Class Notes

Winter 2023-2024 Highlights

A Message From Meghan Lenihan Moulder '10

In Memoriam

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Two alumns pose under giant polar bear ice sculpture

The 1950s and ’60s featured a Winter Weekend hosted by the junior class, which included all sorts of winter fun.

1992

Brian Durant
Brian Durant retired from the U.S. Navy at the end of August 2021 after 29 years of active duty. His last, “and possibly most rewarding,” assignment (2020-2021) was with Operation Warp Speed as a deputy for supply, production, and distribution managing all Defense Production Act activities and supply chain issues for vaccine production and administration. Prior to that, Brian was major program manager within the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) for Standard Missile 3, the Navy’s ballistic missile interceptor (2016-2020). Prior to that, he was Commanding Officer of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, the U.S. Navy’s largest surface warfare R&D facility working on projects as diverse as Railgun and Direct Energy to the Aegis Combat System and Chem-Bio defense (2013-2016). He has since taken on a role with BAE as their program manager supporting NATO Seasparrow. “I’ve had the opportunity to serve with RPI graduates multiple times throughout my career — five of us in Djibouti, Africa, together in 2007 (three from ’92 — Steve Eron, Hassan Bermiss, and I), at MDA (Bill Cooley ’88), and now at NATO Seasparrow working for CAPT Tom Seigenthaler ’99. Posted 2023-03-24
Matt Conti was elected to the board of directors for the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, the nonprofit responsible for the management and care of The Greenway in Boston. Matt retired as a portfolio manager at Fidelity Investments and is owner of Matt Conti Photography. Posted 2021-09-29
Jennifer Howland received the Golden Knight Award from Clarkson University. The prestigious alumni award is presented to alumni who have distinguished themselves either by service to Clarkson through alumni association activities or have demonstrated outstanding career achievements, bringing distinction to themselves and the university. Posted 2021-09-29
Willard T. Lee was appointed executive vice president and chief information and innovation officer for Hanover Insurance Group. Since 2003, he has served in various roles, including chief operating officer of specialty lines, and in 2020, was appointed senior vice president, deputy chief information officer, and member of the senior executive team. Posted 2021-09-29
Engineering Karen Ware is associate general counsel and expert in Intellectual Property for BASF. She has been with BASF since 2011 in various roles and currently manages a team of IP lawyers in Research Triangle Park. Karen was admitted to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 2000 and to the North Carolina State Bar in 2002. She earned her J.D. from North Carolina North Central University, an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Rensselaer. She is currently pursuing an LLM in dispute resolution at the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law. Posted 2021-09-29
Michael V. Drexel is senior vice president and chief technology officer for Cantel Medical Corporation, a global company dedicated to delivering innovative infection prevention products and services for patients, caregivers, and other health care providers. Posted 2021-09-29
Engineering Brian Romansky has been appointed chief technology officer at Owl Cyber Defense Solutions. He joined the company in 2017 as director of business development, and will now lead the strategic development of advanced technology. Posted 2020-05-21
Business Renée Pellegrino joined the board of Emerald Coast Children’s Advocacy Center, a nonprofit organization providing services to identify, treat, and support children in abusive situations. ECCAC has provided more than 60,000 services at no cost to over 12,000 children over the last 18 years. Posted 2020-05-21
Engineering The Gloversville, N.Y., Leader-Herald newspaper featured Peter Voelker and his award-winning Helderberg Meadworks. Visitors to Esperance, N.Y., should be sure to visit the tasting room. Please have one for those of us too far away to visit! Posted 2020-05-21
Science John Trammell has departed the University of Minnesota and been hired as a principal engineer at Target Corporation.  Posted 2020-05-21
Tony Osimo has been appointed director of operations for Quality Beverage's Taunton, Mass., division. Posted 2019-10-01
Silas Coellner was named principal of Old Rochester Regional Junior High School in Massachusetts. Before entering the field of education, he was a satellite systems engineering team leader for Lockheed Martin. Posted 2019-10-01
Brig. Gen. Kimberly Colloton
Brig. Gen. Kimberly Colloton ’92 Celebrates Historic Promotion on Campus Col. Kimberly M. Colloton ’92 was formally promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the United States Army in a ceremony at the Heffner Alumni House Nov. 20, 2018. Upon her promotion, Colloton became the first woman commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ South Pacific Division. Colloton, who earned a bachelor of architecture and a bachelor of science in building sciences at Rensselaer, chose to have her ceremony on campus, where in 1992, she was commissioned into the Engineer Regiment through the ROTC program at Rensselaer. Colloton has served in a variety of command and staff assignments in the continental U.S. and around the world. As the South Pacific Division commander, she is responsible for leading a workforce of more than 2,300 soldiers and civilians. The division, one of the Corps’ nine regions nationwide, manages a multibillion-dollar military and civil works program. Posted 2019-03-10
Michael Kennedy is the new chair of the Department of Health Policy, Economics, and Management at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, School of Community and Rural Health. He had served as interim chair, and prior to that as associate professor. Posted 2019-03-10
Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems has appointed Michael Hawthorne as the company’s new president and CEO. Since 2012, Hawthorne had been president and CEO of New York Air Brake (NYAB), a sister company of Bendix within the Knorr-Bremse Group. Posted 2019-03-10
Renato Camacho has been selected as the next president and CEO of the Akron-Canton Airport by its board of trustees. Since 2011, Camacho has served as the chief of planning and engineering for Cleveland’s Department of Port Control, which oversees Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Burke Lakefront Airport, and the Lakefront Harbors. Posted 2019-03-10
Keith DuPont has been appointed president of performance materials by Coats, a leading industrial thread manufacturer. Keith is responsible for delivering the overall strategy for performance materials, including operational and commercial activities, and meeting sales and organic growth targets, as well as developing talent. Posted 2018-10-10
Lawrence Jordan, president and co-owner of Wi-Tronix, was featured in a January 2018 article in Crain’s Chicago Business. The article discusses Violet, the Wi-Tronix product being field-tested by seven major U.S. freight lines to improve safety and efficiency. Posted 2018-10-10
James Petrosky was re-appointed Air Force Technical Application Center Endowed Term Chair for Nuclear Materials. A professor of nuclear engineering and the M.S. curriculum chair in the Air Force Institute of Technology’s Dept. of Engineering Physics, he has expertise in radiation effects on electronic devices, EMP, experimental design, radiation detection, and nuclear weapon effects. Posted 2018-10-10
Engineering Melissa Wong (B.S. CSE), a systems engineer and cybersecurity expert at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., has been awarded the 2017 Women of Color Award for her accomplishments in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related fields.  Posted 2018-03-15
Engineering Jerry Lenaz (B.S. EE) was added as a professor of practice and program director, Business and Leadership Studies, at the Tulane School of Professional Advancement. Jerry was previously the director of business services at the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program at Delgado Community College in New Orleans. Posted 2018-03-15
Business Magued Eldaief (MBA) was appointed to the position of CEO last May at Prescient, which provides design, engineering, manufacturing, and installation solutions for the construction industry. Posted 2018-03-15
Erin M. Crotty (M.S. Urban&Env), former commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, was hired by CHA Consulting Inc. to serve as vice president, environmental market leader. Erin leads a team of environmental engineers and scientists providing solutions to complex environmental issues, including remediation and regulatory compliance. Posted 2018-03-15
Architecture Col. Kimberly Colloton (BArch; B.S.) assumed command of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Transatlantic Afghanistan District (TAA), during a change of command ceremony last August at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. She previously served as the commander for both the USACE Albuquerque and Los Angeles Districts and is the TAA’s first female commander. Posted 2018-03-15