Class Notes for Technology Review 2001
Read the notes for the entire year, or click to jump to
the desired column.
Note: This spring, Technology Review went to publishing monthly, with
class and course notes in alternate months.
January/February 2001
April 2001
June 2001
July 2001
September 2001
November 2001
January / February 2001
Hello Class of 1977. Unfortunately, we have only one news item, covered in the separate
article. Mark Beckham
died suddenly of cardiac arrhythmia on July 25, 2000. Our condolences to his wife, Cindy Carlson Beckham, and their
two sons.
Please send news to Barbara Crane, 3130 Paseo
Road, Colorado Springs, CO 80909, BarbaraCrane@alum.mit.edu,
or call 719.471.2877. Thank
you.
|
Mark
Beckham
1954 – 2000
Mark Beckham, son of Anna & Dow
Beckham, an avid marathon runner who had been in excellent
health, died suddenly July 25, 2000, at age 45.
Mark was born and raised in Coos Bay, Oregon.
Although Mark initially planned to go to Harvard as an
undergraduate, a visit to MIT while a high school senior quickly
helped him to change his mind. While
at MIT, Mark was active in ATO, serving as pledge trainer and rush
chairman. He also gave
campus tours and played drums in the jazz band. Mark worked with Professor Harleman in the water resources lab,
and focused on environmental topics while earning his SB and SM
degrees in Civil Engineering.
Following graduation from MIT, Mark worked as a
consultant with Bain & Co., and then attended Harvard Business
School, graduating in 1981. Mark
did consulting with the Boston Consulting Group and Schubert
Associates prior to founding his own company, USA Research, a
consulting firm specializing in the research and analysis of computer,
communications, and biotechnology companies. Mark served as president of USA Research from 1984 to the
present. His wife, who worked with him, is continuing operation of the
business, which is based in Portland, Oregon.
Mark originally met his wife, Cynthia (Cindy)
Carlson, in 1976 on the exchange bus while she studied at Wellesley.
They were friends, but lost touch until 1985, when they
reconnected and then married. They
have two sons, Willy (6 ½) and Danny (4 ½).
Mark Beckham, skiing with sons Danny & Willy
In addition to his wife and sons, Mark is
survived by his parents and brothers Stephen and David. A scholarship fund to assist undergraduate Civil Engineering
students has been established at MIT in Mark’s memory. Contact ccarlson@usaresearch.com
for more information. A
memorial service is planned at the MIT Chapel on Saturday, Oct 14, at
1:00 pm. Jazz band alumni
and current members are especially invited. –Barbara
Crane |
April 2001
June 2001
Hello class of 1977! By the time you read this, we’ll be just one year from our 25th
reunion. The reunion begins
with Tech Night at the Pops on Thursday the 6th of June, 2002.
Commencement is on the 7th, and Technology Day is the 8th.
A new event (for me) is the Great Court Gala on Saturday night. A tent will be set up over the Great Court, and a swing band provides
entertainment while we will enjoy dessert and coffee. A piano bar in the Bush Room, and a disco in Lobby 13 complete the
gala! Sunday brings the class
rowing competition, the Tech Games, and Techsas Barbecue. Our 20th reunion was a delightful weekend, so save the
dates for our 25th – June 6-9, 2002.
Joann Ivester and others have organized a
reunion for Shakespeare Ensemble alumni, Friday, June 8, from 6:00 to
10:00pm in the Taylor Room at the University Park Hotel near MIT. The reunion will include cocktails, buffet dinner, scenes by alumni
and social time. Actors,
directors, crew, etc. from the ensemble’s inception in 1974 through 1985
are welcome. Please make your
reservations by contacting Joann at jives78746@msn.com,
(512) 328-5311 or 1102 Sprague Lane, Austin TX 78746.
Paul Ackman will be leaving his family business
in 2001, traveling to Eastern Europe for a few months, then plans to return
to Richmond to begin a new career. Paul
welcomes travel tips and career leads, “I’m open to almost anything.”
Daniel Christman’s fifth son arrived safely in January 2000,
despite some risk factors. As of late 2000, “no additional siblings were yet on the
way.” Daniel has been with
SAIC for six years, and was recently promoted.
After five successful years as director of engineering
in a startup company commercializing new process technology, Steve
DeCicco left to pursue another interest. He is now a process improvement consultant with QualPro, Inc.,
working in CPI, telecomm, retail, banking and finance. Joe Egan is enjoying a fast-paced life with Warren, 1½,
Jenny, 11, and wife, Patty. He
recently moved to McLean, VA, and was appointed president of the
Non-Proliferation Trust International, Ltd www.nptinternational.com,
“the ultimate Technology & Policy project.”
Dr. Steven Bader had a great year in 2000.
Their family is growing, “my 12 year old son wants to go to MIT!” They have started mountain bking, “trying to get healthy in their
mid-40’s,” and are looking forward to the 25th reunion.
Dr. Walter Koltun is now Chief of Colon & Rectal Surgery
at Penn State College of medicine in Hershey, PA. David Emberson has recently been appointed Director of
Simulation Technologies at Sun Microsystems Laboratories. He writes “I’d love to tell you what that means, but I’d have
to kill you!”
Mark Isaacs just designed, built and moved into
a new home in an older neighborhood. He
has recently been recognized by the Louisville newspaper for “the hip,
cool $6 million worth of urban townhomes we are building, the $2M passive
solar, naturally daylit office building I designed, and the gas-electric
Toyota Prius I drive.” Dr.
Stephen Wilk’s book, Medusa: Solving
the Mystery of the Gorgon, has been published by Oxford University
Press. He is now director of
technology at Aotec in Southbridge, MA, and visiting scientis at George
Harrison Spectroscopy Lab. Geoffrey
Landis delivered a paper at the STAIF conference on a conceptual design
for a solar airplane to fly in the atmosphere of Venus. It was featured this February in the Albuquerque Journal and
Cleveland Plain-Dealer (links in the online version)
While attending the University of Utah in pursuit of a
MS in Computer Science, Bob Byard married the Karen Despain of Salt
Lake City in the Salt Lake Temple. They left Utah for Silicon Valley
where he worked for Hewlett-Packard, helping develop the RTE-VI OS for the
HP-1000 minicomputer. Their first daughter was born there. In 1981 he
changed employers to ESL of TRW, and worked in the defense industry.
They moved back to Utah and continued working for ESL until 1988 when the
Utah offices were closed. He worked at OEC Medical as the Software
Engineering Manager for five years, then worked a short stint with a medical
device startup company, then 6 years as a self-employed software contractor.
He recently took a position with the Utah Design Center of Micro Linear,
where he is developing software to support wireless networking chip design.
He and Karen now have 4 daughters ranging in age from 10 to 20, a house that
faces 10,000 foot mountain summits only five miles away, and a Sheltie puppy
named Molly. His mother and sister have moved out here and live only a
short walk away from us. “As much as I miss New England fall foliage,
I enjoy the optimism and vistas of the American West. Hello to my
brothers at Theta Xi, Delta chapter, and the Heavy Ion Research Group of the
Laboratory for Nuclear Science.”
That’s all for now—don’t forget to mark your
calendars for our 25th reunion! Barbara Crane, 3130 Paseo Road,
Colorado Springs, CO 80909 or BarbaraCrane@alum.mit.edu
July/August
2001
Hello class of 1977--No news this month; we’d love to
hear from you!
Please, take a moment to mark your calendars for our 25th
reunion. June 6 – 9, 2002. It will include Tech Night at the Pops, Commencement, Technology Day,
and the Tech Games & Barbecue. We
had a great time in 1997, and are looking forward to it. Barbara Crane, 3130 Paseo
Road, Colorado Springs, CO 80909 or BarbaraCrane@alum.mit.edu
September
2001
Hello
from a sunny day visiting my family in Texas! For a change, I’m visiting during just “normal” summer weather,
instead of the (for me) brutal heat of late summer.
John
Jaynes is still working as vice president, operations planning
& performance at American Eagle, American Airlines’ regional carrier,
“rest of my time is spent keeping up with two teenage daughters.” Dan
Fairweather is a senior materials engineer for Delphi Automotive Systems
in Flint, MI. He and his wife
of 21 years, Mary, have two children, daughter Becky and son Joe, both
attending the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Dan has become a deacon for the Diocese of Lansing Catholic Church.
Carlos
Acevedo sent e-mail, sharing news on a variety of fronts: “Well, I am finally
writing. I am living in
Puerto Rico, with my wife Debbie, and my three sons (pun intended), Omar (11), Javier (9) and David (4). I have been an
organizational development consultant for the past ten years, with a
specialization in Corporate Transformational programs.” After graduating, Carlos worked for Digital Equipment until 1990,
then became corporate quality director for a small electronics component
manufacturer, leaving after one year to dedicate himself to consulting and
training. He still plays tennis, but “not quite like I used to on the MIT
tennis team.” His hobby is gardening and growing trees in huge pots so
that he can give them away! “After years of struggle with being
overweight, I have developed a sideline which is very curious for an MIT
mechanical engineer: a transformational program for people with eating
problems! Puerto Rico is wonderful. Our biggest problem right now is that
part of the island is a practice range for the U.S. Navy, and alarmingly
high rates of cancer has been detected.”
Dr.
Alan Glombicki, just returned
from lobbying the U.S. Congress for National Institutes of Health Hepatology
Funding as the president of the American Liver Foundation of Texas. As associate professor of clinical medicine, University of Texas,
gastroenterology section, and principal investigator in numerous hepatitis
antiviral combination chemotherapy protocols at the Texas Liver Institute,
Dr. Glombicki was selected into "America's Top Doctors" 2001
edition. The largest county medical society in the nation, the Harris
County Medical Society (Houston), selected Dr. Glombicki as central branch
president this year. With wife,
Dr. Sheri Ratoosh (Wellesley '78), he has three sons hoping to go to MIT,
but enjoying the warm Houston climate for now.
Don’t forget to mark
your calendars for our big 25th reunion: June 6-9, 2002!
We’re planning to come, and hope you will, too.—Barbara
Wilson Crane, secretary, 3130 Paseo Rd, Colorado Springs, CO 80909; e-mail:
BarbaraCrane@alum.mit.edu
November
2001
Save
the date for Tech Reunion 2002: June 6-9, 2002. Questions/comments:
reunions@mit.edu or 1800-mit-1865. Please send news to—Barbara A. Crane,
secretary, 3130 Paseo Rd., Colorado Springs, CO 80909.
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Updated Wednesday, 06 March 2002
Please send comments & suggestions to:
Class of 1977 Webmaster: Barbara Wilson Crane (Secretary)
E-Mail: Barbara Crane@alum.mit.edu
or 3130 Paseo Road, Colorado Springs, CO 80909
© Barbara Crane 2001, all rights reserved
