Thayer School
Your editor, wearing his Thayer School Centennial Book Editor hat, has received fascinating reminiscences of other days at Thayer School from a number of alumni who have responded to his call for help. He wishes he could print them all, verbatim, in this column but, word quotas being what they must be, publication must await the Centennial Book. Among the alumni who have written are Myron Witham '06, Syd Ruggles '09, Harry Ward '10, Whitney Eastman '11, Pete Dow '11, Nelson Doe 13, Ed Elkins '15, Hugo Gumbart '17, Ken Ross '17, Melvin Southwick '19, Pete Halloran '20, Bill Montgomery 20, Al Dunn 22, Carl Washburn '26, George Leyser '27 and Dick Mooney '28. The list increases daily.
A question asked by Pete Halloran reminds me that I have inadvertently neglected to mention Russ Stearns '38 and his multitudinous activities, since taking over his column last fall. In addition to his teaching and other Thayer School duties, Russ is president of the New Hampshire Section of the American Society of Civil engineers, Dartmouth's representative to 'he "New Hampshire Tomorrow" organization which develops projects and conferences on environmental themes, chairman of the New Hampshire Society of Professional Engineers Environmental Committee, and a member of the Highway Research Board Division B Steering Committee which stimulates and oversees special HRB projects. He has also been my most constant source of news of recent alumni.
On his return from Washington where he attended the annual Highway Research Board meeting in January, Russ reported having seen Dana Low CE'55 and JoeWattle worth CE'60.
A note from Ed Hill '35 to Ed Brown'35 asks "What happened to Al Cotton?" ('35, whose name was omitted from the 1970 Thayer School Directory). The answer is found on an apologetic errata sheet which the editor sent to all alumni with their DSE bills in January. It seems that the names of Al Cotton '35, HenryGorsline '32 and Charlie Weinberg: '43 all fell between the cracks and Art Nichols'45 was incorrectly listed as Arthur C., CE'16 instead of Arthur N., CE'45. Two more omissions since the errata sheet was sent are those of Edward W. (Ted) Bush W. Hartford, Conn. 06117, and BunnyPratt EE'51 who lives on New Boston Road, Norwich, Vt. 05055 and is a research associate at Thayer School. Not so bad out of some 1200 names, but listing Hawaii as a foreign country, well ... Incidentally, the editor will appreciate having any other errors called to her attention.
Ed Hill's letter also brought the news that he has retired from the Army Engineers, plays golf three times a week, plans to set up a Town Engineer Department for the Town of Sandwich (Mass.) and has formed a new firm, Hill & Lind, Inc., specializing in Water Resources Engineering. He calls it retirement!
The Thayer School alumni body was increased by two in January with the granting of Doctor of Engineering degrees to Dick Whitfield '71 and Stan Brown'71. Dick received his B.E. degree from Thayer School in 1964 and his M.E. in 1968. Stan was married to Katharine Merritt before Christmas and holds a postdoctoral fellowship at the Dartmouth Medical School this year. Shortly after receiving his doctorate, Stan and Katharine took a short skiing vacation in Switzerland.
Congratulations to ex-Dean MyronTribus who left the Department of Commerce at the end of the year to accept the position of Senior Vice President for Research and Development of the Xerox Corporation. He and his wife Sue and daughters Kamala and Louanne are making their new home at 35 Countryside Road, Fairport, N.Y. 14450.
Myron Whitham '06, Professor of Mathematics Emeritus at the University of Vermont, has been tutoring "modern math" since his 1946 retirement. He questions the use of the word "modern" since it is really "Symbolic Logic and the Investigation of the Laws of Thought introduced and developed by George Boole" over a hundred years ago.
Tom Harriman '43, asked for a few words about his occupation, has volunteered that "It's a long way from Bessel functions, mechanics of materials and systems engineering to trying to direct the market/product development of a $50- - company. But you tried to teach us problem solving and that helps! That's all the more important as a prerequisite to problem definition, which our whole society must do more of right now." Amen
Frank Cudworth '02 flew from his year-round home in Connecticut to St. Petersburg, Fla., in January for a few months of warmer weather. His address there is 433 Fifth Street, North. He spent the summer with his daughter and her family at Rocky Point, Maine, where he "walked plenty and jogged some"! Incidentally, Frank and classmate Frank Marsh have been Thayer School alumni longer than any one else who can walk or jog.
Speaking of which, Dick LivingstonME'44 is one of the three oldest living mechanical engineering alumni of Thayer School. An Engineering Associate with the duPont Company in Seaford, Del., Dick is a consultant to other engineers "in many areas of textile fibre processing but particularly 66 nylon polymer melt chemistry." He is also engaged in computerized mathema- tical modeling of 66 nylon chemistry. He notes that he "had no specific Thayer training in either area. The several-sided implications of that fact might make an interesting debate." Yes, Dick, and they do, about 365 days a year in engineering faculties.
