The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)
Issue link: http://wpialumnimag.epubxp.com/i/406282
58 Fall 2014 class notes Helen Weimerskirch is a senior project manager at The George Washington University. She has managed major construction projects of 70–125 million dollars. "My major goal is to retire in two years," she writes. "I sing with a barbershop chorus that brings joy to audiences of all ages, but mostly to seniors." Helen recalls "having a tour of the campus with Ann and Gretchen when I was thinking about transferring to WPI. And I remember thinking 'There are girls here just like me!'" 1975 Nitsch Engineering founding principal and chairman of the board Judy Nitsch received the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2014 Award in the New England region's services category, along with President and CEO Lisa Brothers. The honor was announced at a special gala event at the Sheraton Boston on June 10. In response to winning the award, Judy said, "Since the beginning, I've shared that our success relates to having terrifc clients, fabulous employees, and wonderful projects. Throughout our journey, we've focused on this core, which has allowed us to steadily grow." The company is about to celebrate its 25th anniversary, with 85 employees and 15 shareholders, and the highest revenues ever last year. 1977 Steven Fine was recently promoted to manager of R&D; Services at Laticrete International. "I manage all R&D; service projects, handle the analytical equipment of the lab, as well as manage regulatory and standards issues. I have been employed at Laticrete for 28 years." 1978 Dean Giacopassi writes, "Recent open heart surgery has me yearning for retirement more than usual. Wishing all the best to WPI alumni of all years. During my undergraduate stay at WPI (1974-1978), class year didn't seem to make much difference. We were all techies." 1980 Jordan O'Connor runs an architecture practice out of Petersham, Mass. 1982 Scott Dale and Steve Tartaro are both employed at the Leon D. DeMatteis Construction Corp. in Elmont, N.Y., Send your class note to classnotes@wpi.edu. Images welcome! '85 From left, Farah Smith '88, Amy Jackson '06, and Chris Olson '85 are members of Community Rowing Inc. in Boston. In August, the women's masters team went to the USRowing Masters Nationals at Comstock Riverside Park in Grand Rapids, Mich. During the four-day regatta, they competed in 25 events, with many top fnishes. "The competition was ferce," Amy writes, "but almost all boats advanced to fnals and the team brought home three gold medals and trophies, a silver, and eight bronze medals! We placed 6th in the Women's Points trophy out of 120 teams!" building infrastructure in the New York City/Tri-State area. Steve is VP of construction and has been with DeMatteis for 30 years. Scott joined the company fve years ago and serves as a senior project manager. He is currently working on building the frst Net Zero Energy building in the Northeast (P.S. 62R in Staten Island). Steve is married and has three children; Scott is married and has four children. Scott Mathews has been promoted to supervisor of the Mechanical Integration Engineering Group of the Spacecraft Mechanical Engineering Section at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. June marked Scott's eighth year of service at JPL, during which time he has worked on the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity program, the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) spacecraft, and numerous other fight projects. 1983 Joel Kearns is now European Service Module project manager at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The ESM is part of NASA's Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the successor to the Space Shuttle, and will launch into space in 2017. Mark LeClair ('88 MSME) is CEO of NanoSpire Inc., in Buxton, Maine. He has been working on "the LeClair Effect," a theory of the origin of life, and researching its role in producing fusion. "I had the privilege of presenting my cavitation origin of life theory in 2001 to Dr. Barry Blumberg and staff at NASA Ames Astrobiology (NAI) headquarters," he writes. "NASA funded my invited presentation through a grant. NASA also funded my trip and presentation to the 2012 Conference on the Physics, Chemistry, and Biology of Water. In 2013 I gave a slide presentation to the Global Breakthrough Energy Movement." Mark Scott writes, "My son Erik graduated from WPI with an aerospace degree this year. Two weeks later, I made the frst fight on my homebuilt airplane. It took me seven years to complete. It was diffcult to squeeze in time amongst a full-time job, family and house duties, and raising two kids, but it was worth it. I plan to fy it all over North America, including Alaska. Eventually I will put it on foats. I still work at Sikorsky Aircraft, where I am rotor technology lead for the company working advanced rotor systems and aircraft design."