45th Reunion
Frank Gumper
Myles Brand
Gary Neville
Don Swygert
Jim McGuire
Alex Hills
Ray Whipple
Frank Thiel
Peter Benjamin
Alex Hills
Earl Sedlik
Jack Hughes
Tom Luciano
Jeff Dawson
Bob Burns
Richard Koser
Tony Buffa
David Haviland
Mark Wallis
Alex Hills
Danny Gold
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Here's
what we did in 2010 -
Please send any news to Mike Wellner so that all can share.
Michael |
Spring '10 |
Our 45th reunion,
held for the first time in October (when the campus is active
with students and faculty), was a huge success – by any
measure. We had 53 people for a wonderful Friday night buffet
dinner at the Century House in Latham, highlighted by remarks
from both Dave Haviland (havild@rpi.edu)
, who spent his entire career at RPI (in several capacities
including Dean of the School of Architecture, and Vice President
of Institute Advancement) and Earl Sedlik (earl@sedlik.com),
our distinguished former PU.
At the Parade of Classes we were, by far, the most recognized class, winning three
awards in total:
- The Chairman’s Award for the most money raised in the five years since our last
reunion – almost $9.5 million dollars;
- The Class Gift Award for the largest gift to the Annual Fund (over half a
million dollars); and
- The Annual Fund Award for the largest increase in Annual Fund donations.
Frank Gumper,
who just stepped down as volunteer leader of the Rensselaer
Annual Fund, has been awarded the Albert Fox Demers medal, in
recognition of his service to the Institute. Drop him a note of
congratulations at frank.gumper@verizon.net. (And, while we are noting
Frank’s accomplishments, I would be remiss if I did not mention
that he has agreed to join me in helping to fund the
establishment of the Class of ’64 Scholarship in honor of our
upcoming 50th Reunion! We only need eight more alums
to make this happen. Either one of us can provide more
details.)
And, of course, no mention of
our reunion would be complete without noting the very untimely
passing of Myles Brand, who died of pancreatic cancer
shortly before our get together in Troy. As we all know Myles
was a true star in so many ways.
Got a nice newsy note from Gary Neville (School of Architecture) who reports that he is busy with his
"second life" latest project – a Micro-Design Center concept in
Venice, CA. This project has been developed to provide
low-budget alternatives to manufacturers' sales reps in the Los
Angeles area in these unfortunate, low-budget times. It fills
the gap when websites simply aren't enough! A few years back
Gary designed and built the building (SolarGreen) and installed
an 18KW roof-top solar installation (Kyocera modules) with his
own hands to see if he "still had it in him". He did, and, n
fact, the LADWP claimed the project to be so exemplary they said
they wanted to use the installation as a demonstration site for
their new solar-inspector trainees. And all this work netted
Gary a cool $64,000 tax credit!
These days Gary is living on his Columbia 50-foot sailboat
(“Yellowbird”) in Marina del Rey. He is in touch with Ron
Posner every now and then, and Steve Ehrlich and Howard Arnold,
too. Interestingly enough, Gary reports that while hanging out
at James' Beach, his favorite haunt, he sometimes runs into a
physicist (not an RPI alum) who keeps raving about his Resnick
and Halliday textbooks. Find out more from Gary by dropping him
a note at gineville@verizon.net.
Don Swygert reports that he and a bunch of other Baltimore-Washington area
alums enjoyed a ride on an historic steam-locomotive powered
train in his area – see the picture elsewhere in this issue of
the magazine. Hear more details from Don by writing to him at drswygert@rcn.com.
Down at Tulane University, in
New Orleans, Jim McGuire advises that he has been
rebuilding the Engineering Department, following the devastation
caused by hurricane Katrina, when the school was forced to
dissolve six of its eight engineering departments. The new
engineering degree at Tulane is Engineering Physics, and Jim
reports that they are graduating their first three students next
May, followed by thirty-two more in the pipeline. Jim’s hope is
to integrate science and engineering, teaching each other how to
become stronger. " If engineers want to make better
devices, scientists should tell them how to work. If scientists want to be paid for what they do, engineers
should tell them what to do." As Chair, Jim is trying to
bring all this together. His hope is to find ways to reduce the
time gap between the discovery and application of new ideas. He
is also building a new Ph.D. program in Materials Engineering,
and looking for a first- class engineer for a well-endowed
chair. Want to apply? Talk to Jim at mcguire@tulane.edu.
Alex Hills reports that the word "retirement" isn't in his vocabulary, and
he continues to work full time. Among other projects, he spends
lots of time helping students and universities in developing
nations. That means supervising his own students on projects in
a variety of countries and also teaching at foreign universities
that ask for his help. Several years ago, after doing visiting
professor gigs in Chile, Singapore and New Zealand, Alex decided
to focus his energy on poorer nations, where he thought that he
could have more impact. It turned out that there was lots of
interest from universities in developing nations-- they were
especially interested in his teaching about wireless
connectivity. (In the early 1990s Alex built the world's first
Wi-Fi network, and that was the main reason for their
interest.) As a result of this work, he and his wife Meg have
made many new friends around the world, and the work itself has
been very satisfying -- to say the least. He has now worked in
over twenty countries -- Bolivia, Russia, Ghana, Ethiopia,
Russia, Palau, and the Philippines, among many others. He and
Meg have also made side trips to about thirty other countries,
where, each summer, he and his students work on projects in one
or more developing nations. Get more info from Alex at Carnegie
Mellon University at ahills@cmu.edu
Ray Whipple,
Aero. NASA retiree, was one of 11 skydivers who recently set a
Virginia State Record for S.O.S. (Skydivers Over Sixty) and POPS
(Parachutists Over Phorty Society). Find out more from him at: ray26sky@verizon.net
Frank Thiel reports that he was recently elected
Chairman of the Board of Alfred Technology Resources Inc. (ATRI).
ATRI owns and operates two technology incubators called the
Ceramics Corridor Innovation Centers. One is in Alfred,
N. Y., adjacent to both Alfred
State College (a SUNY College of Technology) and Alfred
University (home of the SUNY College of Ceramics). The other is
in Painted Post, N. Y., adjacent to Corning Inc.'s central R & D
facilities. ATRI is an independent not-for-profit corporation,
with 30+ graduated firms and $800+ million in economic impact
(direct and indirect jobs, capital investment) since 1992. And
Frank has recently initiated the NanoMaterials Innovation Center
with significant New York State support. Find out more from him
by e-mailing
fthiel@stny.rr.com.
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Summer '10 |
Peter Benjamin,
a veteran engineer, was recently appointed as head of the
Washington, DC Metro Agency's Board of Directors. Benjamin, who was first vice chairman before being unanimously
elected chairman, pledged to make safety his top priority.
Eight passengers and a train operator were killed recently in a
crash. Over the course of his 20 years involvement with the
Agency, Peter served as the agency's chief financial officer,
its director of planning and its senior financial adviser.
Before that, he worked on technology development and program
analysis for a decade at the Urban Mass Transportation
Administration, now the Federal Transit Administration. In the
early 1970s, he headed the DOT's Urban Analysis Group, and
served as mayor of Garrett Park twice, from 1996-2000 and
2002-04. He spent part of his early career working as an
aerospace engineer on the Apollo lunar program. Find out more
from Peter at kp.benj@verizon.net.
Hear from Alex Hills, who reports that he is a Distinguished Service Professor at
Carnegie Mellon University, working on a project entitled
“Technology Consulting in the Global Community.” Students who
participate in the project are assigned to work for ten-week
periods on projects in developing countries. Sounds like this
would be a perfect fit for RPI – I wonder if Alex has any
thoughts of moving back to Troy! Ask Alex by e-mailing him at ahills@cmu.edu.
Earl Sedlik reports that
he has just accepted the position as President of the Board of
Directors at Seattle’s Regional Hospital, a non-profit long-term
acute care center. Congrats! Reunion was a big hit for our
ukulele-playing classmate – who reminds us that he once again
managed to skip playing at the reunion! Wait till our 50th!
Contact Earl at earl@sedlik.com
And Jack Hughes advises
that he has retired in 2006 as a professor from Penn State,
after 40 years in acoustic research. He has four
daughters, all married, and twelve grandkids. Sadly, his wife,
Marci, passed away in 2004, and Jack is now remarried to a
wonderful woman, Kathy. His new address is 124 Founders Court,
Boalsburg, PA 16827, 814-808. Contact him at wjh2@psu.edu.
From
the skies over sunny California, our fearless flyer Tom
Luciano reports that he recently returned from a hunting
trip near Cordoba, Argentina where he shot 2,271 dove (using
3050 shells). The first two days he and his buddy were the only
ones at La Loma Lodge. where they felt like one of the
Rockefellers with two chefs, a bartender and the head guide
waiting on us. He found the country beautiful and the people
very friendly. Tom will be meeting up with Doug DeVivo (RPI
1965) who has also purchased a Beechcraft Baron - a model 58
similar to the one that Tom has, to give him a debrief on our
trip. You can get more info directly from Tom by e-mailing him
at baron731@comcast.net
Jeff Dawson wrote in to
say the he was sorry to have missed our last reunion, but he was
traveling on business. Jeff is retired form the active faculty
at Duke University, but maintains part time positions as the
faculty ombudsman and as an associate dean in the School of
Medicine. In the latter capacity, he enjoys working with a new
U.S.-style graduate school of medicine in Singapore. Duke has
formed this joint venture with the National University of
Singapore to promote the training of academic physicians. Jeff
extends his warmest wishes to all of his friends at RPI, with a
special hello to those who shared life and experiences at RSE.
He and his wife Linda (Issler), from Russell Sage, hope to be in
Troy for our 50th! Convince him to join us by
e-mailing him at jdawson@duke.edu.
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Fall '10 |
Be sure to check out our Class of ’64
website, www.rpi64.com, which is being updated and
maintained by our friend Bob Burns, from his home in the
Alaskan north country. Our plan is to keep the website updated
and current between now and our big 50th Reunion (2014 is closer than you think!) as a means of facilitating
contacts among members of our class. Check it out. And thanks,
Bob, again for all your hard work. Bob is at longpassages@hotmail.com.
I saw my friend Richard Koser (and
his wife Mary-Jane) at their home in Croton Falls, NY,
recently. He is looking remarkably well – and why not: Rich
has just retired from many years at IBM in Somers, and is now
trying to figure out how to keep busy all day. You can offer
suggestions to Rich by e-mailing him at rkoser@att.net.
Some
updated news from Tony Buffa in San Luis Obispo: “I
fully retired in March 2010, after five years of half-time in
the early retirement program. I still have my introductory
physics book to work on, not to mention traveling, basketball
and my always-lengthening “honey-do” list. We had our first
grandchild, Wesley, born to our daughter and her husband in New
Orleans in May of last and we were there! We also got the news
that after my son-in-law’s residency is done next year (between
that and med school at Tulane, they have been there 9 years!),
they will head to Harvard (I won’t hold it against them) for one
year of a specialty fellowship. And we are already planning to
visit them the weekend RPI plays at Harvard in 2011-12!!”
Back in New Orleans: Last Thanksgiving (2009) Tony had a visit
with Jim McGuire (also Physics ‘64) who is chairman of the
physics department at Tulane. It was great to see him after 46
years! And he also ran across Don Hartig (Math ‘64)
occasionally on campus at Cal Poly; not sure whether or not he
is taking early retirement. Finally, Tony recently learned that
the fellow who manages his favorite local winery was born and
raised in Troy (although he left for college and has not lived
there since). Small world! Get more info by e-mailing Tony at
abuffa@calpoly.edu.
David
Haviland writes in to say
that he remains busy since his retirement as a Vice President at
the ‘Tute. His term as board chair at The Arts Center of the
Capital Region has ended, and he 'celebrated' by joining the
board of the Northeast Health Foundation. David, Carl
Westerdahl and Assistant Institute Archivist Amy Rupert
presented a talk on Alumni Architects of RPI's campus buildings
in May for the Friends of the Folsom Library. Learn more of
the goings on in Troy from Dave at davidhaviland@nycap.rr.com.
Mark Wallis reports that his "retirement" company, Soccer
Partners, has been appointed as exclusive USA and Canada
distributor of the official trading cards for the 2010 FIFA
World Cup in South Africa. This is actually a big deal in the
soccer world. Of course, Mark says that he could not have done
it without his RPI education. Mark could not make our 45th reunion, but promises to try harder for the big 50th!
Write to him at mark@soccercards.com.
Alex Hills is still a Distinguished Service Professor at Carnegie Mellon
University. Part of his work is supervising CMU students
doing consulting projects in developing nations. The student
consultants work on projects for hospitals, schools, NGOs and
government agencies. The most recent projects have been in
Ghana, Palau, the Philippines and the Cook Islands. Alex also
continues to teach part of each year at universities in Chile
and in his home state of Alaska. Get more details at ahills@cmu.edu.
My
Westchester (NY) buddy Danny Gold recently retired after
43 years with IBM, and now they have asked him to come back to
work, either full-time or part-time. He said that he had had
enough full-time work (43 years!), so now he is back working
three days a week, which still gives him plenty of time for his
own activities. Life is good, getting his pension and now
getting regular pay as well. Nice job! Find out how he did it
at dannygold05@gmail.com.
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