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Here's
what we did in 2007 -
Please send any news to Mike Wellner
so that all can share.
Michael |
Summer '07 |
Steve
Weinstein reports that he recently retired from a marketing
career with Texas Instruments, Junior Achievement, and
Louisiana-Pacific, and now lives in the Valley of the Sun in
Surprise, Arizona. As a true retiree he occupies his time
playing golf and softball, and – when not – travels the world.
Steve has two children, one in Seattle, WA and the other in
Norfolk, VA. He and his wife have 4 grandchildren. If any
alums are traveling to Phoenix and want to play some golf, Steve
can be reached at
steveweinstein1@cox.net -- but not in the summer when Steve
and his wife Judy vacation for 3 months in the greater Troy area
(OK, so it’s the Adirondack Mountains! Same neck of the
woods!)
Had
a long e-mail from Bill Erskine, who reports that after
RPI he got married to Sue (St. Rose '64) and moved to Iowa,
where he remained for 4 years, getting an MS, a daughter, and a
PhD. Must have been busy day and night! Bill has remained
busy: he now has six kids, four of which are adopted and three
of which are black. He was country chairman of Families for
Interracial Adoption (NJ) for two years, and he and his wife
were foster parents for ten years and had 15-20 kids come and
go, some for as little as 2-3 months and some as long as two
years. He was county president of our Foster Parent
association for seven of those ten years. On the work front,
Bill put in 34 years with Exxon, and got the chance to live in
England for three years, while traveling extensively around the
globe. . He still does some consulting for them on and off.
And – for something a little off-beat, Bill actually won an
award for Outstanding Bagpiping at a NATO ASI conference in
Germany in 1984. How about that! He and his wife now enjoy
retirement, living in an Active Adult Community where they keep
active – he is currently building a large Lionel train layout in
his basement. You can contact Bill at
SOLADOM@aol.com.
Next was a long e-mail from a
good friend of mine during our days at the ‘Tute – Tim
Russell. He reports remembering our pool-playing days at
RPI (we did spend one semester actually playing nearly every
day!) when he and his wife were visiting a friend’s house and
the husband invited Tim down for a game of pool while the girls
were busy. Although he hadn’t a stick in his hand for several
years, it brought back memories of Troy and the ‘good old days”
at RPI. Tim spent his career in pharmaceuticals after two years
of designing aircraft weapons for Uncle Sam. He was with Merck
in market research at the West Point, PA plant, then managed an
engineering department in the Research Labs. After that he
switched back to marketing for McNeil Laboratories just in time
for the great Tylenol/Datril wars and ended up staying in the
pharmaceutical division when the company reorganized into
consumer and pharmaceutical divisions. He stayed with
McNeil/J&J for 15 years and ended as a VP but left when another
re-organization would have relocated him to New Brunswick. So
instead he started his own business in 1990 as consultant in new
products and licensing. But the real excitement was getting
called up for Desert Storm right after New Year’s Day 1991. He
spent the next 6 months in Saudi Arabia before returning to the
states and kick-starting the consulting business again. He
successfully brought a couple of products into the U.S. and
licensed them to a company in Alabama. Then he got an offer to
work for a San Diego startup as VP for Licensing and Business
Development and did that until 1999, when he returned back
East. Now he and Chris (his new wife) live in a Philadelphia
suburb and are enjoying some gardening, skiing in the winter and
some sailing on the Chesapeake in the summer. We’re not fully
retired as we own a company that has a niche product for Crohn’s
disease patients – with a little luck we can grow enough over
the next couple of years to interest someone in taking it off
our hands! Finally, he reports that
hist my oldest grandson will be graduating from Cornell in May
and will be working as a software engineer on one coast or the
other. He’s currently choosing among three job offers, which is
pretty heady for a 22 year old these days. Contact Tim (to talk
pool or otherwise) at
trossrussell@msn.com.
Next, Bruce Wollenberg,
reports that he spent 23 years in various industry positions and
took a Professorship in ECE at the University of Minnesota in
1989. His field is electric power systems (he graduated from
RPI's Electric Power Engineering program in 1966 immediately
after his EE graduation). Like so many other RPI alums, Bruce
married a wonderful Sage grad, Ruth Kunz Wollenberg , class of
1965. They had four children. He is still teaching, writing,
and doing a lot of expert testimony work for electric utilities
and their suppliers. He reports that his greatest honor, besides
marrying Ruth, was being elected to the National Academy of
Engineering in 2005. And Bruce is still at it: “I have no
plans of retiring soon,” were his final words. Reach out to him
at
wollenbe@ece.umn.edu.
Spoke to Steve Popper,
who reports that he has found a great way to wind down his
career in engineering and construction by serving as Director of
Construction for the Town of Needham, MA, in an ambitious and
significant building program that the Town has embarked upon.
After 40+ years involvement in the private sector, first with
Stone and Webster Engineering, and then with Jacobs Engineering
on the design and construction of mega-projects throughout the
world, winding up as Project manager on one of the more
complicated sections of Boston's Big Dig, he is now looking
after his own interests in the capital expenditure and success
of projects in my Town -- while giving back to the community
that he has lived in since 1967, when he moved here shortly
after graduating from RPI with a Master's in Civil Engineering.
During those 40-odd years my assignments have taken him and his
family to a wide assortment of places including a two year stint
in Mannheim, Germany, one year in Genoa, Italy, and one in
Livermore, California. His family has grown with four children
(Jeffrey, Nancy, Lee and Sarah), all of whom are married and
living in the Boston area. Now expanded by six grandsons and a
soon-to-be granddaughter (by way of China), he and his wife
Barbara make their home in the very same place that they settled
into some 40 years ago. Steve says that he still visits with a
number of Zete brothers, and others from RPI as business and
social interests permit. He’ll be at the next reunion, and
hopes to see as many classmates as possible. Contact Steve at
steven.popper@alum.rpi.edu.
Wally Fredericks reports
that he is alive and well and living in Fort Wayne, IN, His new
email address is
wcfredericks@verizon.net, and he’d love to hear from his old
friends from Troy. (Note this is a new e-mail address). Wally
has been retired from Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. (BATC)
since September of 2000. He worked for BATC for almost 15 years
on various aerospace programs and new business development as a
systems engineer. He and his wife, Candy lived in the Boulder
Colorado area and thoroughly enjoyed the Rocky Mountain
lifestyle. Candy and Wally moved back to Fort Wayne, Indiana in
the summer of 2004 to be close to Candy’s family. (They met in
Fort Wayne in the late 1960s and were married there in September
1969.) They cruise to the Caribbean on occasion and make
annual trips to Colorado for skiing and visiting with our
Colorado friends. Like so many other guys our age, he has been
trying to improve his golf skills, but is still struggling.
Next an
update from Bruce Clayman. He left the Great Northern
Way Campus at the end of 2006, after getting $40.5 million from
the BC government to launch a Masters of Digital Media program
there. He is now at the Centre for Policy Research on Science
and Technology in Vancouver and on the Vancouver Economic
Development Commission. His current research interests center
around commercialization of intellectual property arising from
university research - technology transfer. His daughter Annie
and her physicist husband Scott have given me two amazing
grandchildren, Sam and Gracie; they all live in Corning, NY.
Get Bruce at
clayman@sfu.ca.
And, finally,
late-breaking news that none other than one of our “stars,” NCAA
president Myles Brand was the commencement speaker at
Tri-State University, in Angola, Indiana, on May 5. Brand's
appearance dovetails with TSU's attaining full NCAA status.
Brand assumed his duties as president of the NCAA on Jan. 1,
2003, and is the fourth chief executive officer of the
association. From 1994 through 2002 he was president of Indiana
University, an eight-campus institution of higher education with
nearly 100,000 students. Myles also served as president at the
University of Oregon from 1989 to 1994. CONGRATULATIONS to our
old friend. You can reach Myles at
mbrand@ncaa.org.
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Fall -
Winter '07 |
Heard from Dick Vennett, who reports ending his oil
industry career in 1993 and his consulting business in 2002. At
that point Dick and his wife Mary Ann chose a cool, dry climate
over hot and humid Houston, and moved to Park City, Utah, in
2002. After being volunteers at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter
Olympics, they have both become “professional volunteers.” Dick
is president of the Park City Ambassadors, the volunteer arm of
the Park City Chamber of Commerce, that provides assistance to
local nonprofits and civic organizations. Their major activity
is to organization and put on the annual 4th of July parade and
the festivities that follow in the local park. It's not the
Rose Parade, but it’s just as important to the local community.
They also work for the local art center, the Utah Olympic Park
(ski jumps and bobsled track) and a local food bank. In his
spare time Dick even built a spec house and sold it before the
market cooled. Timing is everything (as is a good education)!
You can reach Dick at
rmvennett@aol.com.
I
actually had the opportunity to visit with my old friend
Barry Wintner, now living in Warrington, Pennsylvania (near
Allentown). Barry was in the New York area to do some
consulting work or the Port Authority, and he and I actually
broke bread at a historic restaurant in Jericho, LI. (Best of
all, I treated!)
Barry also had a chance to dine in a Bohemian Restaurant with
the Cornells, Steve and Chris (in Burr Rudge, IL) over the
summer. (That time Barry paid!)
Barry’s career included stints at Monsanto,
Hoffman-LaRoche and Ciba-Geigy, followed by seven years as a
Chemical Engineer at GD Searle in Chicago, and then four yers at
Foster-Wheeler in New Jersey. In 2003 he began working as a
consultant specializing in the application of chlorine dioxide
as a sanitizer and sterilant to bioprocess applications, and
continues to do some biotech consulting through YourEncore
LLC. Barry has recently returned from a great trip to Italy,
as have I (too bad we could not meet up there!). Get to Barry
at
barry_wintner@yahoo.com.
Got word that Tony Nanni recently joined
the very prestigious law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft,
in the Antitrust Group, in Washington, DC. He came to
Cadwalader from Fried Frank (another well-known law firm). From
1985 to 2002 Tony was Chief of the National Criminal Enforcement
Section of the Antitrust Division of the US Dept. of Justice.
While there he was awarded the Presidential Rank Award of
Distinguished Executives, as well as the Neil Roberts Award for
Excellence in Antitrust Enforcement. You can reach out to Tony
at
tony.nanni@cwt.com.
Received a very nice note from Dick Chase,
living in what is arguably one of the best cities in the country
(Ann Arbor, Michigan) who reports that he retired from the Ford
Motor Company this past January after 27 years in Ford
Research. While there he started out doing surface analysis
(Auger electron spectroscopy, etc.). To quote him exactly: “I
used to say that I knew a great deal about very tiny parts of
the car but not much about the car in general.” Then about 15
years ago Dick switched focus and headed the design and
operation of a laboratory for vehicle emissions research just as
emission regulations were being significantly tightened. Here
he got to deal with whole cars, or at least what came out the
tailpipe of whole cars. It was a fun ride, applying physics and
learning some chemistry to keep up with ever decreasing
emissions and how to measure them. Now he’s doing some
consulting part time, spending more time traveling to visit
family, and getting some exercise exploring the parks and nature
trails around home that I never had time to concentrate on
before. Get to Dick at
chases@peoplepc.com.
Rev.
(note the title) Steve Cornell sent a long note to say
that he is in touch with
Barry Wintner, Tom
McShane (old roommates) and Al Silverman (old colleague) and
Bill Erskine (old friend) as well as Tony Buffa (fraternity
brother) and various fraternity brothers in other classes. On
the personal front Steve reports that that he now has one
foot in retirement and one foot in new career – post retirement
– and that his time is balanced among seven efforts.
·
He has been consulting for the
past ten years on plastic packaging as Plastic Technology
Partners, doing some expert witness work, and doing some
consulting for Guideline, Inc.
·
Also working on another holy
grail, contamination free hospitals. Have the solution, and the
patent thicket, just need a manufacturer to license. Operating
as IRU LLC.
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Perhaps most interesting Steve
received a M. Div. and was formally ordained in 2006 (almost
as tough as a Ph.D.). He serves as Pastor/Chaplain in two
Roman Catholic Retirement Communities to the Protestant
residents and does pulpit supply preaching, teaching, and
community building as Pastoral Teaching Partners.
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Spending time with four
grandchildren (all local) doing everything including fossil
finding, lego building, toy car racing, to sleeping out on
the deck in a tent, to riding trains, to fishing, to art, to
museums and other outings. Something each month. The
intergenerational family community building is a priority.
You can reach out to
Steve (he is living in Naperville, IL) at
scornell.ptp@juno.com.
Del Webster
reports that he is still happily retired in Florida, and has
found a new part time career as a registered professional
guardian. He takes care of the affairs of older folks that are
alone, or whose children are too far away to be able to look
after them on a continuing basis. (This has to be a growth
business if ever there was one!) He finds it very interesting
work that keeps him active and involved with the professional
community. Del’s 86 year-old parents are here, too, and he is
happy to be able to help them a lot as well. For more
information about his new business, or just to catch up with
Del, e-mail him at
commodore@embarqmail.com.
Jim McGuire
(a physics major) wrote to say that he has recently become Chair
of the Physics Department at Tulane
University in New Orleans, and is heavily involved in an
effort to bring together science and engineering in an effort to
improve both, partially in response to Thomas Friedman's
influential book, "The Earth is Flat,” (in which Dr. Jackson is
notably quoted and is prominently featured. Friedman’s best
seller details the developing international challenges to
America’s leadership in science and technology.
Jim asks that if there are any Alums out there out there
who would like to help him establish this program in Engineering
Physics with an emphasis on nanostructures,
please reach out to him at
mcguire@tulane.edu.
Tom Reddy
dropped me a brief note to say that he and his
wife, Vita, celebrated their 43rd wedding anniversary (he
must be getting older!) with a trip to Italy this past
September. In their forty-three years together they have
managed to produce three sons and two granddaughters. The boys
are spread out from San Francisco to Boston so Tom spends a lot
of time traveling. His wife has retired from teaching but an
RPI alum’s work is never done, so Tom continues to run his
financial services business in Scranton PA. Reach out to Tom
at
Tom_Reddy64@hotmail.com.
I also heard
from Bruce Morrissey, who traveled to Greece and cruised
the Greek Islands with his wife, Susan. Right now Bruce is
busy gathering material for the various literary, legal, and
history courses that he teaches at the University of Delaware
Academy of Lifelong Learning. ("The Bill of Rights in 2007" and
"Navajo Spirituality") are next among his offerings. He is
also
seriously considering
a course titled "James Joyce's Ulysses" for the following
year. The late
Wentworth Kimball Brown would be pleased and no
doubt amused that at
least one of his Class of '64 students paid
attention during
class – good show! Bruce is also the Director of Technology
Development at the University, and has a large crew of
grandchildren with whom he regularly reads (mostly)
non-technical materials. You can contact Bruce at
vze4cz4p@verizon.net
Finally, I also want to put in a plug for the
Alumni Travel Program: we just returned from two fabulous
trips to Italy – one a traditional sightseeing trip to the
Liguria region – the coastal area south of Genoa. In one week,
with a dozen other alums, we saw Cinque Terra, Santa Margherita,
Portofino, Lucca, the white marble mountains of Carrara, Genoa,
and so much more. The weather was perfect (we were there in
mid-April), and the trip was truly first rate. Then – in early
June – Sheryl & I hosted a cooking trip to Lucca, the famed
walled city in Tuscany, the highlight of which was five cooking
lessons with professional chefs of the Tuscany region. We had
twenty-one people with us, and at the conclusion every one said
it was simply the best trip that they had ever taken! So here
is my unabashed commercial for the RPI Alumni Travel Program.
Check out the web site (www.alumni.rpi.edu,
products and services, travel) to see our offerings for 2008.
Two trips that I can recommend here are (1) a cruise on the
six-star Crystal Symphony to the Baltic States (from
Stockholm to Copenhagen via Helsinki, St. Petersburg, and
Tallinn, from August 3rd – 11th), and (2)
ten days in Budapest, Prague and Vienna, the great capitals of
Eastern Europe, from September 17th – 27th.
Sheryl & I will likely be on both trips, and we’d love to have
you join us!
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