MIT Class of 1963, Class Notes for the March/April 2008 issue of Technology Review
If you are reading this in March our 45th reunion is only 3 months away, June 5 to 8. Don't leave things for the last minute … make your plans to attend now. At our 40th reunion I kept bumping into classmates that I hadn't seen since our days at the Institute, one after another. And I renewed friendships with people that I've seen at previous reunions. As I started talking to one person, there was another old friend, then another. We are older, but still full of the same piss and vinegar that is characteristic of MIT students then and now. For better or for worse (mostly for better, I think) MIT left its mark on us, and the life we shared comes to the forefront on reunion weekends. It was an incredible, almost over-stimulating, hard to explain feeling. Come back to the campus this June for our 45th and experience it.
I'm writing these notes in early November, so here's some ancient history. I had a Halloween evening call from *Martin Schrage, our Reunion Gift Chair. Martin told me about an MIT Alumni Travel Program trip to Chile that he and his wife, Karen Mathiasen, Sloan '71, made in January 2007. The trip was led by Ed Bertschinger, the new head of MIT's Physics Department. Martin said that Ed is a Cal Tech guy, but he was good tour leader in spite of that. The group visited the European Southern Observatory at Cerro Paranal with its four 8 meter telescopes, and the Las Campanas Observatory with the two 6.5 meter Magellan Telescopes; MIT is a partner in Las Campanas. During the trip the group spotted a spectacular naked eye comet that was visible only in the southern hemisphere. In 2005 Martin and Karen did an MIT solar eclipse trip to Turkey led by Professor Hale Bradt '61. Martin is working on a new business venture, ReActive Traffic Controls, making a microwave radar system to monitor traffic at intersections. The radar is mounted on traffic light booms as an alternative to the less than reliable in-ground inductive sensors. One state transportation agency said that at any one time 1/3 of the inductive sensors are out of service, 1/3 are erratic, and 1/3 are working properly. I can vouch for that! Repairing these sensors is costly and disrupts traffic flow. Another alternative, video cameras, has its own set of problems. A video system can't look west in the late afternoon, into the setting sun. The cameras are obscured by fog, and the lenses need periodic cleaning. So perhaps in the coming years we'll see ReActive microwave radars at the 180,000 intersections in the U.S and 300,000 world wide. Finally, since it was Halloween eve, Martin told me a scary Halloween story. After MIT Martin rented a house in Newton with *Peter Van Aken and *Woody Bowman. He and Peter were out on Halloween, but Woody passed out candy to the neighborhood trick-or-treaters. As the night wore on fewer and fewer youngsters came to the house. Some time after 9 PM the doorbell rang, and when Woody opened it he was confronted with several young women in costume, definitely not grade school trick-or-treaters. Woody was caught off guard; he had to decide whether to give them a piece of candy or invite them in for a martini. To this day we don't know what decision he made. Is this story true, or is it urban legend? You decide.
In the last Technology Review I had wrote about a trip that *Bob Vernon, *Dennis Buss, and others from the National Champion Lightweight Crew of 1962 made to the 2007 Henley Regatta. Now Bob has written a book about the 1962 season, and the trip to the 2007 visit to Henley; you can find it on-line at http://alumweb.mit.edu/classes/1963/AHenleyMemoir.shtml Bob's writing is light and breezy and the book is a quick read, with great pictures. Bob said he thought the book would be only of interest to rowing alums, but I said that there was broad interest in crew. Take a look.
The fires that raked over Southern California in late October didn't leave the Bertin family unscathed. Some of you know that Barbara and I have a piece of property in a place called Mesa Grande, in the San Diego County backcountry. It's an isolated, heavily wooded hide-away in the mountains between the coastal plain and the Anza Borrego Desert. Our little house has no phone and no cell phone reception. We spend a few days there every few weeks taking walks, looking up at the stars, watching the birds at the feeders beyond our house, and napping. It's a good place to go to get sane. On Sunday, October 21 we were headed home just as the "Witch" fire (200,000 acres burned) was breaking out. We thought our area was safe, because at first the Santa Ana winds blew the fire down the mountain, away from us and toward the town of Ramona. But later that night the strong winds blew down an SDG&E power pole on our property, igniting a local blaze. The wind raked the fire over our property, burning the grasses and low brush, incinerating 2 storage sheds full of tools and supplies, and melting the above ground part of our water supply system. A neighbor told us that a 40 foot wall of flames was shooting up out of our little valley. Dozens of old oak trees burned and toppled over. One fell on our house, poking a hole into our bedroom. The fire burned within 10 feet of the house on all sides, but somehow the house itself didn't burn. Then it roared up a ridge, and burned the houses of three neighbors less than a mile from us. The devastation was terrible. Later in the week, the Poomacha/Palomar Fire threatened the Mount Palomar Observatory not far from us. Fire fighters were bivouacked under the dome of the 200 inch Hale Telescope, and the Observatory's million gallon water tank was used to help the firefighters save the homes in the mountain community. Then fire blew back up onto Mesa Grande, approaching within a few miles of our place. We thought we were going to be burned again. Luckily for us the wind died down -- we were spared. Fire is a constant threat in the backcountry. It's a dry forest and chaparral environment, and gusty winds blow the embers everywhere. We don't command much firefighter attention because of the rugged terrain and the lack of water. We've experienced several fires in the 20 years we've had this place, but this is the first time we were burned. Luckily all we had was property damage. We've got a big mess to clean up, and it will take a long time, but we're already working on restoring our hideaway.
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