1997: Rensselaer 1976 ClassNotes

March 1997

David Levine is keeping very busy with two active general dentistry practices, one on First Street in downtown Troy for the past 18 years and a newer office on Western Avenue in Albany. He is active at his synagogue and is an officer at the Hebrew Academy. David and wife Debby (Biskin) live in Albany with daughters, Rachel (18), a freshman at Boston University and Jessica (12), a seventh grader at the Hebrew Academy. His family enjoys traveling and has been to Israel twice in the past few years. Putu Martasunu Kamayana is an administrative officer for the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines. He previously worked for the United Nations Development Programme initially in Jakarta and then in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Putu and his wife are currently in Manila with son (9) and daughters (8 and 8 months).

Richard Gilman has joined the Agency-Company Organization for Research and Development (ACORD) as vice president of communications. ACORD is based in Pearl River, NY. He was previously director of subscriber services at the Insurance Information Institute (III). Anthony Feliu is serving as a volunteer on the nuclear medical staff at Vellore Christian Medical College and Hospital, one of the leading medical institutions in India. He previously worked as a consultant for Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, MA and is a member of the Faith Lutheran Church of Andover.

Ray Brown is living in Martinsville, VA working for Tultex as a senior logistics analyst. He has four kids ages 6, 4, 3, and baby and built his own house.

June 1997

David Desimone was awarded a grant from the William M. Keck Foundation to field workshop to study Alaskan glaciers. He is a lecturer in geosciences and environmental studies at Williams College. Robert Vanderbei was promoted to full professor at Princeton University. He has also published his first textbook, Linear Programming: Foundations and Extensions. As you can see, I'm not receiving very much correspondence. Please drop me a message or I'll have to start making something up.

September 1997

Thanks for the email from William McLoughlin who is attending the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse after retiring from a twenty-year career as an officer in the United States Army. He is working towards a BA in History and Middle / Secondary Education and plans to obtain employment as a middle school teacher. Bill was awarded the 1997-1998 Frederick & Kathryn Davies Scholarship for excellence in History. He was included in the 1997 editions of "The National Dean's List," and the "All-American Scholar Collegiate Directory". Bill is a past president of the Alpha Chi Rho (AXP) fraternity and lives in Tomah, WI. After several half-hearted stabs at respectability, Kurt Reimer has once again let his hair grow long in Blackwood, NJ, just over the river from Philadelphia PA, where he is Manager of Systems Administration for Voicenet, a regional Internet Service Provider. Kurt happily pays child support for Kathryn (18), a freshman at West Virginia Wesleyan College, Tim (15) a sophomore at Gloucester Catholic High, and Adam (9), a 4th grader at Blackwood Elementary. Never one to learn from experience, Kurt is engaged to Patricia Burlingame of Horsham, PA. The couple plan to relocate in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Hal Ehrhardt has been with three companies in the past two years, without changing offices (must be in the defense industry). He's currently Safety, Chemical & Environmental Programs Manager at the Lockheed Martin Federal Systems facility in Owego, NY (which was previously part of IBM and then Loral). He even proved you can teach an old dog new tricks by passing the Certified Safety Professional exam this past year. Hal and his wife, Betsy are active keeping up with their two kids, Brian & Jenny, with Scouting occupying most of his time. His swimming these days is limited to watching his son rapidly approach his old college record times while still in high school. He was looking forward to the RPI Alumni Water Polo tournament last April to find out exactly how far out of shape he was. One of these years the alumni will win. Stephen (Rusty) Gordon started working (last November) for Computer Sciences Corporation (aka CSC) in Chicago, as an EC/EDI Consultant. He's actually working with a dozen other CSC ISers at a client site, Joseph T. Ryerson and Son (Westmont, IL).

Jon Hall, affectionately known as "Maddog" in the Unix community, was instrumental in porting Linux freeware to the 64-bit Digital Alpha processor. He is the senior leader in Digital Equipment's Unix software products group in addition to executive director of Linux International, a nonprofit user organization of which Digital is a sponsoring member. They keep asking Arnold Einhorn back for television appearances and he enjoys doing it. He most recently appeared on the American Health Network to discuss the effects of heart disease on older women. He chairs the cardiology department at the Orlando Regional Medical Center, which includes six Florida-area hospitals. Arnold resides in Longwood, FL. Gary Mangels was awarded American Cyanamid Company's prestigious Scientific Achievement Award. His studies of water and sediment movement enabled him to develop a software system to analyze the probability of surface and groundwater contamination. These findings help produce a detailed analysis of a crop protection product's impact on the environment for a specific crop. He is an associate fellow, Environmental Fate, at their Agricultural Products Research Division in Princeton. Gary lives in Cherry Hill, NJ with his wife and two children.

December 1997

Peter Alexander updated us on his whereabouts via email. Last November he accepted a Senior Scientist position at North American Vaccine in Beltsville, Maryland where he lead the Fermentation Process Development group. This was a reunion (of sorts) with his former RPI roommate Ed Arcuri (Ph.D. '78) who is VP of Manufacturing. There are at least two other RPI alumni there, Jay Lochhead ('86) and John Bogdan ('86). Peter thinks that they outnumber the MIT grads by about 4 to 1. Howard Becker has been named to the advisory board of directors of Trustmark National Bank in Hazlehurst, MS. He is CEO of Signature Works, the nation's largest employer of people who are blind. Howard lives in the Jackson, MS area with his wife, Hollee and children, Sarah and Andrew.


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