MIT Class of 1963, Class Notes for May/June 2006 issue of
Technology Review
*Ron Alpert writes that he retired 2 years ago from FM Global after nearly 35 years of conducting fire safety engineering research, so that he and Judy could live full-time in their Rockport, MA vacation home (see rockportusa.com for views of the neighborhood). As a consultant and editor now (Journal of Fire Protection Engineering; a section of the NFPA Fire Protection Handbook) he is still very active in the fire engineering field, working for clients and representing the US in the ISO fire safety engineering subcommittee. Ron and Judy began to travel by 5th-wheel RV about a year ago so they could take their beloved sheltie along on vacations. Some of their travel plans had to be revised when their first grandchild, Amanda Lauren Considine, arrived at the end of November. Ron says that he already has the feeling that grandparenthood is going to be a very enjoyable experience.
Here are some items that have been sitting in my "in basket" for a while, waiting for a column that wasn't bumping up against the class secretaries' word limit. The news may be a slow in coming out, but here it is. *Jack Solomon retired from a long career with Praxair, the industrial gas company, on June 30, 2005. He's still involved in the Vision 2020 CCR, a group Jack led that wrote an R&D roadmap for the chemical industry (nanotechnology in particular), and with the Council for Chemical Research. You may remember Jack as an avid tennis player. Well, he's still playing and umpiring. The team Jack is on went to the USA League Tennis National Championships in 2003. He has umped at the qualifying rounds for the US Open and he says he has some good John McEnroe stories from his umpiring days with World Team Tennis. Jack's wife Jan retired from teaching but she teaches CPR and first aid for fun. Jack has three daughters; here's an update. His oldest daughter, Sheri, got a master's in school counseling in 2004 and lives in Carpenteria, CA. His middle daughter, Lysa, got married in July 2005. His youngest daughter lives in Somerville, MA about a mile from Harvard Square. Her boyfriend works at MIT in the Environmental, Safety and Heath group so Jack gets to hear some about the goings on at MIT. He can be reached at jacksolomon1@Gmail.com. *Joseph Hanlon reviewed plays in THE TECH at MIT during his senior year. About 1965 he came back to Boston from Tulane with a master's degree in Math, to work on a doctorate in particle physics at Tufts. In 1966 he founded Boston After Dark a four-page arts-and-entertainment alternative newsweekly. Today it is called The Boston Phoenix (http://thephoenix.com/) and it is one of the largest publications of its kind in the country. *Hugo Benschop retired from the Bell System and wound up working for Verizon. He lives in Scarsdale, NY. *Max Chandler studied art in Taiwan after graduating from MIT. He wrote his thesis in Chinese! Today he makes art with robots in Scottsdale, AZ. He would love to exhibit his art at MIT gatherings etc. Max has a fine web site at http://www.maxchandler.com. On the site he says he uses the robots to extend the kind of marks that can be made. The robots are tools that increase the mathematical precision of the marks and create opportunities for random and beneficial accidents. A strong influence of Asian art, especially calligraphy, is evident in Max's work. You can contact him at max@maxchandler.com.
Our classmate *Donald Reed, of Georgetown, MD, died suddenly January 14, 2006 at home. Don graduated with BS and MS degrees in Course 16 (Aerospace Engineering) and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He worked for several years at Hughes Aircraft in California, then moved to Maryland and began a 35-year career with Thiokol. His first project at Thiokol was as a solid rocket engineering analyst of gas dynamics, structural and thermal behaviors, and trajectories, where he developed a series of computer performance programs that are still used today. He authored many technical papers and reports, one paper winning a national AIAA award. At Thiokol, Don became Director of Engineering and led a multi-disciplinary team of rocket scientists responsible for conceiving rocket motors and controllable gas generators for commercial and defense related applications that continue to lead the industry in the 21st century. He contributed significantly to the design of the rocket motors used on missions to the moon, Venus, Mars, and the only four spacecraft that have explored the solar system beyond Pluto. Don retired in 2001. He was a member of the Maryland & Delaware Association of Professional Engineers and the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. In his spare time Don was a private pilot and enjoyed boating on the Sassafras River. Our condolences to his wife Joan, his two sons, and other members of his family.
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