MIT Class of 1963, Class Notes for the November/December
2006 issue of Technology Review
Barbara and I just returned from the wedding of Sandy Auerback and *Victor Scheinman. The ceremony was held August 5 at the faculty club at Stanford, where Vic is a consulting professor of mechanical engineering. A strong MIT contingent included Violette and *Ira Blumenthal who flew in from North Carolina. *Joel Zimmerman drove up from Los Angeles. Elly and *John Graham drove down from Marin County and Dee and *Tony Geisler came from the East Bay community of Diablo. Other MIT alums were there too, people who know Vic from his work in robotics. Victor and Sandy have been dating for 17 years, and they took a lot of kidding about how long it has taken them to tie the knot. Sandy has been to 3 MIT reunions, more than many members of our class. Vic's son David told a story about Vic's sailing exploits, and his daughter, Tenaya, told us about how Vic and Sandy met. Back in 1989 Stanford Bachelors sponsored a party that Vic and Sandy attended. They were fascinated to find that both their fathers had been psychiatrists, and they were so engrossed in conversation that they didn't notice the party was ending until the coat check attendant, wanting to go home, interrupted them. Sandy remembers saying, "This has been great. We'll have to get together some time." Vic's response was not what she expected. "I'll have to think about it," he said. "Stanford bachelors are in high demand. We can't be too easy," he said with a laugh, recalling that evening. That wasn't the reason he initially gave Sandy, though. Vic explained that he didn't want to drive more than 15 minutes from his home in Woodside to see a woman. Sandy was 45 minutes away, in San Francisco. "So he said he had to think about it," Sandy said. "He's a ponderer." He called her the next day. Last February as Sandy's birthday approached she made a suggestion. "Instead of having a 60th birthday party, why don't we get married and have a wedding party." Vic's response, "Why not? You're talking to an engineer," he added, "not a romanticist." In spite of that I think it's a romantic story.
*Dick Males' younger son, Nathaniel, has been living and surfing in Southern California for the last year. Nathaniel's girlfriend was graduating from UCLA with a master's degree, so Dick and his wife, Barbara, came out for the ceremony. One weekday Dick, Barbara and Nathaniel drove down from LA to Irvine for lunch. I had last seen Nathaniel 20 years ago when he was a cute kid with a pet ferret. His resemblance to Dick at the same age, mid 20's, is remarkable. He's a clone of his father.
One of the pleasures of being class secretary is getting calls or E-mails from classmates that I didn't know at MIT. The bond we formed at the Institute is so strong that it's easy to talk to classmates that I didn't know. We were formed in the same cauldron. In May I wrote about the passing of *Don Reed; in June *Lewis Shulman called me with some stories about Don. Lewis graduated MIT in course XVI, Aero-Astro, and did grad work at Princeton. He was shocked by the faculty attitudes at Princeton. MIT professors engaged undergraduates; the Princeton faculty carried "Do Not Approach" signs. It was culture shock. After school Lewis worked for Avco in Maryland. In 1967 he interviewed with Thiokol, and Don Reed was his interviewer. Lots of projects were mentioned in the interview, but when Lewis joined Thiokol he found the work pretty routine. Still, he said, working with Don Reed was a pleasure. Don had a shy, diffident manner, yet he was engaging and his intelligence showed through. Lewis told me that "When Don said something it was pithy and worth waiting for." Lewis and Don had other things in common too. Lewis grew up in Newark, NJ. One friend's family had a plane at the Parsippany, NJ airport, and Lewis learned to fly as a teenager. Don's father was a farmer and he was a flier too. While growing up in New Jersey Lewis was friendly with another MIT classmate and course XVI major, our class webmaster, *Ron Young. Both families summered at the New Jersey shore, where Lewis and Ron learned to fish. After some years Lewis left engineering to join his family's fuel oil business in New Jersey. When the business was sold, he pursued his avocation, remodeling homes, as a vocation for over 20 years. He really enjoyed the work. Several times his projects were featured in home and garden magazines. He told me an illustrative story about a project he was doing in a local home, rewiring the porch lights. The woman who owned the home returned while Lewis was at work on the porch table, but didn't disturb him. She said he looked so peaceful and engrossed, so different from her husband, who hated his office job. About 2 years ago Lewis retired, and he and his wife moved from Elizabeth, NJ to an over 55 community in Franklin Township, NJ. Lewis is on the architectural committee there, and the Shulmans are enjoying their new life.
Sadly I have to report the death of our classmate *Ted Cohn, this past May 25. Ted had recently been a faculty member at UC Berkeley. Our condolences to his wife, Barbara, and the rest of his family. I don't have more information, but you have remembrances of Ted that you'd like to share please send them to me.
This is usually a pretty dry time of year for us class secretaries, but I'm in the unusual situation of having more information than I can fit here. I'll parcel out the other information over the next several columns. I'll close with this story about me. In July, Pete Sexton '65, organized a mini-reunion for his classmates, including Bill Mooseker, John Berry, Mark Haber, and Gary Williams. I called to say hello, and spoke to Bill. He told me this story about myself. It was about a day in the spring of our senior year, a memory I had completely repressed. A group of us drove to Santoro's Subs in Cambridge for sandwiches. I was sitting on the hood of Bill's car eating my sub when a car full of local toughs cruised slowly by us. One of them yelled over at me, "What are you lookin' at?" "Your face," I responded. The guy was out of the car at light speed and popped me right in the nose. I went down like a limp rag. Afterwards Bill remembered how indignant I was, and remembered me saying "If we were in Texas I could have shot the b***." Today a smart aleck remark like that could get a person killed. I guess I learned at least one thing in my time at MIT. Keep your mouth shut if you've got nothing nice to say.
Regards to all. Hope you've all got nice things to say these days. You can reach me at: Mike Bertin, 22 Gillman St, Irvine, CA 92612. MCB1@aol.com. If you want to schmooze, call me at (949) 786-9450