Class Notes
The 1950s and ’60s featured a Winter Weekend hosted by the junior class, which included all sorts of winter fun.
1963
Special thanks to Jack Titley for writing the class column since his 25th reunion.
Posted 2021-02-26
Check out Jerry Lenaz’s website at bookshop.org/shop/thecloakanddagger. Jerry, retired architect, is advancing his second career as a mystery genre bookstore owner in Princeton, N.J. If you want advice on the latest mystery novel, give him a call at (609) 688-9840. It is amazing what Jerry knows about suspense and mystery.
Posted 2021-02-26
Roger Lourie retired as a general partner of Seagrace Partners LP, a private equity investment firm that he organized to invest in small companies. Roger earned his RPI degree in management engineering. His impressive academic achievements were matched by his membership in Phalanx, Pi Delta Epsilon journalism fraternity, his work as IFC president, and his involvement in many other campus organizations. Graduate study at Columbia University resulted in an MBA and a master’s in international and public affairs. In Connecticut, Roger was a member of the Representative Town Meeting for 25 years. Roger and wife, Claude, moved to Palm Beach where they are active in promoting their love of opera with the Palm Beach Opera. He welcomes a call, email, or a visit. Reach him at rlourie@gmail.com.
Posted 2021-02-26
Robert Arundale was one of the first to earn a B.S. in language and literature from RPI. After earning his Ph.D., Bob taught at the University of Washington and then spent 32 years at the University of Alaska. Oxford University Press published his book Communicating & Relating in 2020. After reaching professor emeritus status, Bob has more time for mountaineering, travel, and model railroading.
Posted 2021-02-26
Engineering
Dave Wicks has fond memories of playing RPI hockey for Ned Harkness and especially for the 1960-61 Frozen Four tournament. I’m sure he remembers the 17 to 2 win over AIC where Jim Josephson, Brian Pryce, and Brian Robins were ejected for brawling. Dave helped with two assists in that blow-out win. Dave majored in metallurgical engineering and was a brother of Lambda Chi Alpha. Now 55 years later, a retired Foster Wheeler Energy Corp. engineer and nuclear project manager for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor, Dave spends his leisure traveling, playing golf, and writing his dad’s biography. Bombs Away is the true story of his father’s escape from Nazi-occupied Slovakia after being shot down on his 24th combat mission. It is a great story of heroism and courage in WWII.
Dave and his wife, Lorraine, celebrated their 53rd anniversary last July. They reside in Dansville, N.Y., where they raised three children. Daughter Jackie is a 5th grade teacher; her twin Jennie is a CPA, health-care consultant, and former hospital CEO. Their son Mike, a graduate of the University of Buffalo, works in law enforcement in Monroe County. Dave and Lorraine have three grandchildren. He would be happy to hear from classmates at ldwicks@stny.rr.com.
Posted 2020-05-19
Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Jack Titley writes: Back in the fall of 1962, RPI President Richard Folsom apologetically announced that tuition for 1963 was being raised to $800 per semester. Dr. Folsom, in a letter to our parents, said that “the Board of Trustees reluctantly approved the increase in tuition.” Little did we know what it was going to cost our grandchildren to attend.
Posted 2020-05-19
William Soffa, M.S. in materials engineering, was named to Carnegie Mellon’s Athletics Hall of Fame for his outstanding college basketball achievement. Bill is a professor of engineering at the U. of Virginia.
Posted 2020-05-19
Engineering
Marvin Rozansky sent us a sad note on the death of Roger Mester. Roger had been living in Copenhagen with his wife, Annette, and family for many years. As electrical engineering classmates, Marv and Roger forged a lifelong friendship. According to Marv, Roger was a 4.0 student until he wound up with a C in the senior year’s Senior Sequence in Philosophy class. Marv still feels guilty over having talked Roger into taking the class. Anyone who wishes to share a memory of Roger can contact Marv at marv3@verizon.net. As our ranks thin, we all mourn the loss of each classmate.
Posted 2020-05-19
Bill Woodward and wife, Marcie, live in Tucson in the winter and spend the summer on Cape Cod in Harwich. You can occasionally find him at Ryder’s Cove Boatyard in Chatham.
Posted 2019-10-01
Jack Titley It has been a long time since we were freshmen. Sixty years ago we began our epic journey in higher education. You will notice that the notes for the Class of 1963 have moved closer and closer to the front of the section. Unfortunately, there are fewer of us left on whom I can report. So please take a moment to send a note; your classmates will enjoy the information.
Our freshman handbook for 1959 had an advertisement for The Armory Restaurant and Bar on College Avenue, “open every night till 3:00 a.m.” As I recall, the drinks were cheap and no one ever tried the food. Mrs. Walter Warren was our social director who held “tea dances every Sunday to which girls from neighboring colleges” were invited. And in her words, Mrs. Warren was “only too happy to help…sew on a button or get you a blind date.” Do you remember the Frosh Smoker — gathering at the Field House for free cigarettes and entertainment? How the world has changed!
As I was checking out at the supermarket and wearing my Rensselaer sweatshirt, the checker said, “my boyfriend goes to RPI,” and the woman next in line added that her husband also is a graduate. Small world! Posted 2019-10-01
Our freshman handbook for 1959 had an advertisement for The Armory Restaurant and Bar on College Avenue, “open every night till 3:00 a.m.” As I recall, the drinks were cheap and no one ever tried the food. Mrs. Walter Warren was our social director who held “tea dances every Sunday to which girls from neighboring colleges” were invited. And in her words, Mrs. Warren was “only too happy to help…sew on a button or get you a blind date.” Do you remember the Frosh Smoker — gathering at the Field House for free cigarettes and entertainment? How the world has changed!
As I was checking out at the supermarket and wearing my Rensselaer sweatshirt, the checker said, “my boyfriend goes to RPI,” and the woman next in line added that her husband also is a graduate. Small world! Posted 2019-10-01
Roderic Quirk, emeritus professor of chemistry at the University of Akron, was awarded the Charles Goodyear Medal from the American Chemical Society. Rod earned his doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois. While at RPI, Rod was a member of both the wrestling and football teams. During our senior year, Rod’s teammates recognized his dedication and perseverance to football by selecting him as a team co-captain.
Posted 2019-03-10
Jack Titley shares:
Wayne Richardson and I were wondering about some classmates with whom we have lost contact: his roommate Peter Dean and a mutual friend, Bill (Woody) Woodward. Strange how you lose touch.
When Wayne graduated he joined the Navy where he wound up in the Civil Engineer Corps as project manager in Guam, constructing electrical and communication facilities. Later serving as construction and public works officer in charge at the Marine Corps Air Facility in North Carolina. All related to the Vietnam conflict. After the Navy, Wayne earned his Master of Engineering in electrical power from RPI. Before retiring in 1990, he managed construction projects for Black & Veatch, Florida Power & Light, and Stone & Webster. As Wayne puts it: “I married Arlene, an Albany State girl from Schenectady, the love of my life, who I met at an Alpha Chi Rho fraternity party.” They have two children and four grandchildren and live in Orleans on Cape Cod. Wayne is active in his retirement with the Coast Guard Auxiliary and the U.S. Power Squadron, assisting with safety patrols and Aids to Navigation verification. And he tells me that he obtained his Merchant Mariner captain’s license. Is it the beginning of a whole new career?
Posted 2019-03-10
Jack Titley ’63 shares:
It was the reunion that didn’t happen. Mike Ross, the chairman of the 55th Reunion Committee, was disappointed with the almost total lack of interest in this year’s reunion. Mike told me that it was going to be a hard sell but hoped for a small response. Having to cancel events is always difficult. It seems that we are still recovering from our 50th. Never discouraged, Mike is thinking ahead to the 60th in 2023. As our ranks grow smaller, we should plan to attend now. A small unscientific survey seems to suggest that the move to a fall reunion date rather than the traditional June date has had some impact on attendance. Who knows? I liked the June date. I was a reunion absentee due to Kathryn (Sigetti) Sobray’s (Class of 2005) brother’s wedding. My niece (and godchild) has two beautiful little girls.
Two classmates who did attend the reunion and sent me a note were Wayne Richardson and Theodore Maxant.
Ted Maxant was a mechanical engineering major, who played on the lacrosse team for four years. He reminded me that he misses another of our classmates and lacrosse teammate Nick Humber, who was a passenger on one of the planes of the 9/11 Twin Towers tragedy. This summer Theodore and his daughter, Christa, rode horseback in and out of the Bob Marshall Wilderness area in Montana. Over 100 miles in and out, up and down the Continental Divide. Wow! Especially considering our plus-70 ages. Ted and his wife, Tina, live in Still River, Mass., and avoid the winter weather in St. Maarten. At Reunion & Homecoming, he hoped to visit with lacrosse team members and brothers of his ATO fraternity.
Posted 2019-03-10
After a career with Eastman Kodak, Pantone Inc., and Monroe Community College, John Setchell tells me that he is now fully retired. John, a physics major, earned his M.S. in physics from the University of Illinois. He is enjoying life as a newlywed in Webster, N.Y., having married Margie Cole on Thanksgiving in 2016. The happy couple traveled across country by train in 2017 to view the solar eclipse from a farmer’s field in Oregon. John also wanted his classmates to know that he suffered the loss of his dear wife, Judy, to leukemia in February 2015. As with all of us, John finds it hard to believe that it has been 55 years since graduation from RPI.
Posted 2018-10-10
