MIT Class of 1963, Class Notes for the July/August 2007
issue of Technology Review
This month I find myself in an unusual situation for a class secretary. Because of your response to Class Webmaster *Ron Young's E-mail, Class Sleuth *Rick Merrill's indefatigable efforts at tracking down "lost" classmates, and some Christmas Newsletters I received from you I have more material than I can squeeze into this Class Notes column. If your item doesn't appear here it will appear in subsequent columns. Keep those cards and letters comin' in! Hahaha, how 20th century. Of course almost all of your news comes by E-mail these days. After all, it's the 21st century.
*Bill Barnett let me know that his book, Inside the Economist’s Mind: Conversations with Eminent Economists, co-written with Paul Samuelson, has been released by Blackwell Publishing. The interviews in the book were acquired over a period of 10 years in a project that Bill initiated as part of his role as Editor of the Cambridge University Press journal, Macroeconomic Dynamics. The participants included eight Nobel Laureates, a former Federal Reserve Board Chairman, the current Governor of the Bank of Israel, a former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, and other eminent economists from Europe and America. The book contains inside information and revelations of a sort not previously available. Those participants who are currently, or were previously, MIT professors include Paul Samuelson, Franco Modigliani, Olivier Blanchard, Robert Solow, and Stanley Fischer. The book, which is being widely marketed to the public, has its own website at www.item-book.org (lots of interesting info here) and its own blog at economistmind.blogspot.com.
Carl Rosenthal, who wrote that he was originally Class of '63, but, after a period of poor academic performance, is officially Class of '65, noticed my note about *Fred Shirley in the January 2007 Class Notes. Carl thought we might be interested in seeing Fred's work and passed along Fred's website www.nhmountainhiking.com. On it Fred has photos from hundreds of mountains in New Hampshire. You don't have to be a hiker or mountaineer, or even a photographer, to recognize great work.
*Patricia Sherman told us that she officially carries a class of 63 tag in the MIT alumni records, but she is an architect who did her degree the hard way. She was originally class of 1959, but entered in 1954 since IV-A was a 5-year degree. She left in her 3rd year, got a Bachelor of Arts degree and returned to the Institute and finished her Bachelor of Architecture in 1963. Patricia retired in November 2006 from Warrenstreet Architects (WAI) in Concord, New Hampshire. She and a partner started WAI in 1990 at the depth of an economic slump and created a successful 10-person firm. Before that Patricia worked in a series of firms in Cambridge and New Hampshire. She has been active in the AIA on the state and national levels and retirement has not diminished that role.
Here are a few other classmates who have been located this year, with information in varying amounts of detail. After graduating MIT in course 15 *Peter Gustafson got an MBA at University of Chicago, then went into computers at Ford Motor Company. Today he's living in Wyncote, PA and has four grandchildren. *Woldemariam Wolde-Ghiorgis, course 6, is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. After MIT, *Richard Phillips, course 3, studied bioengineering at the University of Utah, then worked on transcutaneous energy transmission systems at the Technical University of Vienna, Austria, in 1988. He also worked on characterization of silicon epitaxial layers at IBM Corp and Sprague Electric. After operating a BMW motorcycle dealership in Burlington, VT, he worked for GE in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. He has continued to work on energy transmission at Link Research, Salt Lake City, UT where he lives today. *Charles Lopez, courses 8 and 18, is living in Manhasset, NY. *Alan Law, course 1, is living in Saint Lazare, Quebec, Canada and is involved in equestrian events. *Allan Kessler, course 14, got a PhD in Political Science from MIT, course 17. He lives in Hartford City, IN and works in the real estate industry. *Lou Thompson, course 10, responded to Ron Young's E-mail, but didn't send any details.
*John Wawrzonek's company, Lightsong Fine Art, in Northborough, MA produces fine photographic prints of New England locales. Check John's website at www.lightsongfineart.com to see his work. *Max Chandler continues to make art with robots in Scottsdale, AZ. The robots are tools that increase the mathematical precision of the marks in his pieces and create opportunities for random and beneficial accidents. A strong influence of Asian art, especially calligraphy, is evident in Max's work -- you can see what he's doing at www.maxchandler.com. Click on the visual blog link to see some interesting pieces. Are you surprised to see your names here? Perhaps some of you who are mentioned rather sketchily above could send us some details about what you did after MIT and what you are doing today.
Next column I'll have some updates from Lyla and *David Johnson, *Jack Solomon, and a great story from *Henry Nau about his class ring.
In the March issue of Technology Review I mentioned the passing of our classmate *Larry Coppola. Lenny Goodman '62 wrote to share some memories. Larry went to the Roxbury Latin School, while Lenny went to the Boston Latin School. There is a rivalry between the two schools as to which has been around longest. Lenny described Larry as a "prince of a guy"; they started MIT together in the fall of 1958, but Larry finished with us in 1963. They often lunch together and studied for 6.08 quizzes in the fall of 1961. Lenny said he was envious of his friend because Larry worked part time at Fenway Park during his MIT years, and got to see most of the home games.
*Robert Ratonyi wrote that our classmate *Howard Leibowitz passed away in September 2006 at his home in Flanders, NJ. After getting an MBA at Syracuse Howard's career included 23 years with Corning, 3 years as COO of Grant Industries in West Nyack, NY, and ten years as VP of engineering for Nabisco in East Hanover, NJ before "retiring" at the end of 2000. Recently he was been a VP and consultant with Manchester doing executive coaching and leadership development. Howard was an accomplished jazz pianist and he performed with a number of bands in local establishments. Over the years Robert and Howard organized their Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity reunion in conjunction with the 5-year MIT reunions; Robert says Howie will be missed in 2008. Our condolences to Howard's widow Eileen and the rest 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