Here it is 13 months since our 45 year reunion, and I'm still mining that rich vein of information for our class notes. I talked at some length to *Ron Walter after the Tech Night at the Pops performance, and he filled me in on his doings since we graduated. Ron remained at MIT through June of 1972, as an Assistant Professor of Urban Studies, and a faculty resident in Random Hall and Burton-Conner. He married Marilyn, now his wife of 39 years, in 1970. After a brief stop at Harvard for a degree in public health, Ron and Marilyn moved to New York City to join the administration of mayor Abe Beam just before the 1970's financial crisis broke. [Good timing Ron! … or, maybe it was an opportunity.] He served as assistant director of the budget, assistant to the mayor and as Deputy Chancellor and chief business officer for the school system. In 1979 Ron joined Citibank (banks were the only places that were hiring people with such strange backgrounds, Ron told me) and, after working several jobs there, he managed some of the bank's investments -- the retirement funds and a venture capital portfolio -- for about 15 years. Marilyn has been Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School for over 25 years, and has no plans to retire. Ron, on the other hand, has been retired for two years -- traveling, studying, etc. In February he started an 11 week culinary techniques course at the French Culinary Institute. The Walters have two daughters. Alison, 21, is a junior, studying acting at Ithaca College, now at Ithaca's London center. Amy, 35, is a graduate of Penn and the Kellogg School of Business, married to Chuck Szymanski, and the mother of nine month old Maya. Amy & Chuck live in Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic, where Chuck, who pre-Maya was a World Bank consultant, runs an NGO. Ron and Marilyn live in the middle of the East River, on Roosevelt Island, and spend most weekends at their 1762 house in Berkshire County in western Massachusetts.
Sue Model recently retired from UMass, Amherst, so she and *Frank Model spent January to April here in Southern California, escaping the harsh winters of western Massachusetts. They rented a condo in Laguna Woods, a stone's throw from us, on the Avenida Castilla. While living here Frank noted an excess of words, especially place names, ending in "ia", "illa", or "ille", which are pronounced in more or less the same way. He created a character to illustrate his point; his character is Maria Padilla, who lives on the Via Castilla, near Avenida Seville and gets diarrhea from drinking too much sangria. Etc., etc. The Models spent a March weekend with us at our place in the San Diego backcountry, and we visited the nearby Palomar Observatory (where I gave them an "insider's tour") and Anza Borrego Desert State Park. Frank has been retired for several years and has become an excellent nature photographer, particularly of butterflies. It was peak wildflower season the day we visited Anza Borrego, and there were many butterflies in evidence. You can see some of Frank's photos by visiting his page on the Flickr web site at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fsmodel/collections/
Class President *Larry Krakauer informed me that at the next Alumni Leadership Conference in September he will be given the Harold E. Lobdell ’17 Distinguished Service Award. This award recognizes service to the Alumni Association and MIT that is of significant depth over a sustained period. As of July 1, 2008, 256 alumni have received this award. Larry has served as our class president for many, many years, and has been one of the driving forces organizing our reunions. This is the second consecutive year we've had a Lobdell Award winner; in 2008 Mark Epstein received that honor. And we've had other winners over the years, including *Christina Huk Jansen (1983), *Edwin Brush (1984), and *Bob Johnson (1993).
This item appears only in our on-line Class Notes column, as the Technology Review lead time is so long the event will be over by the time this news makes it into print. For those Class of 1963 Alums who lived in Baker House, you should know that on July 3-5, 2009 there is a celebration of the 60 years that Baker House has been a landmark on the MIT campus. The 60th MIT Baker House Reunion Committee is hoping to find a class of 1963 alum to act as liaison with the Committee to communicate details regarding this rapidly approaching event. If you are interested contact Henry Houh '89 (henry.houh@gmail.com) and Lola Ball '91 (lola@alum.mit.edu).
The MIT Museum is preparing an exhibit to celebrate the Institute's sesquicentennial in 2011. I remember celebrating at Centennial Weekend - seeing Pete Seeger perform for us at Sturbridge Village, and taking Barbara to the formal dance in Rockwell Cage. This exhibition aims to capture the Institute's unique qualities by involving you, and other, in the interpretation and presentation of its most treasured objects. These artifacts will show what's special about MIT - what makes its environment so distinctive and so good at producing innovative solutions for the world's challenges. The Museum encourages you to nominate your favorite pieces of Institute history for the MIT 150 Exhibition, which can best be done at the exhibition website, http://museum.mit.edu/150. All nominated artifacts will be showcased in an ongoing “virtual exhibition” on the website. The website lets you be a do-it-yourself curator - commenting on any nominated objects. Beginning this summer, you can aid in winnowing out 150 especially compelling and significant objects for display at the Museum, where the exhibition will open in January 2011. If you have questions contact Deborah Douglas, Curator of Science and Technology, at ddouglas@mit.edu or 617-253-1766
Sadly I have one passing to report this month. Gregory Staradub of Nashua, NH died April 20, 2008 in Boston. He was the son of Regina Staradub and the late Edward Staradub of Scottsdale, AZ, and husband of Cynthia Staradub of Nashua. He is survived by a son, daughter, 2 grandchildren and a sister. Greg was an engineer and a software engineering fellow at Sanders Associates (now BAE systems) for 26 years. He rounded out his career as a professor of mathematics and computer science at Daniel Webster College in Nashua, NH. After leaving MIT with an SB in mathematics, he received an MSEE from Lowell Tech (now Umass Lowell) in 1970. Our condolences to the family. If anyone has any personal reminiscences of Greg that they would like to share, please send them to me and I'll put them in the class notes.
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