WPI Journal - The Magazine for WPI Alumni

FALL 2014

The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)

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class notes 1941 Richard Jasper's wife, Mary, shares the sad news of his passing on their 62nd wedding anniversary, Oct. 13, 2013. He leaves seven children, 18 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren. 1946 On July 18, Fred Kull wrote, "Next Sunday I will be 91. I am enjoying life in Noble Village Senior Living Facility in Suwanee, Ga., in a 2 BR apartment. My wife died 3½ years ago, and I went blind in my left eye from a stroke. Otherwise I am doing well for my age. I sure miss driving, but can use the residence's transporter bus to get to the store. A lot of years passed since we graduated! Best wishes to those still living in my class of '46." 1949 Sam Franc shares, "Betty and I are still retired in Florence, Ore. We are both disabled, me more than Betty. Daughter Marcia lives with us and takes care of the hard chores, and daughter Susan lives next door. The deer in the area have been decimated by a cougar that moved in this year, and I miss seeing the fawns in the back yard. For you that don't know, the weather here is very mild year round. Not much snow, no hurricanes, tornadoes, or big storms. Rain in the winter—more of a drizzle, no foods. Summer temps are mostly in the 60s and a few 70s." 1950 Clayton Roberts ('51 MS EE) writes from Syracuse, N.Y., "Keep trying to retire a third time. I am now president of six Christian radio stations in upper New York State (as a volunteer)." 1951 Dick Davis shares, "Susan and I are blessed with good health. We're now living rural, with gardens, orchard, trout pond, and lots of woods. Still making home visits, mostly to elders, rendering diagnostic, chiropractic, and acupuncture care—but thinking of retiring for the fourth time (after engineering, marketing, consulting, and health care). Very interested in current advances in cosmology and quantum sciences, but haven't yet mastered smart phones." 1953 David Hathaway contributed this travelogue. "A motorcycle ride in heavy rain from Islesboro, Maine, to the Bar Harbor airport in Trenton to attend a WPI event on Mount Desert Island in August was well worth the trip on my BMW K1200GT. Seeing what fve groups of IQP students were doing, meeting their advisor and President Laurie Leshin was a highlight in this summer's activities. I was greatly impressed with the new leadership of WPI and will be watching more closely now that I have personally met these key people." 1957 Spike Vrusho resides in Vero Beach, Fla. This is his sixth year of involvement with raising funds for the Homeless Family Center via their Annual Fund Raising Dinner. 1959 Roger Kuenzel shares, "I attended my 55th reunion dinner this year and had a great time." He lives in Kingston, Pa. Lawrence White writes, "Since the passing of my wife, Linda, six years ago, I met and married a wonderful woman from Colombia. I retired last year from Friedman Bros. Manufacturing, where I was vice president and CEO. We were on the East Coast of Florida at the time, and we then moved to the West Coast, to Naples, where the golf is the best." 1961 Asjed Jalil writes, "Though retired since 2006, I have again become quite active consulting, as well as representing a company located in Mumbai, India. Have received some orders and prospects are promising. Still playing tennis, doing Tai Chi, reading, and traveling." 1962 Jesse Erlich, a partner at the Boston law frm Burns & Levinson LLP, has once again been selected by his peers to be listed in Best Lawyers® (for 2015). Lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed; the honor is based on a peer-review survey of more than 52,000 attorneys who cast more than 5.5 million votes on other lawyers in their practice areas. Jesse notes that Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers "the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice." 1963 Roger Weiss is president of Paricon Technologies Corp. He lives in Foxboro, Mass., with his wife, Carolyn. Harry Wright, president of H. Wright Consulting LLC, lives in Bradford, N.H., with his wife, Sandra. 1964 Editor's Note: The Class of 1964 contributed detailed personal updates and favorite WPI memories for the 50th reunion. Some of these are excerpted below; others appeared in the previous issue of WPI Journal. Chris Almy shares, "After six years in graduate school and two years in the USAR Signal Corps, I joined Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, where I have pioneered the development of fnite element methods used to analyze nuclear-powered reactor components for the Navy's submarines and aircraft carriers for 42 years. I am currently enhancing the thermal analysis tools and mentoring newer engineers." Chris has vivid memories of lining up outside Salisbury on his third day at WPI. "When we emerged we were laden with compulsory ROTC manuals and uniforms. My family had made good on the threat to send me to military school if I didn't behave and never told me that was where I was going!" After graduate school, Chris spent two years at Ft. Monmouth in Electronics Command. "Over the next 20 years, the Army sent me back to the R&D; Command to set up and train personnel on new computers and model analyzers. The computer skills I acquired in graduate school were welcomed by the Ft. Monmouth engineers, and the new skills I acquired during those annual tours enhanced my value in my civilian job. ROTC was certainly a win-win for me." Chris adds that he is busy with his children, grandchildren, and duplicate bridge, as well as coaching youth baseball and raising funds for the Schenectady Cancer Society. "Around the family and neighborhood I am the fx-it guy and the problem solver." 52 Fall 2014 Send your class note to classnotes@wpi.edu. Images welcome!

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