Class Notes
The 1950s and ’60s featured a Winter Weekend hosted by the junior class, which included all sorts of winter fun.
1975
Bob Dowgwillo is now one-year retired from a 42-year career as an aerodynamicist with McDonnell Douglas and Boeing. With the three kids long out of the house, he and his wife downsized into their 115-year-old duplex in the historic Skinker DeBalieviere neighborhood in St. Louis. In January, they became proud grandparents for the first time.
Posted 2024-01-17
Frank J. Potter retired in 2019 from a small computer company in Nashville, Tennessee. His B.S. in chemistry from RPI was augmented with an M.S. in chemistry from Vanderbilt, followed by about a decade of analytical chemistry for consulting engineering companies in Nashville and, later, in Fall River, Massachusetts. In the late 1980s, he returned to Vanderbilt and received a Ph.D. in chemical engineering. He ended up working as a technical writer for a software company and then for the specialty computer company from which he retired. During those years, he and his wife raised two daughters. In retirement, Frank created an LLC for cutlery and tool sharpening and is happily honing his way through retirement.
Posted 2023-02-27
Robert Srubas was an engineering executive in the wire and cable industry for 40 years and was granted four patents. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Wire and Cable Manufacturers’ Alliance. He served on the New England Chapter of the Wire Association International Board of Directors, including as president.
Posted 2023-02-27
Patty and Jon Lathrop have been busy working on a new lakefront property in northern Idaho. It looks spectacular!
Posted 2021-02-26
Gail Worthington has been frequenting Facebook with photos and reports as she and Mark Vince roam about the western part of the country in their new mobile home.
Posted 2021-02-26
Lori Johnston Chen has submitted her papers to retire from teaching, though I’m sure she hoped she would at least be finishing up the school year in class with her students.
Posted 2021-02-26
Science
Greetings to the Class of 1975! Andy Grosso is living in Georgetown, in Washington, D.C., where he has his own law practice. His longtime girlfriend, Virginia Covington, is a federal judge in Tampa, Fla. They “commute,” and keep JetBlue and American Airlines in business. Last May, Andy gave the keynote address on “Big Data, Better Health,” to a conference of the International Lawyers’ Association in New York City. According to Andy, it was the first (and hopefully the only) time that an audience of lawyers was treated to both a description of quantum computing and a musical quote from Jefferson Starship’s “Ride the Tiger.”
Posted 2020-05-19
Architecture
Got an email from Jackie Masloff last July, which said: “I successfully defended my doctoral dissertation on July 16 and will be receiving a Ph.D. in Educational Studies with a specialization in Adult Learning and Development from Lesley University. I was the first in my cohort to do so and was able to complete all the coursework and writing of the dissertation in three years. I also started a new teaching position in September 2018 as a lecturer in computer information systems at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass. Although my husband retired almost two years ago, I have no intention of doing so! I really enjoy teaching, the students, and the school, and still have much to do as long as my health and my brain are still working well!”
Posted 2020-05-19
David Stark And the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl once again!! Go Pats!
And another thing — by the time you receive these notes, planning will be well underway for our 45th Reunion.
Posted 2019-10-01
Engineering
Travis Whitehead (B.S. & M.S. E.E.) announced his bid for Queensbury Town Supervisor against the incumbent. He and his wife, Valerie, have been looking for a piece of land that includes a waterfall so that they could tap into it to generate hydroelectric power to power their home, and apparently just narrowly missed a parcel near their home. They also have amassed a collection of vintage music-making devices, pinball machines, jukeboxes, and tube-type radios. They also host a weeklong summer camp for their four grandchildren each year.
Posted 2019-10-01
Science
Patrick Dreher (B.S. & M.S. Physics; MBA) was named the chief scientist for the new IBM Quantum Computing Hub at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C. Pat is a research professor in the NCSU Department of Computer Science and an associate faculty member of the NCSU Department of Physics. The IBM Q Hub at NCSU started operations in the fall of 2018, providing NCSU with remote access to IBM Q commercial quantum computing devices, including the most advanced and scalable universal systems available.
Posted 2019-10-01
Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Gerry Ogris (Econ.) was appointed to the advisory board of URentMe. com, an online marketplace for renting recreational vehicles, motor sports, and motorized watercraft based in Henderson, Nev.
Posted 2019-10-01
Engineering
Altivia, a chemical company headquartered in Houston, Texas, has appointed Russ Herman (Mech.E.) as commercial manager of its Aromatics business, responsible for sales and marketing of phenol, acetone, alpha-methylstyrene, and bisphenol-A, produced at their plant in Haverhill, Ohio.
Posted 2019-10-01
David Stark writes:
On the home front, I now have a married son—the wedding was lovely all the way around, and the weather cooperated, too! To save a bit of time and money, my wife and I spent a week in Bar Harbor (oh, excuse me, “Bah Hahbah”), Maine, and toured Acadia National Park. On our way north, we stopped in to visit Jon Lathrop (Nuc.Sci.) and his wife, Patty, in Lowell, Mass. We had a great visit!
And the Boston Red Sox won the World Series!! Go Sawx!
Posted 2019-03-10
Engineering
Bob Dowgwillo (Aer.E.). He writes: “The Dowgwillo household is set to celebrate three weddings within 15 months. Son Alex was married this past August. Our elder daughter Emily is engaged to be married in May 2019, and younger daughter Catherine is engaged to be married in October 2019.” Bob and Heidi have downsized and have settled into their 1908 duplex near Forest Park in St. Louis.
Posted 2019-03-10
Architecture
Ray Weisner writes: Finally, over the summer Paul Nilsson and I had a great (and very retro) time at the Peter Frampton and Steve Miller Band concert in NYC. Reliving the dream. I’m still living and working in Manhattan, as a partner with VRC Valuation Research, a business valuation and M&A consultant. I hung up my architecture spurs right after getting my RA registration, and just after my MBA. My wife, Carole, is almost entirely too happy in retirement. All is good.
Posted 2019-03-10
Architecture
Ray Weisner writes: Also this summer, I caught up with another former classmate who transferred out, to RISD, Peter Dubin. Peter joined the firm in Chicago that his father was in, and Peter has designed, among other things, a fantastic residential high-rise in China.
Posted 2019-03-10
Architecture
Ray Weisner writes: “Wanted to say hello and provide— especially for my architecture mates—three blasts from the past. I was in New Mexico this fall, and caught up with a long-lost former classmate, Lorn Tryk. Lorn lives in Santa Fe and has his own architectural firm. He transferred to Rice after our sophomore year. It was great to see him!
Posted 2019-03-10
Architecture
Frank Pitts (Arch.) continues to collect accolades. He was named the 2018 Changemaker Award recipient by the Center for Health Design’s board of directors. The award honors individuals or organizations that have demonstrated exceptional ability to change the way health-care facilities are designed and built, and whose work has had a broad impact on the advancement of health-care design.
Posted 2019-03-10
Engineering
We received an article from the Albany Business Review concerning Bob Bedard (EE), CEO and owner of DeFacto Global, a tech company based in beautiful downtown Troy, which focuses on financial forecasting software for Fortune 500 companies. Bob started DeFacto Global in 2010, and moved it to Troy in early 2017 so he could partner with RPI and escape Connecticut.
Posted 2019-03-10
David Stark: Big news from the Stark household is the engagement of my older son, Chris. Maureen and I won’t be going on any big vacations this year—the wedding will be in October.
Posted 2018-10-10
Greetings to the Class of 1975! Got a note from Leland Deck last winter that just missed the cutoff for the Spring ’18 issue, so here it is:
“In October a group of ’70s-era Rensselaer Outing Club (ROC) members had a 40th-ish-year reunion (camping of course). Roger Harris, ’73 & ’76, wisely picked a place to go camping that (a) has stellar rock climbing and hiking, and (b) where we could absolutely count on it not raining: California’s Mohave Desert. The 11 ROC alumni attendees in Joshua Tree National Park for four days graduated from RPI from ’71 to ’78 (our 12th camper is a courageous wife who’s tolerated ~40 years of bizarre ROC tales and ROCer visits...surely earning honorary ROC status the hard way).
“The campers who managed to remain hale, hearty, and crazy pulled out the ropes, carabiners, etc., and tackled JT’s spectacular red granite formations, while the saner ones hiked and explored Joshua Tree. No ROC gathering could ever be complete without a slide show, of course. JT NP is a designated International Dark Sky Park, providing a spectacular backdrop to share old and new pics of our wilderness adventures around the world and reminisce.
“While planning, we heard from dozens of other ’70s-era ROCers, who offered lame excuses like ‘I’m hiking in Peru’ or working the grape harvest, or the so-sad ‘still have an office job’ affliction. As we packed up we started planning for another reunion in 40 years, but some talked us into trying to do better than that. As long as we’ll be at another rain-free campground, we’ll likely make it.
“PS: A special shout out to Victoria Solla ’11. Not only did she follow both her parents’ path to RPI, but she was also a hard-core ROCer; a certified double-barreled RPI-ROC legacy!” To see who attended, see photo above. Posted 2018-10-10
“In October a group of ’70s-era Rensselaer Outing Club (ROC) members had a 40th-ish-year reunion (camping of course). Roger Harris, ’73 & ’76, wisely picked a place to go camping that (a) has stellar rock climbing and hiking, and (b) where we could absolutely count on it not raining: California’s Mohave Desert. The 11 ROC alumni attendees in Joshua Tree National Park for four days graduated from RPI from ’71 to ’78 (our 12th camper is a courageous wife who’s tolerated ~40 years of bizarre ROC tales and ROCer visits...surely earning honorary ROC status the hard way).
“The campers who managed to remain hale, hearty, and crazy pulled out the ropes, carabiners, etc., and tackled JT’s spectacular red granite formations, while the saner ones hiked and explored Joshua Tree. No ROC gathering could ever be complete without a slide show, of course. JT NP is a designated International Dark Sky Park, providing a spectacular backdrop to share old and new pics of our wilderness adventures around the world and reminisce.
“While planning, we heard from dozens of other ’70s-era ROCers, who offered lame excuses like ‘I’m hiking in Peru’ or working the grape harvest, or the so-sad ‘still have an office job’ affliction. As we packed up we started planning for another reunion in 40 years, but some talked us into trying to do better than that. As long as we’ll be at another rain-free campground, we’ll likely make it.
“PS: A special shout out to Victoria Solla ’11. Not only did she follow both her parents’ path to RPI, but she was also a hard-core ROCer; a certified double-barreled RPI-ROC legacy!” To see who attended, see photo above. Posted 2018-10-10
David Stark reports that he and his wife Maureen have continued their SKI (Spending the Kids’ Inheritance) vacations, and spent two weeks in September 2017 in Vancouver, Canada, and on a sea/land cruise to Alaska. During the trip, they visited Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, College Fjord, as well as two resorts outside Denali National Park, but unfortunately Mount Denali was socked in with clouds during their entire trip, and that same overcast prevented them from having any chance of seeing the northern lights.
Posted 2018-03-15
Bob Fitzgibbon is working as a principal engineer in RF/microwave and other physics areas for Alion Science and Technology in Rome, N.Y., and is also a member of the Rome Academy of Sciences, which hosts topical talks and sponsors science fairs in the local schools. Bob's wife, Jennifer, is a church organist and they are both active in choir and other church work. They also had a wonderful trip to Missouri in August 2017 to see the eclipse.
Bob and Jennifer's extracurricular activities include astronomy and amateur radio, and they also talk to Catherine Fiore and Valerie Lyons and Paul Crilly ’76 every now and then on Facebook. They wish all the best to their fellow alumni! Posted 2018-03-15
Bob and Jennifer's extracurricular activities include astronomy and amateur radio, and they also talk to Catherine Fiore and Valerie Lyons and Paul Crilly ’76 every now and then on Facebook. They wish all the best to their fellow alumni! Posted 2018-03-15
