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Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • March/April 2011 Contents.indd 2 2/15/11 4:35 PM Contents.indd 3 2/15/11 4:32 PM Contents.indd 4 2/15/11 4:32 PM Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine Volume 87, Number 4

Publisher: Joseph P. Irwin, IM 80 Editor: Kimberly Link-Wills Assistant Editor: Van Jensen Assistant Editor: Leslie Overman Design: Ryan Giusti Student Editorial Assistant: Torian Parker Student Photographer: Eric Mansfield

Executive Committee Alfredo Trujillo, AE 81, Chair Joseph W. Evans, IM 71, Past Chair C. Dean Alford, EE 76, Chair-elect/Finance Walt Ehmer, IE 89, Vice Chair/Roll Call Laurie Bagley, IM 84, Member At Large Benton J. Mathis Jr., IM 81, Member At Large James E. Trimble Jr., Mgt 91, Member At Large Joseph P. Irwin, IM 80, President

Board of Trustees Thomas G. Arlotto, ME 82 Ashley Gigandet Joseph, IntA 94 Jennifer M. Ball, Arch 94, M CP 01 Kelli H. Keb, IM 78 Coe A. Bloomberg, ME 66 Jesus Leon, Cls 74 Marc A. Corsini, IM 80 John A. Lewis Jr., IM 79 Tracey M. Countryman, IM 98 Robert A. Madayag III, ChE 02 Steven R. Cover, Arch 78, M Arch 81, Errika Mallett, ISyE 96 M CP 81 John McKenney, IE 90 C. Richard Crutchfield, IM 69 Wanda B. Murray, HS 82 Marian H. Epps, IM 83 Eric L. Pinckney Sr., ME 86, M CP 93 J. Gregory Foster, ME 95 Troy W. Rice, IE 01 Angela D. Fox, EE 91 Heather S. Rocker, ISyE 98 Paul S. Goggin, Phys 91 Victoria L. Selfridge, IE 96 Richard A. Guthman Jr., IE 56 Rush S. Smith Jr., Phys 72 S. Wesley Haun, Mgt 72 Robert N. Stargel Jr., EE 83 Jeffrey S. Hurley, MS Chem 90, PhD Chem 92 Jeb M. Stewart, Cls 91 Joseph C. Irastorza, EE 60, MS EE 68, Karen C. Thurman, IM 82 PhD ISyE 73 Philip L. Williams, Text 70 Troy N. Ivey, CmpE 90 Janet C. Wilson, ICS 81 Cayman James, CE 99, MS EnvE 01 Ronald L. Yancey, EE 65 Advertising Holly Green (404) 894-0765; [email protected]

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine (ISSN: 1061-9747) is published bimonthly by the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313. Periodical postage paid in Atlanta and additional mailing offices. © 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Association Postmaster: Send address changes to Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313. Telephone: Georgia Tech Alumni Association (404) 894-2391 Change address or unsubscribe at [email protected]

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 5

Contents.indd 5 2/16/11 1:12 PM Contents.indd 6 2/15/11 4:32 PM Features

33 38

33 For Their Country 38 Calm Amid Chaos 46 Jacket Jesters On March 1, 1961, President John F. Peter Rhee, chief of trauma surgery at April Fools’ Day pranksters, MARTA Kennedy signed an executive order University Medical Center in Arizona, riders dropping their pants while the establishing the Peace Corps. Alumni was a calming force after a gunman trains are moving and improvisational who have volunteered over the years opened fire outside a grocery store. comedy players are just part of the say the experience is life changing. Cover photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star Georgia Tech community of jokesters.

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 7

Contents.indd 7 2/16/11 1:16 PM Contents.indd 8 2/15/11 4:33 PM Departments

13 Letters

19 Alumni House 20 Jackets Required

26 22 Tech Topics 24 Tech Notes 26 Office Space 28 Within Walking Distance 29 What’s in a Name? 30 Ten Questions 31 Student Life

29 55 Burdell & Friends 57 Ramblin’ Roll 63 In Memoriam

70 Yellow Jackets 76 Sports Briefs

22 30 81 In Retrospect

55 75

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 9

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We Need More CO2 would be a miracle solution to the problem. Is there scientific re- Jon Parker’s response [January/February] to the Judith Curry search going on at Tech to make that possible? climate article was without foundation. He centers on C02 as the In summary, I have a longtime interest in environmental mat- culprit and begs that the “scientific” questions be answered. The ters, and it appears to me that the Tech approach is not as strong or real question is how did CO2 become the villain? as well defined as some of us would hope. CO2 is only 385 parts per million of the atmosphere. Man-made For a lighter comment on the January/February magazine, I CO2 from the use of fossil fuels is only 3 percent of the total, or 12 was on my toes about the members of the 1990 team reliving the ppm. CO2 is benign but is an intended result of energy production football championship of that year. I got up immediately from my (burning fuel). Without CO2 mankind would be gone. It is one of reading and went to my small reminder of it. Yes, I have a bottle of the most important substances that makes life possible here on Coca-Cola above the desk. It has a listing of all the games and the Earth. scores thereof. I took it down, wiped the dust off of it and put it Why on earth would you want to remove CO2 from the atmo- back in its place of honor. sphere? We need more, not less. Yes, CO2 is the source of the green Billy Wallace, EE 46 Earth. Stillwater, Okla. Perhaps Mr. Parker would profit by reading the Global Warm- ing Petition (petitionproject.org) signed by 31,478 American scien- Global Warming Article One-sided tists and engineers that encapsulates my comments. You’ll find me Please spare us any future one-sided reporting like that con- on page 56. tained in the recent article about Dr. Judith Curry, Handling the It is the sun that controls our climate, and since we can’t control Heat. There were so many distortions of fact in this article that cor- the sun, we can’t control our climate. Again, we need more CO2, recting them would be too long-winded in a standard letter to the not less. editor. But here are a few: Why the CO2 scam/fraud? Because it fosters the sinking of 1. NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies can only claim the U.S. economy. Environmentalism has served to regulate our that the 2000s are the hottest decade on record because the data- lives and economy in lieu of the idea of conservation. I recommend base they use, which originates from the National Oceanic and reading Leo Johnson’s Understanding the Global Warming Hoax. Atmospheric Administration, has already selectively eliminated James E. Bell, ME 53 a multitude of temperature-measuring stations in high latitudes, Atlanta high altitudes and rural areas that would have cooled their results. 2. Former climate modeler William Connolley is quoted despite Curry Seems Unconcerned the fact that he is a Green Party activist. He also has been banned I anticipated some definite comments from Judith Curry [No- from his administrative duties at Wikipedia due to the fact that he vember/December 2010] as to what is happening with the climate abused his powers by altering more than 5,000 global-warming and what is foreseen for the future. Warming does appear to be articles on that Web site in order to reflect his “warmist” viewpoint. occurring. There are events that contribute to that. A recent report 3. There is no mention of the McIntyre/McKittrick paper that said that in the Altiplano of South America, all glaciers but one thoroughly debunked Michael Mann’s hockey stick graph due to were receding — a 100-to-1 situation. Mann’s usage of bristlecone pines (which respond more to CO2 An article in the December Atlantic magazine provides some than to temperature) as a temperature proxy and assigning an ex- statistics that are alarming. An estimated 37 billion tons of CO2 ceedingly high weight factor to hockey stick-shaped proxies that are put into the atmosphere each year. Current concentration is at caused hockey stick-shaped graphs to be produced even when us- or above 390 parts per million. It had fluctuated between 180 ppm ing red noise as input data instead of actual temperature data. and 280 ppm for the past 800,000 years and has been increasing 4. The federal grant funding process for climate change re- since the beginning of the Industrial Age. search ($32 billion since 1989) dwarfs the amount supplied by oil U.S. emissions are about 25 tons per year per person. Europe’s and gas companies. are about 11 tons. The big kicker is China, which is about one-third 5. Freedom of Information requests were ignored for years, of the U.S. average. The strong development in China is going to resulting in the Climategate e-mails being made public. There is no raise the total significantly. The fuel for China is basically going to evidence that the e-mails were stolen or hacked. It is entirely plau- be coal, of which there is plenty. Other fuels around the world — sible that they were leaked by an insider at the Climate Research sun, wind and atomic — will continue to be a small percentage of Unit of the University of East Anglia in order to expose the consis- the total. tent pattern of “cooking the data.” There seems to be no real concern by Dr. Curry. What can we 6. The Climategate “investigations” were largely whitewashes do? Is there a real problem? What is the Tech approach to keeping because they were performed by groups that stood to lose future students up-to-date? Sequestration of the gas, other than by trees, climate funding, had they arrived at a different conclusion.

Letters are the views of the letter writers, not the Alumni Association. Send letters to Editor, Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313, or [email protected]. Send address changes to Biographical Records at the Alumni Association or e-mail [email protected].

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 13

Letters.indd 13 2/15/11 1:07 PM 7. Climategate e-mails by themselves may not single-handedly Underachievers Restricted invalidate global warming research, but they unequivocally reveal Thanks for printing Bottom of the Class in the Georgia Tech a systematic attempt to silence skeptical scientists and prevent their Alumni Magazine [January/February]. Academic underachievers articles from being published. This shows that the peer review who have unique intelligence and determination are not rare. Their process used is thoroughly corrupted and allowed those who sup- opportunities, however, are drastically restricted due in part to ported the anthropogenic global warming position to repeatedly standardized testing. make the claim that “the science is settled.” After serving four years in the Air Force, I traveled to Atlanta 8. Anthony Watts is only referred to as a “blogger and skeptic.” to enroll at Georgia Tech. When I told the lady behind the counter This demeans his expertise in the field, having been an on-air mete- at the administration building my intention was to attend Georgia orologist with over 25 years of experience. One of his contributions Tech, she asked me if I was a citizen of the state of Georgia. My to the field is his leadership in the evaluation of the many problems answer was yes. Her answer was, “Then I can’t stop you,” and she with more than 1,000 of the 1,221 U.S. temperature-measuring sta- handed me the forms. That was the enrollment procedure at Geor- tions. (See surfacestations.org.) His report concluded that around gia Tech in 1954. 90 percent of the stations surveyed did not meet the National I graduated from Georgia Tech in three years after spending Weather Service’s own siting requirements, resulting in probable one quarter in night school. I failed the standard state geometry warm biases of more than 2.0 degrees Celsius in their readings. test, disturbing the professor but still receiving a B in the class. Bat- Considering that the 20th century generally showed a rise in temperature of only .7 degrees Celsius, this demonstrates that the tling dyslexia, taking 20 credit hours of course work and studying anthropogenic contribution to global warming is solely due to the eight hours a day, I graduated with a 2.75 GPA — a low score today urban heat island effect, not CO2 emissions. but considered to be in the upper one-third at that time. The real story in the climate science field is that CO2 has a rela- My reason for responding to this article is that I could never be tively minor effect as a greenhouse gas — water vapor is the major admitted to Georgia Tech today. I have never passed a standard- player. One should therefore concentrate on the effects of clouds to ized test, some quirk in brain chemistry. effectively model our climate. Pay attention to the research of Dan- I have had an interesting career, and I owe it all to the marvel- ish solar physicist Henrik Svensmark, which can be summarized in ous professors who shared their knowledge and to the proposition his recently published book The Chilling Stars. For anyone with an that someone who is motivated deserves a chance. Not practical to- inquiring scientific mind, this book shows how the scientific meth- day, but there is always hope or luck, as Mr. Roberts has described od is supposed to proceed — use measured data to either prove, in Bottom of the Class. disprove or refine one’s theories. The majority of the mainstream Leslie R. Hodges, CerE 57 climate scientists have been shown to change the data to fit their Weeki Wachee, Fla. preconceived theories. That is not science — it is advocacy. Anybody Seen a Divorce Certificate? Phil Blusiewicz, EE 78 Alpharetta, Ga. The story of Heisman’s divorce being the reason he moved [November/December] is one of my favorites in Tech history. It The Other Frank was mentioned in the little-known Heisman: The Musical, which I I was the other Frank Stovall at Tech in the ’40s. I first became watched at Queen’s College in Charlotte, N.C. The play told the aware of J. Frank [TE 41, who died Nov. 12] when one of his chem- story of how Tech watched in horror as Heisman’s Clemson team istry charges was posted to my account. I looked him up, and ran roughshod over the Engineers and how the Hill hired him we became good friends. At dances, I would introduce myself away. to a good-looking girl, and she would say, “You don’t look like I One of the antiques that I wished I could buy when I saw it was thought you did.” Frank was a wonderful person. Heisman’s divorce certificate. If that’s not an authentic autograph, I really enjoyed the article about Tom Roberts [Bottom of the I’m not sure what is, since it had to be notarized. The item had Class, January/February]. Actually, I was more like Tom at Tech such an important back story that I’m shocked it didn’t sell when it than I was like J. Frank Stovall. Although my high school grades was put up for auction starting at $2,500 at a Georgia Tech football were very good, I really had to work very hard to keep up my se- kickoff celebration at the Fox Theatre (where Mrs. Heisman was an nior year. I was smart enough to know my IQ was lower than most actress) in about 2000. Does anyone know its current whereabouts? so I really put in the hours. John Rafferty, EE 02 I enjoy reading the Ramblin’ Roll and guess others do likewise, Niceville, Fla. so I’ve enclosed a brief about me for the 1940s. [See page 57.] And to the tennis coach: I would dearly love to play an exhibi- Leach Was Soft-spoken Genius tion match against Dan McGill of Georgia. In earlier years, he beat I was deeply saddened to read about Dr. Leach passing away me. We are the same age, 90. [January/February]. We had kept up with each other ever since my Frank Stovall, ChE 43, MS EE 49 graduation in December 1983. I sent him a Christmas card every Atlanta year, and not knowing of his passing, wrote in the 2010 card about

14 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

Letters.indd 14 2/16/11 1:35 PM how my Leach amp, pre-amp and speakers that I built under his W.M. Leach Jr., Probe Compensated Near-field Measurements on a guidance have worked flawlessly for 27 years. I wrote in the card Cylinder, PhD dissertation, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, “made in the USA.” page 121, August 1972. Marshall was a soft-spoken genius, a very humble man of ter- W.M. Leach Jr. and D.T. Paris, Probe Compensated Near-field rific character. I would visit his audio engineering lab between Measurements on a Cylinder, IEEE Transactions on Antennas Propaga- classes and converse with him on just about anything. He always tion, Vol. AP-21, No. 4, pages 435 to 445, July 1973. took time out of his busy schedule to speak with me. I took four D.T. Paris, W.M. Leach Jr. and E.B. Joy, Basic Theory of Probe special credit classes under Dr. Leach and also his undergraduate Compensated Near-field Measurements, IEEE Transactions on Antennas audio engineering class. These were my most memorable courses Propagation, Vol. AP-26, No. 3, pages 373 to 379, May 1978. at Tech. E.B. Joy, W.M. Leach, D.T. Paris and G.P. Rodrigue, Applica- I encourage all students to take special credit classes at Georgia tions of Probe Compensated Near-field Measurement, IEEE Transactions Tech. These classes are where the real “practical” learning takes on Antennas Propagation, Vol. AP-26, No. 3, pages 379 to 389, May place. 1978. In his memoriam, Dr. Leach should be credited with co-pio- W.M. Leach Jr. and L.N. An, Cylindrical Wave Study, Georgia neering the analytical aspects of modern near-field measurement Institute of Technology, Atlanta, NASA contract NAS5-23886, April metrology. He, his classmate, retired professor E.B. Joy, and other 1978. well-known names in the Tech electrical engineering community E.B. Joy, A Brief History of the Development of the Near-field collaborated to develop this field, which is used every day to test Measurement Technique at the Georgia Institute of Technology, IEEE defensive antennas and arrays as well as most all wireless and cel- Transactions on Antennas Propagation, Vol. 36, No. 6, pages 740 to lular phone antennas. 745, June 1988. I encourage everyone to read and remember Dr. Leach by revis- Michael H. Sewell, EE 83 iting the following papers: Byron, Ga.

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 15

Letters.indd 15 2/16/11 1:36 PM Letters.indd 16 2/15/11 1:09 PM Letters.indd 17 2/15/11 1:10 PM AlumniHouseJoeCol.indd 18 2/15/11 5:27 PM Alumni House Roll Call Founders Had the Right Idea: Support Georgia Tech

Most people don’t really understand Roll Call so I’ve decided uate scholarships, graduate fellowships, real estate management to devote this column to the subject and to provide some greater and acquisition, operating funds, academic program seed grants insight about the subject of Georgia Tech’s alumni annual fund. and more. The Alumni Association started Roll Call 64 years ago. George Why is that important? Because most of the revenues that come McCarty, ME 08, (yes, that’s 1908) proposed the idea that we scrap to Georgia Tech are restricted for specific uses. Unrestricted mon- our dues-paying model and run an annual fund instead. ies thus are hugely valuable because they give Tech the flexibility The idea was simple — to help Georgia Tech financially. The to take advantage of opportunities, to invest in progress, to set the Institute was struggling, and as alumni, Mr. McCarty and many stage for future growth and innovation. All of us know that if you other esteemed graduates of the day felt that we as alumni should have no financial flexibility as a business or even personally, it is help in any way we can. difficult to do anything except to maintain the status quo. And do- George was one of Tech’s great alumni — a member of the ing the same old things gets you the same old results. Kappa Alpha fraternity and ODK and a founder of ANAK. Georgia Tech needs your help through Roll Call to ensure That first year, 1,356 alumni gave $22,550. The participation that the alma mater continues to be a place where leaders of rate was 7.6 percent of the known alumni at the time. Roll the future are educated. A gift to Roll Call is an investment in Call has transformed Georgia Tech. Last year more than Georgia Tech, its future and its leadership. If you’ve already 29,000 alumni, friends, faculty, staff and students gave more made your gift this year, THANK YOU! If you haven’t, make than $8 million. a gift to Roll Call today. But what is it really about? George McCarty had it right a long time ago, Back to the simple idea — it helps Georgia and look at the results. Tech in a multitude of ways. Roll Call dollars go Go Jackets! directly to the Georgia Tech Foundation, where they’re invested in the asset pool and then given back to Georgia Tech as unrestricted cash flow. That unrestricted money goes to Dr. Peterson and his leaders to meet the best and highest President needs of Georgia Tech. It’s used for undergrad- Georgia Tech Alumni Association

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AlumniHouseJoeCol.indd 19 2/17/11 10:31 AM Jackets Required: Sightings of Tech Grads and Friends

1. Georgia Tech 2. Georgia Aquarium

4. Iraq

3. Independence Bowl 1. The 2011 Young Alumni Council gathered at the Student Success Center during its winter training and planning retreat. 2. Bryn Byers, Arch 94, a volunteer diver at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, greets his son, Reece. 3. Nearly 250 Jackets fans, including Ben Register, IM 51, on right, turned out at the Alumni Associa- tion’s party at the Independence Bowl. 4. Bill Brockman, GMgt 73, says the only Georgia Tech gear he had with him in Iraq was a towel handed out at a Yellow Jackets baseball game. Brockman was deployed to Balad Air- base with the 169th Fighter Wing of the South Carolina Air National Guard. 5. David Trivino, Mgt 95, MS Mgt 97, asked Dolly Parton if she would pose with him for a photo outside the Fox Theatre in Atlanta after a matinee performance of Bring It On. She said, “Sure, honey.” 6. All smiles before the Independence Bowl were, left to right, Tech regional Development director Matthew Ryan; Tem McElroy, Phys 65; Marshall “Skip” Beebe, IM 67; Maggie McElroy; President G. P. “Bud” Peterson; Val Peterson; Vernon Chance, ChE 60; and Lynn Chance.

5. Fox Theatre 6. Louisiana

20 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

AlumniHouseJoeCol.indd 20 2/17/11 11:51 AM 6. Louisiana

AlumniHouseJoeCol.indd 21 2/15/11 5:27 PM Tech Topics Here to Dance Choreographer’s yearlong residency at Tech culminates with U.S. premiere of latest work

Story by Leslie Overman technology, and sharing that process with the Georgia Tech and Photo by James K. Holder II greater-Atlanta communities was most exciting for me.” Bokaer said that although he often incorporates new media ressed in a dark bodysuit with sensors affixed at his joints, into his work, technology’s presence in his performances is not Jonah Bokaer rehearsed choreography as cameras in the always obvious. ceiling of the room captured his every move. As data col- “My perspective at the moment with a lot of the dance and the- Dlected by the cameras was compressed, a 3-D avatar on a screen ater I see is that I’m very attracted to work that integrates media, across from the dancer replicated his movements almost instanta- sort of like an integrated media production rather than work that neously. is about the technology,” he said. Bokaer, an award-winning choreographer and media artist, The Ferst Center performance of FILTER will be accompanied was beginning work on FILTER, a production that will have its by a staging of Bokaer’s 2009 production Replica, a work commis- U.S. premiere at the Ferst Center for the Arts on April 2. sioned by the National Academy of Sciences that explores memory He is the first performer to hold the Ferst Center’s ARTech loss and pattern recognition. residency. The program will bring an artist to campus each year “Replica is a duet, but it plays with the self, the image and to work with faculty and students in the development of “a new copying, sort of copying phrases and movement,” Bokaer said. “In piece that employs science or technology as an integral part of the FILTER, we have more people on stage … and the concept, as well creative development process,” according to the center’s Web site. as the creative process, deals with the way that material is staged, Bokaer is making five weeklong visits to campus during the filtered, et cetera. 2010-11 academic year. He spent much of the first two weeks re- “There’s a lot of questions coming up these days about the title cording choreographic movements in a motion-capture lab in the and how that came about. Filtering material happens in motion Georgia Tech Research Building as Atlanta dance students, profes- capture, it happens in animation, it happens in drawing, it hap- sors and artistic directors watched. pens in creating digital imagery and playing with light intensity, By late January, Bokaer was in rehearsals on the Ferst Center color.” stage with dancer Adam Weinert, another member of the FILTER During his residency, Bokaer has been working with School of cast. Seated on a couch in the theater’s green room, Bokaer said he Music assistant professor Jason Freeman and College of Comput- was still unsure how or if the 3-D images created in the motion- ing graduate student Stephen Garrett to create Mass Mobile, a capture lab would appear in FILTER. He seemed surprisingly smart phone application that may allow theatergoers to influence at ease considering the world premiere of the work in Avignon, the lighting or video design of FILTER. France, in late February was then just four weeks away. Despite his limited time on campus, Bokaer has ventured be- Bokaer, who studied dance at Cornell and graduated from yond the Tech labs and the Ferst Center stage during his trips to the North Carolina School of the Arts, became at 18 the youngest the Institute. He said education and community engagement have dancer selected to join the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. In been a focus of each week of the residency, which has included addition to having worked with a number of renowned choreogra- stops at Grady High School, Emory University and Centennial phers and regularly staging his own productions, Bokaer also has Place Elementary to lead dance workshops for students. helped found two performing arts organizations in Brooklyn, N.Y. “I think that ARTech and George Thompson are raising the bar In January 2010, he was named among America’s “up-and- for what a residency can be. A lot of choreographers in New York coming talent” in an article titled “The Nifty 50” in The New York are faced with the question of can they work in the same space Times Style Magazine. every day,” Bokaer said. “But I think what’s interesting about Ferst Center director George Thompson, once a professional ARTech is that there have been five phases of working, and I think dancer, approached Bokaer about filling the inaugural ARTech that partnering with a university in this way has been very enrich- residency. ing for the dance that we’re trying to make, the continuity, but also “Jonah stood out to me in three ways,” Thompson said. “One, the kinds of resources that are available. It’s been great.” he is of that age that is forward-thinking and can talk the talk and walk the walk of a college setting; two, he is a great artist in his To see a video of Bokaer’s work in the motion-capture lab or purchase own right and is poised to be a major force in the contemporary tickets for the 8 p.m. April 2 performance of FILTER at Georgia Tech, visit dance arena; and three, his process employs the use of modern ferstcenter.gatech.edu.

22 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

Tech Topics.indd 22 2/15/11 1:21 PM March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 23

Tech Topics.indd 23 2/15/11 1:22 PM Tech Notes

Putting Young Athletes Back in the Game our external partners in far-reaching leadership goals through its investment in unique research platforms, through our living labo- New 3-D MRI technology developed by a team led by Allen ratories and data sets, through partnership with Georgia Tech’s En- Tannenbaum, the Julian Hightower professor of bioengineering at terprise Innovation Institute and through alignment with the many Georgia Tech, has made it possible for surgeons to reconstruct an- ongoing research activities on campus.” terior cruciate ligament tears in young athletes without disturbing The institute will be led by executive director Beth Mynatt, MS the growth plate. ICS 89, PhD CS 95, College of Computing professor, former director Tannenbaum and students in the Wallace H. Coulter Depart- of the GVU Center and a renowned researcher in human-computer ment of Biomedical Engineering at Tech and Emory created the 3-D interaction, health informatics and ubiquitous computing. MRI technology that allows the surgeon to see from one point of the knee to another during ligament replacement. “The development of this interactive computer software al- A Better Way to Diagnose Pneumonia lows much safer repair of the ACL in young athletes with a much Georgia Tech researchers have created PneumoniaCheck, a smaller chance of complications,” Tannenbaum said. sampling device that could prevent thousands of people worldwide from dying each year. Developed by mechanical engineering students, graduate busi- Connecting People and Technology ness students and Tech faculty, PneumoniaCheck has been com- Executive Vice President for Research Steve Cross announced mercially launched to health care professionals through the startup the launch of the Institute for People and Technology to support company MD Innovate Inc. the strategic plan’s focus on faculty-led, interdisciplinary and trans- “Georgia Tech created a simple and new device to detect the formative research. lung pathogens causing pneumonia,” said David Ku, Regents’ “IPaT will create an innovation crossroads where Georgia Tech professor of mechanical engineering, L.P. Huang chair professor for faculty, students, industry partners, government partners and other engineering entrepreneurship in the College of Management and stakeholders meet to co-innovate, collaborate and pave the road for a professor of surgery at Emory University. “It has the potential to Georgia Tech research that addresses complex societal challenges,” save more lives than any other medical device.” Cross said. “IPaT will focus on engaging the Tech community and The device contains a plastic tube with a mouthpiece. A patient

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Tech Topics.indd 24 2/16/11 1:48 PM coughs into the device to fill up a balloon-like upper airway reser- Turning Back Clock on Ovarian Cancer voir before the lung aerosols go into a filter. Using fluid mechan- ics, PneumoniaCheck separates the upper airway particles of the Cancer researchers have discovered that a type of regulatory mouth from the lower airway particles coming from the lungs. RNA may be effective in fighting ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer typically isn’t discovered until it’s in the advanced stages, when it is already spreading to other organs and is very difficult to fight Architecture School Chair Seated with chemotherapy. This discovery may allow physicians to turn Professor George B. Johnston, a registered architect and noted back the clock of a tumor’s life cycle to a phase where traditional cultural historian, in January was appointed chair of the Georgia chemotherapy can better do its job. Tech School of Architecture. A 26-year member of the Architecture Scientists at the Ovarian Cancer Institute Laboratory at Georgia faculty, he is the first to hold this newly created position after the Tech have found in initial tests that a regulatory RNA called miR- College of Architecture reorganized into five schools. 429 may be successful in inducing metastatic or spreading cancer “The division of knowledge and expertise between the fields of cells to convert back to a less metastatic, noninvasive form. architecture and engineering that served so well in the Industrial “Primary tumors are rarely fatal,” said John F. McDonald, chief Age is giving way to a new model of integrated knowledge in the research scientist at the Ovarian Cancer Institute. “Most cancer digital age. Who better than Georgia Tech is so well positioned to patients succumb because the cancer metastasizes, and current che- bridge this divide?” he asked. “The digital-age practice of archi- motherapies are not designed to kill metastasizing cancer cells.” tecture will rise on creative contact between design and research In the new trial, McDonald’s lab used two ovarian cancer cell across fields and disciplinary boundaries. And it will require flex- lines, one with epithelial characteristics, like primary tumor cells, ibility and an enterprising spirit that comes from engaging the and the other with mesenchymal traits, like metastasizing cancer world through community action and international exchange.” cells. They used miR-429, one of a family of microRNAs previously Johnston received a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Mis- implicated in epithelial to mesencymal changes in other cancers, to sissippi State University in 1979, a master’s in architecture from see if it could turn the mesenchymal cancer cells back into epithe- Rice University in 1984 and a PhD in American cultural history lial cancer cells. They found that miR-429 was highly successful in from Emory University in 2006. helping cells turn back the clock.

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 25

Tech Topics.indd 25 2/15/11 1:23 PM Office Space

Lisa Yaszek: Sci-fi Sage

Story and photos by Van Jensen Early influence:William Gibson’s Neuromancer was the book that eorgia Tech and science fiction are a natural fit, with the cam- defined cyberpunk as a genre. It captured the feeling of grow- pus being a center for cutting-edge research in science and ing up in a place like Detroit. My husband and I have a little Gtechnology. No surprise then that Tech is a perfect setting for Lisa boy, and we named him after the protagonist of the book. Only Yaszek, an associate professor and director of undergraduate stud- our nerdy friends get the connection. ies in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture. Yaszek has devoted her career to speculative fiction — literature that ex- Studying sci-fi: My background is in very traditional literary criti- amines the frontier of science and society. She has authored three cism. Even when I was doing that I was interested in how liter- books on the subject, served as president of the Science Fiction ature helps us think through our relationship with science and Research Association and is an editor of the science fiction studies technology. It’s the premier voice of modernity. Only science journal Extrapolation. She shares some of her favorite sci-fi works fiction can help us think through the future. and her vision of building a science fiction center at the Institute. Nonsensical covers: The book covers are great. There’s a tradi- To boldly go: I’ve always been interested in science fiction. My first tion of sci-fi cover artists not actually reading the books before memory ever is of watching Star Trek with my parents. I grew painting the covers. There was one famous incident of an artist up in Detroit, which is a science fiction-type city. RoboCop had painting a cover with a white protagonist, but the protagonist it right. was actually black.

26 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

Tech Topics.indd 26 2/17/11 12:44 PM Sci-fi on TV:The original Star Trek and subsequent series really presented a vision of a better world, that rational people can get along and work together. Maybe that sounds utopian, but it’s a good goal. There’s lots of good sci-fi on TV right now. But [my husband and I are] mostly stuck with Thomas the Tank Engine. That’s kind of sci-fi in a way, though, with a talking train.

Weaknesses of sci-fi: It’s easy to have these amazing, fantastic in- novations that have no impact on society. One or two technologies can radically change the world. I like to see writers think through the social implications.

Bud Foote Collection: We’ve just renamed it the Science Fiction Collection. It started in 1999 when Bud retired and donated us Origins of sci-fi: Science fiction in America began in pulp maga- 8,000 items from his personal library. Now we’re up to 12 or zines. Everyone got subjected to mail code laws, and they were 14,000 items. The Atlanta Science Fiction Society has been very classified with pornography. So retailers had to put them under generous. And authors David Brin, Paul di Filippo, Kathleen glass. Ann Goonan and Kim Stanley Robinson have donated us cop- ies of their books. Joining Georgia Tech: A postdoc position opened up at Tech, and it seemed like a good fit. Right after that, two longtime faculty Movie posters: Most came from a sci-fi movie fest in Rome, Geor- members [including the late professor emeritus Bud Foote] who gia. For $100 they framed all the posters and sent them to me. specialized in science fiction retired. That worked out well for People tend to think the South is an anti-technological place. me. It’s great teaching it at Georgia Tech. You can always have But that’s not true. The posters help remind us of that. great conversations. New developments: We’re opening a new science fiction reading Favorites: For American authors, I like Paolo Bacigalupi. He’s an room at the library and building an online sci-fi encyclopedia environmental writer, mostly post-peak oil sci-fi. For global and research portal. We’re in the top 20 collections in the world writers, a lot of my current work is on Afrofuturism. Nalo Hop- and certainly the biggest in the Southeast. Our goal has always kinson and Minister Faust — obviously, that’s not his real name been to build on our resources and create a center for sci-fi. — are both good. Global writers, when they look at technology we share, they approach it and use it in different ways. Bounty of books: I am a print scholar. My husband is a sci-fi scholar too. About half our collection [is in the office]. Someday Tech festival: Monstrous Bodies was an arts and literature festival I’ll contribute it all to the library. I can’t wait to switch over to to capture all of the things we had going on. We brought in a e-books. But there’s something cool about looking through old collection of local authors including the editors of Aqua Teen magazines and books. It gives us a real window into history. Hunger Force. Students submitted fiction as well, and that was compiled in a book that’s also available online.

New science: I do think nanotech stories are really cutting edge. We think about the revolutionary function as opposed to more subtle impacts. We had a grant to look at nanotechnology and public perception. We thought it would be a simple line of influence, from science to public policy to science fiction. What we found was much more complex. A lot of the first generation of nanoscience and public policy was specifically drawing on and rejecting sci-fi that had come before.

Public influence:It really depends on the medium. A big budget film is going to do something different than something published in a journal or a blog.

Sci-fi cinema:Southland Tales is a brilliant mess. Some of the best science fiction films tend to be independent. Avatar, the story is what it is, but I like the idea of people literally plugging into their environment.

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 27

Tech Topics.indd 27 2/16/11 1:51 PM Within Walking Distance: Points and People of Interest Near Campus

If These Walls Could Talk

he Biltmore, once heralded as “The South’s Tech Alumnus, which began publishing just a Supreme Hotel,” today hosts banquets year earlier. Over the years, photographs of and wedding receptions in its ballrooms dances in the ballrooms and on the roof of The Tand houses retail and office space at 407 West Biltmore appeared in the Alumnus and Blueprint, Peachtree St., within shouting distance of Tech- as well as in the society pages of Atlanta news- nology Square. And many a Tech event, from the papers. Ivan Allen Founder’s Day celebrations to Presi- By 1982, The Biltmore was no longer the dent G. P. “Bud” Peterson’s investiture luncheon, place for honeymoons or leisurely lunches, and have been staged in the Georgian Ballroom, list- the hotel was shuttered. The grand building ed on The National Register of Historic Places. stood neglected for 16 years before it was res- Opening in 1924, The Atlanta Biltmore was cued and renovated and ready to again serve as an early and regular advertiser in the Georgia the social center of the South.

28 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

Tech Topics.indd 28 2/16/11 4:02 PM What’s in a Name?

Hinman Research Building

he Hinman Research Building, a more than 70-year-old fixture of the Georgia Tech campus, reopened in January following a $9.5 million Trenovation. The 35,000-square-foot facility houses studio, classroom, office, research, gallery and event space for the College of Architecture. Lord, Aeck & Sargent’s Historic Preservation Studio and Office dA were the architects on the restoration, and The Beck Group served as construction manager. Among the striking new features in the space is a spiral staircase enveloped in a “sock” of cable mesh (pictured here) that leads to faculty offices on the building’s upper level. Built by the Works Progress Administration in 1939, the Hinman building was the first home of the Engi- neering Experiment Station, precursor to the Georgia Tech Research Institute. It was designed by the architecture firm Bush-Brown, Gailey and Heffernan, at which P.M. Heffernan was a principal. Heffernan later would serve as director of the School of Architecture from 1956 to 1976. According to an article in a 1964 issue of the Georgia Tech Alumnus, the building was named the Hinman Memorial Building in 1951, following the completion of a new wing that nearly doubled the size of the facility. The majority of funding for the expansion came from the estate of the late Thomas P. Hinman, an Atlanta dentist. In 1964, a new sign was added to the building facade reflecting yet another name change, the Hinman Research Building. Hinman, who was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1870, grew up in Atlanta but did not attend Tech. He was a graduate of Atlanta’s Southern Dental College, at which he later taught oral surgery. In 1911, he held the first Atlanta Midwinter Clinic, which would later become the Thomas P. Hinman Dental Meeting. The 99th convention will take place in Atlanta in March. Hinman’s son, Thomas P. Hinman Jr., who attended Georgia Tech as a member of the class of 1926, followed him into the dentistry field. Both father and son were deceased by the time the Hinman building was dedicated in 1951. The grand opening ceremony of the revamped Hin- man building was postponed because of a January snow and ice storm in Georgia. It has been rescheduled for March 30. More information may be found on the Col- Jim Lockhart lege of Architecture Web site, coa.gatech.edu. A cable mesh enclosure surrounds a spiral staircase leading to offices in the Hinman Building.

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 29

Tech Topics.indd 29 2/15/11 1:23 PM Ten Questions

Susan Bowman: Survivor

usan Bowman, the program manager in the School of Materi- als Science & Engineering, is a breast cancer survivor and a founder of a support group of more than 30 others on campus Swho have beaten the disease or who are undergoing treatment. She and Sarah Banks, the student committee survivorship and awareness chair, are gearing up for Relay for Life at Tech on April 15.

1. Why did you establish a cancer support group at Georgia Tech? It was a way to celebrate survival, encourage others and honor the two co-workers who are also survivors and who reached out to me during my recovery.

2. What is the first piece of advice you give to cancer patients? I urge them to remain hopeful and become educated with the terminology, treatment and technology available. Knowledge is one of the first steps toward recovery.

3. What is the support group’s most important function? Eric Mansfield Encouraging others by sharing our personal journeys. Student Sarah Banks, left, and Tech staff member Susan Bowman proudly wear purple in support of the American Cancer Society’s annual Relay for Life fundraiser. 4. What do you talk about during your monthly meetings? Our conversations are often on a purely social level, sharing our recent family, travel and entertainment experiences. When the 8. How long have you been cancer free? need presents itself, we discuss the disease and our personal ex- Thirteen years. I was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in periences with treatment and surgical choices. Often it is simply 1997 and had a recurrence the following year. showing understanding from like experiences. 9. How long have you been the program manager in the School of 5. What role does the support group play in Relay for Life? Materials Science & Engineering? We attend the survivors dinner and walk the first lap — the I have held this job since 1991. My focus is on graduate student survivors walk. GT Relay is a campus event coordinated by recruitment and retention, which is very rewarding. I have built students. The 2011 chair of awareness and survivorship is Sarah lifelong friendships with the faculty, staff and students. It is Banks. She is determined to have more survivors than ever very gratifying when our alums stop in for a visit or send up- before for the survivor event. Her efforts are in honor of her dates on their significant life events. father, who sadly lost his battle with cancer. 10. And how long have you been at Georgia Tech? 6. How emotional is the cancer survivors walk? That’s a long story, but I have been on campus most all my life. It is definitely emotional when you gaze around the track and My first visit to campus was on a date to a Jackets football game witness such a huge support system. There are hugs, applause in 1971 with my high school sweetheart. Later, we married and and tears all inspired by the very personal impact cancer makes moved into student housing. Now we commute to campus on our individual lives. together. My husband, David (Arch 77), works on campus in Design and Construction. We have three wonderful children 7. Have any members been lost to the disease? and three darling grandchildren. I am alive to say, “There is a In all these years, we have lost very few. The members who no wonderfully fulfilling life after cancer, and I’m definitely look- longer attend regularly have embraced retirement and are en- ing forward to retirement!” joying every moment. — Kimberly Link-Wills

30 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

Tech Topics.indd 30 2/16/11 2:03 PM Student Life Management Major Launches Health Insurance Cooperative

By Brad Dixon

hough he hasn’t even earned his bachelor’s degree yet, 21-year-old management major Cooper Littlejohn already is breaking new ground in health insurance. THe has created the South Carolina Health Cooperative, the first approved co-op in that state. It pools the collective buying power of small businesses with two to 50 employees to negotiate better rates with insurance companies than one could get on its own. Littlejohn got the idea for the co-op after helping out a family friend, an insurance salesman, with some accounting issues during the summer of 2009. He learned some small businesses were facing rate increases of 20 percent to 30 percent, even though their employees hadn’t had significant medical problems that year. “I was touched by the fact that the increase meant layoffs for some of them,” Littlejohn said. “During lunch with my friend, I learned that a 2008 law had allowed for the creation of health coop- eratives. So I asked him why no one had created one, and he said, ‘If you’re so smart, figure out a way to do it.’” That’s exactly what Littlejohn did for the next year and a half as he juggled his studies at Tech with frequent trips to South Carolina to cut through regulatory red tape and meet with legislators. Littlejohn, who serves as CEO of the SCHC, is thankful for all involved for taking the leap of faith that a college student could help solve health insurance problems for small businesses. “I would have an initial meeting to get past the age issue, talk a little bit and then come back later to talk actual business,” Little- john said. “Business owners have been very receptive to the idea that we can lower their insurance rates. I was worried about the Cooper Littlejohn says he is applying business principles he learned as a Georgia legislators, but I was amazed at how imaginative and open they Tech student every day in his job as CEO of the South Carolina Health Cooperative. were. “My age was not important to them,” he said. “They loved the fact that the co-op is private, not requiring a dime of tax dollars, proven invaluable in launching the SCHC. “Tech has been the best and that it will lower insurance premiums, creating jobs in South resource I ever could have imagined,” he said. “I’m taking business Carolina.” principles I’ve learned and applying them every day.” According to the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Littlejohn, of Seneca, S.C., knew he wanted to major in manage- Commerce, only 40 percent of companies with 50 or fewer em- ment at Georgia Tech after visiting campus during his freshman ployees provide health insurance. While 50 employees currently year of high school. is the cap for participation in the SCHC, Littlejohn hopes to win “In high school, I had it all planned out. I’d come to Tech, go the Department of Insurance’s approval to increase the limit to 100 to law school and get a corner office working on contracts and employees. litigation,” he said. “But when this opportunity landed in my lap, The SCHC, which was approved just before Thanksgiving, cur- I said, ‘Let’s do it.’ Life threw a curveball, and I’m rolling with the rently is processing applications and expects to have hundreds of punches right now.” businesses covered by the spring. “The more people we get to sign To help cover the costs of getting the SCHC up and running, up, the better rates we can negotiate with the insurance compa- Littlejohn works as a freelance producer for sporting events cov- nies,” Littlejohn said. ered by such networks as ESPN, CBS and Fox. On many weekends, For the foreseeable future, Littlejohn will remain unpaid in his he travels to events throughout the Southeast helping coordinate role as CEO. “What’s rewarding for me is getting to meet small instant replays and game highlights. business owners every day,” he said. “Many of these people have He has been involved in television since age 4, when he began taken over family businesses and are steeped in tradition. They al- assisting his father, who works in the industry. ways find a way to keep their businesses going.” “It taught me a lot about work ethic,” Littlejohn said. “Most Littlejohn said his Georgia Tech management education has kids play video games, but high-pressure TV is my video game.”

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 31

Tech Topics.indd 31 2/16/11 2:06 PM 32 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

FE_PeaceCorps.indd 32 2/15/11 1:43 PM What They Did for Their Country

Peace Corps volunteers agree their service was life changing

By Kimberly Link-Wills

n the waning weeks of the 1960 presidential campaign, Demo- required, not because the Communists may be doing it, not because cratic candidate John F. Kennedy addressed University of Mich- we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot igan students at 2 a.m. on Oct. 14. help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.” I “How many of you who are going to be doctors are willing to As his 14-minute address was reaching its end, Kennedy spoke spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of 20 words iconic of his presidency: “My fellow Americans, ask not you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your traveling around the world?” Kennedy asked. country.” Then, on Jan. 20, 1961, President Kennedy delivered his inaugu- On March 1, 1961, Kennedy signed an executive order estab- ral address, one of the most famous speeches in modern history, in lishing the Peace Corps on a pilot basis. Training began in June which he said, “To those people in the huts and villages of half the of that year, and according to the Georgia Tech Alumnus, included globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our longtime Tech swimming coach Freddy Lanoue’s famed drown- best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is proofing technique.

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 33

FE_PeaceCorps.indd 33 2/15/11 1:40 PM Tony Giarrusso, M CP 00, also pictured on the previous page, and Janeane Gilbreath, M CP 00, returned to Africa after earning their Tech degrees to marry in Zambia.

The first group of 51 Peace Corps volunteers was sent to Ghana found the human side of environmental policy challenges the most in August 1961 to serve as teachers. By the end of that year, more interesting.” than 500 volunteers were working in Ghana as well as Chile, Co- Gess began his two years of Peace Corps service as soon as lombia, India, Nigeria, the Philippines, St. Lucia, Tanzania and he earned his master’s degree and worked as an environmental Pakistan. awareness adviser in Wigry National Park, located in northeast To date, more than 200,000 volunteers have worked in 139 Poland. countries. According to the Peace Corps headquarters in Wash- Gess said the park, in an area of the country known as the Pol- ington, D.C., 240 of them have reported that they were students at ish Siberia, is famous for its many lakes of varying geologic age. Georgia Tech, and the Institute ranks 24th among midsize U.S. uni- “It became a national park only a few years before I arrived, versities in the number of volunteers produced. and my work was primarily to craft public outreach and education March is Peace Corps Month, commemorating 50 years of ser- programs to allow nearby residents to buy into the need for the vice around the globe. Activities include an awards ceremony at park,” Gess said. “I especially enjoyed working with children and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston on authored an environmental activities book used by local schools.” March 5, a panel discussion hosted by the National Archives and After returning to the United States in 1996, Gess earned a doc- Records Administration in Washington on March 17 and a confer- torate in public administration at the University of Georgia, where ence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison March 24-26. he helped launch the International Center for Democratic Gover- Later in the year, senior volunteers will be saluted at the Lillian nance. Carter Awards program at The Carter Center in Atlanta on May 18; “The Peace Corps instilled a love of international exchanges, a “Call to Service” discussion will take place at Harvard on Oct. and now I work in the field of international education. I also teach, 12; and a U.S. Institute of Peace panel discussion in Washington is focusing on environmental policy and management. I find my scheduled for Sept. 23. engineering background and my public administration and policy “As trite as it sounds, I found my Peace Corps service life knowledge a powerful combination,” said Gess, the director of in- changing,” said Peter Gess, CmpE 91, MS EnvE 94. “Although I ternational programs and an assistant professor of politics at Hen- was able to use many of the engineering skills I learned at Tech, I drix College in Conway, Ark.

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FE_PeaceCorps.indd 34 2/16/11 2:13 PM “The simpler, slower life of an African village taught me much about patience, persistence and hard work along with the true difference between want and need.”

Mark Morgan, Psy 94, also served in the Peace Corps from 1994 government organizations since then, but I can definitely say it is to 1996. He volunteered as a high school math and science teacher one of the most effective programs we have. I think it often has in Lesotho in southern Africa. more of an impact on the volunteer than it does on the host country “It was the best thing I’ve done in my life,” Morgan said. “It — definitely in my case,” Morgan said. was amazing to see how fulfilling life can be with so little and how “The Peace Corps gave me time and a place to think and grow people manage to get by without all the things we think are neces- as a person,” Morgan said. sities.” Michael L. Baird, MS ICS 71, PhD ICS 73, signed on with the There was no running water. There were no telephones or two- Peace Corps during a time of war to avoid a place he did not want way radios. Morgan traveled by horseback or on foot. to be. “I had to hike in anything that I couldn’t get at my village store, “I was morally opposed to the Vietnam War and chose to serve so that really helped prioritizing luxury items. But it was a beauti- in this alternative assignment,” said Baird, who went to Lima, ful hike through the mountains that took me all day, then I’d hitch- Peru, in 1970, to teach “what was to become computer science at a hike for another five hours or so to get to the capital,” he said. Stanford University spin-off MBA school.” “It was really a great experience that shaped who I am and a “I returned early upon establishment of the draft lottery and lot of my choices afterward,” said Morgan, who went to medical the drawing of a high number in order to pursue a master’s and school at Mercer University after his Peace Corps stint and later PhD in information and computer science at Georgia Tech, which deployed to Iraq as a doctor with a Marine Corps unit. was my absolute passion and first priority in life,” said Baird, who Today, Morgan is a family physician at an Indian Health Service now lives in Morro Bay, Calif. clinic in Yuma, Ariz. He also runs a nonprofit medical Web site, “The Peace Corps experience reinforced my views of egalitari- soapnote.org. anism. This led to travel and study in Latin America and the sup- “I’m so glad I joined the Peace Corps. I’ve worked for a lot of port of some indigenous social causes. I worked in high-tech for 27

Mark Morgan, Psy 94, served as a high school math and science teacher in Lesotho Jing Li, IE 10, a record-setting swimmer at Georgia Tech, now is teaching English in in southern Africa. Today, Morgan is a physician at an Indian Health Service clinic. Ukraine, where she posed for a photo with a fellow teacher and eighth-grade students.

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 35

FE_PeaceCorps.indd 35 2/15/11 1:40 PM Michael L. Baird, MS ICS 71, PhD ICS 73, volunteered as a teacher in Adam Liberatore, MS ME 03, and his wife, Andrea, volunteered in South Africa in a tiny Manyeding Peru in 1970. Now retired, he devotes much of his time to photography. village, where they lived with a local family to learn customs and immerse themselves in the culture.

years and then retired early to enjoy nature and photography on rent Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic with plans the central California coast,” he said. to pursue a career in development policy. Adam Liberatore, MS ME 03, also served in the education sec- “I wanted to experience life in a developing country, know tor. He and his wife volunteered in South Africa from 2005 to 2007 the people behind the statistics and understand the successes and in a tiny Manyeding village on the edge of the Kalahari desert in struggles more intimately,” Meng said. “Also, part of being a Peace the Northern Cape province. Corps volunteer is teaching host country nationals what American “Our main goal was to help the teachers in four primary culture and values are, so instead of politics and pop culture, my schools develop better curriculum and teaching techniques. We Dominican community members are exposed to a more personal lived with a family and learned tradition and customs while we and realistic expression of those values. That’s really important to were there,” Liberatore said. me.” “Our amenities included electricity, but we had to fetch water Meng’s assignment, which ends in May, is at a high school in from a local tap,” he said. “The simpler, slower life of an African Imbert, a small town on the north coast of the island. village taught me much about patience, persistence and hard work “I work with teachers to integrate IT into their lesson planning, along with the true difference between want and need.” with youth on various computer-based service learning projects Liberatore, who studied at Georgia Tech Lorraine in Metz, and with local artisans on their Web sites and publications,” said France, worked for two years at an ultrasound startup in Pennsyl- Meng, one of 22 Tech alumni currently serving in the Peace Corps. vania before he and his wife signed up for the Peace Corps because “The Peace Corps has taught me an infinite amount of things — of their desire to experience life in Africa. how to properly eat a mango, clone a hard drive, dance the bachata “It seemed like a good time in life to do it,” said Liberatore, and the reality of how institutions affect development. I plan to now a resident of Logan, Utah, working as a product design engi- take my lessons and observations to graduate school this fall.” neer for a medical device incubator. Jing Li, IE 10, also is a current volunteer. She is teaching English Amanda Meng, GEML 08, also wanted to immerse herself in a to students in the third to 11th grades in Shevchenkove, located in different culture in a different country. Meng, of Atlanta, is a cur- the Kharkivs’ka Oblast in east Ukraine, through December 2012.

36 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

FE_PeaceCorps.indd 36 2/16/11 2:19 PM Peter Gess, CmpE 91, MS EnvE 94, volunteered as an environmental awareness adviser Amanda Meng, GEML 08, is a Peace Corps volunteer on the north coast of the Do- in Wigry National Park, which is located in northeast Poland, from 1994 to 1996. minican Republic, where her work includes computer-based service projects.

“After school, I work with students in English clubs to teach and start over. We were both assigned to Gabon, Africa, as fisheries topics such as business English, healthy lifestyles, environmental extension agents and spent two full years there,” Giarrusso said. awareness and creative writing. As a secondary project, I am pro- “After two years in Gabon, we decided to extend our service viding my community with HIV/AIDS awareness education and for another year and subsequently were invited to Zambia, Africa, working with my town’s cultural house to teach some children’s to start a fisheries program. We worked in Zambia for approxi- music and dance classes,” Li said. mately 14 months,” said Giarrusso, whose total Peace Corps ser- While a Tech student, Li was a swimming star, setting six vice extended five years. school records and earning an ACC Top 6 for Service award. She “I really loved the Peace Corps. It is easily the most memo- also spent a summer studying in Singapore and China. rable thing I’ve done in my lifetime. And I was fortunate enough Li, of Pleasanton, Calif., said she hopes to utilize the Russian to experience three different African countries,” Giarrusso said. language skills she is acquiring later in her life. “Being a volunteer taught me many things about myself, and I am “After the Peace Corps, I would like to pursue a career in hu- forever grateful for the experience. While I may have imparted manitarian logistics, which will give me the opportunity to com- some knowledge to people in Africa, it is I who really learned from bine my industrial engineering degree from Georgia Tech with my them.” passion for working to change people’s lives around the world,” After leaving Africa, Giarrusso and his girlfriend, Janeane Gil- she said. breath, M CP 00, moved to his native Atlanta and enrolled at Tech. Tony Giarrusso, M CP 00, found fulfillment — and love — in “After graduation, we returned to Africa to visit old friends the Peace Corps. He was assigned to Burundi, Africa, as a fisheries and to get married,” said Giarrusso, now the associate director of extension agent in 1993. the Center for Geographic Information Systems at Georgia Tech. “It “I spent five months in Burundi, until we were evacuated due was the trip of a lifetime.” to civil war. We had the option to transfer to another country or Share your Peace Corps service stories at gtalumnimag.com. For return stateside and wait until the following year. My girlfriend, more information on the Peace Corps, visit peacecorps.gov. President Janeane, a volunteer I met in training, and I decided to return home Kennedy’s inaugural address is available at americanrhetoric.com.

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 37

FE_PeaceCorps.indd 37 2/16/11 2:20 PM 38 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

FE_Rhee.indd 38 2/16/11 11:37 AM amid

Trauma chief Peter Rhee was the face of sanity in a scene of madness

Story and photos by Kimberly Link-Wills

or two weeks in January, Peter Rhee was everywhere — on TV, in newspapers and on the Web as the Tucson trauma chief issuing status reports on the congresswoman shot in the forehead while meeting with constituents outside a grocery store; receiving a standing ovation from a grateful community at a memorial service in a packed Arizona auditorium; and sitting behind the first lady as her guest for the State of the Union address in Washington, D.C. Rhee’s job, saving lives every day as the medical director of trauma and critical care at University Medical Center in Tucson, Ariz., suddenly thrust him into the national spotlight — his 15 minutes of fame, he says — when a gunman opened fire outside a Safeway store on the morning of Jan. 8 and killed six people. Eleven victims, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, were transported to University Medical Center, where Rhee is credited with keeping the wounded alive. Rhee, HS 83, whose name now generates 2.9 million hits in a Google search, maintains that his life has not been forever changed by the tragedy in Tucson and the ensuing attention. “It’s just a blip,” he says of his spot on the media radar. Medical Rock Star “Peter,” he says in introduction, smiling and extending his right hand before leading the way to a standard-issue hospital office and offering a bottle of water. A first impression of the chief trauma surgeon is that he is a gentle man

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 39

FE_Rhee.indd 39 2/16/11 2:23 PM quick to smile, not an irrepressible and boisterous rock star, words Saturday, January 8 used to describe him by the Associated Press. The New York Times said some of his comments during press con- Rhee planned to spend his day off “hanging around the house ferences in the days following the mass shooting came off as abra- doing fix-up things.” sive. Elsewhere, he’s been called pompous and arrogant. “I was out for a run,” he says. “We get all the alerts through our “Arrogant? I guess maybe to a degree, I don’t know. I would not smart phones. I was listening to music, then this thing comes in.” say that I’m boisterous. The one story that I did read about being ir- Rhee learned there were multiple gunshot victims but did not know repressible hit me a little bit, I guess. I actually looked it up in Wiki- that a congresswoman was one of the people shot or that anyone pedia to see what the heck that meant,” Rhee says, chuckling. had died at the scene. Someone printed the definition of irrepressible — impossible to If there could be such a thing as a good time for a traumatic restrain or control — and taped it to his office door. event to occur in Tucson, it would be Saturday morning, Rhee says. Rhee also is aware of an Associated Press headline: “Giffords’ “At a normal Level 1 trauma center, you can expect at a mini- Doctors Balancing Role as Rock Stars.” mum that there’s at least a trauma surgeon at the hospital to accept “I think it is funny because they were focusing on different any patient that comes in 24-seven, 365,” Rhee says, noting that the things about my life. On day three, they were focusing on my mili- next closest such facility is in Phoenix, more than two hours away. “I tary background, and that got to be a part of it. Then they added on already had two teams in the hospital at that particular time period. the rock star thing, irrepressible surgeon and so on and so on,” Rhee I called in to make sure they were set and ready. I asked who was says. “I think they were more interested in my TV personality than on call, who was coming off call and who else was in the hospital at anything else. I thought that was kind of curious.” that time. Rhee has received letters, postcards, monetary donations to the “The team from the night before was still working, and the team hospital and thousands of e-mails and Facebook messages. coming in for the next day was here as well. There’s an overlap pe- “I’ve heard from everybody. ‘I’m so-and-so from Caldwell riod when they turn over patients, check on each other’s work and dorm,’” he says of several Tech classmates who have sent him mes- that sort of thing. As trauma surgeons, we also do surgical critical sages. “I was contacted by my junior high girlfriend, high school care. We’re the intensivists for surgical patients, so I had another stuff like crazy, college stuff, probably not as much medical school surgeon in the hospital seeing the ICU patients,” he says. people, then residency days, internship days, fellowship days. Ev- Rhee continued making calls while running back home. erybody’s been coming out of the woodwork about this. It’s been “My wife had my car ready with my scrubs so I could jump 999-to-1 positive, all great things.” straight into the car,” says Rhee, who activated a command center Rhee says he has responded to many of the messages and laughs and ensured trauma bays and operating rooms were readied by as he admits he replied to the junior high girlfriend and told her phone. what a crush he had on her back in the day. He remembers his first reaction when he rushed into the hospi-

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FE_Rhee.indd 40 2/16/11 11:39 AM tal. “‘Wow, there are a lot of people here.’ Normally I do these type triaging,” he says. “I made sure that Gabrielle got into the operating of mass casualties at nighttime, so I’m usually by myself handling room and they were going to start on her. I’m in the room every five, 10, 20 patients. But here we had such an abundance of doctors in the 10 minutes making sure things are going forward and they’re doing trauma center. I coordinated them and got information so I knew what I want them to do,” he says. what needed to be done next. It only took a few minutes, but that “I’m popping in and out of the rooms. I have experienced trau- was the initial thing I had to do. ma surgeons in there, so what I’ll do is get a brief on what’s going on “As the trauma captain, what I have to try to do is make sure the with their patients, what the main injuries are and what their needs people have the right resources and I don’t get bogged down with are. If it comes to a real problematic situation, then I’ll scrub in and one patient. When you do that, you lose the experienced person do- help them.” ing something that others could do. My job is getting that patient Rhee quickly ascertained during triage that the youngest victim, who needs surgery with the right surgeon,” he says. 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, was dead on arrival. “We take kids who are already deceased to the intensive care ‘Make Sure Everybody Survives’ unit because they have people who are accustomed to taking care of family members. They have the right social workers and chaplains Giffords was in surgery less than 40 minutes after her arrival at and so forth, and the pediatrician can be a liaison for me to help the hospital. talk to the family members while I’m trying to take care of the live “Thirty-eight minutes from the patient coming in is a long time patients,” says Rhee, acknowledging that “organ donation is a huge in some ways,” Rhee says. “We have the capability of taking a pa- issue. Normally, we don’t have them in mass casualty scenarios.” tient to the operating room within three minutes, but in this kind of Christina’s organs have helped at least three children. Her par- situation with Gabrielle Giffords, with a penetrating injury to the ents have said Christina’s corneas saved the eyesight of two chil- brain, 38 minutes is about as good as it’s going to get. We were able dren. Another little girl’s life was saved by the donation of organs. to get her to the operating room very quickly and get things moving on her.” During a televised press conference following the mass shoot- ‘I Do This Every Day’ ing, Rhee said he was 101 percent sure that he could keep Giffords “What I was really focusing on in the second hour was inform- alive. He stands by that statement but does not include a percentage. ing the family members who were there. You have family members “Based on her injuries, somebody who’s shot in the head who pouring in at that time period. We were able to identify who they comes to me alive I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to keep them alive,” were. The incident command was set up so that they knew where he says. to take the family members. They took them to the cafeteria, then I Rhee moved from trauma bay to trauma bay assessing the pulled them into an isolated room and then let them know individu- wounded. “I have to make sure everybody survives. I’m constantly ally what information I had,” Rhee says.

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FE_Rhee.indd 41 2/15/11 2:14 PM “Once I had pulled them all out and counseled them all, there was one family that was remaining. I went in there, and they said, ‘Do you know anything about such-and-such?’ I said, ‘Well, it’s not on the list, which probably means good to go, has not been injured. Right now, that’s not one of the patients that I’m caring for.’ It turned out to be one of the people who died at the scene. The family was here waiting and hoping I would have some information for them. “I do this every day. We deal with telling people that their family member has died on a daily basis. It’s always tough. There’s never an easy one,” he says. “I’ve had mass casualties in the military where 200 people are coming in in an hour. Of course, in a military environment you don’t have to worry about family. Here, I had a whole cafeteria full of family. “I kid around and say that I don’t have an amygdala, which is the emotional portion of your brain, but I would say it’s probably due to the fact that we do it all the time, from the very first day in medical school when you’re starting to dissect a human body until now. You’re gradually indoctrinated into this process. Eventually, over time, you learn how to do it better.” Of course he gets attached to patients, Rhee says. “I don’t cry or break down too often. I do remember one case. It was six in the morning, this 6-year-old girl got shot in the chest. We did some things and kept her alive quite a while, but she eventually died on the operating table. That was a very stressful time period because I had just moved to this hospital. I moved here myself and had to leave my family behind. I had a 6-year-old girl. That hit home.” Finding His Place at Georgia Tech Born in Seoul, South Korea, Rhee lived with his family in Ugan- da from the ages of 5 to 9 while his father worked there as a Peace Corps surgeon. “The memories I have of living in Uganda are the best of my life. Things were simple. It was a happy time period for everybody. We had nothing. We had nothing to worry about in many senses. It was really basic in a way. Then the Asians were kicked out of Uganda,” Rhee says. The family moved to the United States when Rhee was in fourth grade. “When we came here, my father took the shortest path to practice, which is anesthesiology. I remember when he was a surgeon, but I remember also him being an intern again and a resident again and all of those things,” he says. Rhee did not want to follow in his father’s footsteps, but the years of training had nothing to do with it. “I didn’t want to be a doctor because the Asian culture pushes their kids to be doctors and lawyers. It was just pure rebelling,” he says. “When I left high school, the only thing I knew I wanted to do was something in science, and the other thing I knew was that I did not want to be a physician. And Georgia Tech had a $6 application fee,” Rhee says. “I applied mostly in Pennsylvania. That’s where I was from. I chose Tech at the last minute against Carnegie Mellon. “I was just walking over here and thinking of all the people that were contacting me from Georgia Tech, and there is one person who has not. His name is Stephen Dawkins, and he’s a doctor. He was the influence that turned me to go into medicine,” Rhee says. “He was my RA. His father was a doctor, and he was going to be a doctor. I didn’t know you could be a doctor after going through Georgia Tech, but he showed me the way.” Dawkins, HS 82, remembers Rhee well.

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FE_Rhee.indd 42 2/16/11 2:25 PM Getty Images

“There was a small cadre of us who were interested in medi- That’s how they get you. When you’re young, you don’t know what cine,” says Dawkins, now the medical director of Caduceus Occu- you’re signing,” he says, smiling broadly. pational Medicine in Atlanta. “As such, we were in many classes “Comparing my life to my friends who did not go through the together or were on a similar track in classes. Because we were un- military, who were able to come out and practice and get a job earlier usual for Tech, and such a small group, we were able to identify each on, I think it’s difficult to say who has a better life, who made the other and bond quickly. better decision. In hindsight, I’m not unhappy about my choices. I “All of us were in Caldwell dorm. I was the floor RA my sopho- think I did a tremendous amount of sacrificial work dragging my more year and the building RA my junior and senior years. I selected family around, and the choices of where I lived were not necessarily Peter as one of my floor RAs. Just as now, he served capably, with an mine. But I wonder if everybody else has their choices all the time appropriate mix of humor, wisdom and guidance,” Dawkins says. either,” Rhee says. “I found that Peter, then and now, demonstrated integrity, which he “I don’t regret any of my military career. I think the experiences already had and was nurtured by our collective experience, matu- that I have gotten through it are not duplicative anywhere else in rity — being wise without being arrogant — and a compassion for life. I think on a personal, selfish level, I was very benefited by the fellow students, which is fundamental for a lifetime commitment to military. But can I speak for my family and say whether that was service.” good for them when I was never home?” Rhee changed his major after his sophomore year. His health Rhee’s military service helped prepare him for the life-and- systems degree from Tech is on his office wall with his master’s in death situations he deals with daily. Rhee was one of the first trauma public health from the University of Washington and his medical surgeons at Camp Rhino in Afghanistan in 2001. He was deployed degree from the Uniformed Services University. again in 2005, this time to Iraq, where he started a surgical unit in Ramadi. ‘I’m Not Unhappy About My Choices’ “Every minute that I was in Iraq I loved being there. I loved being there more than anyplace else in the world. I had spent decades Rhee says his decision to accept the military’s scholarship offer training to be a combat surgeon,” Rhee says. “In contrast to a tank for medical school was strictly financial. commander, who needs to be in a war to understand and utilize his “I ended up with a 13-year obligation for their education and skills, when I utilize my skills in wartime, I’m benefiting everybody. their schooling. It was paid for, but I think I paid them more than “I’m not out there hurting anyone, so what better position could they paid me. I did 24 years for them. The first four years was medi- I be in where I can help any human body that comes through my cal school, 13 years was obligated and seven years was training. threshold — enemy, soldier, friendly fire? It didn’t matter — civil-

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FE_Rhee.indd 43 2/15/11 2:15 PM White House photo by Chuck Kennedy Standing behind Michelle Obama during the State of the Union address in Washington, D.C., Peter Rhee applauds as the first lady hugs Christina Taylor Green’s mother, Roxanna.

ians, combatants. I got a chance to help all aspects of humanity dur- “Tucson has 67 murders a year, which is one of the lowest for a ing the most ridiculous scenario you can imagine, where people city of its size. If you go up to where this madman shot up a bunch were purposely killing each other. I never felt so honored or privi- of people, there’s not a single person outside after five o’clock in leged or useful as when I was in wartime,” he says. the afternoon. There’s not a single streetwalker, there’s not a single Rhee maintains strong ties with the military. He is a consultant to homeless person. It’s about as nice and affluent as you can have,” the Office of Naval Research and the Marine Corps Commandants Rhee says. War Fighting Laboratory. He also is a Uniformed Services Univer- “We do get our fair share of gunshots and stabbings. Anytime sity professor and lectures there several times a year. you have a million people, people get hurt. Wherever there are guns, people get shot,” he says. “There are many, many people who are Life in Tucson shot who are not carrying weapons. Bystanders are getting shot all the time. People sleeping in their homes are getting shot all the time Rhee directed the Navy Trauma Training Center at Los Angeles because they’re impoverished and can’t afford a home in a nicer County-University of Southern California before accepting the Uni- neighborhood. So while you’re trying to decide if this is a good guy versity Medical Center post in 2007. or not, I have the luxury of not being able to ask that question. I just “I wanted a job just like what this one offered — a university- take care of the human being in front of me.” based program, a city of a million people, the only Level 1 trauma center. And this program was completely disrupted at that time, so A Hero’s Welcome there was an opportunity to build the program from the ground floor,” he says. Rhee stood with President Barack Obama on Jan. 12. Obama vis- An article in the Los Angeles Times quoted Rhee as saying Tucson ited Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, at the hospital was an embarrassing place for a trauma surgeon because of the lack before speaking at a community memorial service at the University of violence. of Arizona. Rhee was in the room. “I think that’s a little bit of an overstatement,” he says. “I worked “Out of the privacy of Mark Kelly and the congresswoman, I in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., big cities where urban gang don’t want to get into too much of the details, but I’m honored to warfare is very plentiful and a common thing. My last job in L.A. have been there and witnessed it,” Rhee says. County was to train Navy people on gang warfare so they would “When I rode with the motorcade over to the memorial service, have an idea what gunshot wounds looked like before they were one of the things I was trying to do was figure out where my family sent out to the war. was. I was trying to get them their tickets to get in, so I had to break

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FE_Rhee.indd 44 2/17/11 12:34 PM Peter Rhee answers his cell phone, which plays Stayin’ Alive when it rings, in his office, where he displays some of the commendations and medals he earned in the Navy.

of rank and go try to find them. Wherever I went, people just started “I had all the resources of the country. I was able to give Captain cheering and clapping. I was wondering who was behind me be- Kelly the reassurance that we were doing the best thing, that there cause I didn’t realize they were clapping at me,” he says. “I thought was no stone unturned. And when I was ready to finish [Giffords’] it was silly. Why would they be cheering for me? acute care process, I was able to pick up the phone and call a very “Once I identified where my family was, the police came out and good buddy of mine, John Holcomb, who is a retired colonel run- escorted us all to the front. When I walked into the arena, people ning the Houston program. It was a direct handoff,” he says. started cheering and gave me a standing ovation. Again, I thought, this is just silly, you know, because I do this all the time — we coded The Business at Hand somebody 30 minutes ago. But this was the first time that the community got the chance to thank people after the madness that had Rhee is happy in Tucson. occurred a few days before,” Rhee says. “They say that if you like what you do, you’re not really working Rhee’s encounter with Obama wasn’t his first with a U.S. presi- for a living. I am at a point where I am doing exactly what I want to dent. As a Navy physician, he traveled to China with Bill Clinton in do. I can’t imagine another job that I would rather have,” he says. 1998 as the president’s trauma surgeon. But Rhee says he won’t push either his 16-year-old son or “When this thing came up with the State of the Union address, 10-year-old daughter into a life in medicine. obviously I was honored. It was obviously because of the fact that “That’s a decision they have to make for themselves,” he says. “I there was a VIP involved, the press issue and all of those things. The think medicine is changing dramatically now, and I probably would University of Arizona people started to chime in on it and making not advise them to go into medicine. It’s business, issues with law- sure that I’d go,” Rhee says. suits. Finances have taken the pure joy out of treating a human be- When asked if he sees himself as a hero, he answers quickly. ing. The complicated barrage of paperwork and billing and those “No, of course not.” things really have made our profession so different than it was 20 The positive outpouring for him is from the community looking years ago. Right now we’re on a pathway that it will continue for for someone to thank, Rhee says, and he simply is the face of the the worse.” University Medical Center. Of his blip on the media radar screen, Rhee says, “There’s a 5 or “They’re trying to thank the medical community, and they’re 10 percent chance I’ll have a good result out of this, meaning that doing it through me,” Rhee says. “I was the face for the medicine, I’ll be able to pull into local resources to provide funding the way it right? The community of Tucson was coming together, and they should be. I need [$]15 million a year. I feel that my part-time job is were using me to thank, but I didn’t do all the work here. “It’s not like I’m in an office with you by myself asking you as a beggar. I have to constantly beg for funds for our trauma center where you’re hurt. Trauma is a team event that has multiple levels to exist.” Stayin’ Alive of complexity, and everyone, from the CT scanners, radiologists, the Rhee’s cell phone rings. The musical notes of the techs, the nurses, the orderlies, the janitors turning the rooms over refrain are the phone’s ring tone. “Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ and mopping up the blood so we can get the next patient in the alive.” room — everybody that is involved has a significant role. He listens, calmly asks questions. “I’ll be right there,” he says. “I saw it work. I saw it work well,” Rhee says. “With my military Rhee moves from behind his desk and heads for the door. background and connections and because of the fortuitous position “This guy’s dying. I have to go,” he says. that Gabrielle Giffords’ husband is a Navy captain, we got every- And he’s gone. It’s just another day on the job for trauma chief body involved from Admiral Mullen to the surgeon general. Peter Rhee.

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FE_Rhee.indd 45 2/15/11 2:18 PM 46 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

FE_Funny.indd 46 2/15/11 2:41 PM Jacket Jesters April Fools’ Day pranksters, sans pants MARTA riders and improv comedians are only part of Georgia Tech’s community of jokesters Story by Van Jensen Photos by Caroline Joe

t was a little past 3 p.m. in early January on a crowded goose bumps on the bare legs. Luther and the rest of his cohorts, in northbound MARTA train. The train had screeched to a stop fact, were taking part in the annual No Pants Day celebration. at the Civic Center station when a confused murmur started Started as a flash mob event by New York’s Improv Every- I up among passengers. where comedy group, the day has grown into a worldwide event Two of the riders, with seemingly no provocation, pulled off during which people gather on public transportation and shed their pants. Then another did. And another. their clothes. Soon, about 10 riders on the car wore sly grins on their faces The local Improv Everywhere affiliate, the Gobi Lumberjacks, and nothing on their legs beyond underwear. The same scene was was started by Matthew Flaschen, CS 10, a freshman at the time. playing out on most of the train’s cars with about 60 pants-free rid- Flaschen once appeared on the cover of Creative Loafing wearing a ers spread throughout them. The riders were split evenly between shirt, tie and nothing on his legs except Tech boxer shorts. men and women, and while most were in their 20s, a few trousers- “The Gobi Lumberjacks was really the first time I got serious free passengers had gray hair. And several of them had Georgia about comedy,” Flaschen said. “I wasn’t really involved in prank- Tech connections. ing in high school or before that.” One of the riders was Kurt Luther, a PhD candidate in interac- Flaschen and Luther are just the latest in a tradition of Georgia tive computing at Georgia Tech. He wore a dark suit coat, a navy, Tech pranksters. Students of the Institute have long engaged in white and gold tie and no suit pants. A fellow passenger asked mischief making: Stealing the T or the whistle, building the legacy what Luther was doing taking his pants off. of George P. Burdell, installing a Mickey Mouse clock on the Skiles “I was too hot,” he explained. Classroom Building and streaking are just a few examples. Even At that moment, it was 32 degrees outside. Every time the train Georgia Tech traditions such as the Ramblin’ Wreck Parade and the doors opened, a frigid blast of air blew through the car and raised Mini 500 race are undeniably silly.

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FE_Funny.indd 47 2/16/11 3:05 PM While the Gobi Lumberjacks isn’t officially a Georgia Tech group, it has always had a strong contingent of Yellow Jackets. It also carries on the Tech tradition of absurd, mostly harmless humor. The group has held several performances around Atlanta beyond the No Pants ride. They dressed as spelunkers and launched an explora- tion, code-named Mission Cueva, of Underground Atlanta. They started dancing, without music, at Lenox Square mall. They froze in place at Atlantic Station. And they talked on bananas as if they were cell phones at Perimeter Mall. “I think the absurdity is part of what jolts people out of ordinary life,” Flaschen said. “It gives them a powerful way to escape their routine without consciously doing anything special like going to a theater.” Flaschen has since moved to Philadelphia and participated in that city’s 2011 No Pants event. But the Georgia Tech presence in the Gobi Lumberjacks remains strong. Luther heard of the group through Flaschen, who worked for Luther on a research project. “I promised I’d be at the next meeting,” Lu- ther said. “I’d seen some videos of the New York Improv Everywhere events and loved them. I was also getting into regular improv around that time.” One of Luther’s first events was Mission Ruido, aka the Subway Symphony, launched in 2008. A group of Lumberjacks boarded a southbound MARTA train carrying various homemade musical instruments such as soda bottles with sunflower seeds inside, rubber bands wrapped around card- board tubes and bubble wrap. The group began to play, keeping a basic rhythm. They spread across the cars, still playing the same rhythm. “It actually sounded pretty good, considering most of the instruments could be found at a conve- nience store,” Luther said. Joining Luther on the 2011 No Pants ride was a handful of fellow Yellow Jackets including Eugene Medynskiy and Lana Yarosh, both PhD candidates in human-centered computing, and Michael Down- ing, a fourth-year computational media major. Yarosh said once she heard about the event from Luther, she had no hesitations about taking part. “It sounded like something that would be right up my alley, so I tagged along,” she said. “I knew that it wasn’t actually illegal to ride without pants,

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FE_Funny.indd 48 2/15/11 2:41 PM Kurt Luther, in suit coat, tie and no pants, led a contingent of Tech participants in Atlanta’s celebration of No Pants Day 2011. Fellow Tech PhD candidates Lana Yarosh, in white shirt, and Eugene Medynskiy, in blue T-shirt, also dropped their trousers.

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FE_Funny.indd 49 2/16/11 11:41 AM and I think most people are amused by these kinds of antics.” It was Luther’s first time on a No Pants ride as well, and he “There is strength in numbers admitted to being somewhat reluctant. He said the choice of a suit was both to keep him warm and accentuate his lack of pants. “I definitely had reservations,” he said. “I knew it would be and a bigger group relaxes freezing cold that day, yet I’d be standing around without pants. … I guess my other fear was somehow getting stranded and being the both the performers and the only person on the train without pants. “There is strength in numbers, and a bigger group relaxes both the performers and the audience. Ten people without pants are audience. Ten people without funny; one person without pants is just weird.” An elderly couple sitting a few feet away from the group didn’t pants are funny; one person find it funny at all. The wife cast a disapproving glance at the pants-free riders and said, “It must be a fraternity thing.” Her husband nodded and, without looking up from his newspaper, said, without pants is just weird.” “Must be, dear.” Another man, asked what he thought of the exposed legs, said As the train moved farther north, the cars gradually emptied the pranksters needed to find Jesus. out. At most stops, the pants-free riders switched to other trains or Yet another man, sprawled across a bench seat, only slept. His cars. Eventually Luther, Yarosh and the other Georgia Tech riders chest rose and fell with each snore. became separated from the larger group. Fellow passengers gaped or took photos or giggled. At the next By the time the train reached the Doraville station, the end of stop, one man pushed through the crowd to exit. the line, almost every passenger wasn’t wearing pants. One rider, “I got on the wrong train,” he said, shaking his head. a man wearing a black peacoat and Superman boxer shorts, pulled

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FE_Funny.indd 50 2/16/11 3:08 PM Comedy Without a Script

By Van Jensen

Among Georgia Tech’s comedic community, there’s a particular style of humor that’s become most popular. Improvisational comedy forces humorists to create skits without a script. It’s a free- form style that relies on quick thinking, good communication and a knack for the absurd. On campus, that mani- fested in the Let’s Try This! improv troupe. Founded in 1989, the troupe is made up of students who hold practices and frequent shows at Dra- maTech’s Black Box stage. Tech also hosts the Black Box Comedy Festival, one of the largest such events in the country and staged annually Members of the Let’s Try This! improv troupe engage in hijinks. Improv is a balance of structure and anarchy. since 2004. One night in January, Let’s Try This! held a show for a crowd of about 40, most of them stu- church on Sunday afternoons. Its membership is made up of dents. The five players wore jeans and T-shirts with LTT! logos. middle school students, and almost all of them are girls. The audience was told to silence cell phones, as well as “any Lefton is tall with graying hair and a constant grin. He ges- small organics that can make noise.” tured constantly as he instructed the class. He announced they They began the show with a long-form skit called a Harold. were invited to perform at a nearby retirement home. Their humor was absurdist, predicated on funny voices and “We don’t want to make them laugh so hard they soil their bizarre one-liners. The scenario was a policeman trying to solve Depends,” Lefton said. “Oh, wait, that’s why they wear them. the mystery of a museum robbery, even though it was painfully We can make them laugh as hard as we want.” clear his friend, the curator, was the culprit. The class opened with warm-up games that emphasize eye It escalated into a parrot-led animal uprising. The biggest contact, focus and rhythm. They then launched into improv laugh came when the curator finally explained his failed rob- skits. Lefton gave basic guidelines to keep their creativity going. bery: “The dirigible crashing wasn’t in my plans.” “‘Yes, and’ are the two key words of improv,” he said. “It’s Tech’s improv isn’t limited to students. Lew Lefton, informa- like building a house. We each bring bricks. We aren’t setting tion technology director for the School of Mathematics, performs our own house on top of another house.” stand-up and improv comedy. He’s developing a project study- Lefton watched closely and occasionally stopped the players ing improvising with Pete Ludovice, an associate professor in to give them pointers. He encouraged them to develop plot and the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and fel- character, even in the rapid-fire setting. low comedian. “Your character needs to change for it to be interesting,” he Lefton is renowned on campus for his April Fools’ jokes. In called out. 2006, he sent out a prank e-mail that his dog had a brain tumor An improv structure begins with a platform — the who, and needed other dogs to donate blood. People weren’t amused what and where, Lefton explained. Then the players introduce a when they learned it wasn’t true, he said. tilt, an absurd element that turns everything on its head. “Lesson: Don’t joke about your dog’s health,” he said. But improv is a balance of structure and anarchy, Lefton Lefton also teaches the DUCK — the acronym is tortuously said, as his students listened intently. derived from Decatur yoUth Comedy Krewe — improv group. “It’s best to have no idea what’s going to happen,” he said. DUCK meets in the classroom building of a Decatur, Ga., “In improv you want to embrace failure. Failure is funny.”

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FE_Funny.indd 51 2/16/11 3:09 PM The pranksters included Maria Henriquez, who wore a blue Tech hoodie that belongs to her boyfriend, Rishiraj Bheda, a graduate student in electrical and computer engineering.

out thermoses filled with coffee and hot chocolate and poured “At most colleges, that would simply result in a lot of video drinks for his fellow pranksters. game tournaments, but Tech is full of engineers. We’re trained to be Slowly, the train started to rumble south, picking up more pas- clever, to do things that no one’s ever done, and we know how to sengers at each stop. They would chuckle or give confused looks. build, break or hack pretty much anything. When you add all that Luther took it as a sign of a successful mission. up, you get the ideal environment for pranks to flourish.” “Most people looked equal parts confused and amused,” he Yarosh seconded the sentiment. said. “That told me we were doing our jobs well. If they’re not con- “A good prank requires exactly the same sort of thinking and fused, you made it too easy on them. If they’re not amused, what’s temperament as a successful invention,” she said. “It needs to be the point?” original, well thought out and fearlessly implemented.” Beyond the Gobi Lumberjacks, Luther is active in the improv Fearlessly implemented is a good descriptor for the No Pants scene. He volunteers and takes classes at Dad’s Garage, an improv ride. As the train cars once again filled up, the pranksters smiled theater in Atlanta. He and Downing also worked on a research and feigned innocence. project to study how improvisers think. At one stop, a MARTA employee came on the train. He warned Luther reflected on the history of comedy and pranks at Geor- the riders that other employees had called the police. He thought gia Tech, and he said part of it is that most new students want to they were funny and didn’t want to see them get in trouble, he build on the comedic legacy. said. “You want to carry on the tradition, or at least show those old Most of the new passengers just laughed, and a jovial atmo- pranksters you’re just as clever as they were,” Luther said. sphere filled the car. Finally, nearing the Five Points station, the rid- But he said the tradition of pranks might also owe to the aca- ers started to pull on their pants. demic pressure students face at the Institute. Fully clothed once again, Luther, Yarosh, Medynskiy and “Tech is a competitive place, and that means two things,” Downing ventured back toward campus. Luther said. “One, we’re stressed out, so we need to find ways to Back on the train, the sleeping man continued snoring deeply. amuse ourselves and let off steam. Two, we’re always trying to He hadn’t woken once. If he’d seen anyone without pants, it was outdo each other. only in his dreams.

52 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

FE_Funny.indd 52 2/16/11 3:11 PM March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 53

FE_Funny.indd 53 2/15/11 2:43 PM Burdell.indd 54 2/15/11 5:06 PM Burdell & Friends

Gary Meek Robot Rescuers Robin Murphy responds to disasters with controlled assistance By Van Jensen

here is an inherent awfulness to Robin Murphy’s job. search cited by the late Michael Crichton in his book Prey. Whenever disaster strikes, she is called to duty. Murphy, In December, Murphy delivered the George W. Woodruff ME 80, MS ICS 89, PhD CS 92, is the Raytheon professor of School of Mechanical Engineering’s annual Harold W. Gegen- computer science and engineering at Texas A&M and di- heimer Lecture on Innovation. A full crowd listened to her presen- rector of the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue. tation at the Ferst Center. TShe has responded to 11 terrorist attacks, hurricanes, mine col- “So why robots?” she began her talk. “Robots don’t replace lapses and other disasters over the past decade. people or dogs. They extend their abilities.” And while those make for harsh workplaces, Murphy goes Instead of autonomous robots venturing into rubble, Murphy without hesitation. She is one of the leaders in the effort to use ro- said the goal is to create robots that allow human responders to bots as emergency responders. squeeze inside collapsed buildings or to hover above damaged A fellow in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers areas. “We’re not building Lieutenant Commander Data,” she said, and member of the Defense Science Board, Murphy had her re- referencing the cyborg from Star Trek.

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 55

Burdell.indd 55 2/15/11 5:10 PM “Even though we’re delegating more to the robot, which is great, humans are still responsible.”

Artificial intelligence will not resemble human thinking in the short term, Murphy said. “What’s easy for a person is hard for a computer or robot,” she said. “But what’s hard for a person is easy for a robot, such as math.” One thing related to most disasters that is impossible for humans is to fit through small openings to search for survivors. Murphy was among the responders to the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. There were no holes to explore after the towers collapsed, she said. Murphy showed a video recorded by a small robot that eventually worked its way into the rubble. It crawled in a narrow shaft filled with dust and what appeared to be debris. “There are three sets of remains in this video,” Murphy said. “It looks like a rock, but then you see the hair.” There were extreme challenges in responding to a 2007 collapse at the Cran- dall Canyon Mine in Utah. After an initial Gary Meek rescue effort led to the deaths of three re- “Even though we’re delegating more to is designed to mimic human movements, sponders, Murphy’s team used a robot to the robot, which is great, humans are still and its mannerisms make it reminiscent of explore the mine. responsible,” she said. “We need to think of Wall-E. The robot had to travel 2,000 feet down it as a joint-cognitive system.” The robot would allow survivors to a small bore hole that was filled with water One of Murphy’s main areas of focus communicate with the outside world and and debris. In such environments, wireless at the moment is on studying how people even to watch TV. Murphy said entertain- and GPS don’t work, so the robot has to react to robots. In a situation with someone ment is important when people are stuck in remain connected to its operators by a cable trapped in debris, a robot can be terrifying the dark for hours or days. tether. if it approaches in the wrong way, she said. Despite advances in the area, Murphy The robot successfully made it into the She studied how people interact with stressed that emergency robots still have a mine, but no one survived the disaster. robots and found that rescue operators long way to go. She said they need to im- “We’re looking at very, very small” tended to drive aggressively and erratically, prove in efficiency, mobility and affordabil- spaces, Murphy said. “It’s very twisty. The which heightened the distress of their test ity. She called on the Georgia Tech students sensors are incredibly important. There’s a subjects. in attendance to lead that innovation. lot of vertical mobility needed.” “We can see that people get annoyed,” Currently, only one rescue team in the In the response to Hurricane Katrina in Murphy said. “We need to be cautious, United States owns a rescue robot, she said. 2005, Murphy and other responders used submissive. When we drove like that, one And when the devastating earthquake hit remote-controlled aerial and water vehicles person actually reached out and patted the Haiti in 2010, the country’s leaders didn’t to survey damage in unsafe areas. robot.” allow responders to use robots. Such efforts required multiple people She is now part of a group designing a “We’re forgetting the morality of not at the controls, which is typical for rescue new rescue robot called Survivor Buddy. using technology when we could,” Murphy robots. Murphy said it takes three human It has a squat body with an interactive said. “Passivity is as good as saying you operators to control one robot. screen that rises up on a neck. The robot don’t want to help people.”

56 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

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1940s Charles W. “Wick” Moorman, Frank A. Stovall , ChE 43, MS EE 49, in Feb- CE 75, of Virginia Beach, Va., has ruary celebrated 67 years of marriage to Mar- been named the 2011 Railroader of jorie Hailey of Atlanta. The couple have four the Year by Railway Age magazine. children, seven grandchildren and one great- Moorman is chairman, president grandchild. Stovall, who was on the track and and CEO of Norfolk Southern. A na- tennis teams at Tech, continues to play singles tive of Hattiesburg, Miss., Moorman tennis twice a week. He was ranked No. 1 in joined Southern Railway in 1970 his age group in Georgia in 1997 and 2008. Af- while working his way through ter receiving his Navy ROTC commission, he Georgia Tech as a co-op student. He served aboard DE-156/APD-52 in World War spent the first 12 years of his railroad II and later in the Korean War. Stovall retired career working in maintenance-of- from Lockheed Aircraft in 1984 as the reliabil- way positions. Moorman became ity engineering manager. In his 32 years with president of Norfolk Southern in the company, he received two patents for hot 2004, CEO in 2005 and chairman in forming titanium, methods still used in the air- 2006. Moorman also is a graduate of craft industry. In 2009 he published Investing Harvard Business School. for Fun — and Profit, which detailed more than 50 years of his stock investments. 1960s Athletes, published by Fireship Press in Decem- 1950s ber. A Navy veteran when he arrived at Tech, Gerald R. “Jerry” Harris Randy Cabell, EE 53, MS EE 54, and his , EE 67, achieved Smith went on to work on B-52 radar systems, wife, Mary Kay, who was the first female pro- the status of life fellow in the Institute of Elec- the Army Pershing missile, NASA’s Survey- fessor at Georgia Tech, have digitized and pub- trical and Electronics Engineers. Harris is the or moon probe and federal water pollution re- lished more than 1 gigabyte of family history ultrasonics laboratory leader at the U.S. Food search. He joined the Indian Health Service in dating back to 1723. The couple live in Boyce, and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices 1975 and served as director of management in- Va., overlooking the Shenandoah River. Ran- and Radiological Health in Silver Spring, Md. formation systems. Smith later was the market- dy Cabell was the pianist for the Fowler Street Carl H. McNair Jr., AE 63, MS AE 63, a re- ing director for Ford Aerospace. Athletes Once Five Plus One band, which played Dixieland tired Army major general, received the Gen. includes Randolph Scott, a Tech football play- music at Tech dances and on WAGA’s Stars of Creighton W. Abrams Medal for outstanding er before he took up acting. A resident of Ger- Tomorrow program with Freddie Miller in the service to the Army at the Association of the mantown, Md., Smith also is the author of Diet- 1950s. Cabell, now retired, wrote two march- United States Army’s annual meeting and ex- er’s Checklist, published by Doubleday in 1975. es in 2010. To hear renditions of the marches position in October. A member of the Army performed by the Band of the Piltdown Fusil- Aviation Hall of Fame, McNair was command- 1970s iers or to download the scores, e-mail Cabell at ing general of the Army Aviation Center from Jeff Barab, EE 77, of Houston, retired from [email protected]. 1980 to ’83 and the first chief of the Army Avi- Shell Pipeline Co. LP after more than 33 years Noel Malone, ChE 57, has been married ation Branch upon its establishment in 1983. of service. During his career with Shell, Barab to the former Ada Lee Turner for 52 years. Francisco T. See, TE 64, opened the Lau- held multiple assignments in engineering and Their son, Michael, lives in Burbank, Calif., rel Park Professional Building in Brunswick, operations supporting the company’s crude and works in the motion picture industry. A Ohio, in October. It is the first of three build- oil, products and chemical pipeline business- member of Sigma Chi fraternity while at Tech, ings planned for a three-acre site, which See es. For the past 15 years, he has been a com- Malone retired from a 39-year career in market- purchased to provide more office space for his mercial manager developing major pipeline ing with Eastman Chemical Products in King- wife Lily, who has a pediatric practice, and oth- projects along the Gulf Coast and in California. sport, Tenn., in 1996. He moved to Springdale, er area professionals. See, who is a retired proj- William H. Booth Sr. Ark., in 2005. The Malones live in Scottsdale, , IE 73, became the ect engineer with Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for Ariz., during the winter. worked with an architect in the planning of the Force Management Integration in the Office building, which was built into a hillside so that Jerry L. Terrell, IM 56, retired last year from of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for the earth could serve as a natural insulator. The his position as professor of aeronautics at Jack- Manpower and Reserve Affairs in Washing- Sees live in Medina, Ohio. sonville University in Florida and was award- ton, D.C., in September. Booth was commis- ed professor emeritus status. Terrell was the E.W. Smith Jr., EE 60, has written Athletes sioned as a second lieutenant in 1973 through university’s Professor of the Year in 2010. Once: 100 Famous People Who Were Once Notable Tech’s ROTC program and served in a variety

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of positions of increasing responsibility over the next 28 years. He retired from active duty with the rank of colonel in 2002 and became a senior-level executive, serving as the senior adviser for manpower and organization at the Air Force headquarters. Al Bornmann, MS EE 72, received the 2010 Chairman’s Award for Honesty and Service from SRA International Inc., a provider of technology and strategic consulting services and solutions to government organizations and commercial clients. The award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated honesty, service to customers, care for employees and contributions to his community. David Hallman, GMgt 73, has written a nov- el, The Growing Season, in which Georgia Bu- reau of Investigation agent Hank Monroe “gets more than he bargained for in his first season on the job” following the disappearance of a young woman in a small Southern town. The Kisha Ford, Mgt 98, who after playing basketball for the Yellow Jackets spent five book, published by Five Points Press, is avail- years in the WNBA, now is an officer in the Georgia Army Guard. Ford graduated from able through Amazon.com. Hallman, a retired Officers Candidate School at the Clay National Guard Center in January as a second special agent with the FBI, has 35 years of crim- lieutenant. She began basic combat training at Fort Jackson, S.C., in June. Ford left the inal investigative experience. He was a special WNBA in 2001 and has worked as a police officer in Atlanta and DeKalb County. She agent with the GBI before joining the FBI. Hall- was inducted in the Georgia Tech Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008. man now lives in Leesburg, Ga., and teaches courses in criminal justice as an assistant professor at Andrew College. Hallman is the son C. Hugh Richardson, ME 76,was named di- State University in December and has accept- of George Garner Hallman, Text 50, and father rector of College Park Power by the mayor and ed a tenure-track faculty position as an assis- of Russell Andrew Hallman, Cls 05, who is council of College Park, Ga. A registered pro- tant professor at Western Carolina University married to Madhura Adiga, Chem 05. fessional engineer, Richardson joined College in Cullowhee, N.C. Charles H. “Chuck” Huling Park following a 33-year career with Middle , CE 74, a resi- Stefan V. “Steve” Stein, EE 77, was named Georgia EMC, from which he retired in 2009 dent of Smyrna, Ga., was appointed to the met- the 2011 Tampa Intellectual Property Lawyer after 26 years as general manager. ropolitan north Georgia water planning dis- of the Year by Best Lawyers. Stein is a share- Mark V. Smith trict governing board in December by then- , IM 79, a resident of Savan- holder in the Tampa office of GrayRobinson Gov. Sonny Perdue. Huling is the retired vice nah, Ga., was appointed as a coastal represen- PA. He also serves on the board for Family Ser- president of environmental affairs for Geor- tative to the Board of Natural Resources in De- vice Centers and is an adjunct professor at the gia Power. Huling serves on the advisory pan- cember by then-Gov. Sonny Perdue. The ap- University of South Florida. el for Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and En- pointment was effective Jan. 1. Smith, a hotel Jeff Tuomi vironmental Engineering and is a member of management executive at Prince-Bush-Smith , IM 77, is a founding investor the College of Engineering’s Academy of Dis- Hotels and the CEO of South Atlantic Utilities, in DrawSuccess, which offers interactive pro- tinguished Engineering Alumni. serves as chairman of the Georgia Internation- grams in leadership training, organizational transformation and team performance. W. Allen Morris, BMgt 75, received the 2010 al Maritime Trade and Convention Center. He McCallie Alumni Achievement Award. Morris is a member of the Historic Savannah Founda- Ralph M. White, EE 75, wrote two books, is chair and CEO of The Allen Morris Com- tion Board, a curator of the Georgia Historical both of which are available through Amazon. pany, one of the largest commercial real estate Society and a past chairman of the Savannah com. In DEB Load Calculations, the author lays Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. firms in the Southeast. Morris graduated from out a process to help in the design of low volt- McCallie School, a college preparatory school William Kirk Smith, EES 74, received a age electrical power systems. In How to Measure for boys in Chattanooga, Tenn., in 1970. PhD in technology management from Indiana the Performance of Management, he describes a

58 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

Burdell.indd 58 2/16/11 3:16 PM management process he developed “using basic engineering logic without all the normal management double talk” to help managers or management groups decide what to focus on and how to track their progress. 1980s Raymond I. Bruttomesso Jr., AE 83, MS AE 84, was elected a shareholder of Devine Millimet. Bruttomesso is a member of the law firm’s intellectual property practice group and works out of its Manchester, N.H., and Ando- ver, Mass., offices. He also is an engineering duty officer in the Navy Reserve, holding the rank of commander. In 2004 Bruttomesso was mobilized to U.S. Joint Forces Command in support of Operation Noble Eagle. Michael Gazarik, MS EE 89, PhD EE 97, has been chosen as NASA’s new deputy chief tech- nologist. He will work in the office responsible for coordination, integration and tracking Patrick Caputo, EE 10, Phys 10, and James Molini, BME 10, pictured above, co- of all technology investments across the orga- founded Waste to Watts LLC with Duke University graduate Chris Hamman. The com- nization. Gazarik, who has worked on both the pany has received several awards for its invention Enzi, an inexpensive back-up pow- Mars and shuttle projects, also will manage NA- er supply on which such devices as EKGs and computers can run for hours. The Waste SA’s Space Technology programs. He previous- to Watts team has marketed the device, which is made from repurposed electronic ly was deputy director of the engineering direc- waste, to health care facilities in developing nations prone to frequent power outages. torate at the Langley Research Center in Hamp- In January, Waste to Watts received $6,000 for its second-place win in the 2011 Queen’s ton, Va. During his career with NASA, Gazarik Entrepreneurs’ Competition, Canada’s largest international business plan competi- has received the organization’s Silver Snoopy tion. It also picked up the competition’s Grant Bartlett Sustainability Award, receiving Award and its Outstanding Leadership Medal. $1,000. Last year, Waste to Watts won first place and $5,000 in the Engineering World Holly Hart Hearn, Mgt 89, joined Nike Inc. Health Design Competition as well as a $10,000 cash prize from the Dell Social Inno- as assistant general counsel of employment- vation Competition. Caputo is pursuing a master’s degree in electrical and computer North America at the company’s world head- engineering at Tech. Molini, who lives in Boston, is a technical support specialist for quarters in Beaverton, Ore., in January. She and St. Jude Medical’s cardiac surgery division and president of Waste to Watts LLC. The husband Eric Lenard, son Ryan and daughter team is performing field tests on the device in hospitals in Rwanda and Cambodia. Avery are relocating to the Portland area from Seattle, where she previously was a law part- Bill Johnson, MS ICS 84, was elected to Con- federal health care reform act. Mathis, who is ner with Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, special- gress for Ohio’s 6th Congressional District in managing partner of Freeman Mathis & Gary izing in labor and employment law. November, the first time a Republican has won LLP, serves on the executive committee of the Ramona M. Hill, IE 83, was named vice pres- that seat since 1994. Alumni Association’s board of trustees. ident for enrollment management for Spring Thomas Q. Langstaff, IM 82, was appoint- Tom O’Brien, IE 81, the co-founder of Axion Hill College. Hill will be responsible for ad- ed in April 2010 to the federal bench. Langstaff BioSystems, has equipped the undergraduate missions, financial aid and student success now is serving as a U.S. magistrate judge for teaching laboratories of the Wallace H. Coult- initiatives and will continue her management the Middle District of Georgia. His new office er Department of Biomedical Engineering at responsibilities for graduate and continuing is located in the U.S. District Court at 201 W. Georgia Tech and Emory University with five studies. An adjunct faculty member at Spring Broad Ave. in Albany, Ga. new microelectrode arrays. The MEAs will al- Hill since 2002, she has taught courses in work- low students to study and probe the complex place diversity and motivation. She joined the Ben Mathis, IM 81, has been appointed a signaling of electrically active tissue. college’s administration in August 2008 as as- special assistant attorney general by Georgia sociate provost for graduate and continuing attorney general Sam Olens to assist in repre- Marcus Sachs, CE 81, is the vice president studies. She also owns Workshops Etc. Inc. senting the state in the legal challenge to the for national security policy at Verizon, with

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responsibility for directing the company’s policy development and advocacy on issues rang- Matthew Stellmaker, BC 10, has re- ing from critical asset protection to cyber secu- turned to the states following a nearly rity and emergency preparedness. Sachs will seven-month sojourn in Chile, where he work with Congress, administration officials helped introduce straw-bale homes to and the security industry on national secu- Patagonia as project manager of a green rity policies and issues. A retired Army offi- housing project. Stellmaker said straw- cer, Sachs was a presidential appointee to the bale construction is ideal for single-fam- White House in 2002-03. Sachs and his wife, ily homes and freestanding structures in Diane , Psy 83, have two daughters, Elise, a rural areas. “Straw is readily available graduate of Florida Tech working at msnbc. in most agricultural regions and serves com, and Kelly, Econ 10, a graduate student no purpose other than bedding for live- at Georgia Tech. stock,” he said, adding that straw-bale Greg Schmidt, CE 82, of Anchorage, Alas- construction can achieve insulation fac- ka, has joined the national board of American tors up to three times higher than fiber- Heritage Girls, a character development orga- glass insulation. “Not only does straw- nization for young women embracing Chris- bale construction cut down on energy tian values and encouraging family involve- usage for the construction and materi- ment. Schmidt helped develop the organiza- als of the house, it also reduces life cy- tion’s engineering merit badge last year. He is cle energy costs, reducing drastically the deputy chief of the engineering division for the energy consumption for heating and the Alaska district of the Army Corps of Engi- cooling,” he said. Stellmaker said that as neers. Schmidt is married to Rebecca and has word spread of his project, people from one son in the Boy Scouts and two daughters surrounding communities came to check in AHG. it out. Before leaving Chile in January, Stellmaker worked with a municipali- ty so that it could replicate his building 1990s model in its rural projects. Dan Barnicle, CmpE 97, has been named chairman of One Hen Inc., a nonprofit micro lender dedicated to educating children and consulting firm specializing in human capital technical experience as an analyst and comput- empowering them to become social entrepre- outsourcing. er engineer at the CIA. neurs. A co-founder of the organization, Barni- Cameron Craddock, CmpE 99, MS ECE 03, Herbert S. Hasell, ME 90, and wife Ruth cle also is vice president and content manage- PhD ECE 09, has received a Young Investigator announce the birth of a son, Christopher Gads- ment and collaboration practice lead for Sapi- grant from the NARSAD Brain and Behavior den Hasell, on Dec. 30. Hasell retired from the entNitro, a Boston-based global marketing and Research Fund for his research in bipolar disor- Navy and now is an AirTran Airways pilot. technology services firm. der. Craddock is a postdoctoral researcher with Fatimot Ladipo, MS PubPol 99, has joined Doug Bowman, MS CS 97, PhD CS 99, was the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine the Georgia Tech Office of Government and named a 2010 Distinguished Member by the and Research Institute in Roanoke. He previ- Community Relations as assistant director of Association for Computing Machinery. Bow- ously was a research fellow at Baylor College federal relations. She will be based in the Insti- man is an associate professor of computer sci- of Medicine. Craddock’s research involves the tute’s Washington, D.C., office. Ladipo previ- ence and member of the Center for Human- use of functional magnetic resonance imaging ously was a legislative and media liaison with Computer Interaction at Virginia Tech and a to understand and treat psychiatric disorders. the Georgia Student Finance Commission. 2003 National Science Foundation CAREER Tara D. Elliott, CmpE 98, has been named award recipient. He directs the 3-D interaction Andrew E. Lovejoy, CE 96, MS EnvE 03, a principal in Fish & Richardson’s IP litigation group at Virginia Tech, which focuses on 3-D was promoted to president of Civil Engineer- group in Wilmington, Del. She will continue to user interface design and the benefits of working Consultants, a civil and environmental en- focus her practice on intellectual property lit- ing in virtual environments. gineering firm specializing in water and waste- igation and counseling across a range of tech- water infrastructure projects. Scott Cadora, Mgt 92, IntA 93, received nologies, including electrical and computer an executive MBA from Duke University’s engineering, and will work in government in- Vivek Maddala, EE 95, composed score mu- Fuqua School of Business. Cadora is the co- vestigations and provide compliance and risk sic for the filmKaboom , which was screened at founder and COO of PinnacleHR, an Atlanta management counseling. Elliott has previous the Sundance Film Festival in January. He also

60 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

Burdell.indd 60 2/15/11 5:11 PM Recent Arrivals — Joseph Douglas Lubke, left to right, was born O’Hara was born on Oct. 6 to Jennifer Troeschel O’Hara, ChE 02, May 21 to Katie Lubke, MS MSE 99, and her husband, Dave. He and her husband, Donald. O’Hara is a global account manager for the joined his siblings, Noah and Jessica, at the family’s home in Milan, personal care division of ISP in Wayne, N.J. The family lives in Phil- Mich. Lubke works for Ford Motor Company. Madison Grace Hall adelphia. Grant Everett Luzier was born on Oct. 13 to Allison Beard was born on Nov. 19 to J.P. Hall, CE 99, and his wife, Pollyanna. Hall Luzier, IE 96, and her husband, Tom. Grant is the grandson of Rich- is a project manager with Jollay Masonry in Avondale Estates, Ga. ard A. Beard III, IM 67, and the great-grandson of the late Richard A. The Hall family lives in Newnan, Ga. Jack Abram Meyers was born Beard Jr., GS 37. Beard Luzier is senior vice president and product de- on June 23 to Sara Meyers, IE 98, and Jeff Meyers, Mgt 98. Jack joins livery manager for the Florida commercial real estate group at Bank his sister, Lily, 3, at the family’s home in Marietta, Ga. Grace May of America. She and her family live in Tampa.

participated in a panel discussion at the film infantry battalion, two Afghan army battal- juris doctor degree from the American Univer- festival titled Music & Film: The Creative Pro- ions, a Czech Republic airborne battalion ad- sity Washington College of Law. cess. In 2010 the composer finished his musi- viser element and other supporting forces and Donna Nahser Blalock, CE 01, and Jere- cal score for The Burn Unit, part of the second agencies. His wife, Lisa, retired from the Army my Blalock, Cls 01, announce the birth of a season of HBO’s Funny or Die Presents come- last year after 20 years of service and now is a daughter, Kellen Elizabeth Blalock, on July 6. full-time mother to the couple’s daughter, Sar- dy series. He also has been playing drums on Jeremy is an engineer with Gulfstream Aero- the scores for the television shows Fairly Legal ah, 5. space in Savannah. and Perfect Couples, both of which premiered in Gazelle Soares, EE 97, and her husband, Jarrett Pender Dunn January. Maddala was inducted into the Geor- , ME 03, married Hill- David Gallagher, announce the birth of their gia Tech College of Engineering’s 2010 Coun- ary Stacia Lowe on Dec. 4 in Spartanburg, S.C. daughter, Kara Reese, on Jan. 8. Soares works cil of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni. David Gewertz as a project engineer for Wiley Wilson. The , EE 02, and his wife, Marisa, Tonya Neukam Austeri, TE 98, MBA 03, family lives in northern Virginia. announce the birth of son Jordan Paul Gewertz and her husband, Tom, of La Grange, Ill., an- on Oct. 4. Jordan joins brother Joseph, 2, at the Jason Speck, ChE 98, and Kristin Speck, nounce the birth of a daughter, Vivian Marie family’s home in Sandy Springs, Ga. Gewertz ChE 01, announce the birth of a son, Logan is an associate with Booz Allen Hamilton. Austeri, on Oct. 18. Neukam Austeri works as William Speck, on Nov. 14. Jason is an associ- William Grady a plant director at USSTMC in Chicago. ate director at Pearl Therapeutics, and Kristin , ID 03, won two iF product Mardis W. “Chip” Parker Jr., Phys 90, has is a group manager at the Clorox Co. design awards for IBM Storwize V7000 and IBM Power 710/730. The products were rec- retired after a 20-year Air Force career and has Benjamin J. Tarbutton III, Mgt 94, a res- accepted a position teaching Air Force junior ognized in a field of 2,756 entries. The hard- ident of Sandersville, Ga., was elected as vice ware will be displayed at the 2011 CeBIT Expo ROTC at Lebanon High School in Ohio. chairman of the University System of Georgia in Hannover, Germany, and will be published Susannah Rogers Pedigo, IntA 99, was Board of Regents. Tarbutton, the assistant vice in the 2011 iF product design award yearbook. named a partner in the law firm of Inglesby president of the Sandersville Railroad Co., be- Grady accepted a new position as industrial Falligant in Savannah, Ga. She focuses her gan his term as the 12th Congressional District designer of brand experience and strategic de- practice in the area of family law and also representative to the Board of Regents in 2006. sign at IBM corporate headquarters. serves as a guardian ad litem for the Superior William W.P. Hagler, ME 06, has passed Court of Chatham County when requested by 2000s the Georgia professional engineering exam the court to assist in that capacity. Leila R. Abdi, CS 01, is an associate in the and now is licensed as a mechanical engineer. Tom Rickard, CE 90, currently is deployed to electronics practice group of Sterne, Kessler, Hagler was promoted to project manager at Wardak province, Afghanistan, as command- Goldstein & Fox, a Washington, D.C.-based in- Paulson-Cheek Mechanical. He and his wife, er of a combined task force including a U.S. tellectual property law firm. Abdi received a Greer, Mgt 06, live in Atlanta.

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 61

Burdell.indd 61 2/15/11 5:11 PM Ramblin’ Roll

Catherine Prince Hoover, CE 05, an engineer with Raudenbush Engineering Inc., was named the 2011 Young Engineer of the Year by the Central Pennsylvania Engineers Week Council. Her husband, Anthony Hoover, Mgt 05, joined the law firm of McNees Wallace & Nurick as an associate in the litigation and family practice groups. The couple were married on Aug. 4, 2007, and live in Harrisburg, Pa. Spencer Irvine, AE 04, MS AE 06, is the CEO of AirVentions Inc. The company, which has two approved patents, specializes in collision avoidance systems for ground-support vehicles at airports. Irvine came up with the idea for the system while training for a ramp agent position at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Inter- Twins Lauren and Luke Bain, the youngest children of the Alumni Association’s director of IT Services Mat- national Airport and began working on it as a thew Bain, Mgt 01, MBA 10, will make their film debut in The Change-Up. The comedy, which stars Ryan graduate student at Tech. He is a 2010 graduate Reynolds, Olivia Wilde, Jason Bateman and Alan Arkin, is scheduled to hit theaters later this year. During of MIT’s Sloan School of Management. some downtime on set, the budding actors had their photograph taken with the film’s director, David Dobkin, Matt Moulthrop, MBA 04, a third-generation left to right, brother J.J., mother Missy, Bateman and their father. wood turner with Moulthrop Studios in Mar- ietta, Ga., has been selected for a “40 Under What have you been up to? 40” exhibition to be held at the Renwick Gal- lery of the Smithsonian American Art Muse- To have your news included in the Ramblin’ Roll, send us the details at Ramblin’ Roll, um in 2012. The exhibit will highlight the work 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313, or e-mail us at [email protected]. Pho- of 40 artists born since 1972, the year the Ren- tos may be submitted for inclusion in the online Ramblin’ Roll. wick opened. Works by featured artists will be added to the museum’s permanent collection. Daniel Noto, ME 02, and his wife, Rachel, Who: ______announce the birth of a daughter, Olivia Jose- phine, on Dec. 5. Noto is the managing direc- What: ______tor of the San Diego office of United Mechani- cal Consultants. The family lives in San Diego. ______Kristin Speck, ChE 01, and her husband, Ja- ______son Speck, ChE 98, announce the birth of a son, Logan William Speck, on Nov. 14. Kristin is a ______group manager at the Clorox Co., and Jason is an associate director at Pearl Therapeutics. When: ______Occupation: ______Whitney Taylor, Cls 06, and Scott L. Tay- lor, Mgt 03, announce the birth of a son, Ben- nett Conrad, on Nov. 8. Scott is the manager of Degree: ______Year: ______compensation and social responsibility at Cart- er’s Inc. in Atlanta. Phone: ______E-mail: ______Mary Katherine “Katie” Watt, BC 08, Charles “Chip” Tinsley IV Street: ______married , IE 05, on Aug. 14. Katie will be an attorney with Carl- City: ______State: _____ ZIP: ______ton Fields after graduating from the University of Florida’s College of Law this spring. Chip is a project manager with AT&T. The couple live in Orlando, Fla.

62 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

Burdell.indd 62 2/15/11 5:11 PM In Memoriam

1920s upon graduation. During World War II, he professor and the head of the aerospace engi- served as a line officer in the Navy aboard neering department at Mississippi State Uni- Arthur Earl Lee Neelley , Cls 28, of Man- PC-1133 in the Pacific. versity from 1960 to 1991. Mr. Cliett began hattan, Mont., on Jan. 16 at the age of 104. He working at Mississippi State in 1947 and re- Thomas W. Moore, EE 30, of Atlanta, on retired from a 22-year career with the Cali- ceived an honorary doctorate from the uni- Jan. 11 at the age of 102. He was commis- fornia Federal Savings & Loan Association versity in 2003. He served as a lieutenant ju- sioned as a second lieutenant in the Army as senior vice president in charge of the loan nior grade in the Navy during World War II. division. A 1930 graduate of the Universi- after graduation and pursued a career in fi- Edward A. D’Amico ty of Southern California’s College of Com- nance following World War II. He served on , ME 42, a resident of merce, he entered military service in 1942 the board of stewards at his church. Wheat Ridge, Colo., on Dec. 30. Memorials in his name may be made to the College of and was assigned to the staff of the com- Hal Hazelton Strickland Jr., ChE 36, of Engineering at Georgia Tech. manding general of the Army Air Corps. He Greensboro, N.C., and Meadows of Dan, Va., achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel and on Dec. 11. A chemical engineer, Mr. Strick- Robert F. Donegan, IM 47, of Jackson- received the Legion of Merit. land retired from a long career with Burling- ville Beach, Fla., on Jan. 16. Before attend- ton Industries in which he ultimately was in ing Georgia Tech, he served as a B-24 pilot in 1930s charge of purchasing all man-made fibers the Army Air Corps’ 8th Air Force. He began Chris C.F. Hammond Jr., ME 34, of Sa- for the company’s manufacturing opera- working for the Container Corp. of Amer- vannah, Ga., on Jan. 3. Mr. Hammond was tions. He worked his way through Georgia ica in Philadelphia and in 1954 was trans- the retired president and chairman of the Tech as a co-op student and during World ferred to Caracas, Venezuela, where he was board of Great Dane Trailers Inc., formerly War II worked with DuPont developing a in charge of CCA operations for 16 years. He Steel Products Co., in Savannah. He joined wake-less torpedo for the Navy. An avid later joined his brother in a wholesale oper- the company as a trailer salesman in 1937 birdwatcher, Mr. Strickland was a member ation in Atlanta. and by the 1970s was chairman of the board of the Piedmont Bird Club and had sight- Benjamin Ellis Dunaway Jr., ChE 43, and CEO. He retired in 1984 but was a con- ed more than 1,000 species during his trav- of Seaford, Del., on Nov. 28. Mr. Dunaway sultant to the company until his death. Upon els, which included a trip to Antarctica to ob- served in the Army’s 11th Airborne Division graduation from Tech, Mr. Hammond was serve penguins. He also was a skilled wood- during World War II and then in the Army commissioned as a Navy ensign, and he worker, painter, gardener and tinkerer. Reserve. He retired following a 33-year ca- spent a year as commander of Civilian Con- John Rowland “Jack” Wyant, ME 38, reer with E.I. du Pont de Nemours. He was servation Corps camps in North Caroli- of Atlanta, on Nov. 23. An Army captain in active in the Boy Scouts and was an avid na and Tennessee. During World War II, he World War II, he served under Gen. George bridge player. He also raised and raced hom- served on truck and tank production boards. Patton in command of the 501st Ordnance ing pigeons. He was a former president of the Truck Trail- Heavy Maintenance Company at the Battle Claiborne Powell East, CE 48, of Sun er Manufacturers Association and the Na- of the Bulge. After the war, he and his fa- City West, Ariz., on Dec. 10. Mr. East retired tional Truck Tank and Trailer Tank Institute. ther founded Wyant and Sons Paper Co. Mr. as general manager of engineering of the From 1967 to 1984 he served as a director of Wyant retired from his career in the paper American bridge division of U.S. Steel. Transway International Corp. in New York. business after working with Sloan Paper Co. William Dewey Fiser He served on the board of directors of Sa- He was a member of the St. Vincent de Paul , ChE 48, of Colum- bia, Mo., on Nov. 26. A longtime resident of vannah’s Citizens & Southern National Bank Society, American Legion Post 134 and the Huntsville, Ala., he had a 30-year career as for 21 years. Mr. Hammond was inducted Society of Colonial Wars. Survivors include a chemical engineer with Morton Thiokol. into the Georgia Tech College of Engineering grandsons John Wallace Wyant, CmpE 07, He was an Air Force captain with the 315th Hall of Fame in 1994. Survivors include his and David Wyant, a student in the College niece Emily Kennedy, Biol 74, and her hus- Bomb Wing during World War II. of Engineering. band, James Kennedy, Phys 74, MS GeoS 76, Walter Jasper Grace III, ME 42, of Tuc- and their daughter, Gwynn Kennedy Sem- son, Ariz., on Dec. 28. He earned a master’s melink, Arch 03. 1940s degree in mechanical engineering from MIT Thomas Clifford Bazemore Jr., EE 44, Hubert Shumate Laney, Com 34, a res- and was a petroleum engineering profes- of Santa Barbara, Calif., on Dec. 1. He was ident of Fort Worth, Texas, on May 11, 2009. sor at the University of Corpus Christi be- the retired president of General Research Mr. Laney was active in insurance and in- fore moving to Tucson in 1961. After receiv- Corp. Mr. Bazemore was a co-op student vesting until 2007. Throughout his college ing a law degree from the University of Ar- while at Tech. days, he got around in a “ramblin’ wreck” izona, he worked for the firm of Merchant, he purchased for $5. He left the automobile Charles B. “Charlie” Cliett Sr., AE 45, Lohse & Bloom before going into private with his Delta Tau Delta fraternity brothers of West Point, Miss., on Nov. 30. He was a practice. He earned a pilot’s license while a

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 63

Burdell.indd 63 2/16/11 3:21 PM In Memoriam

student at Georgia Tech and was commis- Electrical Contractors in 1990. After gradu- daughter Sharon Penn Adelhelm, IE 83; and sioned in the Navy, serving as a meteorol- ating from Tech, he attended Navy midship- son-in-law Mark S. Adelhelm, IE 83. ogist and attaining the rank of commander man school in New York City and served as a John Frederick Richenaker, ChE 43, during World War II. He was a member of Navy lieutenant during World War II. of Frederick, Md., on Jan. 11. Mr. Richenaker, the Tucson Sunshine Kiwanis Club. In retire- Henry Reese Ivey Sr., GE 42, of Mari- who earned an MBA from what now is Fair- ment he restored Citroen automobiles and etta, Ga., on Dec. 28. He worked for the Na- leigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, re- most recently was working on a car with a tional Advisory Committee on Aeronautics tired from Unilever as a chemical salesman Maserati engine. during World War II and was a civilian em- in 1985. He was a Navy officer during World Philip Gadsden Hasell Jr., AE 46, MS ployee of the Air Force at Langley AFB in War II and a member of Phi Gamma Delta EE 50, of Mount Pleasant, S.C., on Dec. 15. Hampton, Va., where he was awarded the fraternity at Tech. He was part of the Navy V-12 program at Air Force’s top commendation for civilian William Nathan Scott, Arch 43, of Bel- Tech and was commissioned as an ensign service. In 1959 he moved his family to cen- levue, Wash., on Jan. 20. Mr. Scott joined John following graduation. After failing the eye tral Florida, where he worked as an engineer H. Sellen Construction Co. of Seattle in 1951, exam for aviators, he was sent to Naval Air for several Department of Defense contrac- soon rising to senior management. Under his Station Point Mugu, Calif., to test missiles. In tors. He started Wood-Ivey Systems Corp., leadership, the firm contributed greatly to 1950 he was hired by North American Aero- which once was honored as the Small Busi- the Seattle and Bellevue skylines. He retired space and worked at Edwards Air Force Base ness Contractor of the Year by the Depart- as chairman of the board in 1994. Mr. Scott in California. He learned to fly and bought ment of Defense. In retirement, he traveled was a national life director of the Associated a PT-26 from Chuck Yeager. In 1955 Mr. Ha- the world and volunteered with Habitat for General Contractors of America and a past sell joined the University of Michigan Re- Humanity. president of his local AGC chapter. A World search Labs in Ann Arbor to develop air- Alexander Lucas Lofton, GE 47, a res- War II veteran, he served as a Navy officer borne infrared mapping. Three years later, ident of Mount Pleasant, S.C., on Jan. 26. aboard the USS Watts in the Aleutian Islands he went to work for a newly formed Bendix Joining the Navy at 17, Mr. Lofton served and in the Okinawa campaign. systems division that was developing an air- on the USS Oklahoma before enrolling at William C. “Bill” Underwood borne weather mapping system and a large , EE 49, Tech and on the USS Niblack after return- aperture-optical system to measure the radi- of Orlando, Fla., on Jan. 10. Mr. Underwood ing to the Navy in 1943. Following gradua- ation from a ballistic missile re-entering the moved to Orlando in 1957 to work for Martin tion, he went into the manufacturing busi- atmosphere. He later returned to the Univer- Marietta. During his 31 years with the com- ness, spending most of his career as gener- sity of Michigan, where he worked on infra- pany, he was named its Engineer of the Year al manager and vice president of Charleston red mapping of the countryside in a research twice, worked on Bullpup and Hellfire mis- Manufacturing Co. He was a member of the lab that eventually would become the En- siles and received a laser guidance system Society of Colonial Wars, St. James Santee vironmental Research Institute of Michigan. patent for Hellfire. He was an elder emeri- Historical Society and the Charleston Man- While there, he received a NASA award for tus at his church. ufacturing Club, for which he had served as the development of an active multispectral James E. Van Orden Jr. president. He served as docent for tours at , Cls 44, of St. scanner utilizing a laser. He retired in 1991 the Wedge Plantation, where his mother was Petersburg, Fla., on June 20. Mr. Van Orden, and returned to his native South Carolina, raised. In retirement, he cataloged and wrote who left Georgia Tech in 1942 to enroll in the where he was a volunteer for the East Coo- a history of his great-great-grandfather, Jon- Army, was the retired president of Acra Tire per Meals on Wheels and Adult Literacy pro- Shop Inc. athan Lucas, and his descendants and their grams. While a student at Tech, he owned a influence on the rice industry through mill John A. Williams, EE 43, of Marietta, Ga., Model A Ford with a rumble seat. Survivors designs. He was co-authoring a book about on Oct. 9. He was a retired senior flight test include his son Herbert S. Hasell, ME 90. the Lucas family at the time of his death. engineer with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Gordon Crowl Hicks, ChE 42, of Shef- Co. He was a co-op student while at Tech. Fitzhugh Lee Penn Jr., IM 48, of Ocoee, field, Ala., on Dec. 20. He worked at Rad- Fla., on Dec. 4. Following retirement from ford Ordnance Works in Virginia and the SKF Industries Inc., he hiked the entire Ap- 1950s Oak Ridge Atomic Plant in Tennessee before palachian Trail and did volunteer work on John Allen Baker, ChE 59, of Newport moving to Alabama in December 1945. Mr. it. He also volunteered at his grandsons’ ele- News, Va., on Dec. 4. Mr. Baker served three Hicks retired from the TVA after 33 years as mentary school. A member of Delta Tau Del- years in the Air Force before beginning a ca- a chemical engineer. He spent his retirement ta fraternity while at Tech, he served in the reer with Westinghouse Electric Corp. in building a pioneer village in Colbert County. Navy in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters in Pittsburgh in 1962. He was transferred to Lee Fuson Howard Sr., EE 45, of Atlanta, World War II aboard the USS LST 1001 as the company’s field office at Newport News on Jan. 11. Mr. Howard was an electrical en- a communications officer, executive officer Shipbuilding in 1970 to work on the Nimi- gineer in the commercial construction indus- and ultimately as commanding officer. Sur- tz-class aircraft carriers and retired in 1998. try in Atlanta, retiring from Allison Smith vivors include son Timothy K. Penn, ICS 85; While a student at Georgia Tech, he was a

64 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

Burdell.indd 64 2/16/11 3:23 PM charter member of Delta Upsilon fraternity 1989. Mr. Green served in the Army Signal John C. Kievit, ChE 53, of Elkton, Md., and participated in the Air Force ROTC. Corps during World War II. on Jan. 3. He retired following a 30-year career with DuPont. He was a Stephen minis- Wayne L. Beech, EE 53, a resident of Lees- L. William “Bill” Harper, IM 59, of Otta- ter at his church, an artist and an avid reader. burg, Va., on Aug. 18. In 1983 Capt. Beech re- wa, Canada, on Nov. 23. He worked as a per- tired from a 32-year career in the Navy in sonnel manager for Canadian Oil, Shell Oil James Andrew “Jim” Machmer, ME which he supported the Office of Military and Atomic Energy of Canada (MDS Nor- 54, of Lexington, Ky., on Jan 24. In a 27-year Application, Office of Arms Control, Office dion). He was a former board member of career with IBM, he worked in the compa- of Intelligence and Department of Energy in the Carleton Place Hospital and Perth and ny’s office products division, acquiring four the areas of intelligence, nuclear weapon de- Smiths Falls Hospital and a member of the patents and helping in the design and design, threat assessment and environmental Carleton Place Legion. His hobbies included velopment of IBM’s Selectric Element and activities. He also served with NATO at Spe- curling, woodworking and painting. Copier 3 heat fuser. In 1970 he was recog- cial Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in nized as a top 10 inventor. He also worked Al Thomas Hays Jr., IM 59, a resident Mons, Belgium. An expert in the field of nu- for Delta Air Lines and Lexmark. Mr. Mach- of Dunwoody, Ga., on Dec. 19. Following clear weapons, he was selected to participate mer worked his way through Georgia Tech graduation, Mr. Hays began a long corpo- in the Strategic Defense Initiatives program, by playing clarinet and alto saxophone in the rate sales career in which he specialized in nuclear treaty negotiation support and arms six-piece Fowler Street Five Plus One band. mineral and lime products. He also owned control and nonproliferation activities. His He also was a member of the Georgia Tech combat experience in the Navy included ser- and operated Al T. Hays Sales Co. until his Glee Club, which performed on Ed Sulli- vice as deputy commander of a river patrol retirement. Mr. Hays enjoyed traveling the van’s Toast of the Town television program. force in the Vietnam War. world and had climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. He was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany, Thomas C. Herndon from 1955 to ’57 while serving as a lieuten- John H. Cunningham, Arch 50, a resident , CE 50, of Brandon, ant in the Air Force. An aviation enthusiast, of Atlanta, on Dec. 12. For more than 50 years Fla., on Dec. 2. Mr. Herndon was a registered he enjoyed flying his 1945 Piper Cub, build- Mr. Cunningham owned his own architec- professional engineer and a member of the ing and repairing model and radio-con- tural firm, which specialized in banks and American Railway Engineer’s Society and trolled planes and hang gliding in Colora- commercial buildings. A World War II veter- the Roadmasters and Maintenance of Way do. He also sang in community choruses and an, he flew 50 combat missions as a member Association. a barbershop quartet. of the Air Corps. He wrote three books and Lorentz Ryan “Friday” Hodges Jr., BS was an avid sailor and a farmer. 57, Arch 58, of Warm Springs, Va., on Jan. 17. Gordon Richard McHan, ME 51, of Mar- ietta, Ga., on June 7. Mr. McHan retired from Robert Davis “Bobby” Engelhart Jr., He worked in Atlanta, Alexandria, Va., and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. Cls 57, of Sandy Springs and East Cobb, Ga., Greensboro, N.C., in his career as an archi- on Jan. 18. He retired from a 43-year career tect. His studies at Georgia Tech were inter- Charles Gordon Naylor Jr., EE 52, of with Lockheed Martin in 1997 as a director in rupted by two years of service in the Navy Dublin, Ga., on Dec. 28. Mr. Naylor retired international sales. He also was a retired ma- as a medical corpsman at the Bethesda Na- from Hughes Aircraft Co. and volunteered at

jor with the Air National Guard. A member val Hospital. Mr. Hodges enjoyed classical Easter Seals Middle Georgia. He was a Navy of Chi Phi fraternity while at Georgia Tech, music and opera. veteran of World War II. he graduated from Georgia State University. Marion Williams Hodges Jr., Text 54, of John Hezekiah “Jack” Oldham Sr., Benjamin Kennon Gillis, IM 53, of Sop- Atlanta, on Dec. 30. Mr. Hodges worked for ME 58, of Wesley Chapel, N.C., on Jan. 16. erton, Ga., on Jan. 18. Mr. Gillis retired in West Point Manufacturing and Sandoz Tex- Mr. Oldham served in the Army before own- 2005 after working at the Bank of Soper- tile & Chemicals before beginning a career ing his own business in Charlotte, N.C. He ton for more than five decades, including 24 as a commercial real estate agent in the late was a member of the Honorable Order of years as president. A World War II veteran, 1960s. He formed Marion Hodges & Compa- Kentucky Colonels and for many years was he joined the 82nd Airborne Division in 1945 ny in the 1970s, working as a broker. A mem- active in the Weddington Optimist Club. He and was a member of the division’s ceremo- ber of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity while was a founder of the Union County Patriots nial drill team. He also was a paratrooper, at Tech, he served in the Marine Corps as a and was named 2009 Union County Repub- receiving the World War II Victory Medal. first lieutenant and was a life member of the lican Man of the Year. Survivors include his Capital City Club. son, John Hezekiah Oldham Jr., ME 92. Eugene W. “Wes” Green, EE 50, IE 54, MS IE 55, of Atlanta, on Dec. 26. He began Herbert A. Johnson, IE 52, of Union City, Frank Levan O’Steen, IM 54, of York, a career at Sears Roebuck in the catalog or- Calif., on Dec. 9. Mr. Johnson had worked S.C., on Aug. 30. Mr. O’Steen served in the dering department and retired as the assis- for Lockheed, Bechtel and Sygnetics. He was Marines during the Korean War and was the tant Southern territory operating manager in an Army veteran, a past master of Peninsu- former owner and operator of the Shrimp 1980. He then joined United Family Insur- la Lodge 168 F&AM and a member of Asi- Boat Restaurant in Rock Hill, S.C. He was a ance, retiring as assistant vice president in ya Shrine. member of the Elks Club, Savannah Masonic

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 65

Burdell.indd 65 2/15/11 5:11 PM In Memoriam

Lodge No. 1, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Tech, he was a member of Sigma Nu and the Jim Hicks, Text 68, of Belton, S.C., on Dec. York County Shrine Club. Bulldog Club and served as assistant busi- 15. Mr. Hicks was a former technical manag- ness manager of the Yellow Jacket magazine. er and plant engineer with the Hexcel Corp. James Lee Perry, IM 57, of Cumming, Ga., on Jan. 8. A 1961 graduate of the Emo- Guillermo “Willie” Valls Munoz, IM 57, William W. Mee III, IE 68, a resident of ry School of Law, Mr. Perry retired in 1995 as of Miami, on Nov. 27. Newark, Del., on Dec. 22, of cancer of the law assistant to the Supreme Court of Geor- appendix. A co-op student at Georgia Tech, C. Neil Welsch, CE 53, of Atlanta, on Dec. gia. He was a law assistant to several jus- Mr. Mee retired from DuPont in 2002 as a se- 23. Mr. Welsch helped shape the skyline of tices in his 34-year career. He spent sever- nior consultant for the international trans- the Atlanta area as a general contractor, pres- al years researching biblical languages and fer policy. His 34-year career with the com- ident of H.W. Ivey Construction Co. and em- translations of ancient texts while writing a pany was interrupted in 1969 by a stint in ployee with B.L.I. Construction Co. A mem- book, The Holy Grail Cosmos of the Bible. His the Navy during the Vietnam War. Mr. Mee ber of Sigma Chi fraternity while at Tech, he hobbies included researching the history of was chairman of the National Foreign Trade served in the Army in Austria from 1947 to Great Britain, gardening and target shooting. Council’s International Compensation Com- ’48 and in Korea from 1953 to ’55 as a committee in 1991. In retirement, he volunteered Charles Wayne Robertson, ME 55, of mander of a combat engineering company. with the Blood Bank of Delmarva, the Na- Lutz, Fla., on Jan. 19. Mr. Robertson was an A Sunday school teacher for more than 40 tional Multiple Sclerosis Society, Habitat for engineer at Busch Gardens for more than 25 years, he also served as chair of the deacons Humanity and PFLAG and mentored sever- years. He was an animal lover, a fishing en- at his church and was a deacon emeritus. thusiast and a miniature train collector. al elementary school students. Leonard Atlee Wills, ME 52, of Roanoke, Ray H. Rohletter Lewis Edward Moore, ChE 69, of Spring- , Text 53, of Demorest, Va., on Nov. 23. Mr. Wills served in the Army field, La., on Dec. 26. In his more than 30- Ga., on Nov. 25. A Navy veteran of World War in the Philippines during World War II and year career, he was a project manager for II, Mr. Rohletter had a 40-year career with Chi- later worked for the Department of the Navy such companies as Ciba-Geigy and Borden copee Manufacturing in Cornelia and Gaines- in Washington, D.C. His hobbies included Chemicals. He received an MBA from Lou- ville. He was a member of the Habersham singing, songwriting and playing his guitar. County Board of Education and Demorest isiana State University. He was a golfer and Thomas D. Woodman City Council, an avid beekeeper and a cattle , ME 59, of Pleas- a car and model train enthusiast. ant Grove, Ala., on Feb. 8, 2010. Dr. Wood- rancher. Survivors include son Joel B. Rohlet- E. John Patten Jr., CE 62, a resident of man was a retired orthopedic surgeon. ter, IM 77; daughter Jennifer, IM 82, and her Athens, Ga., on Jan. 11. While a student at husband, Robert Chambers, CE 79, MS CE 80; Tech, he worked for the Georgia Railroad and and grandchildren Grant Rohletter, Mgt 03, 1960s helped design and lay out the rail around and his wife, Meaghan, Mgt 03; Emily Cham- John McDonald “Mac” Carter, CE 63, Stone Mountain. Upon graduation, he began bers, IntAML 10; and Benton Chambers, a stu- of Raleigh, N.C., on Nov. 29. An Army veter- a career with the USDA’s Soil Conservation dent in the College of Engineering. an, he served in Korea and retired from Car- Service, now the Natural Resources Conser- Charles W. “Chuck” Scott, Phys 59, MS olina Power and Light Co. vation Service, from which he retired as state design engineer after 30 years. He then was Phys 62, of Westminster, Calif., on Nov. 15. Earnest C. Eason Jr., CerE 61, of North a consultant on dams with Schnabel Engi- Mr. Scott retired in 1995 after a 25-year career Augusta, S.C., on Dec. 31. Mr. Eason retired neering Associates. He served on the Nation- as a physics teacher at Los Alamitos High from Augusta Newsprint, at which he was a School in California. He moved to Califor- al Dams Safety Committee and was instru- boiler operator. nia in 1965 to work in the autonetics division mental in the development of the SITES com- of North American Rockwell, during which Dennis C.B. Freeman, IM 66, a resident puter program used by engineers involved time he also taught physics courses at area of The Woodlands, Texas, on Sept. 14. In his in the design of dams. He was a member of universities at night. Mr. Scott spent sum- career, Mr. Freeman worked as a commu- the Beech Haven Christian Sportsmen Min- mers and later his retirement on a chestnut nications consultant at TIC Lucent Tech, a istry, American Saddlebred Horse Associa- orchard and tree farm in Ettersburg, Calif. quality assurance and technology setup an- tion and American Saddlebred Museum; a alyst at Hewitt Associates and an account life member of the American Society of Civ- Joseph E. Summerour, IM 51, of Sum- manager at Panasonic. il Engineers; and an endowment member of ter, S.C., on Dec. 12, 2008. His career with the the National Rifle Association. Air Force included a lengthy tour in the Viet- Edward Worley Graham Jr., IE 60, of nam War. He retired from Shaw Air Force Orlando, Fla., on Dec. 19. He served in the James Patrick Phillips, EE 69, a resident Base as a lieutenant colonel. He served on Army and retired from Robins Air Force of Lake in the Hills, Ill., on Nov. 25. During the school board in Sumter and led several Base after 44 years of service as an industri- a 31-year career with Motorola, Mr. Phillips antique car clubs in South Carolina. While at al engineer. headed an engineering research department

66 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

Burdell.indd 66 2/16/11 4:06 PM and received several awards. After retiring Navy, he was appointed executive officer at He enjoyed driving his motorcycle, skiing, from Motorola in 2007, he started a consult- the Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory. He windsurfing, sailing and swimming. ing business, Wireless Wyzards. His career retired in 2005 after 14 years as manager of Melony Lynn Jones Seaton, IE 82, of included design work for the Saturn V rock- the water resources department of the coun- Bristol, Tenn., on Jan. 24. She spent her career et computer and antennas for the Alaskan ty of Ventura. He was an accomplished race working in quality assurance for NASA and oil pipeline, space shuttle amateur radio and car driver and a NASCAR fan. the military. She was an animal lover and a the first cellular telephone. Mr. Phillips, who Bingo player. She enjoyed fishing. earned a master’s degree in electrical engi- 1980s neering from the Illinois Institute of Technol- Bruce Fabrick, M Arch 85, a resident of ogy, was chairman of the Chicago section of 1990s Decatur, Ga., on Dec. 22, in an automobile the Institute of Electrical and Electronics En- John (Chong Hun) Chon, MS ChE 97, accident. Mr. Fabrick, who also was a grad- gineers and a senior member of the IEEE. He PhD ChE 99, of Marlborough, Mass., on Nov. uate of the Atlanta College of Art, was a res- was awarded 40 patents. 22. Dr. Chon worked in the biotech indus- idential architect. He was a cook, political try, starting out at Genzyme Corp. and most Samuel Tucker Thompson, IE 69, a resi- activist and community volunteer who de- recently working for Percivia LLC. He re- dent of Jasper, Ga., on Dec. 9, after a two-year voted much of his time to helping build and ceived a bachelor’s degree in chemical en- battle with cancer. He held executive posi- care for the Decatur High School Communi- gineering and music from MIT in 1994. Pas- tions in various companies before purchas- ty Gardens as a PTA volunteer. sionate about classical music and jazz, he ing his own company, Blue Ridge Moun- Karen Elizabeth Knapp, BC 83, a resi- played in several musical groups, including tain Woodcrafts, in Ellijay, Ga., in 2000. He dent of Brunswick, Ga., formerly of Orlan- the Boston Civic Symphony, Wellesley Sym- served in the Army before attending Tech. do, Fla., on Jan. 2, after a three-year battle phony Orchestra and Hillside Wind Quin- Survivors include his children Lisa Wearing, with liver disease. She was a volunteer at tet. While at Georgia Tech, he was a mem- IE 88, and Samuel Thompson, ME 94. the American Red Cross and the YMCA, at ber of a jazz chamber ensemble and the sym- Harold Robert “Bob” Todd, IE 65, of which she was a mentor, coach and referee. phonic band. Rock Hill, S.C., on Dec. 11. He served in the Peter Paul Ostapchenko, ME 81, of Sa- Mark Amos Ruff, EE 91, of Cumming, Ga., Army and retired from IBM Corp. Mr. Todd lem, S.C., on Jan. 10, following a two-year on Jan. 15. Mr. Ruff was a den leader with enjoyed photography and water sports with battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He the Cub Scouts. He enjoyed golf and coach- his grandsons. He was a Sunday school lead- worked at General Motors while a co-op stu- ing his sons in soccer. er at his church and a volunteer at the Billy dent at Tech and began his career develop- Graham TV Telephone Ministry. ing software at General Dynamics. He lat- 2000s Preston C. Upshaw Jr., IM 61, of Mari- er worked for Computer Science Corp. and Kristin Michael, ME 00, MS ME 03, PhD etta, Ga., on Jan. 19. Mr. Upshaw retired fol- Omnigon Technologies and was a consultant BioE 06, of Marietta, Ga., on Jan. 10, of leuke- lowing a 30-year career with Lockheed Mar- for the Hein Group Inc. and Talon Eight. At mia. She was a senior postdoctoral research- tin Corp. He also was an accomplished blue- Invitrogen he managed IT projects and im- er and then a group leader in the biomate- grass musician and songwriter. He served as plemented postproduction support using rials group at Forschungszentrum Julich a medic in the Army and was a member of Six Sigma methodologies. Mr. Ostapchen- in Germany. Her many awards included a American Legion Post 216. ko, who received an MBA from the Univer- graduate fellowship from the National Sci- sity of Phoenix in San Diego, was a mem- ence Foundation. 1970s ber of Ideas Unlimited, a professional think tank of scientists and inventors in San Diego. Kent S. Harris, IE 73, MS IE 75, of Walnut Creek, Calif., on Sept. 29. He worked for Pa- James J. Partlow, Cls 81, a resident of Friends cific Gas and Electric Co., most recently as Lawrenceville, Ga., on Jan. 19. A co-op stu- Roy Hartsfield, 85, of Ellijay, Ga., on Jan. senior program engineer. Mr. Harris was a dent while at Tech, he was a former systems 15. A former player, coach and manager in member of Alpha Epsilon Pi while at Tech. developer with Building Systems Design. minor and major league baseball, Mr. Harts- Robert Lowell Preston, MS CE 71, PhD William Andrew Priest, ME 82, of Talla- field played for the Atlanta Crackers, Bos- CE 76, of Ventura, Calif., on Dec. 15, of can- hassee, Fla., on Jan. 17, of pancreatic cancer. ton Braves and Brooklyn Dodgers and had cer. Following graduation from the Naval Following graduation from Tech, he attend- worked for such teams as the Atlanta Braves, Academy in 1959, he was appointed com- ed and taught at Florida State University. He Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays. mander and served two missions in Viet- spent the past 18 years helping provide Flo- He also spent decades in the offseason work- nam, receiving the Bronze Star with a Com- ridians with safe drinking water as a Depart- ing in the Georgia Tech Print shop. In retire- bat V. After 21 years of active duty in the ment of Environmental Protection engineer. ment, he was a member of the Ellijay Lions

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 67

Burdell.indd 67 2/16/11 4:07 PM In Memoriam

Club and a golfer, who participated in char- City Schools, Davis International and South- bachelor’s degree in nursing from Michigan ity tournaments for major league baseball. ern Progress magazine. She volunteered with State University and was a registered nurse many organizations, including the Georgia Phyllis Dorman Kelly, of Ocala, Fla., on and head nurse for the University of Michi- Tech Women’s Club. Jan. 15, of pancreatic cancer. She attended gan Hospitals in Ann Arbor early in her ca- Georgia State University and after raising John Paul “Jack” Line, 81, a resident reer. She later was a certified diabetes educa- four children worked at Georgia Tech as the of Stone Mountain, Ga., on Jan. 5. A gradu- tor for Northside Hospital in Atlanta. Memo- graduate program cooperative education co- ate of the University of Michigan, he was a rials in Mrs. Lohmann’s name may be made ordinator. After moving to Dudley, N.C., she math professor at Georgia Tech for 39 years, to the Georgia Tech Foundation for the Geor- was the office manager and human resourc- during which time he was a member of the gia Tech Women’s Faculty Club Scholarship es director of the Georgia-Pacific chip and bowling team. He was a deacon and an el- Endowment Fund. saw plant, retiring in 1997. She was a Serving der at his church. He and his wife, Fran, were Anne Louise O’Connell Martin, 79, a Health Insurance Needs of Elders counselor square dancers and served on the board of resident of Atlanta, on Nov. 24. She retired and a past president of the Goldsboro Rota- the Georgia State Square Dance Association from the Georgia Tech Police Department as ry and Belleview Busy Bee Quilters. for 30 years. Survivors include son Carl Line, a police dispatcher in 1995. She was a 1949 ICS 82. Ellie Kohler, 69, of Atlanta, on Dec. 14, of graduate of Atlanta’s Grady High School, lung cancer. She is survived by her husband, Kathleen Marie Lohmann, 59, a resi- at which she was voted most friendly. She Edwin Philip Kohler II, associate vice pres- dent of Marietta, Ga., on Jan. 13. She is sur- served on many boards and committees at ident for Student Affairs emeritus and an vived by her husband of 25 years, Jack R. her church and was involved in the Colo- honorary alumnus of Georgia Tech. A grad- Lohmann, vice provost for Faculty and Ac- nial Oaks Civic Association and Williams- uate of the University of Illinois with a de- ademic Development and a professor in the burg Senior Community. Memorials in her gree in elementary education, Mrs. Kohler School of Industrial and Systems Engineer- name may be made to the Lutheran Campus worked as a teacher and secretary for Atlanta ing at Georgia Tech. Mrs. Lohmann earned a Ministry of Georgia Tech.

Call for Board of Trustees Nominations Nominations are being solicited for candidates to serve on convene in March to review all candidates and propose a final the Georgia Tech Alumni Association Board of Trustees for terms list of nominees. To submit nominations, fill out the form below beginning July 1. or at gtalumni.org/registrations/nominate. Self-nominations Nominees must be Tech alumni and have a significant record will be accepted. Include a resume or brief biographical profile. of supporting the Institute. A nominating committee of the cur- Final deadline for nominations is March 14. rent chair, past three chairs and the Executive Committee will For more details, e-mail [email protected].

Name of Nominee______Class/Degree____________Telephone Number: Home______Work ______Cell ______Home Address______E-mail Address______Company and Title______Nominated by______Class/Degree______Telephone Number: Home______Work______Cell ________Home Address______E-mail Address______Mail to: Trustee Nominations, Attn: Jolie Rosenberg, Georgia Tech Alumni Association,190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313

68 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

Burdell.indd 68 2/16/11 3:34 PM March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 69

Burdell.indd 69 2/15/11 5:11 PM Yellow Jackets

The Day Tech Sports Changed Forever

By L. Mitchell Ginn The State of Tech Athletics in 1964 n Jan. 24, 1964, the direction of Georgia Tech athletics Tech was an upper-tier member of the SEC in 1964 and had and the fortunes of one of the South’s premier collegiate been since the conference’s beginning. It was a charter member institutions were forever changed. Head football coach in 1933 as well as a founding member in 1922 of the old Southern and athletic director Bobby Dodd and President Edwin Conference that preceded it. Harrison were at the annual SEC coaches meetings at the Ameri- Jesse Outlar wrote in his Jan. 22, 1964, Atlanta Constitution Ocana Motor Hotel in downtown Atlanta. It was on this day they sports column, “Tech is an elite member of the league, a famous would pull Georgia Tech out of the Southeastern Conference. name nationally known for high standards in the classroom and in Over the years, many have debated the reason for Tech’s depar- athletic events. The SEC does not want to lose Tech.” ture from the SEC. Some will argue that Tech athletics had begun Of course football was the premier sport. Since 1951, Tech foot- to slip and were no longer able to compete with the other confer- ball was 6-3-1 versus Tennessee, 7-2-2 against Florida, 6-6-1 against ence teams. Others will point to a running feud with the University Auburn, 7-6 against Alabama and 9-4 against state rival Georgia. of Alabama as the cause. Still others will suggest that Tech wanted Tech football had been ranked in the top 20 each of these years and to be an independent all along, hoping to become the Notre Dame had won the national championship in 1952. of the South. Tech was losing a lot of revenue generated from TV Tech also had Dodd, a superior coach and recruiter. Dodd was and bowl rights because of conference sharing rules. As an inde- renowned for exemplifying class and style on and off the field. pendent, Tech would be able to keep all the money it earned. Georgia Tech fans and alumni loved and trusted him as coach and The true reason was over something called the 140 Rule — and athletic director. Bobby Dodd’s determination to have it changed. Dodd believed the 140 Rule was putting Georgia Tech at a The SEC 140 Rule placed yearly caps on football and basketball major recruiting disadvantage. He must have wanted the rule scholarships at 45 and limited the total number of scholarships changed so badly he was willing to gamble the Institute’s athletics each school could offer to 140. Even with the normal attrition future over it. He had discussed this situation fully with his athletic expected from academic dropouts and other issues, simple math board and with Tech’s president, Edwin Harrison. They reportedly shows that if a school recruited its full allotment of players each agreed that if the 140 Rule was not abolished at the 1964 meetings, year it would be over the 140 maximum. Tech would leave the conference. Instead of recruiting a smaller number of athletes each year to Dodd had formally called for the abolishment of the 140 Rule manage the 140 maximum, many SEC schools would simply cut two years earlier. The change had some support but eventually the scholarships of players who had not performed to expecta- failed. He came closer in 1963. This time SEC commissioner Bernie tions. Atlanta’s afternoon newspaper, The Atlanta Journal, reported Moore sponsored a motion to change the rule, but the issue was “Dodd’s chief complaint with the 140 has been the alleged practice narrowly defeated in a 6-6 vote. of some schools ‘running off’ recruiting mistakes to make room for The Atlanta Constitution made reference to this earlier vote in new signees.” its Jan. 24, 1964, paper. “Last winter, Alabama’s Paul Bryant had Dodd believed if he and his staff recruited an athlete out of voted with Tech and five other league athletic directors to lift the high school based on his talents, the scholarship should be in place 140 Rule. But the following day, Alabama president Dr. Frank Rose for the duration of the player’s time at Tech. It should not be pulled switched ’Bama’s support in the other direction to give the 140 later due to a lack of perceived performance. In his autobiography, measure another year of life.” Dodd’s Luck, the coach stated his position. “We’d live with 10 boys The league did drop the yearly total of signees from 55 to 45. a year, 20, 30, 40, 50, we don’t give a damn how many boys you let After another year of politicking, Dodd is said to have been us take. But don’t tell us we gotta run ’em off.” As a result, Dodd confident going into the 1964 SEC meetings that the 140 Rule fi- was recruiting only 35 or so scholarship players a year while other nally would be altered. schools were bringing in 45. However, months earlier a damaging headline from the July

70 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

YellowJackets.indd 70 2/16/11 2:31 PM Bobby Dodd, left, was all smiles at the 1966 Gator Bowl. But Georgia Tech struggled for many of its seasons after leaving the Southeastern Conference in 1964.

21, 1963, Atlanta Constitution read: “Georgia Tech to Quit SEC Next Thursday, January 23 January.” Articles like this and Dodd’s constant drumbeat to ter- On the morning of the rule-change debate, Dodd was quoted in minate the 140 Rule were beginning to ruffle feathers and generate The Atlanta Journal. “If the Southeastern does not throw out the 140 independent theories. The Atlanta Journal also fueled the fire: “The Rule, then I will recommend to our president and to our athletic 140 Rule has not been the only reason Tech has made eyes at inde- board that we get out of the conference. This is not an ultimatum pendent status. Dodd has long been intrigued by the possibilities or anything resembling an ultimatum. The fact is that this is a bad of a largely intersectional schedule.” rule, and we cannot live with it any longer.” Sports columnist Outlar quoted an SEC delegate as saying, “I Wednesday, January 22 know some athletic directors consider Tech’s position as a chal- The SEC meetings were a three-day affair. Wednesday would lenge. If we had voted a few weeks ago, there’s no doubt that the be a day for settling into the hotel and the typical meet-and-greet rule would have been rescinded. Now I’m truly convinced that the sessions. Thursday would be full of meetings pertaining to rule league won’t change the rule. I know some schools have changed changes. Topics would be discussed behind closed doors by coach- their votes in the last few weeks.” es, athletic directors and school representatives. These meetings Some wondered if Tech was just looking for an excuse to leave would result in nonbinding recommendations to each member the conference. Benny Marshall’s column in The Birmingham News institution’s president. On Friday, the presidents would formally reported that one observer said, “What it sounds like to me is that vote on all issues on the agenda. somebody is saying, ‘If you don’t play like I want to play, I’ll pick The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution both reported up my marbles and go home.’” Marshall quoted another, “Coach that the SEC executive committee planned to introduce legislation Dodd wants out. Dodd might figure that the hostility he can arouse to lift the 140 Rule. It was expected to pass by a narrow margin at with this approach gives him ammunition for doing what he badly the meeting of school presidents on Friday. Dodd apparently was wants to do, go independent.” growing confident with each bit of good news. Marshall concluded, “Thus is the water made muddy, and the SEC commissioner Bernie Moore told The Atlanta Journal, “I feeling grew last night that removal of the limit — which might don’t think the league is so sold on the rule that it would be willing have passed — might now be doomed to failure because a great to see Tech go just to keep it.” deal of anger has moved in behind the general good humor.”

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 71

YellowJackets.indd 71 2/15/11 12:28 PM Still, Tech had its supporters in the conference. Auburn and and we’re going to meet again tonight. I think we’re going to have Georgia wanted badly to keep Tech in the SEC. One could assume a compromise that will keep Georgia Tech with us. We’re trying to that former Georgia Tech assistant Ray Graves, now the coach at work it out. I don’t think anyone wants Tech to leave the South- the University of Florida, still had a friendly ear to Dodd as well. eastern Conference.” But Dodd did have his enemies. The western schools in the Others weren’t as diplomatic. Outlar quoted a delegate as say- conference resented Dodd for refusing to play them. Alabama had ing, “If Tech wants to get out of the league, I think Tech should no love for Dodd or Georgia Tech. The Alabama series had recently get out.” Another source told Outlar that if “Tech intends to leave been canceled because of the Holt-Graning incident. Most sources unless the 140 Rule is changed, the rule won’t be changed.” Out- agree that Tech’s Chick Graning had been a victim of a deliberate lar concluded, “The SEC in general apparently prefers to see Tech cheap shot in the ’61 game, resulting walk out the door unless the Engineers in a broken jaw, the end of his playing exhibit more togetherness.” days and a lot of bad blood between At the end of Thursday’s athletic Tech and ’Bama. directors and coaches meeting, the 140 Of the other 11 SEC schools, Tech Rule had in fact prevailed. Tech now was currently only scheduling home knew its options. Give in or leave. Fur- and away games with five of them. This man Bisher’s column summed it up: was by Dodd’s design. Many competi- “This is almost like your parents get- tors viewed Georgia Tech and Dodd ting a divorce. Nobody really wants as elitists. The Birmingham News’ Alf it, but a form of obstinacy sets in for Van Hoose wrote, “Since Georgia Tech which there is no compromise.” hasn’t been the chummiest sort recently Dodd left Thursday’s closed coach- in the fraternity, spiteful human nature es meeting before the session officially reared its ugly head.” ended. When an Atlanta Constitution An earlier Atlanta Constitution col- writer asked how the meetings were umn by Outlar reinforced this opinion. progressing, he reportedly smiled and “It’s no secret that some of the brethren mused, “I guess that would depend on resent Georgia Tech’s ultimatum. And which side you’re on.” Bobby Dodd and the Engineers haven’t A frustrated Tech official discussed conducted their campaign in a diplo- the 11th-hour standoff with Outlar. The matic manner,” he wrote. quote appeared in his Friday column. The Atlanta Constitution concurred, “We do not have a desire to pull out of “It’s common talk that some of the the conference just for the sake of pull- league’s western members hold no ing out. We haven’t intended to sound fondness for Georgia Tech. There are re- like we’re issuing ultimatums. Unfortu- ports of ‘alignment’ voting rather than nately, a news story got out in advance at all times votes on the basis of issue.” President Edwin Harrison and Bobby Dodd are said to have agreed that may have sounded that way to to withdraw from the conference if the 140 Rule was not thrown out. the rest of the conference, but we were simply explaining our position, not de- Compromise or Divorce manding any kind of action or else.” The Thursday headline in The Atlan- Even though the coaches and ath- ta Journal read, “Opposition Builds Up Against Tech Stand, Emo- letic directors had decided on Thursday to keep the 140 Rule in tions Run Hot.” The accompanying story rumored of “some sort place, the presidents still would have the last word on the subject of a compromise to keep the league intact.” The article went on to on Friday. They could refuse the recommendation. The presidents quote an observer, “There is admittedly a lot of bitterness and a lot had worked into the night in their own secluded meeting hoping of emotion. But the SEC needs Georgia Tech, and frankly, I think for compromise. President Harrison listened to all proposals but Georgia Tech needs the league. Regardless of what the athletic di- did not commit to any compromise. He, like Dodd, had been clear rectors and coaches do, the issue must still go before the presidents from the beginning that the 140 Rule must be overturned. on Friday.” Rose of Alabama had gotten an agreement from the member Rumors of compromise proposals swirled. The Birmingham presidents to drop the number of freshman recruits from 45 to 40, News relayed Alabama president Frank Rose’s statement from but after much debate, the 140 Rule was not going to be erased. Thursday afternoon, “The presidents have been meeting all day, That was final.

72 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

YellowJackets.indd 72 2/16/11 11:53 AM Most sources, including the Georgia Tech Alumnus, agreed the Yellow Jackets’ Chick Graning had been the victim of a deliberate cheap shot in a 1961 game against Alabama. Although there was bad blood between Georgia Tech and Alabama afterward, coach Bobby Dodd cited the 140 scholarship rule as his reason for wanting to leave the conference.

“Tech Probably Will Enter the Exit” was Outlar’s take on Fri- was taken. There were other problems also. Institutions are differ- day, the final day of the SEC meeting. ent. Their problems are different. There is not another school in America like Georgia Tech trying to play football.” Friday, January 24 After Harrison announced Tech’s resignation, the conference presidents voted 11-0 to keep the 140 Rule. The presidents’ meeting was called to order. But before discus- The Atlanta Journal reported, “Among the veteran newspaper- sion and voting on the rule could take place, President Harrison men covering the SEC meeting, there was an air of stunned disbe- stood up and approached the podium. lief and deep regret.” “Georgia Tech’s interest is best served by withdrawal from the “Tech Withdraws from SEC, Doesn’t Wait for Vote on 140” was conference,” he said, announcing that the Institute would leave the the headline in The Atlanta Constitution. Anyone reading this could SEC effective June 30. make the assumption that Tech quit before having its case heard “We chose to withdraw before these deliberations to assure that before the presidents. Only insiders to the private Thursday meet- our decision would not be considered as reflecting disapproval ings would have known that Friday’s vote was simply a formality. on any specific action taken by the conference,” Harrison told Marshall, of The Birmingham News, threw this dagger: “Tech’s The Atlanta Constitution after the meeting. “Circumstances related president confirmed a suspicion that the 140 Rule, which had been to Tech’s technologically oriented educational programs and the held up as ranking villain, might not have been. ‘There are other admissions requirements associated with these programs were pri- problems,’ he said before proceeding to an old and somewhat arro- marily responsible for my action. gant conclusion, which is that Tech recruits athletes with superior “Tech’s entrance requirements have had the effect of requiring minds, they don’t flunk out and therefore Tech cannot live within that more of the scholar-athletes are capable of doing the level of a limit. Eleven other Southeastern Conference schools might, but work necessary to remain at Tech through graduation. These cir- not Georgia Tech. The image must be maintained, and now these cumstances make a limit on the total number of athletic grants-in- people have told the world once more, ‘We’re out because, really, aid impractical. Our action neither indicates nor implies criticism we’re better.’” of other institutions or of the conference, but rather acknowledges a uniqueness of our situation,” Harrison said. The Birmingham News quoted Harrison as saying, “I was con- ‘In Dodd We Trust’ vinced that there are some institutions convinced Tech was say- On Saturday, Outlar had this to say in The Atlanta Constitution: ing ‘play the game our way or we’ll pick up our marbles and go “Only time will tell whether Georgia Tech made a sound decision. home.’ That is why our announcement was made before any vote It says here that both sides lost the game. The conference will miss

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 73

YellowJackets.indd 73 2/16/11 2:36 PM Georgia Tech, and Georgia Tech will miss the conference.” as the conference. Once free of conference hindrances, our athletic Commissioner Moore told The Atlanta Constitution that Georgia programs can only improve,” the Technique said. Tech and the SEC would both “live to regret” their history-making In the same issue, Dodd said, “I’d like to clear up the financial parting. Moore revealed to the paper that he had tried twice to have aspect once and for all. While we have lost a lot of money through the 140 Rule lifted. sharing of TV rights over the last eight to 10 years by remaining in Joe Pittard, the oldest member of Tech’s athletic department, the SEC, it wasn’t a factor in our withdrawal. Our primary reason said, “It’s difficult to believe. But a lot of things are.” was the 140 Rule. Actually, we will continue to take fewer boys than SEC coaches weighed in as well. Former UGA coach Wally Butts the average SEC school, but we’ll try to graduate all of them instead stated, “Both Tech and the SEC have suffered a loss. Something of taking 50 to 60 each year, then dropping half.” will be gone from the Georgia-Georgia Tech series now, I don’t care what anyone says. And though I suppose the series will always go on, I can sure say that Georgia needs Georgia Tech.” The Aftermath Auburn’s Shug Jordan told The Atlanta Journal, “From an Au- The Atlanta Touchdown Club held its Silver Anniversary Jam- burn standpoint, we deeply regret it. I personally think it was en- boree on Jan. 25. Air Force Academy coach Ben Martin was the tirely unnecessary. I feel the conference should have made the rule guest speaker. He predicted Tech would soon become an indepen- flexible enough for everyone to live with.” dent king. Dodd, who also was in attendance, said, “I won’t ever Kentucky’s coach, Charlie Bradshaw, try to predict our future. I reiterate that had a different take. “I am sorry to see we leave the conference with mixed them withdraw, but it is bad to be put in emotions.” a position where we must compromise If Dodd could have predicted the to keep people in.” future, one could argue that he never Most Tech people were supportive would have pulled Georgia Tech out of of Dodd’s departure from the SEC. the SEC. The years that followed as an The old phrase “in Dodd we trust” held true. Lum Snyder, a Tech football independent were mostly lean ones for standout from the ’50s, told The Atlanta Georgia Tech. From 1964 to 1982, Geor- Constitution, “I support Coach Dodd gia Tech’s football record was 104-100-5. and the school 100 percent. I probably Compare that to Tech’s SEC football don’t know about all their reasoning, record of 206-110-12 from 1933 to 1963. I came over a while back to get Coach As an independent, Georgia Tech saw its Dodd’s views on the matter. When facilities become worn and outdated, sur- he explained the feeling on this 140 passed in size and quality by most of its business, I went home thoroughly in Southern competitors. agreement.” Georgia Tech would officially be- Dodd said in the Jan. 27 issue of gin competing in the ACC in 1983. As a The Atlanta Constitution, “Only a few member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, letters and wires have been received Tech’s athletic fortunes rose again. With so far, but all have expressed support victories and championships in a variety on the move. Most have been from of sports have come financial contributions prominent alumni. Just about all and greatly improved facilities. of them have expressed the theme Arguably, the level of national prestige that ‘we have enough confidence in that Tech football enjoyed as a member in Georgia Tech to believe the decision the SEC has never returned. Even with all was right.’” its current success, here’s a startling com- A Technique editorial on Jan. 31 parison. In 1963, the enrollment at Georgia also was supportive. “President Harrison’s decision to withdraw Tech from the Southeastern Conference is nothing short of great, so Tech was about 6,300 students, and there were roughly 50,000 living far as the school is concerned. Tech’s athletic program, at present, alumni. In 2011, the enrollment at Georgia Tech is more than 20,000, is operating far above the conference average, and our continued and there are more than 120,000 living alumni. Atlanta’s metro pop- alliance with the conference serves only to restrict our program and ulation has more than tripled. Yet Georgia Tech’s average football pull down its quality,” the student newspaper said. attendance for 2010 was less than it was in 1963. “The important thing is that we will be free to run our programs Georgia Tech athletics forever changed on Jan. 24, 1964. the way we want, and not the way Georgia or the University of Alabama want us to run things. The fairness and reputable treat- Mitch Ginn, Arch 82, M Arch 85, is the owner of the residential de- ment of athletes at Georgia Tech is known around the nation as well sign firm L. Mitchell Ginn & Associates in Newnan, Ga.

74 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

YellowJackets.indd 74 2/16/11 2:53 PM Tall on the Mound By Van Jensen

Shaina Ervin spent her four years as a star pitcher at North Car- olina State as a looming threat to the Georgia Tech softball team. Ervin, who is 6 feet 3 inches tall, led the Wolfpack to a successful run against the Yellow Jackets from 2003 to 2007 and helped her team win the 2006 ACC championship. After spending two seasons as pitching coach at Tennessee-Chattanooga, Ervin was hired over the summer by Tech softball coach Sharon Perkins.

When did you join Tech? My hire date was July 26, which is also my birthday. It was a nice birthday present.

Are you sick of hearing about your height? I’m mistaken for being a volleyball player. But I don’t mind. I love being tall. It certainly helped me on the mound.

You can’t teach height, so what’s your approach to coaching? There are a bunch of ways to approach it, but the fundamentals are the same. One of the biggest things is to let the pitchers feed off of me because they know I’ve been there and done it before.

Is it strange suiting up in the colors of your old rival? My entire coaching career I’ve been in navy and gold. It’s not weird. I understand the strengths of the ACC. But it’ll be different when we play N.C. State. But I don’t talk of Tech as a rival. This is my family now.

Eric Mansfield You’re working on a master’s degree in psychology, right? I started working on a degree in industrial and organizational 1 strikeout-to-walk ratio and allowing 15 home runs or less. psychology [at Tennessee-Chattanooga] because it was the clos- Those goals are from the pitchers, but I think they’re realistic. est thing offered to sports psychology. That’s really important to me. I’m going to complete the degree, I just don’t know You described yourself as stoic pitcher. How does that help? where. I might transfer to Georgia State. The biggest thing with being stoic is being consistent. Let’s be consistent from practice to games. Consistency is the biggest Do you want to pursue psychology as a career? word for pitchers. I could see myself venturing into that realm. It’s something that’s not touched on enough. It’s make or break for being a You used to go up against Aileen Morales [Mgt 08] and now great program. You’re eventually going to play a team that has you’re coaching together. Do you two still compete at all? just as much talent as you do. If you can win the mental game, We joke about playing against each other. It’s great working the results are usually going to be in your favor. together now, so we focus on that. I may have been out of the game for a couple of years, but I’m not scared to get out there You inherited a talented staff. How can they improve? and pitch against her. We’ve got Hope [Rush] and Kristen [Adkins] coming back, and they were successful. You’ve got to shoot big. If you get com- Outside of coaching and studying, what keeps you busy? placent, you stop learning. With pitching, every day you need My twin sister coaches at a Division II school, so we commu- to grow. They’re going to be smarter pitchers this year. nicate a lot. I spend time with my puppy, a Yorkie-poo named Peanut. And I love to run. I was in the last Atlanta half mara- Have you set goals for the pitchers? thon, and I got a medal. Running is a stress release. That used We have a goal of having a team ERA of 1.50 or lower, a 4-to- to be softball for me, but now that’s my job. So I run.

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 75

YellowJackets.indd 75 2/15/11 12:28 PM Sports Briefs

Jackets Sign 22-member Class an offensive lineman from Lakeland, Fla.; Vad Lee, a quarterback from Durham, N.C.; Tyler Marcordes, a linebacker from Normal, Football coach Paul Johnson announced the Yellow Jackets Ill.; Shaquille Mason, an offensive lineman from Columbia, Tenn.; would be adding 22 freshman scholarship players to the roster. Tremayne McNair, a linebacker from Jacksonville, N.C.; Nick “I think we addressed our needs and signed a very balanced, Menocal, a linebacker from Miami; Domonique Noble, a defensive talented group,” Johnson said. “We are excited about this class and back from Mount Ulla, N.C.; and Sean Tobin, a linebacker from feel like we have a number of players who are not only quality Holmdel, N.J. players, but quality young men as well.” One of the signees, Trey Braun of Tallahassee, Fla., enrolled at Georgia Tech in January. The remaining will arrive in August. Rush on Player of the Year Watch List The signed players from Georgia are: Bryan Chamberlain, an Sophomore pitcher Hope Rush has been named to USA Soft- offensive lineman from Albany; Chaz Cheeks, a linebacker from ball’s Player of the Year watch list. Rush, a Stockbridge, Ga., native, Gainesville; Jeff Greene, a wide receiver from Peachtree City; was a semifinalist for the award last season. Jabari Hunt-Days, a linebacker from Marietta; Zach Laskey, a Rush is coming off a freshman season in which she was the running back from Peachtree City; Chris Milton, a running back ACC Freshman of the Year and the ACC tournament MVP. from Folkston; Demontevious Smith, a quarterback from Monroe; As a pitcher, Rush went 28-8 with a 1.98 ERA and eight shut- Broderick Snoddy, a running back from Carrollton; Kyle Travis, outs. At the plate, Rush batted .302 with 20 home runs and 60 RBI. a linebacker from Cumming; and Darren Waller, a wide receiver Twenty-five finalists will be announced April 13, and the win- from Acworth. ner of the award will be announced at the start of the 2011 NCAA Out-of-staters signed are: Braun; Corey Dennis, a wide receiver Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City. from Troy, Ala.; Jamal Golden, a defensive back from Wetumpka, The Georgia Tech softball team hosts its home opener at 5 p.m. Ala.; Anthony Harrell, a linebacker from Tampa, Fla.; Errin Joe, March 2 at Mewborn Field.

76 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine March/April 2011

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To be part of the Tech 100 Business Club, contact Holly Green at [email protected] or (404) 894-0765. In Retrospect

Rollover Minutes? Thirteen Tech students with a combined weight of 2,200 pounds won the phone booth stuffing competition staged in March 1977 as part of a campus celebration of George P. Burdell’s birthday. The birthday party, which was sponsored by the Co-op Club, also featured paper airplane flying, cigar smoking and root beer chugging contests. Readers who recognize their rear ends or socked feet are invited to tell us their phone booth stuffing strategy by e-mailing [email protected].

March/April 2011 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 81

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InRetro.indd 83 2/15/11 12:53 PM BackCoverAd.indd 2 2/15/11 4:43 PM