Thayer School
For the past six months or so there has been a considerable amount of discussion, conjecture, and general concern, on both sides of the Connecticut River, in regard to the location and consequences of the Norwich interchange on I.S. 91. The location of this interchange, between Norwich and Hanover, and the proposed ramp leading directly onto the two-lane, Ledyard Bridge, have generated many letters to the press, petitions to the governors of Vermont and New Hampshire, hearings, and joint statements by the town officials of both towns. John Minnich '29, has appeared as a witness at the hearings. Thus we are reminded that the era of high-speed freeways and urban traffic problems is now a part of our daily lives in the north country. It may be of interest, and some value, to note that Interstate 91, along the Connecticut Valley, is complete from the Connecticut Thruway at New Haven to Windsor, Vt., except for two pieces between Springfield, Mass., and Northampton and at Greenfield.
I regret that I must inform you that Miss Mary Fletcher died at her home, 5 Clement Road, Hanover, on December 10, 1965. Miss Fletcher, the daughter of Robert (Bobby) Fletcher, the first Dean of the Thayer School of Engineering, and Ellen Huntington Fletcher, was born in Hanover May 20, 1873. Following her education at Bradford Academy in Massachusetts and travel in Europe, she returned to Hanover to become active in public service and unpublicized benefactions. She was one of the first women in Hanover to drive her own car and served locally as an emergency driver in World War I.
Miss Fletcher's life covered almost a century of Hanover history which coincides with the first century of the Thayer School soon to come to a close. During this period the Town grew from a rural outpost of learning to an academic, cultural, scientific, and medical center. She accepted the years of change with grace and looked to the future with amused curiosity as she affetionately remembered earlier days as being more golden and gracious.
Steve Olko '47 has sent greetings from Japan which he visited on his way to Australia where his company has been retained for engineering services. Steve has also been given the responsibility for formulating recommendations for recreational development of the Westchester County, New York, waterfront, a most exciting assignment.... Bob Barr '42 left on December 27 for a month-long trip through Russia to Armenia. Bob will confer with native Armenian stonecutters about ornamental stonework for the Armenian Cathedral of America in midtown New York City.
Bill Kimball '29 will be the chairman of the steering committee which will organize an engineering foundation conference at Proctor Academy, Andover, N. H., in August 1966. The subject of the conference is The Development of an Interdisciplinary Team Approach to Engineering Problems. Bill will be the chairman of the conference, also. Word has just been received that Bill will leave for Ankara, Turkey the end of January 1966 on a contract with the AID office serving CENTO (Central Treaty Organization). More about this next month.
Bob Sundblad '48, as Vice President and Chief Engineer, Braincon Corporation in Marion, Mass., is concerned with problems related to our "new" world of inner space, the ocean floor. . . . Jack Hanley '48 is now Professor of Civil Engineering and Associate Head of the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Minnesota. His field of specialization is structures. In 1964 Jack spent six weeks at the Naval Civil Engineering Lab., Port Hueneme, Calif., assisting in their research program. He might have bumped into Neil Drobny '64, now Lt. (j.g.), who is stationed at the CEC Research Laboratory. Neil does not stay in one place long, however. Last summer he attended a course at CRREL, in Hanover, offered to Navy people. His present work in the laboratory is concerned with methods of waste disposal in the Antarctic. He presented a paper on Polar Sanitation in September in Juneau, to the 16th Alaskan Science Conference, followed by an inspection trip to Pt. Barrow. (I hope the weather was better than when your reporter was there.) Neil is the author of Tech. Note N-708, "Survey of Antarctic Water Supply and Waste Disposal Facilities, Practices and Problems."
Bob Keane '48 vacationed at Lake Winnipesaukee last summer with his wife, Barbara, and children. Bob has been with United Engineers and Constructors since his instructorship at Thayer School in 1949, and lives in Moorestown, N. J. Now that Jackson and Morland of Boston is a division of U.E. & C. Bob works with Al Doolittle '37 who is Jackson and Morland's Chief Estimator.
A news item in The New York Times, September 1965, announced that Pitometer Assoc. of New York had been retained to survey water leaks in New York City. ShawCole '31 is president of this company which makes a specialty of water surveys and reducing water leakage. Surveys involving day and night monitoring of flow, and resulting in a 5-20% saving in water "consumption," have been completed in 27 cities, a significant contribution in this period of drought. . .. Dorr-Oliver Inc., Stamford, Conn., has announced that George Ehinger '45 has been appointed Manager of the Food and Pharmaceutical Sales Division at Stamford. George has been associated with the company for 20 years and has represented them for the past fifteen years on process equipment sales with the food and pharmaceutical industries of the Mid-West. He has been involved primarily in starch processing technology and has co-authored a paper on high capacity DSM screens for the food industry.
