The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)
Issue link: http://wpialumnimag.epubxp.com/i/95644
classnotes 6 8 Manhattan, Kans., where I teach physics part-time at Cloud County Community College." 7 Roger Pryor '68 was named president and CEO of Pryor Knowledge Systems, a consulting firm specializing in physics, materials science, and mathematical modeling, in May 2012. He ran his own technical consulting firm, R. W. Pryor and As- sociates, before merging with Pryor Knowledge Systems in 2003. As a professor at Wayne State University for 14 years, he led research teams in the development and characteriza- tion of semiconductor materials and devices. He also has led advanced research teams at Energy Conversion Devices in Troy, Mich., and at Pitney Bowes in Norwalk, Conn., and has served as a member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories in Whippany, N.J. He earned an MS and a PhD in physics from Penn State. He holds 23 patents, primarily in semiconductor devices, and he has recently written two college textbooks on COMSOL Multiphysics Modeling. Roger is active in the South- east Michigan chapter of IEEE and Education/Workforce Committee at Automation Alley, a regional business develop- ment organization. "It's too soon to retire," he says. Craig Barrows '69 (MS PH) tells us, "After graduating from WPI, I began teaching physics—12 years at Shrewsbury Senior High School and 13 years at Head-Royce School in Oakland, Calif. During that time I also served as an AP Physics grader. In 1994 I became head of school at Berkeley Hall School in Los Angeles, retiring in June 2011, when I moved to 5Joel Cehn '69 reports, "My wife, Joan, and I just returned from a trip to Croatia. This country is little visited by Ameri- cans, but Europeans have certainly discovered its amazing coastline on the Adriatic, with beautiful islands just off shore (we stayed on Brac). The Balkan wars are well past and the country is vibrant. We met a young man who's working, remotely, for a Chicago software company—the other side of outsourcing. In the ancient town of Trogir, the custom for kids on the last day of school is to run the short distance from the school to the harbor, and jump in. Food and wine were terrific everywhere, especially Istria and Dalmatia. Look for chef Anthony Bourdain's TV show on Croatian cuisine; he raved about it. So did we." Brian Chace '69 was ordained a transitional deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Michigan in April 2012. He lives in Frederic with his wife, Elizabeth. Pete Heins '69, an amateur radio operator for 49 years, par- ticipated in the annual Field Day: Ham Radio Emergency Communications Exercise in June. As a member of the Ventura County Amateur Radio Society (VCARS), Pete spear- headed SSB communications efforts on the 7-Mhz (40-meter) Amateur Radio Band. The exercise was held on the grounds of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, Simi Valley. This is the 12th year he has been associated with this event. "Coffee drinking and travel are also features of my retirement," he says. 6Tony Leketa '69 was inducted as president of the Soci- ety of American Military Engineers (SAME)— a worldwide pro- fessional society made up of 30,000 members and 108 local posts—at its annual Joint Engineer Training Conference and Expo in Saint Louis. A fellow and member of the organization for more than 40 years, Tony was a charter member of the WPI student chapter, which he served as president. 7John Paolillo '69 writes, "After 14 years in Endicott, N.Y., as a software developer and technical writer for IBM, in 1983 I came to work for Digital Equipment Corp in Nashua, N.H. (now Hewlett-Packard Corp.). I've been employed there as an information developer for the past 28 years, now working out of my home office since HP's Nashua lab was closed four years ago (the building now houses the likes of Intel and Dell EquaLogic employees, among others). I've been married 23 years to Judy, and we have a teenage son and 22 year-old daughter. The apples haven't fallen far from the tree—our daughter graduated from RPI this year with a biomedical engineering degree, and has already secured a job with Epic Systems in Wisconsin. Our high school senior son was recently accepted to his first-choice college (WPI!) and will be attending in the fall. I plan to take the HP early retirement package currently being offered, soon to live a life of leisure and continuing college payments." Paul Himottu '70 reports, "In September, I will be starting my ninth year of teaching upper school math at Worcester Academy. I am also adviser to the Robotics Club and director for their summer Robotics Camp." 8Frank Catanzaro '71 says, "We've been stumbling our way into a collective intelligence system for global foresight for the last year or two. Once we decided to give it a go, we had an early adopter in the city of Gimcheon, South Korea, who wanted a Global Climate Change Situation Room. The photo shows us on opening day." Fall 2012 75