merrill*, has been busy finding classmates that the MIT alumni association has lost track of. He recently found *Richard Waldman*, a course 10 grad (chemical engineering in case you forgot), now a pediatrician in Whiteville, NC. Rick urges others to join in the search. You can find out who in our class is "missing" (i.e. the alumni association doesn't have current contact information) by looking at our class web page http://alumweb.mit.edu/classes/1963/ and clicking on the "Missing Persons Page" link. Our web page has a treasure trove of information about our class history, pictures from past reunions, class member websites, reunion row stories, and class notes, etc. Kudos to our long-time class webmaster, *Ron Young*.
*Jack Lynch* retired from MIT Lincoln Lab in 1996 to pursue a career of research and writing in cognitive science. Jack's series of three books, "I Am Not a Machine" present an analog model of animal thinking, natural language and human cognition that challenges mainstream cognitive science views by showing how natural language is not just a means of communication but is essential to human thought and reason. The books are available at online stores but not in street-front bookstores. Book I, subtitled "Thinking Without Words", develops a model of the languageless cognition of animals and humans. Book II, subtitled "Thinking With Words", describes how language supports human cognition. Book III, subtitled "Rethinking Cognitive Psychology", deals with the chemical, structural, emotional and developmental aspects of human cognition. The books address questions like, "Can animals think?", compelling us to be specific about what we mean by thinking. Jack argues in Book I that animals can "think" but that to characterize what is going on we need to understand how animals represent the physical world they live in. Shedding our anthropomorphic metaphors about thinking is a major challenge that Book I addresses; it requires us to develop new ways of modeling cognition. A second question, "What is human thought?" is deceptive because people tend to answer it by giving examples or metaphors such as “Thinking is problem solving,” “It’s being creative” or “It’s computation.” In Book II Jack shows that human thinking is animal thinking (primary cognition) plus natural language (English, Farsi, whatever) and their interaction. Developing a model of human thought is challenging and fun for both scientists and nonscientists. You can learn more about Jack's research at his website, http://www.notamachine.org/.
Here's another stories from our Class of 1963 minireunion last June at Dee and *Tony Geisler's* house in Diablo, CA. I call this story "How Tony Almost Became a Lawyer." Tony's MIT degree is from Course 15, Management. But as his MIT time was winding down and after consulting with his parents Tony decided his career was going to be in law. In the spring of 1963 he applied to law school at Stanford, UCLA, and Boalt Hall (UC Berkeley). He was accepted at UCLA and UCB, and he decided on Boalt Hall. That summer of 1963 he spent relaxing as the tennis counselor at Camp Chickasaw in Maine, while his parents sold the ancestral home in Tenafly, NJ and moved to the San Francisco Bay area. In the fall Tony joined them and prepared to enter law school. He attended the first week of classes and was on line (in its original meaning) to pay his tuition when he had second thoughts. He was one person away from the cashier's window when he decided that in fact law school was not for him, and he got off the line and went home. To this day Tony says he's glad he wasn't accepted at Stanford - he might have become a lawyer. Now it's late September and Tony needed a job. He entered the management training program at American Can Corp, but he could see that this too was not quite right. At MIT his major was Course 15, but his minor was Course 20, food technology. When the graduate program of course 20 offered him an assistantship while he got his master's degree Tony returned to Cambridge. The work he was getting paid to do became his thesis project. Another project Tony worked on during his return to Cambridge was the resumption of a relationship with a Wellesley student he had dated as an undergrad. Later a friend who knew both this young woman and Dee, Tony's wife of 37 years, told Tony he had certainly made the right choice. Tony's two daughters, Rebecca, MIT '93 and Wendy, who attended MIT before getting her bachelor's degree at UTEP, agree. Armed with his master's degree Tony entered a 40-year career in the food industry. He was in the food brokerage business, selling dried fruits, nuts, some organically grown fruits, and lecithin, mostly from Modesto in central, CA and later from Diablo, CA. In 2002 he sold his business and retired to start an active life of travel, golf and community activities. Daughter Wendy is married to Robert Fong, MIT '92, and lives in Albuquerque, NM with her family. Wendy and Rob have made Tony and Dee grandparents twice (Valerie, age 5 and Julian, age 2). Daughter Rebecca lives in Torrance, CA and is a lawyer for Pioneer Electronics, so at least someone in the family got to practice law. (I've got more stories from the Geisler files to amuse you with as space permits.)
Sadly we note that *Rick (Fredric) Egendorf* passed away in June 2005 in Palm Desert, CA after a year-long struggle with cancer. During his MIT years Rick was a course 2 major and a resident of Burton House. After graduation he moved to California to work for Rocketdyne. He started at Hughes Aircraft in 1966 and was a computer systems engineer for most of his career. In 2002 Rick retired from Hughes/Raytheon. He and his wife, Judy, sold their Tustin, CA home and moved to Sun City in Palm Desert, CA, where he was active in the community. Rick is survived by his wife, Judy, his son, Paul, a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, and his daughter, Laura, a graduate of Wesleyan University. Our condolences to the family.
In the last few columns I've printed notes about the life odysseys of several classmates. Send me your stories to share with other members of our class - particularly those of you who read this column but haven't written in since we graduated.
Regards to all. 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