101 Books Tech Alums Should Read Before They Lay Dying

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101 Books Tech Alums Should Read Before They Lay Dying cover single c1 AM Page 8:25 1 6/22/10 pages.qxp:Layout Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine• July/August 2010 cover single pages.qxp:Layout 1 6/17/10 11:18 AM Page c2 Ads pages.qxp:Layout 1 6/17/10 3:21 PM Page 3 Contents.qxp:Layout 1 6/16/10 1:00 PM Page 4 Contents.qxp:Layout 1 6/22/10 8:28 AM Page 5

Features

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42 48 62 Ross MasonBroken was a competitive ath- Paul Verhaeghen,101 Books on the cover, and Manned151 flights NASA to Mars Jackets are on the lete and a world-traveling adventurer, Billiee Pendleton-Parker, above, were horizon. Georgia Tech co-op students until a freak cycling accident put him among the alumni, faculty, staff and and alumni, including 151 highlighted in a wheelchair. Today, he is compet- students recommending books all inside this issue, are helping make ing to make Georgia the center of a Institute grads should read before space missions possible through revolution in regenerative medicine. they lay dying. Photos by Kelvin Kuo. roles on the ground and in orbit.

July/August 2010 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 5 Contents.qxp:Layout 1 6/16/10 1:02 PM Page 6 Contents.qxp:Layout 1 6/17/10 4:16 PM Page 7

Departments

12 Letters 16 Alumni House 20 Jackets Required 16 22 Tech Topics 28 Tech Notes 30 Within Walking Distance 32 Office Space 34 Ten Questions 36 What’s in a Name? 38 Student Life

78 Burdell & Friends 81 Ramblin’Roll 85 In Memoriam 92 Yellow Jackets 102 Calendar 104 In Retrospect

22 30 78

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Georgia Tech What Alumni Bring to the Table Alumni Magazine Volume 86, Number 6 s we wind down another fiscal year, I want to say thanks to all of you for your terrific support of Georgia Tech. This institution started Publisher: Joseph P. Irwin, IM 80 out 125 years ago because of the great foresight of leaders like Editor: Kimberly Link-Wills Nathaniel Harris, Henry W. Grady and Isaac Hopkins. What Georgia Tech Assistant Editor: Van Jensen has become would astonish even these most thoughtful and remarkable Assistant Editor: Leslie Overman A people. Design: Ryan Giusti Henry Grady, at the Georgia Tech opening ceremony, said as he pointed Student Editorial Assistant: Torian Parker at the Tech Tower and its sister, the shop building, “There is a light that will cast its beams over all the South. So lighted we can move into the industrial Executive Committee future.” He knew that Georgia Tech would indeed move the South into the Alfredo Trujillo, AE 81, Chair future, but he could never have foreseen what Georgia Tech would become. Joseph W. Evans, IM 71, Past Chair As Tech educates the leaders of this technologically ubiquitous world, that C. Dean Alford, EE 76, Chair-elect/Finance Walt Ehmer, IE 89, Vice Chair/Roll Call light shines globally today. Laurie Bagley, IM 84, Member At Large It doesn’t happen without you. Tech is successful in so many ways Benton J. Mathis Jr., IM 81, Member At Large because we have alumni who care about the history and care about the James E. Trimble Jr., Mgt 91, Member At Large future. Joe Evans, the chair of the Alumni Association for the 2010 fiscal year, Joseph P. Irwin, IM 80, President is fond of saying, “While I didn’t attend a top 10 public university, I Board of Trustees graduated from one.” And that’s a point well made. Tech’s progress in the past 30 years is astonishing. When you build a strong foundation, you can Thomas G. Arlotto, ME 82 Ashley Gigandet Joseph, IntA 94 do amazing things. Jennifer M. Ball, Arch 94, M CP 01 Kelli H. Keb, IM 78 Alumni can bring a lot to the table for a university. Coe A. Bloomberg, ME 66 Jesus Leon, Cls 74 Advocacy is certainly one. Your advocacy of Georgia Tech has opened Marc A. Corsini, IM 80 John A. Lewis Jr., IM 79 thousands of opportunities for the Institute in commerce, research, military Robert A. Madayag III, ChE 02 Tracey M. Countryman, IM 98 and other fields. Alumni citizens help our government leaders understand Steven R. Cover, Errika Mallett, ISyE 96 Arch 78, M Arch 81, M CP 81 the importance and the value of higher education. The challenges of John McKenney, IE 90 C. Richard Crutchfield, IM 69 declining state financial support make advocacy a particularly important Wanda B. Murray, HS 82 Marian H. Epps, IM 83 Eric L. Pinckney Sr., initiative for us today. J. Gregory Foster, ME 95 ME 86, M CP 93 Governance is another way that alumni help shape the institution Angela D. Fox, EE 91 Troy W. Rice, IE 01 through its various organizations and advisory boards. Certainly the Paul S. Goggin, Phys 91 Heather S. Rocker, ISyE 98 Institute is governed by the Board of Regents, but alumni can help Tech “do Richard A. Guthman Jr., IE 56 Victoria L. Selfridge, IE 96 the right things” under that aegis. S. Wesley Haun, Mgt 72 Rush S. Smith Jr., Phys 72 Recruiting the best and brightest students is an enormous help to Tech. Jeffrey S. Hurley, Robert N. Stargel Jr., EE 83 Applications to Georgia Tech have gone up 37 percent in the past two years. MS Chem 90, PhD Chem 92 Jeb M. Stewart, Cls 91 That speaks to a lot of things — not the least of which are your efforts to tell Joseph C. Irastorza, Karen C. Thurman, IM 82 EE 60, MS EE 68, PhD ISyE 73 the story to potential students. Philip L. Williams, Text 70 Troy N. Ivey, CmpE 90 Student mentoring is a rising tide, and we will call on Janet C. Wilson, ICS 81 Cayman James you to help broaden our students’ educational CE 99, MS EnvE 01 Ronald L. Yancey, EE 65 experiences more and more in the future. Imagine “if I Advertising only knew then what I know now!” Holly Green (404) 894-0765; [email protected] Alumni also help Tech by hiring other alumni or

Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine making connections for other alumni job seekers. The (ISSN: 1061-9747) is published bimonthly for contributors to the annual Roll Call Georgia Tech alumni network works because of you and of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313. your passion to help our fellow alumni. The Georgia Tech Alumni Association allocates $10 from a contribution toward a Finally, and you knew this was coming, your year’s subscription to its magazine. Periodical postage paid in Atlanta and additional mailing offices. © 2010 Georgia Tech Alumni Association generous donations help make Georgia Tech a stellar institution. The generosity of Tech’s Postmaster: Send address changes to Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, 190 alumni is legendary among public North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313. E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] institutions. Our aim is to make it Telephone: Georgia Tech Alumni Association (404) 894-2391 legendary among all global universities. Change address or unsubscribe at [email protected] Thank you for caring about Georgia Tech. Have a great summer!

Joseph P. Irwin, President of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association Ads pages.qxp:Layout 1 6/17/10 3:23 PM Page 10 Ads pages.qxp:Layout 1 6/17/10 3:24 PM Page 11 letters.qxp:Layout 1 6/17/10 4:28 PM Page 12

Letters

Friendships Built at Burge

I really enjoyed your article about the Burge Apartments. It brought back a lot of memories, especially about professor J.H. Henika. I entered Georgia Tech after World War II in the industrial option of mechanical engineering and had Uncle Heinie’s wood shop just before he retired. His mind was still razor sharp, but his voice had become a little weak. He installed a PAsystem in his lecture class in the ME building. That was before the days of lavalier mics, but he rigged up a mi- crophone around his neck. One nice spring day with the sun shining through the windows to our backs, a student named Eckel sitting right next to me fell asleep. Uncle Heinie blew into his mic. It was like a shot that woke him up. Uncle Heinie

said, “Sit up and lie to me, young man. I Van Jensen don’t care if you are listening or not, but you make me think you are. Lie to me!” have no water.” They didn’t know then that to my service training to sign up for anything That taught me a good lesson. From then you could drink Atlanta water right out of that sounded good. on I “lied” to all my teachers, and, of course, the tap. That experience helped cement our I entered the freshman class in Septem- I ended up paying attention. I am sure that lasting friendship. ber 1946. I had gotten married on Sunday in lesson helped me graduate in September Liang and Ying later had his father, with Brunswick, Ga., found my wife a job on 1948. whom they had left their young son, put him Monday and entered Tech on Tuesday. Time I stayed and worked on the campus and on an airplane in Shanghai. Liang met him in was of the essence in those days since we would go to Uncle Heinie’s apartment in San Francisco. Yifan had flown all the way by were starting so late. Burge to visit him once in a while. I would himself. He is 10 years old today and quite It was fortunate that we found a bed- find him with several Bibles open. He told an accomplished piano player, having room out beyond Fort Mac in the home of a me, “When I was teaching, wood work was started studying music at the First Presbyte- friendly old maid and her 88-year-old father. my vocation and studying the Bible was my rian Church of Atlanta, where they are now We shared the bath and had a shelf in the re- avocation. Now I have switched, and the members. We are still enjoying a friendship frigerator. I had 7 o’clock classes six days a Bible is my vocation and woodworking my that got started in Burge. week, and I had to catch the 5:30 a.m. track- avocation.” That was another good lesson Robert E. Eskew, IE 48, MS IE 55 less trolley from East Point to get to school that has had a great influence on my life. Austell, Ga. on time. Another memory of Burge involved a Apartment 57 In early October 1947, we were the sec- Chinese student that my wife, Iris, and I met ond couple to move into Burge, apartment through the Atlanta Ministry with Interna- The article Burge Apartments Tenants’ 57. It was so good to fall out at 7:50 to make tional Students. Jianghong Liang, MS Poly Tales was especially entertaining for an old an 8 a.m. class. Burge was wonderful — so 04, MBA 06, later brought his wife, Ying Liu, alumnus. In early January 1946, after serving nice, clean and new. It was a castle. We had PhD Biol 10, over, and they moved into in the Normandy, northern France, Bulge, our own bath, our own kitchen and equip- apartment 45 in Burge. Rhineland and central Europe campaigns, I ment and, above all, our privacy. They invited Iris and me for dinner in went to Atlanta to follow up on a 1943 letter I I had not heard that Burge had been scut- their very small place and had a makeshift sent Tech asking to be considered for enroll- tled, and, now that I look back, that was 63 dining table set for us. Liang asked what we ment. years ago. We stayed there until I got my would like to drink, and we told him “just While on campus, I decided to sign up master’s degree in IE. water.” He went into the kitchen and came for married student housing. I was not a stu- Charlie Fiveash, IE 49, MS IE 50 back with the statement, “I’m sorry but we dent, nor was I married. This was a reaction Aiken, S.C.

Send letters to: Editor,Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313, or [email protected]. Comment at gtalumnimag.com. Send address changes to: Biographical Records, Alumni Association, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313, or e-mail [email protected].

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English Profs Had My Name

The Bikini Girl Cover Was Mine letter in the May/June ALUMNI MAGA- ZINE brought back memories. I drew cartoons for the Technique (pro bono) for a few years when I should have been studying. I have attached one of my many favorites. The “I’d cut English with you, Wadsworth, but I need the sleep” cartoon was tacked on every English professor’s door the next day — with my name on it. I included some of the cartoons in my book, I Have Slipped the Surly Bonds of Earth and Danced the Skies, a collection of personal aviation and architectural anecdotes. Jim Warner, Arch 50 Atlanta Statute of Limitations?

I remember Bob Lee, Arch 54, as a tall, handsome, gifted artist/architectural student. I feel badly Georgia Tech did not pay Bob for his bikini girl Yellow Jacket cover — and others — as he certainly deserved to have been paid. When asked to do a Yellow Jacket cover, I do remember asking for $30 a cover, not $35, and was paid $30 each for a number of covers. If Bob had not asked for any com- pensation or had asked for the $35, rather Give Money to Magazine than $30, I can understand how he may not In any event, if there is any money due have been paid. But Georgia Tech is a very I’m still a little skeptical of Tilmon me for my Yellow Jacket covers as Tilmon fair-minded school, and I am sure would Chamlee’s recollection that he received $30 claims, I would like to contribute it to my pay Bob $30 — plus interest — per Yellow for each of his Yellow Jacket covers. That favorite alumni magazine for putting two of us more senior alumni back in touch Jacket cover he delivered. would have been a whole lot of money in after all these years. Tilmon Chamlee, Arch 57 1954, and as the art editor, you’d think I Bob Lee, Arch 54 Milledgeville, Ga. would have known! Pound, N.Y.

Gissendaner? Grynkewich? those who knew us, began to look for it, par- monies, and I’m smiling now as I write this I just read in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE ticularly at the start of each quarter. some 45 years later. (May/June 2010) about the passing of Jack Well, finally graduation day came, and of Jack and I were commissioned in the Air Gissendaner. I wonder if I might share a re- course Jack sat to my left as we waited for Force that day, and our careers took different membrance from which his survivors may our names to be called so we could walk paths. I went to pilot training, and, to tell you get a chuckle. across the stage. It became apparent that the the truth, I don’t recall what path Jack took. Jack and I were both CerE 65 and of dean given the chore of reading the names Ours never crossed again, and that was the course had many classes together. His name had partaken of a nip or 12 and was not the last time I ever saw him. I only hope he always preceded mine on the alphabetical most coherent even with the easy names. smiled thinking about that graduation every rolls, and I can still see many a professor Sure enough, he got to us and got part now and then, as I do today. looking up over his glasses and around at the way through Gissendaner, then thoroughly Nicholas E. Grynkewich Jr. class with that “you gotta be kidding me” slaughtered Grynkewich. This was the sub- CerE 65, MS CerE 72 stare when he got to our names. We, and ject of quite a bit of humor after the cere- St. Simons Island, Ga.

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Best Issue Ever Tech students than any corporation in I wanted to take a moment to say how America. much I enjoyed this last GEORGIA TECH I wonder who holds the record today for ALUMNI MAGAZINE. I particularly enjoyed the hiring more Tech graduates than anyone else. article about Burdell and the campus cats — I’m sure in the ’50s it had to be Georgia and I’m not even a cat person. I also liked the Power, possibly followed by Coca-Cola or piece on the Burge Apartments. Lockheed, but it might make a nice question I know there’s a place for articles about for an end-of-magazine quiz. research and technological innovations. But By the way, the word quiz still makes me it’s refreshing to see some more human tremble. I was a straight-A shiny apple from a interest and historical articles about our good high school, and taking tests was never campus. It was the best issue I’ve ever read. a problem for me, even standardized tests Ed Bailey like the ACT and the SAT. But when my Media quality control supervisor shiny apple was dumped into Tech’s barrel of Georgia Tech Distance Learning even shinier apples, I learned to fear the word Interesting and Insightful quiz. A quiz usually had four questions, so one could receive an F, an F, a D or an A. Thank you for the insightful and Dave Robinson, Phys 73 Smyrna, Ga. interesting article about the feral cats on Kelvin Kuo campus. This is a great way to stay in touch Meeting Boyhood Heroes with what is going on these days at Tech. During the existence of the campus cats Gus Harrington, ME 79 program, support and donations have come The night before flying to Jackson Hole, EORGIA Newburyport, Mass. from all levels of the Georgia Tech Wyo., I skimmed the May/June G Refreshing Reminder community, including the highest levels of TECH ALUMNI MAGAZINE, which contained the administration. Unfortunately, Georgia photos of several naval aviators. Navy Lt. Leslie Overman’s feature, Burdell Needs Tech has not formally adopted this program Cmdr. Herbert Hasell was pictured with two a Home, in the May/June 2010 ALUMNI as a sanctioned organization, in spite of the astronauts, Capt. Gene Cernan and Capt. Jim MAGAZINE is to be commended as a fact that it is recognized as a prototype for Lovell. Capt. Alan Poindexter, who com- refreshing reminder that the Georgia Tech other campuses and urban areas throughout manded the April space shuttle mission and community leads not only in technological the Southeast. I hope that Ms. Overman’s was pictured with his crew, was a Navy advances but also acts as a role model at the article will change that. ROTC midshipman when I was the Navy local community level. Her story painted a Please continue the great work at the ROTC junior class instructor between 1985 moving history of the care and rescue of ALUMNI MAGAZINE in bringing stories like and 1987. these unfortunate cats. I am proud to be a this to light. The photo of Capt. Cernan was an invalu- Tech alumna when I read of initiatives such Marilyn Jones Smith able recognition aid. The next morning, when as these. AE 82, MS AE 85, PhD AE 94 my wife Suzanne and I were on the new The campus cats program has made a Aerospace engineering associate professor AeroTrain at Dulles Airport, we found our- real difference in the treatment of feral and Georgia Tech selves next to two of my boyhood heroes, abandoned felines on the Tech campus. Not Thank You for Article Capt. Cernan, the last man on the moon, and only has the overall number of cats on naval aviator Neil Armstrong, the first man campus declined through the spay/neuter Thank you so much for including the on the moon. [They] were headed home after policy and adoption of kittens, the remaining campus cats article in the GEORGIA TECH testifying before Congress against the Obama feral cats are now healthy. These cats also ALUMNI MAGAZINE. It really helped me and administration’s decision to cancel the return repay Georgia Tech through the elimination other folks understand the campus feral cat to the moon program. I congratulated both of many rodents throughout the campus situation. I’m so glad there are dedicated on their testimony. without the need of poisons and protecting volunteers who help them. I am a nuclear engineer currently analyz- valuable landscaping, thus aiding in recent Lianne Griffin, IM 80 ing foreign nuclear weapons programs for efforts to create a sustainable, green campus. Atlanta the Department of Defense. Suzanne and I I recall cringing with disgust at the sight of Record-setting Mac’s Beer are moving from Burke, Va., to a 59-acre so many rats roaming the area while walking ranch in Gordonsville, Va. I am a retired to different locations on campus. In recent A co-worker in Boston whose son at- Navy lieutenant commander and former nu- years, I’ve not observed a single rat in the tends Tech sent me a bit of trivia from Face- clear submarine officer. central campus area between Skiles and the book. Mac’s Beer and Wine on Peachtree Robert Roesler, APhys 80, MS NE 87 Student Center. Progress indeed! Place claims to have hired more Georgia Burke, Va.

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Alumni House

Rites of Spring

Photographer Kelvin Kuo, a newly minted Tech graduate, chronicled the flood of annual springtime campus and Alumni Association activities in May, including the President’s Dinner, which saluted Leadership Circle giving to the 63rd Roll Call at the Georgia Aquarium; the Ramblin’ On party for graduating students; and commencement, which Kuo captured from the time he and his classmates lined up in alphabetical order until they celebrated the balloon drop.

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Local Georgia Tech Club Members Recognized wards were presented this spring to single out outstanding contributions Aof Georgia Tech Club members in Atlanta, Birmingham, Ala., and Tampa, Fla. “The local achievement awards are modeled after Leadership Georgia Tech awards, given each year by the Alumni Association to outstanding alumni in the geographical clubs,” said Jane Stoner, senior manager of Alumni Clubs. Stoner said geographical clubs are being encouraged to recognize alumni within their ranks who have made significant contributions to their local Georgia Tech community, to their professions and to the business world. The Atlanta Intown Georgia Tech Club honored two of its members at its third annual Night at the Symphony, a cocktail Fred Carlson, left to right, Ashley Miller, Todd Pitts and Chip Hayward are Suncoast/Tampa Georgia party and outing to the Atlanta Symphony Tech Club leaders. The Birmingham Club saluted, below left, Ashley Harrison and Ted Brasfield, while Orchestra’s performance of Verdi’s the Atlanta Intown Georgia Tech Club recognized, below right, Iana Tassada and Jimmy Mitchell. Requiem. Jimmy Mitchell, CE 05, an estimator with Skanska USA, was named the club’s Ashley Harrison, outstanding alumnus. Mitchell organized BC 07, is the Birming- the club’s first corn hole tournament, ham club’s Outstand- staged before a home football game last ing Young Alumna of fall as a scholarship fundraiser. The the Year. She has been Atlanta Intown Club has since partnered involved with the club with the Young Alumni Council to expand since graduation and the tournament into an annual scholarship her subsequent move fundraiser. to Birmingham. The club honored Iana Tassada, CE 05, Harrison, a consultant as its outstanding young alumna. A project for KLMK Group LLC, manager with RJ Griffin, Tassada led the has served as the club’s 2009-10 scholarship program. club’s young alumni “Iana provided a smooth experience chair and vice presi- for the students and the scholarship com- dent. She is the presi- mittee members and also provided excel- dent-elect for 2010-11. lent collaboration with the Alumni The Suncoast/Tampa Georgia Tech Todd Pitts, EE 98, was presented the Association,” said club president Suzanne Club presented five awards at its spring club’s President Award for his five years of Fowler, Mgt 03. dinner. service and dedication in revamping and Ted Brasfield, CE 66, is the Fred Carlson, CE 01, MBA 04, received maintaining the organization’s Web site. Birmingham Georgia Tech Club’s 2010 the Young Alumnus of the Year Award for He also has served as the Suncoast/Tampa Outstanding Alumnus of the Year. 2010 for his efforts in developing the club’s club’s secretary. Club secretary for the last three years, Facebook page, expanding young alumni Chip Hayward, Arch 79, M Arch 81, he is the owner of Brasfield Sales Inc. participation and coordinating the first received a certificate of merit for his “Georgia Tech helped me gain a solid Coaches Caravan webcast. Carlson will fundraising efforts for the scholarship educational basis while training me to serve as the 2010-11 vice president. fund and his service as club president over engage with and solve problems of a tech- Norma Wright, IM 79, was named the past two years. He will serve as the nical nature,” Brasfield said. “It also pro- Alumna of the Year for her five years of golf tournament chair and a member of vided a basis for lifelong friendships with service and dedication as the club’s schol- the advisory committee. Ashley Miller, EE local alumni. I feel that giving back to arship chair and student recruitment offi- 83, will serve as the Suncoast/Tampa Georgia Tech, both in service and finan- cer. She continues to serve on the club club’s president. cially, is very important.” advisory committee. Find a club at gtalumni.org/clubs.

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Jackets Required: Gatherings of Tech Grads and Friends

1. Jacksonville 2. Alumni House

3. Tampa 4. Dalton

6. asdf 6. Huntsville

5. San Juan 7. Turner Field

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8. Rouen 9. Alumni House

Kelvin Kuo

10. Tech Square

Caroline Player Gibbs Frazeur 1. The Jacksonville Georgia Tech Club gathered accepted students from that region 11. Shanghai of Florida for a reception. 2. Gene McCord, IM 68, and John Staton, IM 60, saluted veterans and active military personnel during the Military Affinity Group’s Armed Forces Appreciation Day. 3. The Suncoast/Tampa Georgia Tech Club hosted the first webcast of a Coaches Caravan stop. 4. The Dalton/Northwest Georgia Club presented scholarships to Parker Plunkett, Cassie Fields and Kathryn Green. 5. Hector Llenza, BS 53, Arch 54, participated in the Puerto Rico Georgia Tech Club’s scholarship golf tournament. 6. The North Alabama/Huntsville Georgia Tech Club presented scholarships to incoming freshmen Taylor Riggs and Olivia King. (Find a local Georgia Tech Club at gtalumni.org/clubs.) 7. The Spring Classic baseball matchup between Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia brought Ken, IE 56, and Melinda Waid to Turner Field in Atlanta. 8. Bob, IE 64, MS IM 70, and Pat Branford caught up on Tech news in Rouen during an Alumni Travel tour, Paris to Normandy. (Sign up for a trip at gtalumni.org/pages/travel.) 9. Sherman Glass Jr., ChE 71, MS ChE 72, president of ExxonMobil Refining & Supply, was in the House to present a Roll Call matching gift check from the company in the amount of $324,668.25. 10. Gary Jones, IM 71, retired managing director of Credit Suisse First Boston and now a professor of the practice at Tech, invited Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke, IM 71, to speak to his class in the College of Management during the spring semester. 11. Huixi Zhao, MS ECE 10, and Gary May, EE 85, chair of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, chatted in Shanghai, where the Alumni Association hosted a reception for President G. P. “Bud” and Val Peterson.

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Tech Topics

Bringing Back Main Street Architecture professor chairs new urbanism congress By Leslie Overman we used to? Why have our zoning codes and financial regulations hen the Tabernacle in only allowed us to build discon- downtown Atlanta nected subdivisions and malls that opened its doors in May reinforce auto dependency? for an event headlined by David “Many of our regulations are WByrne, the music venue’s based on 1920s ideas about the merchandise stand was stocked not health benefits of separating hous- with Talking Heads T-shirts and ing from factories and pedestrians albums but with signed copies of from cars,” Dunham-Jones said. Byrne’s book Bicycle Diaries, a “However, these good intentions collection of observations and have led us to a norm today where thoughts from his travels through we drive twice as much per capita cities of the world astride a folding as we did just 20 years ago. Eighty- bicycle. five percent of kids no longer walk

In the opening chapter of the Leslie Overman to school, and obesity rates have 2009 book, Byrne talks about the David Byrne of Talking Heads fame talks about traveling by bicycle. doubled over the same time peri- problem he found cycling across od. Instead of the healthy lifestyle America. “Most U.S. cities are not that is typically associated with very bike-friendly,” he wrote. Control and Prevention and brought more suburbia’s green lawns, public “They’re not very pedestrian-friendly either. than 1,400 people to the Atlanta Hilton May health researchers are finding correlations They’re car-friendly — or at least they try 19-22 to discuss how to make urban and between sedentary lifestyles and sprawl. very hard to be. In most of these cities one suburban communities healthier. Session “In addition, all of that driving degrades could say that the machines have won. topics included how-tos on building safer air and water quality. In combination with Lives, city planning, budgets and time are streets; creating mixed-use developments; the higher amounts of energy required per all focused around the automobile. It’s long- planning for successful transit-oriented person in detached, low-rise buildings, sub- term unsustainable and short-term lousy liv- development; and replacing freeways with urban dwellers end up having carbon foot- ing. How did it get this way?” boulevards. prints that are on average three times that of The bicycle has been Byrne’s primary Several Georgia Tech professors spoke at those living a more urban lifestyle.” mode of transportation since the ’80s. And, if the congress, including CNU 18 chair Ellen She said that “CNU isn’t trying to force the half-empty parking lot of the Tabernacle Dunham-Jones, a professor in the College of everyone to give up their suburban homes, that May night was any indication, it also is Architecture. but it is trying to at least make it legal for the go-to form of transportation for many of Dunham-Jones said that the Congress developers to build walkable, mixed-use the architects, city planners and engineers for New Urbanism has become a highly neighborhoods to meet the growing who packed the concert hall to watch the effective interdisciplinary think tank, with demand.” musician present a slide show of photo- members advancing urban design solutions Dunham-Jones said one of the highlights graphs from his travels. Byrne’s presentation that address concerns about livability, of the congress for her was an announce- was part of the opening-night lineup of the affordability and mobility, as well as envi- ment from Shaun Donovan, secretary of the 18th annual Congress for New Urbanism. ronmental and public health issues. She said U.S. Department of Housing and Urban This year’s congress, with the theme it started by a growing number of people Development, that HUD would be using the “RX for Healthy Places,” was organized asking, “Why don’t we build real towns that location efficiency and LEED-ND [neighbor- with assistance from the Centers for Disease are as healthy, attractive and convenient as hood development] criteria jointly devel-

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Kelvin Kuo Architecture professor Ellen Dunham-Jones says the new urbanism movement attracts people who believe “sprawl is eating up all the countryside.”

oped with CNU when evaluating future fed- lection of case studies of dead shopping In a PowerPoint presentation before a eral funding requests. malls, business parks, commercial strips and crowded room of congress participants, Throughout the congress, new urbanists other developments that have been reinhab- Dunham-Jones showed photographs and brought up the idea of bringing back neigh- ited, “regreened” or redeveloped into more blueprints of successful suburban retrofits borhoods and the “main street” by creating sustainable places. Within months of the across the country: a St. Louis mall convert- sustainable communities that have a variety book’s publication, it was referenced in a ed to an arts complex; a Texas grocery store of housing, business and retail. They push Time magazine article titled “10 Ideas turned into a library; and a former Kmart for city plans that accommodate automo- Changing the World Right Now.” Recycling that now houses the SPAM Museum. One biles but are located near transit and are the suburbs came in at No. 2. dead mall redevelopment in Lakewood, pedestrian- and bike-friendly, with connect- Dunham-Jones said there is already a Colo., has been so successful that eight out ed street grids that include bike lanes and demand for a more urban way of life in the of 13 regional malls in the Denver area have sidewalks lined with shops and cafes. suburbs. Suburbs no longer are as family- been retrofitted or announced plans for “We call those complete streets. They’re focused as they used to be. Already two- retrofitting, she said. not just for cars, they’re also for bikes and thirds of suburban households do not have And if there’s not enough traffic to war- for people. Tech Square is a good example,” children in them, she said, and most new rant a new suburban development, some- Dunham-Jones said. household growth will be in empty nesters times regreening a space makes more sense, For the past few years, Dunham-Jones and young professionals, both of whom she said, pulling up slides of a Cleveland has been researching successful new urban- crave a more urban lifestyle. So she suggests mall that is using its atrium as a greenhouse ist redevelopments of underperforming sub- taking a bit of the city to the suburbs. and a Columbus, Ohio, mall that was demol- urban properties. “The recession has made it “Dead malls are perfect sites for giving ished to make way for a park. even more glaring to us that many suburban the suburbs a downtown that they never “It’s always sad to see a business die, properties are not aging well and will not had before, providing an opportunity for but every time I see another dead strip mall, hold value,” she said. those folks who live in the suburbs who I think, ‘Great! Another opportunity to now In 2009, Dunham-Jones and June Will- want to live a more urban lifestyle that regreen it or redevelop it in a much more iamson published Retrofitting Suburbia, a col- choice,” she said. sustainable way.’”

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School of Psychology Hits Half-century Mark

By Kimberly Link-Wills Roberts said. “It was probably like no other guy who taught it hadn’t taught it in God class. They had already been trained in the knows how long. … The idea was to gradu- n a video commemorating the School of sciences and engineering. Now they were ate employable people. Psychology’s 50th anniversary, former bringing that expertise into psychology. “Most of us did go to graduate school or chair Anderson Smith cracked that the They just had a slightly different mind-set medical school,” said Marr, who earned program had been treated with “benign than classes that came later and started in master’s and doctoral degrees at the Irespect” for half a century. psychology.” University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Associate professor Jim before returning to Tech to Roberts was charged with chair- teach. ing the anniversary committee. Marr also conducted He said it was no easy task to research in behavioral phar- gather information on the macology, “really neat stuff,” school, which has been housed in his lab, housed in the base- in about half a dozen buildings, ment of the D.M. Smith from what was called the Little Building, where he toiled hap- House to the Coon Building, its pily until the 1980s. home since 2004. “The building was deteri- “It’s amazing because, after orating, particularly the base- 50 years, you still have people ment,” Marr said. “They tried out there saying, ‘I didn’t know to put me in a space down by Tech had a psychology school,’” the reactor that was just unus- Roberts said. able, then after that in Skiles.” Earlier this year, students, Another trying period alumni, current and former fac- came when Pat Crecine ulty and administrators were Psychology classes first were conducted in what was called the Little House. assumed Tech’s presidency brought together for tours, lab and tried to group the School demonstrations and a “fireside of Psychology with liberal chat” that featured a glowing fireplace pro- Jack Marr, Psy 61, an emeritus professor, arts. Marr and his colleagues rallied and jected onto a wall in the Coon building. was one of those 10 recruited students. won the school’s place within the College of About 150 of them attended a celebratory “You couldn’t transfer willy-nilly. They Sciences. dinner the following night. chose you. They vetted you, in a sense. “If we had not, it would have been dis- From 10 undergraduate students and There were tests, extensive interviews. They astrous,” said Marr, who asserted that the four faculty, the School of Psychology has ended up with 10 guys,” Marr told the adoption of the semester system was the grown to 23 faculty, 130 undergraduates and Living History program. worst thing to happen during his tenure. “I 80 graduate students. The first psychology “The courses were like graduate cours- fought, I fought, I fought. Many people students were undergraduates recruited in es. It was fascinating for various reasons,” did.” 1959, with the first degrees awarded in 1961. Marr said. “The curriculum was utterly Marr also said it was “crazy” that “They went searching for people at Tech unique. There was no curriculum like it any- women had had to petition to be awarded who they thought might be interested in where. Of course, you had to take physics degrees at Tech and remembered that female becoming psychology majors, and they and chemistry and … math and so on, but students’ early days were a more turbulent found 10 really good ones, some from then you had to take a year of biology, time than the era of racial integration. physics and some from engineering,” including comparative anatomy. Even the One of those early women was Margaret

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The 1965 Blueprint showed a visual perception experiment being conducted by George Cauthen with the help of his faculty adviser, professor Dick Moll.

Stephens Martin, the first female student Still, it was difficult to keep up her “Our legacy programs, if you will, have awarded bachelor’s and master’s degrees in school spirit in the School of Architecture, been in engineering psychology and indus- psychology at Georgia Tech, in 1967 and where some of the faculty were “very hos- trial organization psychology,” Roberts 1969. tile” toward the female students, Martin said. “In the ’80s, there was an expanded Her father, the late Perry Stephens, Cls said. “This is not where my talents were … focus on aging. We have a cognitive aging 31, paid attention when the Board of Regents but for girls who really wanted to be there, it area, and we are leaders in that field. allowed women to enroll at Tech in 1952. was sad.” “More recently, the school has made “We knew it was possible to do it. I Martin dropped out, married and fol- strides in cognitive neuroscience, specifically think he was reading Tech Topics or some- lowed her husband to California. Three neuro-imaging. We have a new fMRI facility, thing,” Martin told Living History. years later they returned to Atlanta. the Center for Advanced Brain Imaging, on Martin enrolled in Tech in 1959. Her “I wanted that degree bad enough to Marietta Street,” he said. “It’s already attract- father convinced her to study architecture. come back,” said Martin, who received help ed several forms of grant support from fed- She was one of 10 women in a freshman in petitioning to become a psychology major eral agencies.” class of 2,000. from school chair Edward Loveland. “I just Roberts came to Tech in 2005 to work in “I found out that everyone wasn’t ecstat- had to be in class and get A’s.” a new area of focus, quantitative psychology. ically happy to have me there, both profes- Marr encouraged her to get her doctor- “I study how to model preferences and sors and students,” she said. “We tried to ate at Emory. “It was a piece of cake after choice in the context of attitude measure- have a positive attitude.” Georgia Tech,” said Martin, who went on to ment,” he said. She and a friend put their positive atti- a long college teaching career in South He also is busy compiling all of the pho- tudes to work as Tech’s first two full-time Carolina. tos, interviews and documents he’s found female cheerleaders. (Anne Brown was the In his research for the anniversary cele- pertaining to the School of Psychology’s his- first, but reportedly did not cheer for an bration, committee chair Roberts learned that tory. By its centennial, perhaps everyone will entire season.) the School of Psychology has made its mark. know of the school’s contributions.

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Van Jensen ATDC Celebrates 30Years

tephen Fleming took the stage in front Graduates include Suniva, one of the top entrepreneurs. It was kick-started with of a massive number 30 made of makers of solar panels, and members include $185,000 allotted by the General Assembly balloons and reflected on the origin of SimCraft, a racing simulator that was fea- and then-Gov. George Busbee. the Advanced Technology Development tured in Iron Man 2. The center has grown to have three SCenter three decades ago. Georgia Tech President G. P.“Bud” offices around the state. The latest, “I look around the room, and some of Peterson introduced the 30th anniversary cel- announced at the celebration, is a partnership you weren’t even born in 1980,” said ebration, which also featured a showcase of with the University of Georgia’s Gwinnett Fleming, Phys 83, who was a sophomore at 44 current ATDC members and the gradua- County location. the time. “Pac-Man was released and started tion of four companies. Fleming said ATDC now is focusing on to take quarters out of our pockets. The best Peterson explained how Tech’s heritage the future, which includes further expansion. Star Wars was released.” led to the creation of ATDC. Physically, he said the center will expand its Since then, the center, which incubates “The seed that sprouted to form this focus beyond metro Atlanta. businesses, has had 120 graduating business- organization was planted by a group of And ATDC will bring in more nascent es that have created more than 4,000 jobs in Georgia Tech alums who were concerned companies. After recently doubling its staff Georgia. It has generated an estimated $13 about providing job opportunities for the and services, it has grown to 321 members. billion in revenues and more than $100 mil- graduates of Georgia Tech,” Peterson said. The entrepreneurs include those just starting lion in profits. Fleming, ATDC director and “This group, which was called the Committee up and those needing funding to launch. vice provost of Tech’s Enterprise Innovation of Twenty, proposed the creation of an incu- The latest incubator graduates — Institute, thanked the state, ATDC employees bator to help support the growth and devel- Commerce V3, Endgame Systems, Izenda and volunteers for their support over the opment of new technology companies. Reports and Purewire — were honored at the years. “At the time, the late 1970s, this was real- ceremony. ATDC has received several awards and ly a revolutionary idea — that you would Paul Judge, MS CS 01, PhD CS 02, the recognitions over the years, the latest being have an incubator that would support new founder of Purewire, spoke about what it from Forbes magazine, which named it companies and the development, growth and takes, even with ATDC’s assistance, to launch among “10 technology incubators that are success of those new companies.” a business. changing the world.” ATDC offered cheap office space, techni- “Most importantly, just don’t sleep,” “We must be doing something right,” cal resources and networking connections on Judge said. Fleming said. the Tech campus to fledgling companies and — Van Jensen

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Tech Notes

Economic Chief Signs On Georgia Department of Economic Development commissioner Ken Stewart becomes Tech’s senior adviser for industry strategy in July. “Ken brings an outstanding record of experience in new business development and the expansion of existing ones,” President G. P. “Bud” Peterson said. “His insight and experience will be vital as Georgia Tech pursues the vision of becoming an even more dynamic economic driver for Georgia, our nation and the world.” During Stewart’s time at the Depart- ment of Economic Development, the agency assisted companies that created almost 62,000 jobs and $11.4 billion in investment. “Georgia Tech is known worldwide by companies as a go-to place for leading-edge Melanie King research and technical expertise. Tech is truly an ace in our state’s economic Showing Great Promise development deck,” Stewart said, “and it’s For a time, Duane Carver, his mother and his sister lived in a car. Now Carver is a Georgia Tech an honor to have the opportunity to help graduate. He was able to enroll at the Institute in 2007 in the inaugural class of Georgia Tech merge current and future company needs Promise scholars. The Tech Promise offers a debt-free education to students with annual family with the vast capabilities of Georgia Tech.” incomes of $30,000 or less. Carver graduated in May, after only three years at Tech. He has Gov. Sonny Perdue announced other landed a job with Fidelity Bank in North Carolina and plans to go to law school and become a technology patent attorney. Carver was congratulated on his success by Robert Hall, above left, moves in state government in June. Jim IM 64, and Joe Evans, IM 71, at the Alumni Association’s board of trustees meeting in May. Lientz, IM 65, the state’s chief operating officer since 2000, is returning to the private sector. He is being replaced by Trey Childress, IntA 00, ISyE 00, MS PubPol 02. the research problems we pursue and Strategic Plan Readied through the way we view the many The Institute’s 25-year strategic plan is challenges before us. In so doing, truly great Capital Projects Funded being fine-tuned this summer in anticipation institutions like Georgia Tech define and The state of Georgia’s $17.9 billion of a September unveiling. direct the way our world changes rather budget approved for the 2011 fiscal year The plan, with five overarching goals, is than just waiting for it to happen.” includes allocations recommended for Tech’s designed to take Tech from its 125th Peterson said Tech’s role is to solve capital projects and the University System of anniversary this fall to its 150th in 2035. The problems and “shape our world. To Georgia’s strategic funding priorities. Tech community was invited to provide accomplish this, we must not only design The budget provides $7.3 million in input on a draft of the plan this spring. the methods and approaches people will use bond funding for both of Georgia Tech’s “We have worked very hard to ensure to solve problems but renew the ways in requested capital projects. The majority of that the process was both comprehensive which we interact with and educate our that funding, $7 million, will go toward and inclusive so that together we could students.” completing and equipping the Clough create a plan and shared vision of what Undergraduate Learning Commons. The Georgia Tech might look like in the future,” remaining funding, $300,000, will go toward said President G. P. “Bud” Peterson. Languages Degree Offered the design and planning of the eco- In a letter introducing the plan, available The School of Modern Languages will commons water relocation project. at gatech.edu, Peterson wrote, “Great begin offering a bachelor’s degree in applied Also approved were $113 million for universities shape the world rather than languages and intercultural studies in the enrollment growth and $60 million for major being shaped by it. We do this by critically fall semester. The Board of Regents repairs and rehabilitation to be divided examining how we prepare our students for approved the degree program this spring. among University System institutions. an unknown future, by carefully selecting “As bilateral and multilateral relations

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Inhibiting Blood Clots Fibrin is an essential part of the human body that creates a fibrous network to clot blood at the site of an injury. But when it forms clots incorrectly, fibrin can cause heart attacks, strokes and tissue damage. A new study from Thomas Barker, an assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, explores methods to prevent fibrin from causing damage. The method would employ synthetic fibrin to prevent clots from growing out of control. The synthetic fibrin could become key in developing new anticoagulants, Barker said. “An additional goal for this

technology is to develop a viable delivery Gary Meek strategy for synthetically engineered fibrin Thomas Barker, an assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical glue so that we can guide and control the Engineering, purifies proteins on an automated fast flow liquid chromatography device. body’s response to an injury,” Barker said.

expand across countries, it is a virtual international research hub focused on certainty that tomorrow’s top graduates will designing, analyzing and improving the Cathepsin K Detected be called upon to work in foreign countries food chain for cold and perishable products. The enzyme cathepsin K has been or significantly interact with their The center was established by Georgia connected to osteoporosis, arthritis, counterparts in other countries. Therefore, Tech’s Supply Chain & Logistics Institute atherosclerosis and cancer metastasis, but it competency in a foreign language and and the Memphis, Tenn.-based Sterling has eluded detection in laboratory culture is becoming essential,” said Phil Solutions LLC. experiments. Until now. McKnight, chair of the School of Modern The goal is to assure that growers, A team led by Manu Platt, an assistant Languages in the Ivan Allen College of processors, retailers and logistics providers professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Depart- Liberal Arts. can deliver quality perishables with greater ment of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech’s program will emphasize a efficiency. Consumer interest in food safety Tech and Emory, developed an assay that content-based approach to acquire foreign and practices has never been stronger. reliably detects and quantifies cathepsin K language proficiency developed and Retailers and wholesalers desire the same using a technique called gelatin zymo- delivered in targeted contexts of societies assurances, along with consistent product graphy. and cultures, industry and technology, arts safety and quality management systems that Cathepsin K is required to maintain and media and intercultural communication. maximize sales while minimizing waste. The adequate calcium levels in the body, but it center will focus on product tracing, product can be highly destructive because it has the monitoring and analytics. ability to break down bone by degrading Food Chain Center Opens “There’s not much visibility back up the collagen and elastin. Long neglected as a significant area of food chain, even in the best of circum- With this assay, Platt’s team currently is supply chain analysis and exploration, the stances,” said John Bartholdi, the center’s investigating whether cathepsin K activity is efficient transport of agricultural and food director of research. “What we are really different in the cells of individuals with products now is receiving a high-profile focusing on is knowing the history of food metastatic and nonmetastatic breast and platform for research and development at and when we receive it. If we can have much prostate cancers and its role in cardio- the Institute. better estimations of shelf life, we can move vascular diseases, such as stroke; in children The Georgia Tech Integrated Food the product more efficiently through the with sickle cell anemia; and the inflam- Chain Center launched in May as an supply chain here.” mation associated with HIV.

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Within Walking Distance: Points and People of Interest Near Campus

Waffle House Late-night eatery gets a white-and-gold makeover with move to Fifth Street

echnology Square has a new dining one manager. They have people above destination sure to entice students them, but that manager is required to run a returning to their dorms after a night 24-hour-a-day store. So in three months, you on the town and alumni seeking postgame have to be ready to take over the keys and Tgrub this football season. A Tech-inspired run a small business. It’s intense, but if Waffle House opened its doors June 9. you’re ready for it, I think it’s the greatest Sandwiched between Jazzy Nails and job in the world.” Tan Spa and Great Clips on Fifth Street, the Bell began the program in March 2009 restaurant has all of the old Waffle House and by June was running his first store. favorites. Diners still may order waffles Within 10 months, he was promoted to head with or without pecans and hash browns his two current restaurants. any way they like them, but now they can He said he’s confident he will continue do so from the comfort of a white-and-gold- to move up the ranks. “The harder you striped booth modeled after the rumble seat work, the quicker you get promoted, and of the Ramblin’ Wreck. that’s why I like it,” he said. “It’s all per- There are even some familiar faces from formance based. It’s not about seniority, it’s campus. Rows of framed photographs of not about how long you’ve been there, it’s notable Tech alumni, including a dozen or not who you know. It’s how hard you more astronauts, dance instructor Arthur work.” Murray and TV personality Vern Yip, hover Early-morning diners at the Tech Square above a banquette in a Wi-Fi room on the Waffle House may see Bell hard at work at east side of the diner. Waffle House received the grill this summer. help from Marilyn Somers, director of the Kelvin Kuo “The manager and the district manager, Travis Bell, Mgt 08, opposite page, is the district Alumni Association’s Living History pro- we’re still responsible for being able to manager for the Tech Square Waffle House. gram, and the Student Center in compiling cook,” he said. “We’re the first-shift grill photos and Tech memorabilia. operator, so every day I’m in my store, I’m Although Waffle House has been manager for the Tech Square and Under- cooking.” around since 1955, this is the first restaurant ground Atlanta Waffle Houses and shuffles Bell said he was a fan of Waffle House in the chain to be opened on a college cam- his time between both. long before working for the company and pus. The Tech Square location also offers Bell learned about Waffle House’s man- frequented the eatery during his college outdoor seating. agement program through Jane Stoner, sen- days. Georgia Tech is a fitting place for the ior manager of Clubs for the Alumni “I went to the one on Pharr Road,” he restaurant chain, considering Waffle Association, in early 2009. Within a month, recalled. “If this one was here when I was in House’s numerous ties to the Institute. Bell had been interviewed by the company school, the whole football team would have Bert’s Chili is named for Bert Thornton, IM and was in training. The program is a boot been in here every night.” 68, vice chairman. Walt Ehmer, IE 89, is the camp of sorts for restaurant management, Asked what he usually orders at the chain’s president and COO. Will Mizell, starting its trainees on the floor waiting restaurant, he said, “I have a new favorite Mgt 87, is vice president. Joe Rogers Jr., IM tables, taking orders, cooking food and bus- dish that I get now that I work here. I like to 68, is the Waffle House CEO. ing tables. get the biscuits with gravy and scrambled The opening of the new store marks a “It’s tough, but the good thing is it’s eggs and cheese and sausage, and I mix it return to campus for former Yellow Jackets three months of training, no previous expe- all together.” kicker Travis Bell, Mgt 08. Bell is district rience required,” Bell said. “Every store has — Leslie Overman

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Office Space Annalisa Bracco: Water Watcher

Van Jensen

By Van Jensen Winter sports: It’s a big skating area — and skiing. The mountains are an hour away, and the ocean is an hour and a half here is an obvious leitmotif to Annalisa Bracco’s office in the away. I skied growing up. But everyone does there. Ford Environmental Science & Technology Building, beginning Twith the shelves of books and journals on oceanography and To the sea: I liked the ocean, and I learned how to sail. I started extending to the photos of sailing trips and painted wooden fish. out studying geophysics [at the University of Torino]. There Bracco, an associate professor of oceanography in the School of Earth were two options, atmospheric science and oceanography. I and Atmospheric Sciences, has led a life revolving around water. She liked the ocean more, so I chose that. has taken students on research cruises and has one planned for this fall in the Gulf of Mexico. Because of the disastrous underwater oil Sailing photo: It’s actually from spill, the new topic will be the forced mixing of water and oil. when I sailed across the Atlantic in a week and a half. There were Hometown: I’m from Torino [Italy], where they had the Winter five of us. We only had a ham Olympics. I went back for it. It was cool because it’s not a radio, the kind that’s just all of tourist’s kind of place, but there were lots of tourists there. I those crazy people talking. We watched the finals of the women’s skating. heard that Hurricane Nicole was

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coming through. It was late in the season, so that was very strange. We turned south, but we still went through the tail of it. It was a difficult 18 hours.

Sleeping through the storm: I actually did for a few hours. No one else did. I can sleep through just about anything. They were teasing me that, once the storm was over, they were all going to sleep and I could sail for a while.

Secret trip: My parents don’t know that I did it! I didn’t tell them. I put in e-mails and had them send out on delay. And I had a friend who was sending messages for me. If they’d known? It would’ve been problematic. Painted fish: I bought those on a research cruise in Brazil. We Illustrated map: were studying arctic bottom water. It’s the densest water on It’s from Woods the planet and some of the coldest. It moves along on the Hole on Cape Cod bottom, 4,000 meters down. We were looking for any signa- [where Bracco ture of warming, but there was none. But this water travels worked at the for decades. So the water we measured might’ve been from Woods Hole the 1980s or 1970s. Oceanographic Institution]. It was Eating Italian in Atlanta: Atlanta has great food. That’s one of drawn before my the reasons I came here. But I cook a lot, and it’s mainly time, I think from Italian. If I go out, I want a change. I am taking students to 1989. It’s a drawing Fritti though. [The pizzeria is owned by Riccardo Ullio, CE of the town, and 90, MS EnvE 93.] They have good pizza. you can see how everything is con- Monkey photo: That was from a colleague in Malaysia. And the nected to the ocean. [wooden pen holder] was from a student in Madagascar. The photo of all of the students is from a UNESCO project. Most Office jungle: When plants are dead, people bring them here. I of the impact of climate change is in the tropics, and we usually can bring them back. I left one [plant] to my students brought students from different countries together to exam- while I was gone. I think it’s dead. They overwatered it. [She ine that. later revived the plant.]

Climate change: We do know the ocean is warming. And because it’s so much water, the amount of warming is huge. We’re putting a lot of CO2 into the ocean, and it’s changing the environ- ment a lot. One of the things people don’t realize is that the oceans cover 70 percent of Earth. It’s extremely important we take that into account. It’s a huge player.

BP oil spill: It looks very bad for the local ecosystem, both marine and terrestrial, and for the coastline. The effects of the spill may last several years. Why that valve failed, we don’t know. It’s not impossible for devices to work that far down.

Teaching style: I get complaints about the amount of work. I don’t get complaints about grades. I tend to be nice. It’s mostly graduate students that I teach. They need to study for themselves, not for a grade.

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Ten Questions

Van Jensen Natives of France, Catherine Bass, left, and Florence Stoia manage U.S. operations for Georgia Tech Lorraine from the Institute’s Atlanta campus. Catherine Bass and Florence Stoia: Lorraine Liaisons

n the first floor of Tech Tower is the Atlanta outpost of Georgia Bass: I’m from Metz. My husband was on the faculty at Lorraine Tech Lorraine. There, Catherine Bass manages academic until he died in a car accident. I’d been teaching French. Oprograms and student affairs, and Florence Stoia manages the Stoia: I grew up in a small town near the border with Spain. But administration and faculty affairs. Both French natives, Bass and Stoia I graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in jour- recount the run-ins with gypsies and bulls that keep them on their nalism. My husband and I moved to Atlanta. I just happened to toes. see the job at Tech. It was a complete coincidence, really.

1. How did you both end up in Atlanta, telecommuting back to 2. Does the time difference make work challenging? France? Stoia: We’ve been doing this for 10 years. We know what we

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need to do. The majority of the work is they need vaccinations?” They’re not first thing in the morning, which is the going to the jungle. Vive Lorraine end of their day. We just pick up the ball Stoia: It’s an eye-opener for sure. They and continue carrying it. But the French all mix together and rely on each other. eorgia Tech Lorraine, the Institute’s are a little more relaxed, so sometimes we Bass: We had one student who met a G first international campus, offered have to push. girl on a train, and they ended up get- graduate classes through the School of ting married. Electrical and Computer Engineering 3. What’s Metz like? when its doors opened in 1990. Bass: It’s very pretty. There are fields and 8. Do you both enjoy traveling for leisure Twenty years later, “it is a full- lots of hills and woods. There are old cas- as well? fledged Georgia Tech campus, with fully tles. It’s next to Luxembourg. We were Bass: I love the experience. The things integrated activities and graduate always occupied by the Germans. that are different are good, but I like that education, research and technology people are the same everywhere. There transfer, including multimillion dollar 4. Has there been a lot of interest in the are some things I can’t believe I did. research contracts and state-of-the-art Lorraine program? Stoia: I moved to Spain at 17 by myself. facilities,” said Yves Berthelot, Georgia Bass: The summer program has always The thrill you get about overcoming pre- Tech Lorraine president and a professor been very popular. We had a waiting list conceived notions of people is what I in the School of Mechanical Engineering. of 50 who didn’t get in this year. It’s not enjoyed. And by yourself, there’s Georgia Tech Lorraine has expanded really study abroad. It’s the same profes- nobody to get you out of a jam. to offer master’s degrees in mechanical sors and materials. It’s an opportunity to engineering and computer science. An study what they would here in a smaller 9. What are some of your stranger job undergraduate program was launched in classroom. And it’s in France. Paris is just responsibilities? 2001. And students from French an hour and a half away, and there’s the Bass: One summer, a student got lost in institutions can earn a dual degree. fast train right there. the Czech Republic and called at 2 a.m. More than 3,000 undergraduate and There was another time I was in Metz graduate students and 100 Georgia Tech 5. So the opportunity to travel throughout we had a dorm next to a farm. There faculty members have spent at least one Europe is a big draw? was a cow mooing, waking everyone up semester at the Metz campus. Bass: The weekends have three or four at 5 a.m. It had a horn growing into its days, so there’s a lot of time to travel. It’s eye. I had to call a man from the President G. P. “Bud” Peterson made intense during the week. humane society, but we couldn’t find the his first trip to Lorraine in June. While in Stoia: We’ve had students who get so cow. So I walked into classrooms and France, he signed a four-year contract tired from studying and traveling that asked, “Can anybody tell me where the extension for an international research they’ll fall asleep on the floor. mooing cow is?” laboratory with the president of the Stoia: [Laughs] In hindsight, it’s funny. Centre National de la Recherche 6. Where do they usually visit? Scientifique. Stoia: A lot of students go to Prague. It’s 10. What’s the story about the gypsies “We are also working closely with cheaper. The students always try to do the invading the Georgia Tech Lorraine cam- French authorities on a large-scale project running of the bulls. We try to steer them pus? called the La Fayette Institute — a new away. Stoia: In the summer they have fairs, 20,000-square-foot building, including a Bass: We saw some in the newspaper and some gypsies came and treated it 5,000-square-foot clean room and who were running with GTL shirts on. like a camping ground. Because there research equipment — for innovation One of them said he got hurt. App- were no gates it became a problem. and technology transfer in the area of arently he’d been drinking. He came Bass: The land on campus is all grass, so optoelectronics, in cooperation with the back and had a hole in his forehead. He they just drove in and parked wherever. Nanotechnology Research Center and the said, “I’m fine, but I can’t focus.” Sometimes in the morning, they had Enterprise Innovation Institute,” clothing lines from their SUVs to the Berthelot said. 7. What do students get out of all of the buildings. They’re very gifted with their Peterson also attended an alumni traveling? hands, if you know what I mean. One of celebration in Paris hosted by the Alumni Bass: We’ve had students who haven’t our students had his watch stolen. By Association and Georgia Tech Lorraine. been out of Georgia, and it’s a life- law, you’re not allowed to kick them In December, the French consulate in changing experience. You learn you can out. So we placed boulders so they Atlanta will partner with Georgia Tech to survive anywhere. We get so many couldn’t drive onto the land. host a two-week celebration in conjunc- questions from parents. “Is it safe? Do — Van Jensen tion with the fall commencement.

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What’s in a Name

Georgia Tech Archives and Records Management Skiles Classroom Building

Faculty members in the Skiles Classroom thing the president doesn’t specifically want Building joke about how much trouble stu- to do.” dents have finding their offices. In his later years, Skiles was known to Skiles, located at 686 Cherry St., is a turn off his hearing aid whenever he was three-story structure laid out as a rectangle. tired of a conversation — in full view of The confusion enters in because the building whomever he was listening to. opens into a courtyard, and its eastern por- Skiles’ tenure ran through World War II, tion is disconnected from the rest of the and he was said to have worked so intensely building. that it led to health problems. Wallace wrote Skiles, which houses the schools of that after Skiles retired it took three men to Literature, Communication and Culture and do his job. Mathematics, is named for William Vernon Skiles retired in 1945 and died two years Skiles. later at the age of 68, “a man who literally In Bob Wallace’s Georgia Tech history gave his life for Georgia Tech,” Wallace book Dress Her in White and Gold, Skiles is wrote. said to have joined the Institute in 1906 as an One of Skiles’ often-repeated quotations assistant professor of mathematics. He was summarizes the value he attached to teach- appointed as executive dean in 1925, “and ing: “For after all what is finer than working he was destined to eventually become one of he drove himself much harder than he drove with young men?” he said. “The teaching the most powerful and most beloved men the students and the faculty, he was one of profession has advantage over all others. ever to set foot on campus.” the most respected administrators in Tech’s The doctor sees the boy when he is sick, the Skiles was said to settle for nothing history,” Wallace wrote. lawyer sees him when he is in trouble but below perfection when it came to scholastic Skiles also is credited with a deft sense of the teacher sees him when he is young, accomplishments and was called “a forceful humor, having once quipped that a dean is ambitious and happy.” leader and a tough taskmaster. But because “a man who has the authority over every- — Van Jensen

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Hockey Without the Ice Is Cool Sport

ate on Friday and Sunday nights, a group of mostly graduate students takes over the Campus Recreation Center pool. They mark off a 25-by-15-meter rectangle with white PVC pipe on the bottom of the pool. LA lead disk coated with plastic is dropped in the center of the makeshift field. Two co-ed teams of six players each start at the far sides, all of them wearing snorkeling gear and holding foot-long sticks. Someone chants, “Sticks up, ready, go!” Underwater hockey begins. The sport started in England in the 1960s and has spread across Europe and to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and South America. It has become particularly popular in Tasmania. Tech’s club started in 2008, said president Nicole Mazouchova. She had picked up underwater hockey at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, where a team has competed for nearly three decades. After coming to Tech to pursue a master’s degree in

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Student Life

Andrei Savu

biology, Mazouchova decided to start a club at her new campus. “The club opened with a few curious members who came to practice mostly out of their disbelief of the sport,” said Mazouchova, who is now working toward a PhD. “We struggled in the beginning to get equipment and players in order to organize full games.” Now the club (swordfishuwh.com) has about 25 members and competes about six times a year against teams from the 30 other schools in the United States that have teams, including two in neighboring states. Tech’s club still has no competi- tors in Georgia. While some team members came out of curiosity, Mazouchova said they stay for other reasons. “This sport is a great workout, is tons of fun and can be competitive,” she said. “And it is really unique, making it a great topic of conversation.”

— Van Jensen

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Stamps Scholar’s Latest Honor: Academic All-Star

By Sarah Mallory

eorgia Tech senior Will Boyd has been named a 2010 Academic All-Star by USA Today. Recognized for his environmentally conscious leadership, Boyd is an example of the symbiotic relationship between progress and service. GWhile at Tech, the physics and computer science double major from Dayton, Tenn., has founded a company and a student organization, conducted undergraduate research around the world and won a competition for student inventors. As an incoming freshman, Boyd was awarded a President’s Scholarship and named a Stamps Leadership Scholar, made possible by a gift from E. Roe Stamps IV, IE 67, MS IE 72. “The Stamps leadership program is designed to attract the nation’s best student leaders to Georgia Tech and then to support them with unsurpassed opportunities to study abroad, conduct research and seek challenges,” said Randy McDow, IE 95, MS PubPol 03, director of the President’s Scholarship Program. Boyd’s path to becoming a USA Today All-Star was heavily influenced by the Stamps Scholarship. “I was fortunate enough to receive the scholarship as part of the President’s Scholarship Program. This scholarship made a huge

impact on my life by not only making it financially feasible for me to Rob Felt attend Georgia Tech but also by making available a host of opportunities,” he said. “Being a Roe Stamps Scholar has meant that I have As a student in the inaugural class of Tech’s Honors Program, an obligation to live up to the opportunities that have been afforded Boyd and several friends developed GT Trailblazers, a student to me and to make the world a better place as a result of them.” organization that has since evolved into the host of the Institute’s Boyd is driven to integrate environmentally sustainable practices largest alternative spring break. It began as a spring break trip spent into science and society. rehabilitating trails in the Appalachian Mountains near Harpers “I believe that my generation must redesign and rebuild our Ferry, W.Va. Today, the GT Trailblazers rehabilitate trails across the society to be more environmentally sustainable in order to not only United States during fall, winter and spring trips, utilizing the skills allow humanity to continue to thrive and prosper but also in order to of more than 50 students. The organization also works on trails survive,” Boyd said. “I think that this effort will require both around Atlanta throughout the year. education of the public about environmental issues and their impact The challenge fund that provided seed funding for the GT — both presently and for future generations — and strong leadership, Trailblazers also helped Boyd travel to conferences and labs around particularly from the public sector, to make strategic and responsible the United States to share his research. decisions to transform us into a more sustainable economy.” Boyd considers his research with chemistry and biochemistry Searching for a way to reduce the harmful impact of emissions on professor Joseph Perry on the photophysics of chromophore-coated Earth’s atmosphere, Boyd and his peers developed an idea to breed silver nanoparticles one of his greatest accomplishments. algae that feeds on carbon dioxide. “I discussed my research at the European Organization for “We designed a chlorocyte bioreactor that can be used to grow Nuclear Research, where I spent summer 2009 as an intern algae. The idea behind our bioreactor was to feed algae carbon developing a computer simulation of CERN’s GRID computing dioxide emissions from power plants,” Boyd said. “The algae would network,” Boyd said. feed on the carbon dioxide, bind it into its biomass and effectively Building off his research, Boyd hopes to enroll in a joint doctoral sequester it and clean it from the power plant emissions.” program in plasma physics with an MBA in the fall of 2011. This idea won Tech’s 2009 InVenture Prize contest for student “With a PhD in plasma physics, I hope to work on computational inventors. “Our team was fortunate enough to win the competition modeling and software development for nuclear fusion reactors,” he with our design. Since winning InVenture, we have filed a patent on said. “In addition, I hope to use my MBA to work on startup ventures our bioreactor and started Sora Corporation,” he said. “My hope is to in renewable energy later in my career.” enter the world of business with a product that not only generates Boyd also plans to hike the entire Appalachian Trail before value for the economy but that does so in a sustainable way.” beginning graduate school.

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Tech Glee Club Was California Dreamin’ on a Springtime Day

he Georgia Tech Glee Club sent 35 members to California in May to Tperform for charities and military personnel. The singers spent a week in the state, starting off with a tour of Napa Valley. Later they performed during Sunday morning services at St. Helena United Methodist Church followed by a concert that raised $1,200 for the St. Helena food pantry. The Glee Club also sang in San Francisco’s Jessie Square to benefit Club also took a tour of George Lucas’ the club performed at Naval Base San Diego, the St. Vincent de Industrial Light & Magic studio. where 1,000 handwritten cards from Tech Paul Society, Dave Lo, CS 00, a creature developer for students and Atlanta elementary- and which supports ILM, led the students through the studio, middle-school students were handed out to homeless shelters showing them old movie props and some injured troops. in the city, and for behind-the-scenes parts of filmmaking. A concert for Georgia Tech alumni took St. Helena High After traveling down the coast to San place at the La Jolla Country Day School in School students. Diego, club members performed at the San La Jolla, Calif. While in San Diego Medical Center to an audience of The club’s air travel was provided by Francisco the Glee several hundred military personnel. Later, AirTran. Institute Adds Three More Recipients to Fulbright Roster

he Institute’s 20-year history with the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship TBoard continued in late spring as two current Tech students and one former one were named Fulbright scholars. Hunter Causey, Thomas Wall and Alice Wang were selected by the board. Now Georgia Tech has had 24 scholarship recipients in its two decades of involvement with the program. Causey, CE 09, who is earning his master’s degree in civil engineering, will Thomas Wall Alice Wang Hunter Causey spend 10 months in Mongolia studying the effects of climate change on the Tuul River and the people living around it. Atlanta’s International Community School. Wang, who graduated from Tech in May Causey is an avid fly fisherman and Wall, MS CE 10, a civil engineering with an electrical engineering degree, plans world traveler with “a special appreciation doctoral student, will study the relationship to work in Cyprus to use computer for contributing to protecting one of the between climate change and transportation technology to assist conflict resolution. world’s most pristine river systems,” he infrastructure at the University of Oxford “I have always been interested in com- said. and the University of Amsterdam. puter applications in international affairs and Causey also works with the Georgia Outside of his academic life, Wall has policy,” Wang said. “I was looking for a fel- Tech Initiative for Development and worked on global projects with the Georgia lowship opportunity to go abroad for a year, Education in Africa and has been a tutor in Tech chapter of Engineers Without Borders. and the Fulbright seemed a perfect match.”

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Quadriplegic Ross Mason has an ambitious plan to fix spinal cord injury treatment BrokenStory by Van Jensen fast that the slight movement of the handle- Photos by Kelvin Kuo bar threw it off course. The bike launched off the trail and landed with the rider’s feet still athematician Edward locked into the pedals, both sliding headfirst Lorenz was preparing down a hill. to run a computer The cyclist’s head collided with some- weather prediction in thing large and hard enough to crack open 1961 when he took a his helmet. When he and the bike finally shortcut. He entered .506 into the number came to rest, a piece of brush was pressed sequence instead of the full .506127. against his throat. He could barely breathe. That seemingly insignificant differ- By instinct, the rider’s brain commanded ence completely changed the predicted his hands to push away the brush. Mweather pattern. Lorenz’s finding helped His hands would not move. establish chaos theory — the idea that dynamic systems can be highly sensitive What Needs Fixing to the smallest of influences. Ross Mason, IE 92, lives in an expansive A talk by Lorenz famously was titled home in Atlanta. Off of a wide entrance hall is “Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in his office. Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?” A broad desk is covered with papers but On the evening of Aug. 2, 2007, a bee organized. The dark wooden walls are deco- was flying along the Silver Comet Trail The X-rays from Grady Memorial Hospital show rated with portraits of leaders from the near Atlanta. The bee came into the path the injuries that put Ross Mason in a wheelchair. American Revolution and Civil War. of a small but athletic man riding a bicy- Now 40, Mason enters, his motorized cle. It collided with his face, becoming stuck in his helmet. The rider wheelchair moving silently across the floor. His features have raised a hand to brush away the bee. As he did, his elbow grazed rounded since his days as a world-class athlete, but he still has the the handlebar. same smile and energy. The man was a competitive cyclist, and the bike was moving so Gisele Umutesi, who works as his caregiver, walks in. She fled

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the genocide in Rwanda and was granted A Life of Extremes estate market was booming. Seeing another asylum in the United States before landing challenge, he started a real estate firm in the Ross Mason grew up in Madison, Ga., in Mason’s employ. Umutesi asks about a city. Mason leased apartments from Russian where his family owned a peach farm going remote control to turn off the TV in another owners, renovated the properties and then back several generations. room. Mason starts to suggest places it rented them to Westerners who were staying He followed his father, Robert, IM 60, to might be before realizing it is sitting in his in the country for business. Georgia Tech. Wanting to squeeze the most lap. He can’t feel it. He operated the company for 12 years, out of every experience, Ross Mason became In one corner of the room stands an even after leaving Russia for Wharton in as involved as a student can be. He worked easel that props up a whiteboard. Scrawled a co-op student at IBM, started a company to 1994. Once, he got a call that a unit had been across the board is what looks like a family make energy-efficient lighting, served as a taken over by Russian mobsters and con- tree. Names and ideas are organized into a dorm resident assistant, joined Alpha Tau verted to a brothel. The police suspected hierarchy. At the top, enclosed in a rectangle, Omega, studied abroad, went on a mission Mason’s involvement and threatened to is “HINRI Labs.” trip to Poland and, finally, was elected stu- have him arrested. The Healthcare Institute for Neuro- dent government president. He finally had a friend with connections Recovery and Innovation (www.hinri.com) On the recommendation of Dean Jim go to the mayor of Moscow, and authorities is Mason’s nonprofit. The scattered notes all Dull, Mason was accepted to the Wharton forced the mob out of the apartment. “I got a connected to HINRI form a road map, a path School. He deferred when a family friend degree in entrepreneurial management from to fixing what has been broken. offered a challenging opportunity: a teaching the Russian school of hard knocks,” he says. Mason isn’t obsessed with repairing his position in Siberia and chance to establish a After interning at Morgan Stanley while spinal cord. Always one to seek out chal- student exchange program with the at Wharton, Mason helped the investment lenges, he has taken it upon himself to repair University System of Georgia. firm open its Atlanta office once he received the entire system of spinal cord injury treat- During his two years in Russia, Mason his MBA in 1997. He enjoyed the position, ment and to make Georgia the center of a visited Moscow and learned that, in the but he missed the freedom of being an entre- revolution in regenerative medicine. wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse, the real preneur.

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He left the firm in 1999 and Zealand Ironman, what was to be his used his free time to travel with latest extreme challenge. family to Zambia, where they volunteered at an AIDS hospital. The Biggest Obstacle “That experience really Mason was struggling to breathe. changed my life,” he says. “It He again told his hands to move. They was so transformative. The peo- wouldn’t. Neither would his legs. ple in Africa have the most Finally, his lower arm responded amazing perspective on life. I and pushed the branch away. He could knew that health care was my breathe again, but he still couldn’t get calling.” up. But first he flew straight to Some people hiking along the trail the Canadian Arctic, where he found him and called for an ambu- and some friends planned to be lance. When the emergency medical the first sport divers in the frigid technicians arrived to take him to the waters there. Mason laughs hospital, one asked if Mason under- while recalling the dangerous stood how seriously he’d been injured. adventures they had, including Mason said he did. The technician losing a snowmobile through asked why Mason continued to smile. broken ice and later diving to “I told him I’d put my life in God’s retrieve it from the ocean floor. hands,” he says. “If it was my time to The group, which later estab- go, it was my time to go. If not, God lished the Arctic Kingdom must still have something else for me adventure company, swam to do here.” alongside polar bears, whales It wasn’t his time. and walruses. At Grady Memorial Hospital, It was just the latest adven- Sanjay Gupta was Mason’s surgeon. ture in a life full of pushing Gupta, the CNN medical correspon- toward extremes. Mason had dent, stabilized Mason’s smashed ver- been rock climbing, spelunking and surfing He helped the Free Clinic Network raise tebrae. around the world. He was a NASCAR-certi- $600,000 in six months, which allowed vol- Slowly some movement returned to fied driver and once bungee jumped off of unteers to care for more than 250,000 home- Mason’s arms as he went through recovery Victoria Falls. less, indigent and uninsured Georgians. That and then rehabilitation in the following After leaving the Arctic, Mason moved care saved the state about $400 million in months at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta. to California for five years and helped start a 2009, according to the state auditor. Among his visitors in the hospital was Newt health care Internet software company. He “Georgia has a wonderful advantage in Gingrich. saw how the state invested in fledgling health care, but we haven’t focused as a But more challenges awaited Mason. He enterprises and future technologies, which state,” Mason says, referring to Georgia’s learned that he’d suffered a complete break led to the growth of Silicon Valley. highly rated research institutions and hospi- of his spinal cord. He’d never walk again. A His next stop was in Germany, where he tals. “Counties are competing against each month passed before he could sit up without served as an adviser to the Volkswagen other to promote local hospitals. There is a losing consciousness. health care venture accelerator fund. The focus on collaborative investment in He needed to have his bladder drained fund invested 280 million Euros in 90 com- California that we don’t have here.” every few hours by the nurses. But one day panies, including 30 early-stage health care On Aug. 2, 2007, Mason met for lunch his bladder filled more quickly than normal, businesses. with several fellow entrepreneurs. They and a nurse at first refused to insert a “I wanted to develop a health care early- talked about a company started out of catheter despite Mason’s spiking blood pres- stage investment model in Georgia,” he said. research from Harvard and MIT that uses sure. With a loose plan in mind of working as nanotech polymer implants to restore spinal “It felt like I had a spit running through a health care entrepreneur in his home state, cord function in injured patients. Mason and my body, and I was being roasted over a Mason returned to Atlanta. He became a fel- the others wanted to recruit the company to fire,” Mason says. “That was the most help- low at Newt Gingrich’s Center for Health Georgia. less feeling. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t push Transformation, vice chair of the state’s Mason left the meeting and seven hours a button. You’re completely dependent on department of community health board and later started a bicycle ride along the Silver someone else, and if they’re negligent, chair of the Georgia Free Clinic Network. Comet Trail. He was training for the New you’re going to pay the price the rest of your

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Some of my dearest friends just went away because they couldn’t handle it.

life. I was a 38-year-old man, and I just manent paralysis isn’t the injury itself but In August 2009, Georgia Sen. Johnny wanted to go to the bathroom.” the inflammation that follows. He met with ”Isakson and Mason hosted a meeting with Finally, the nurse drained Mason’s blad- leading researchers from China, where sur- the state’s health care, business and philan- der, which by then was four times fuller geons routinely cut open the spinal cord to thropic leaders to discuss opportunities to than it should have been. Mason says he relieve inflammation. There, about half of become a player in the industry, particularly could’ve easily gone into dysreflexic shock those with complete spinal cord injuries the nexus of engineering, computer science and suffered brain damage. walk again. In the United States, where sur- and biology. While Mason“ says the support of his geons operate around the spinal cord to In the meeting, Mason pointed out that family and friends was crucial for him mak- secure the vertebrae, only 1 percent of other states were investing millions or even ing it through that difficult time, his injury patients with complete injuries walk again. billions in bioengineering research and was too difficult for some of them to deal Patients in China also receive a standard health care technologies. By contrast, with. of six hours of therapy a day for six days a Georgia announced it was committing only “Some of my dearest friends just went week, no matter how serious the injury. In $400,000 to become a “global center of med- away because they couldn’t handle it,” he the United States, insurance will pay for ical innovation.” Mason needed to find says. “They don’t want to be around me. rehab only for those who have “incomplete” another way to fund his dream. I’ve had that happen with a number of peo- injuries — in which patients retain some Earlier in 2009, the Department of ple I’ve known all of my life.” function or sensation below the break. But Veterans Affairs created the Veterans One of the biggest challenges that arose even those patients receive only three to five Innovation Center to provide funding for was cost. The expense of his treatment began hours of treatment per week. research that could improve the lives of to mount. Mason’s insurance company “That’s unacceptable,” Mason says. injured veterans. And it was looking for a didn’t want to pay for his care and claimed home. his injury was a pre-existing condition. Overcoming Challenges “Why shouldn’t that be in Georgia?” “If your insurance company can success- One day during rehab, a nurse handed Mason asks. “A partnership with the mili- fully fight you for two years, they can defer Mason a pencil and asked him to write the tary could make the state an international payment until you go on Medicaid,” he says. alphabet. leader in restorative medicine.” “Most patients with a spinal cord injury end “I asked if I’d get a diaper as a reward,” Quickly, the lines in Mason’s road map up having to pay for rehab out of pocket.” he recalls his sarcastic response. “Why not came together. Augusta is home to Fort Mason also tried alternative treatment tell me to write a letter to a wounded sol- Gordon and the Charlie Norwood VA methods such as interactive manual therapy, dier? That would serve a purpose. That Medical Center. The city has the nation’s but those cost thousands of dollars a week. would motivate me to write again.” largest warrior transition battalion, burn cen- The expense of spinal cord injury treat- Mason had the military on his mind. ter and active duty spinal cord injury popu- ment is taxing the health care system, He’d been working on his plan to fix spinal lation. Atlanta has a VAmedical center, top according to a 2009 report from the injury treatment, and he wanted to establish hospitals and Georgia Tech and Emory, Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. Georgia as the center of spinal cord research. which operate the joint Wallace H. Coulter Spinal cord injury treatment alone costs And he’d discovered that a partnership with Department of Biomedical Engineering. The $40.5 billion per year in the United States. the U.S. military was key. department is ranked in the top three in the Nearly 5.6 million Americans live with Mason had met with Gingrich and lead- nation for graduate and undergraduate bio- some form of paralysis, the report states. ing researchers. He testified before Congress engineering programs. About 1.3 million are living with spinal cord in March 2009 regarding the congressionally Hundreds of other little details were injuries. directed medical research program’s first gathered into the plan, with Mason always Mason began to do more research dur- allocation for spinal cord injury research. But seeing more opportunities and more prob- ing the following two years of recovery and one problem kept arising: “bringing money lems to fix. He wants to recruit the learned that one of the main causes of per- to Georgia.” Morehouse School of Medicine into the

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Georgia Research Alliance, create a statewide new technologies. Right now it’s a totally dis- wield such great influence, the logic collaboration on clinical trials and fix technol- connected system with everyone operating in extends that people’s actions become mean- ogy transfer, among others. silos and not communicating.” ingless next to the whims of an anarchic He launched the nonprofit HINRI Labs But on his whiteboard, everything con- world. earlier this year to serve as the center of this nects. It is a completed circuit, each part com- But the butterfly effect simply means effort, a single connection point for all of the municating and partnering toward a single that, in certain systems, the fluttering of a disparate groups, agencies and individuals goal: repairing broken spinal cords. butterfly’s wings could have a substantial involved. Mason hopes to partner the non- The first step for making the map a reali- impact. That butterfly isn’t a random factor profit with the Veterans Innovation Center to ty is recruiting the Veterans Innovation but part of the system. The fluttering of its bring funding to researchers and then to spin Center. Currently its leaders are deciding wings is a minuscule but necessary piece of off for-profit businesses from that research. between establishing the center in Georgia or the larger plan. Mason talks quickly, constantly gesturing Illinois. To bring the center to Georgia, Mason believes in something larger, that with his hands and directing his wheelchair Mason has been raising a needed $3 million, his injury was necessary to help the lives of back and forth across the floor. The intensity with less than $1 million to go. others. of his days as an extreme athlete and serial He’s planning fundraisers to make sure “An injury like mine is a divine gift and entrepreneur haven’t faded. He’s just learned he’ll meet that objective. It’s just one more a sacred trust,” Mason says. “I’m honored new ways to channel it. hurdle he’s determined to overcome. that God would trust me with a situation like “We’ll take intellectual property and this.” commercialize it,” he says. “We can drive col- Taking Flight He believes that greatness can grow from laboration between PhD researchers, clini- There is a common misperception about little things, like the fluttering of a butterfly cians, patients and companies with exciting chaos theory. Because such small things can or the flight of a bee.

July/August 2010 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine 47 FE_Books.qxp:Layout 1 6/22/10 8:31 AM Page 48 101 Books Tech Alums Should Read Before They Lay Dying

Think about it. What if you knew your days were numbered? Some people would write a bucket list, strap on a parachute and set off on an adventure. Some of us would run to the Barnes & Noble in Technology Square. Weasked a number of Georgia Tech students, staff, faculty (including associate professor Paul Verhaeghen, at right) and alumni their recommendations for books every Institute graduate should read before he or she dies. No one suggested William Faulkner’s classic, As I Lay Dying.

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1-4 Sometimes engineers make darn good writers. One of my current underexposed favorites is George Saunders, once a mining engineer, now a learned professor and certified-by-the-MacArthur-Foundation genius. Saunders — imagine him, if you will, as the tragic love child of Twain and Vonnegut (another writer-scientist!) — is our most deeply satirical and most disturbingly funny writer. But what to recommend? There’s his first short-story collection, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, but might stories about a Civil-War- themed theme park hit a bit too close to home for comfort, Atlanta? Then there’s the novella The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil about a country so small it can contain only one of its inhabitants; the other six live in a transit zone within the neighboring country. What ensues is hilarity, war and genocide. Hmm. Perhaps better skip Saun- ders for this audience. Van Jensen What about the prince of writer-engineers, Thomas Pynchon? Gravity’s Rainbow Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Larsson has creat- important to Western thought but also be- is my all-time favorite. What is not to love? ed one of literature’s more unusual heroines cause they are so accessible, allowing the World War II, banana breakfasts, prescient in Salander, a petite hacker with a dark past. reader a visceral sense of past realities: erections in blitzed London, a long trek to She is paired with financial journalist Mikael Timaeus by Plato Peenemunde (literally the end of the world), Blomkvist in plots that are complex and well I am not a classical scholar, but I find where the launch of a secret Schwarzgeraet woven. Get all three and have a marathon great pleasure in the way the dialogue pres- (“black engine,” serial number 00000) is be- reading session. ents the beauty and order of the universe. ing prepared, and along the way we meet The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by The City of God by Augustine of Hippo Byron the Lightbulb; Katje (rhymes with Rebecca Skloot A work written as the faith of Christians “gotcha”) Borgesius the sultry spy; Grigori, It is a recent nonfiction work about an was shaken by the sack of Rome in 410 argu- the well-trained octopus; and the apple- impoverished African-American woman ing that Christians must drop from their con- cheeked frau Gnabh, among many others. whose cells have been cultured since the sciousness the city of the flesh, Rome, in or- Silly songs, I mean, really silly. Three- 1950s and have produced some remarkable der for the “City of God” to arise. page sentences. No way to even begin to breakthroughs in the field of biology. The The Decline and Fall of the Roman Em- comprehend this mess. Goes on for, like, book addresses the ethics of science as well pire by Edward Gibbon 1,100 pages. I love it. But you might hate it. as its advances. This one can dip into forever, a work of The nice thing: It’s easy to find out which Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende prodigious scholarship that never interferes way you’ll swing — read the first two pages It is the newest novel by the popular and with brilliant storytelling. and if they make you go, “WTF?” (in a good critically acclaimed Chilean writer, Allende, Democracy and Education by John way), ’tis the book for you. who now lives in the United States. The pro- Dewey Otherwise, oh, go read Steven Pinker’s tagonist is a slave concubine in the early 19th Difficult to read but a distinctly Ameri- How the Mind Works. century, and the setting spans from Saint- can document. This I have not looked at in Paul Verhaeghen Domingue to New Orleans. years, so the recommendation came from a School of Psychology Mary Axford colleague. associate professor and novelist Library & Information Center Imperial by William T. Vollmann I felt I should include one work from the 5-7 reference and subject librarian 8-12 present, and it may turn out to have less sig- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest nificance than it has for me now. It is a com- by Stieg Larsson As you would imagine, these sugges- pelling yet bleak examination of American It is the third book in the Lisbeth Salan- tions come from my writing and my scholar- reality. der trilogy by the late Swedish author. The ly interests, but the choice is made not only Alan Balfour, College of Architecture trilogy began with the immensely popular because some of these works are profoundly dean and professor

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13 Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder Read it sooner rather than later. It shows that humanitarian and academic goals can survive in the same individual. The university can serve as a foundation for rather than a fence around good works. And it is exciting to read. Wayne J. Book HUSCO/Ramirez distinguished professor of fluid power and motion control in the School of Mechanical Engineering 14-15 The Art of Influence by Chris Widener I loved this book because it talks about how one can have an influence on everyone around him. It certainly helped me to understand the impact I can have on others’ lives. The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle The basis of the book is about how people perfect their talents and become great at what they do. It’s a great read for coaches. Tonya Johnson, pictured at left Georgia Tech volleyball coach 16-17 Homer & Langley: A Novel by E.L. Doctorow Inspired by the real-life Collyer brother hermits, Doctorow de- livers a poignantly written story of two brothers living in New York City amidst (and yet trying to separate themselves from) many of the major events of the 20th century. Homer is the narra- tor, and it is through his eyes (though he is going blind) we see the world. A great read. City of Thieves: A Novel by David Benioff This tale of a young man’s struggle for survival in World War II Russia made me contemplate life, war, fate and the meaning of friendship. Sherri Brown Library & Information Center first-year English instruction librarian 18 The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins The most lucid explanation to date of the age-old question of why we are here. Parag Chordia Music assistant professor 19-22 The Bible and King Lear by William Shakespeare I am fascinated by stories about leaders — both good ones and bad ones. These “must-read” books are filled with such stories. Along the same line, I also recommend anything written by

Kelvin Kuo Bill George (e.g. Authentic Leadership and True North). Steve Cross Executive vice president for research

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Van Jensen 23-26 now on the drawing boards to transform wasn’t the man from Stratford-upon-Avon. It Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? ourselves? What does it mean to be human? convinced me, at least, that Edward de Vere by Philip K. Dick; Invisible Monsters by The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn was the likely author. Chuck Palahniuk; The Kitchen God’s Wife by Lomborg Truman by David McCullough Amy Tan; and The Lovely Bones by Alice Se- A well-documented and readable exami- An excellent biography of one of the bold nation of many claims of the environmental three great presidents of the 20th century (the Each of these books changed the percep- movement. The mathematical reasoning — others being Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald tion I have of myself and the people around as opposed to the philosophical or emotional Reagan). me. They are all thought-provoking books. underpinnings of many environmentalists — Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Kaliyana Finney, rising fifth-year is critical to understanding the real state of Richard P.Feynman computational media major the world. An entertaining, funny and thought-pro- 27-34 Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of voking autobiography by the Nobel Prize Three Faiths by Bruce Feiler laureate. It includes his time on the Manhat- A Step Farther Out by Jerry Pournelle An excellent historical overview that’s tan Project during World War II. Straightforward discussions of how tech- easily accessible to Christians, Jews, Muslims The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert nology can help us solve energy crises, envi- or those of any faith. It helps us understand A. Heinlein ronmental disasters and thrive both on Earth that the current problems in the Middle East Arguably the best book by the inar- and in space. Almost 30 years old, long out of didn’t start in the 20th century. guable best science fiction author of all time. print, but used copies are readily available. Alias Shakespeare by Joseph Sobran Stephen Fleming Radical Evolution by Joel Garreau A completely convincing argument that, Enterprise Innovation Institute What happens when we use technology whoever wrote the works of Shakespeare, it vice president and executive director

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35-39 The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter F. Drucker There are many books that claim to tell you how to be a better executive; this one, first published in 1967, lays out very clearly what you need to do to be a more produc- tive, more effective executive. I would start here and move on. All the others build on the concepts in this book. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don’t by Jim Collins Again, what makes certain companies more successful than others? I like the research-driven approach Collins takes and the way he shows the various elements it takes to make a company successful. You can use this information both ways: to find great companies and to make your company great. Nonbusiness books every Tech alum Van Jensen should read before he dies: Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss torical novel with a global sweep and an im- His Excellency: George Washington by Everyone knows the last page, “I do like portant theme (origins), and the additional Joseph J. Ellis green eggs and ham,” but the key is how chapters make it an even better read. He was a warrior and uncommon leader, persistent Sam I Am is to get the other char- William Green but Washington was a person as well, with acter to try green eggs and ham. Sometimes Mathematics professor emeritus emotions as complex as one would hope for life is like that — he who is most persistent 41-44 in a man of his stature. Centuries later, we gets the shot. It’s a wonderful metaphor for cannot know him, but in this book Ellis the sales process. Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle makes the iconic American figure come alive. Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare It’s not as dull as it sounds — far from it. While fighting a revolution and inventing Great story, larger-than-life characters, The ancient Greek philosophers are extraor- this nation, Washington was homesick, fun- but the speeches! The intrigue! The love of dinarily accessible, and their work is still the ny, lonely and exceedingly selfless in ways country versus the love of one’s friends. basis for much of our politics, culture and so- that make him far more lovable than he looks The Sound and the Fury by William cial life. In Ethics, Aristotle writes about on that dollar bill. Faulkner friendship, justice, virtue and courage. Most Susan Herbst I was introduced to this book at Georgia important, he reflects on what it is to be good University System of Georgia executive Tech, and it made an indelible impression on and how to be happy, pretty much every- vice chancellor and chief academic officer me. Yes, the story takes some unpacking, but thing you need to know to be a proper hu- and School of Public Policy professor it is so meaty, it draws you in again and man being, at any age. 45-47 again. The richness of the story, the feelings it Summer and Ethan Frome by Edith evokes, the form, the use of time, to me the Wharton The Elements of Style by William Strunk example of a great novel. It’s worth the ef- These are two short novels and should Jr. and E.B. White fort. be read back to back. Read Summer outside The perfect companion for perfect writ- Moshe Gordon, ChE 01 on a very warm day with your favorite cold ing — and entertaining besides. Young Alumni Council president drink, then find an overly air-conditioned The Structure of Scientific Revolutions 40 room — and hot drink — to read Ethan by Thomas S. Kuhn is an analysis of the his- Frome. These are gripping books about ecsta- tory of science. Its publication was a land- Creation by Gore Vidal sy and suffering, written by our master mark event in the sociology of scientific There is a new edition that includes four American storyteller. Fiction does not get any knowledge and popularized the terms para- chapters that were cut from its first publica- better. Oh, and Edith Wharton is certainly digm and paradigm shift. tion in the early 1980s. It’s a fascinating his- not “chick lit,” so men, no excuses! Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the

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All-American Meal is a book by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser that examines the local and global influence of the U.S. fast food industry. Paul Houston, College of Sciences dean and School of Chemistry and Biochemistry professor 48-53 The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett; Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose; The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov; East of Eden by John Steinbeck; The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton; and Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow Joe Irwin, IM 80 President of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association 54-56 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Go Tell It on the Moun- tain by James Baldwin and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand They are all very profound works that allow me to reflect on both myself and my surroundings. Corey Boone, pictured at right Rising fourth-year management student and president of the undergraduate student body 57-60 The Secret by Rhonda Byrne; The Precious Present by Spencer Johnson; Wooden on Leadership by John Wooden; and The Blind Side: The Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis MaChelle Joseph Women’s basketball head coach 61 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams It’s accessible, thought-provoking and hilarious. I wouldn’t have made it through my first semester at Tech if I didn’t reli- giously follow the guide’s most important rule: “Don’t panic.” Holden Link Rising fourth-year computational media major 62-63 The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli Machiavelli provides the philosophical foundation for the story in Lampedusa’s The Leopard. Charles Liotta, Regents professor and School of Chemistry and Biochemistry interim chair 64-65 Please Understand Me II: Temperament, Character, Intelli- gence by David Keirsey This book does a great job of describing a variety of personality traits based on Myers-Briggs types, including their benefits and

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caveats. It is a very useful book in learning to broaden the horizon. You might take note see how others see you, as well as to appreci- that all are written by women of color and ate the variety of talents that people have. I that they are a combination of fiction and es- truly found this useful to explain how my say collections. brother and I got along, as we are opposites Jackie Royster on every aspect considered by this book. Incoming dean of the Ivan Allen College The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People 79-83 by Stephen R. Covey While some may see this book as provid- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand ing corporate buzzwords, it does give a solid It lets you know that as a creative indi- framework for discussing leadership in vidual you’re not alone. I don’t subscribe to everyday life. If you’re looking to make a all of the beliefs presented here, but it’s a change in your productivity, this is a great good book to read when you’re feeling beat- place to start. I was fortunate to have my co- en down by the system. op employer, Georgia Power, use this as part Free: The Future of a Radical Price by of our training. Chris Anderson Randy McDow, IE 95, MS PubPol 03 It really opens your eyes to what the fu- President’s Scholarship Program director ture will bring. 66-67 The Second Coming of Steve Jobs by Alan Deutschman Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison An incredible take on the “Legend of A classic that still seems fresh after 50 Steve,” complete with some fascinating infor- years, a book about race but much more than mation on Pixar and its creative process. that, with a complex and compelling portrait Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard of an individual as he comes to terms Bach (maybe) with American society and with an I grew up on the Neil Diamond songs in- equally impressive evocation of the power of spired by this book, and it’s a wonderful jazz. book about believing in yourself. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner 70-71 Story by Robert McKee A challenging but engrossing process of I don’t have any formal training in story- discovery, a true must-read for everyone You Don’t Need a Title To Be a Leader by telling, and this book has been invaluable. from the South, or any other part of the Mark Sanborn Andy Runton, ID 98, MS ID 00 country, particularly anyone who thinks that I’m just starting to read it, and it looks in- Author of the Owly graphic novel series the Civil War and slavery are somehow iso- teresting so far. Certainly my all-time favorite 84-86 lated in the past and no longer part of our is the irrepressible Jack Welch and Winning. personal and familial identity. Dan Radakovich Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dos- Gregory Nobles Director of Athletics toevsky; David Copperfield by Charles Dick- Georgia Tech Honors Program director 72-78 ens; and Candide by Voltaire and professor of history Steve Salbu 68-69 Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Dean of the College of Management Neale Hurston; In Search of Our Mothers’ 87-88 Outliers: The Story of Success by Mal- Gardens by Alice Walker; Playing in the colm Gladwell Dark by Toni Morrison; Kindred by Octavia A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man We had the entire strategic planning E. Butler; Women of the Silk by Gail Tsukiya- by James Joyce steering committee read this in preparation ma; In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Al- This book made me want to study litera- for our plan development this past year. varez; and Technical Difficulties by June Jor- ture for the rest of my life. The fight between How an Economy Grows and Why It dan Dante Riordan and Mr. Dedalus and the long Crashes by Peter D. Schiff and Andrew J. I have to say that for a lover of books this sermon about hell are so realistic that they’re Schiff question is fairly impossible. There are so almost painful to read. It helps a non-economist understand many volumes that have so much to offer. So Great Expectations by Charles Dickens what happened to our financial system. what I’ve decided that I can reasonably do is Dickens is to literature what “Pistol” Pete G. P.“Bud” Peterson to offer a short list of books that are favorites Maravich is to basketball or George Best is to President of Georgia Tech for many reasons and that serve typically to soccer — an artist so unbelievably gifted, so

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Van Jensen

naturally talented, that sometimes he seems concepts like intersexuality are concerned, and anything by Anne Rice before she be- to abandon what he’s supposed to be doing and it also depicts racial tensions in Detroit came Christian again. just to see what he can do. Pip’s sad story is during the 1960s, but it’s basically a great The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara King- very moving, but the real thrill of the novel is novel with rich, compelling and memorable solver the way every page seems to offer up a bril- characters. Since all Americans were immi- It’s been a while since I read it, but I liant little caricature, or a perfectly captured grants once, it provides insights into the im- thought when I did that it would be one of accent, or an endless sentence that pulls you migrant experience. I’ve taught it twice and, the novels from the ’90s that will still be read along with it for line after line. Pure reading despite the fact that it’s long, my students al- in a hundred years. It explores America, the pleasure. ways love it. developing world and the place of religion in Aaron Santesso Dracula by Bram Stoker the world. Assistant professor in the School of It depicts the fears that were pervasive at Carol Senf Literature, Communication and Culture the end of the 19th century as the world be- Professor and associate chair, School of 89-92 came modern. Pitting modern science and Literature, Communication and Culture technology — Stoker was a real gadget freak 93 Middlemarch by George Eliot who rode bicycles and felt that the type- It is set right as England is on the verge writer had changed his life — it also demon- The Pulitzer Prize-winning book by of passing the Reform Bill of 1832. Thus it de- strates the fear of the past, of sexuality (espe- Jared Diamond entitled Guns, Germs and picts England on the cusp of the modern age. cially female sexuality in the era of the New Steel. It provides ecological reasons why cer- It has great characters too. I suspect that Woman) and of the animal aspects of human tain cultures developed materially rich soci- everyone who reads it will recognize the nature (clear evidence that Stoker had read eties and others did not. It combines biology, Dorotheas and the Rosamunds in their own Darwin). anthropology and history in a fascinating mi- lives. Plus everyone should read the novel that lieu that explains a lot of observations. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides created the modern idea of the vampire. Very Terry Snell, interim chair and profesor The novel is accurate so far as modern different from Twilight, The Vampire Diaries School of Biology

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94 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho really changed my view of things and motivated me to be the best I could. David Turk Rising fourth-year computational media major 95-96 The Calculus of Friendship: What a Teacher and a Student Learned About Life While Corresponding About Math by Steven Strogatz is a selection of letters from a 30-year correspondence il- lustrating mathematics, friendship and mentoring. The Princeton Companion to Mathematics, edited by Timothy Gowers, is a magnificent panorama of a huge swath of modern mathematics. Not a book to read through but to dip into as need and curiosity dictate. Any Tech graduate could find it enormously rewarding. Doug Ulmer School of Mathematics chair and professor 97-98 The First Three Minutes by Stephen Weinberg An exposition of our current understanding of the Big Bang origin of the universe written for the lay public but at a high level appropriate for Tech graduates. Mr Tompkins in Paperback by George Gamow A wonderfully imaginative fantasy that imagines what the world would be like if the effects of special relativity and quantum mechanics operated in our everyday life. Terrific as a gift for a bright high school student. Andy Zangwill School of Physics professor 99-101 Be the Change! Change the World. Change Yourself. Edited by Michelle Nunn, co-founder and CEO of Hands On Network. Continue to be inspired to serve others and enhance your own life in the process. Learn practical ways to create change by reading stories and tips shared by both prominent and everyday citizens. Note the “small acts to change the world,” No. 2 on page 266. Remember, one person can and does make a significant difference! Bicentennial Man by Isaac Asimov Consider what it really means to be “human” — a confidant, a trusted friend, one of the family. Science fiction precedes science fact; read it with both an open mind and open heart. And then see the movie, of the same name, starring Robin Williams. It brings me to tears each time I view it. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach Contemplate, with respect and humor, the usefulness of and aesthetic qualities of cadavers. Stiff was given to me several Christ- mases ago by an alumnus who knows of my desire to donate my body. I am a cadaver donor for Emory University’s School of Med- icine. Death is an intrinsically intertwined part of life. As my mama used to say, “Do for the living!” Billiee Pendleton-Parker, at right Assistant director of the President’s Scholarship Program

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Orbiting Earth or running ground operations, Tech alumni are a vital part of the past, present and future space progam 151 NASA Jackets

eorgia Tech’s mark on the U.S. space program is indelible. From its first days, the Na- Gtional Aeronautics and Space Administration has attracted Tech alumni like John Young and Richard Truly, who enjoyed truly stellar careers. The stories on the following pages will highlight some of the challenges ahead for NASA and the roles being played by Tech graduates. Tech President G. P. “Bud” Peterson explains how NASA is poised to reinvent itself and what kind of impact it will have upon scientific development and economic growth. Jan Davis is retired from NASA, but as the first female Tech graduate to orbit the Earth, she has fascinating stories to tell of her three trips to space. Amanda Mitskevich is the manager of the launch services program at Kennedy Space Center and oversees NASA’s domestic expendable launch services for robotic missions. The Johnson Space Center is home to dozens of Yellow Jackets. Many credit their time at Tech for providing the solid foundation that has led them to successful careers at NASA. While there isn’t enough space to pay tribute to every Georgia Tech student or alum with connections to NASA, we highlight 151 of them here.

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NASA Reinventing NASA

By G. P. “Bud” Peterson While some of the president’s plans are exception- ally grand in scope — landing on an asteroid, walking ur space program, once the envy of every on Mars — the bulk of this vision will have a tangible nation on Earth, has been showing its age of and positive impact upon scientific development, our late. Its ambitions, though laudable, are brightest talent and economic growth. starting to appear a little outdated. Technologies that The most exciting element of NASA’s new Oonce dazzled the masses now seem almost everyday direction is a greater emphasis on research and and routine. Visions of new planetary terrain, once the innovation. Instead of limiting ourselves to repeating fodder of science fiction, seem somewhat common- past accomplishments, this renewed emphasis place in light of the discoveries made by robotic establishes new and challenging goalposts that once President Peterson’s spacecraft and the capabilities of other countries. And again can place the United States in a technological commentary appeared while the moon remains a fascinating destination, an leadership position that can and will be admired by in April in the Washing- entire galaxy of other regions — and countless the rest of the world. ton Times, which possibilities — is just waiting to be explored. To move beyond the moon will require new granted permission for With a renewed sense of energy and vision, NASA transportation architectures, propulsion systems and a it to be reprinted here. is well positioned to reinvent itself. host of other technological innovations. This new [In April] President Obama outlined an ambitious vision of U.S. space exploration encourages NASA to new plan that focuses NASA’s efforts on bold new collaborate with academia, private industry and its exploration goals through the development of exciting international partners to design and develop these aerospace technologies. technologies, a challenge that couldn’t be more timely. While some are lamenting the cancellation of a A commitment to working with startup return to the moon’s surface, the type of inspiring companies to develop the technologies and hardware vision proposed is exactly what is needed to propel the necessary for success will inspire and create a new United States beyond the trappings of the technologies generation of businesses and technology-focused jobs developed nearly 50 years ago and to again take a and will nurture and strengthen our top research leadership role through innovation and daring, the institutions. With this new emphasis, NASA will qualities that first took us to the lunar surface in 1969. return to its roots as an important catalyst for

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innovation and economic expansion for the U.S. economy. Aerospace companies aren’t created in a vacuum. The fundamental ideas and breakthroughs that form the core of these businesses are typically developed at research institutions focused on fundamental science and commercializing the technologies developed. These institutions have historically served as the cradle of progress, providing opportunity in all sectors of our economy. In an almost prescient manner, the president’s budget request for NASA lays a foundation for future generations of technologists, engineers and scientists by committing to major new initiatives in education, from middle and high schools to the university and postgraduate level. One of the most exciting elements is a new graduate fellowship program — equivalent in stature to current opportunities from the National Science Foundation — that will enable 500 graduate students per year to develop new technologies and work at NASA research centers. This new attitude is truly reflective of the 21st century, engaging industry, academia and our international partners to work together and collaborate in order to reach once unimaginable goals. Space is a big place with many compelling destinations. Focusing NASA’s budget on the technology of space travel will unleash a host of new options for exploration well beyond Earth’s orbit. A future sojourn to the lunar regions — which admittedly is a worthy goal and still has plenty of terrain left to explore — could one day prove easy by comparison. The president has presented us with a difficult challenge, one that will push our definition of progress and the limits of our imagination. If we succeed — even partially — we will in the process have created exciting new industries and dynamic new traditions and will have re-established the United States as the premier center of innovation and technological development in the world. That surely is a worthy aspiration. FE NASA.qxp:Layout 1 6/16/10 5:34 PM Page 66 FE NASA.qxp:Layout 1 6/17/10 6:17 PM Page 67

A ‘Really Cool’ Place To Work

By Kimberly Link-Wills neering in terms of interac- tions with people, organiza- manda Mitskevich tional dynamics,” she said. “I could be a NASA started out in shuttle logistics, cheerleader. Compact which was kind of typical and energetic, she sprinkles industrial engineering work. I Aher sentences about space was there for five years, and missions with “pretty neat” then I went into shuttle opera- and “really cool.” She even tions, more hands on with the looks a bit like the female orbiter and the shuttle.” cheerleader in the 1990s Mitskevich agreed that Saturday Night Live sketches. the launch services program, But Mitskevich’s job is no which she joined 12 years ago, laughing matter. She runs with doesn’t get the media atten- the big boys as manager of the tion that the space shuttle and launch services program at its crews do. “But I would Kennedy Space Center. never trade this for the world. Promoted from deputy man- Each of the missions we do is ager this past winter, so different. You have all sorts Mitskevich oversees NASA’s of science that each mission provision and management of does. Last year we launched all domestic expendable Eric Mansfield Amanda Mitskevich laughs about a parking spot reserved for “Mr. Mitskevich.” the [lunar reconnaissance launch services for robotic orbiter and lunar crater obser- missions. It’s an organization vation and sensing satellite]. of about 500 people, half civil One of the missions circled servants and half support contractors. Mitskevich recalled arriving on site for the moon, and one of the missions crashed She has been working her way up the the February launch of a solar dynamics into the moon. It was the first mission back NASA ranks since July 1987, just a couple of observatory. “I’m looking for where I’m sup- to the moon so it was really cool. months after she graduated from Tech with posed to park, and I pull in and it’s labeled “We also do the Mars missions. Spirit an industrial engineering degree. Mr. Mitskevich. I took a picture of it” to and Opportunity, we launched those. The notoriously skewed male-to-female show husband Geoff Mitskevich, Phys 86, Anything that’s scientific or exploration that ratio at Tech in the 1980s made the transition she said. “It doesn’t bother me. They’re used doesn’t need human interaction we launch,” to the male-dominated NASA easy. In fact, to mostly guys.” she said, looking forward to the 2011 launch Mitskevich can’t think of an instance in her The difficulty of Tech course work also of a Mars lander, “the size of a Volkswagen more than two decades on the job in which prepared Mitskevich for her roles at NASA. Beetle. It’s basically a roving laboratory. It’s she felt the tinge of discrimination because “We have to solve a lot of hard prob- going to be a really exciting mission. of her sex. A recent case of gender assump- lems, whether they be technical problems or “Pluto New Horizons arrives to begin its tion only made her laugh. just things that you learn in industrial engi- mission July 2015, so it takes close to 10

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NASA Amanda Mitskevich hopes to see men and women set foot on another planet, perhaps Mars, during her lifetime but expects she’ll be retired by then.

years to get there. The missions we’re nerve-racking after the launch. The launch other planets in the galaxy, she said. “We launching you’ll hear about for a long span will be successful, then you’ll have maybe an came right out of a failure and launched of time,” she continued. “There have been hour and a half to wait until the spacecraft another mission.” lots of pictures of Saturn recently. That was separates. You can’t do anything about it if it Glory, an Earth-observing mission, will the Cassini mission that we launched. They doesn’t. You’re just watching the data at that launch about a year and a half after the 2009 all come through here, they sure do.” point. When the spacecraft separates, it’s a failure. “It will be launching on the rocket Mitskevich’s group works on 40 to 50 huge wave of relief that everything is OK.” that failed, so that will be a big one for us.” missions at a time and averages six to seven A low point for Mitskevich’s team came She turns to her stored energy to combat launches a year. IMAGE was her favorite, with the February 2009 launch of the Orbital stress. “I jog three times a week, and I exercise she said, because she served as mission Carbon Observatory. a couple of other times a week. That’s kind of manager for the March 2000 launch. “The mission failed — the rocket failed. my mind clearing, my therapy. That helps me “It was one of those that went out to the It was the first failure for the [launch servic- focus on the important things I need to focus magnetosphere and had all sorts of different es] organization since we’d been established on. In fact, if it is a launch date and I feel scientific aspects. I felt close to it because in 1998. Most everybody in the organization stressed, I’ll definitely go for a run.” when you’re a mission manager you work had never been through a failure before. It’s Scoring firsts propels Mitskevich and on it five to seven years. Some of the scien- almost like a death in the family. It’s heart her team. “A while back we launched the tists work 20 years on the science before they wrenching to see and be part of. The images Messenger spacecraft. It will be the first to get it launched. They are so attached to that you remember are of the scientists who orbit Mercury. I’m excited to see that one get mission that you want every single thing in worked on it for a long time. When every- there.” the world to go right for it. You get really body came to the realization that it hadn’t And Mitskevich hopes to see men and close with that team and the mission itself. separated, it was just a really, really sad women set foot on another planet in her life- When you watch your own launch, it’s real- thing to see,” Mitskevich said. time. ly something,” she said. “Probably our biggest accomplishment “I know the eventual goal is to get to “Once the spacecraft separates, then as an organization was 10 days later we planets, like Mars, and other bodies in the we’re done with the mission. But it’s kind of launched the Kepler mission” to look for solar system, which should be really cool.”

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Fifty Kennedy Space Center Workers include Amanda Mitskevich and three married couples — Janine Captain, PhD Chem 05, and James Captain, MS Chem 01; Jackie Williams Quinn, CE 89, and Shawn Quinn, EE 90; and Jill Weaver Norman, AE 88, and Ray Norman, CE 83 — as well as Alan Alemany, ME 07; Derrick Bailey, AE 07; Arthur Beller, EE 68; Ellen Proper Brown, ISyE 85; Terence Burke, ME 82; Michael Canicatti, EE 90; Robbie Coffman, AE 04; Jon Cowart, AE 83; Taylor Dacko, aerospace engineering co-op student; Joe Dant, AE 05; Chuck Davis, ME 82; Hudson Delee, ME 01; Jennifer Dowling, aerospace engineering co-op student; Chrissy Howard Du Quesne, ME 04; Dustin Dyer, EE 07; John Fablinger, ME 73; Patrick Faughnan, ChE 81; Randy Gordon, IE 90; Dana Hutcherson, ME 00; Amanda Killebrew, AE 09; Carla Koch, ME 07; Corrianne Lamkin, aerospace engineering co-op student; Gary Letchworth, MS ME 86; Jamie Posey McLean, IE 81; Paul Mogan, EE 86; Mark Nurge, EE 85, MS EE 86; Jim Ogle, EE 64; Jim Ravitch, ME 83; Luke Roberson, Chem 99; Edsel Sanchez, MS ECE 08; Edgardo Santiago-Maldenado, ChE 05; Russ Scott, ME 84; Michele Taylor, EE 88; Ernest Turner, EE 84; and Lili Villarreal, AE 96, MS AE 98. Help acquiring names and degrees was provided by Wanda Harding, MS EE 93, who is not pictured. Alumni who are not identified in the photograph may point themselves out at the ALUMNI MAGAZINE Web site, gtalumnimag.com.

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NASA Jan Davis works aboard the shuttle Discovery during mission STS-85, her last of three trips to space. She was the first female Tech grad to make it there. An Atmospheric All-Star

By Kimberly Link-Wills maintains close ties to the Marshall Space very uncomfortable when you’re strapped Flight Center in Huntsville as the vice in,” she said. an Davis walks among us as a president and deputy general manager of “The orbiter is cantilevered at the center commoner, yet this woman is a contractor Jacobs Technology. of gravity so when the engines fire the member of one of the most elite Named an astronaut in 1987, a year after whole shuttle tilts over about a foot. Then leagues on the planet. Only about 500 the Challenger explosion, Davis logged when it becomes vertical you take off,” human beings have flown in Earth’s orbit. more than 650 hours in space. Davis’ first Davis said. “People ask me what that’s like. J flight was aboard Endeavour in September You’re on your back. It’s like you’re in a Davis was the first female Tech grad to do so. And she’s done it three times. 1992. chair and you’re just shaking like crazy … More than 10 years after her last shuttle “My first flight was a Spacelab flight. It and then you get a big kick in the pants that mission, aboard Discovery in August 1997, was just a wonderful laboratory for science,” sends you on your way.” Davis, ABiol 75, still is asked to speak to Davis said. “We did a lot of life science Eight and a half minutes later, Davis awestruck schoolchildren and adults to tell experiments to try and understand why and her fellow crew members were in space, what it’s like to look down on Earth. astronauts get sick. I didn’t get sick, just so traveling 17,500 miles per hour. A Davis presentation, complete with you know.” Davis’ favorite things to see out a photos and statistics, also holds the rapt Davis showed a picture of herself in the shuttle window were the sunrises and attention of members of the North orange partial-pressure suit, adopted by sunsets, “just beautiful, beautiful colors” Alabama/Huntsville Georgia Tech Club, NASA after the Challenger accident. “The splashing against the darkness for just a few largely made up of current and former suit is attached to a parachute, and there are seconds, she said. “You go around the Earth employees of NASA and its contractors. oxygen bottles inside the parachute in case every hour and a half, so you see 45 minutes Davis is retired from NASA now but still you have to jump out of the shuttle. They’re of darkness, 45 minutes of daylight.”

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Twenty Yellow Jackets at Marshall Space Flight Center are Warren Adams, EE 65; Christopher Beatty, Phys 96; employee referring to himself as George P. Burdell; Robyn Carrasquillo, ChE 85; Matt Chamberlain, MS ME 02, PhD ME 07; Corky Clinton, AE 73, MS AE 76, PhD AE 82; Jared Dervan, ME 04, MS ME 05, and wife Melanie Dervan, ChE 04; Nishkam Deshpande, PhD MetE 96; Bill Emrich, ME 73; Don Kaderbek, AE 88; Tawnya Laughinghouse, ChE 96; Carl Lester, ChE 78; Andrew Schnell, ME 06; Greg Schunk, ME 83; Scotty Sparks, MS TE 88; Peter Sulyma, MS AE 70; Bill Whipple, IM 61; Mickey White, AE 68; and Jessica Wood, ID 07.

Davis was the ultimate storm chaser. The landing itself is at “about a 17- “On every one of my flights I saw a degree slope, and you touch down about hurricane or some kind of super typhoon,” twice as fast as a commercial jetliner,” she Davis said. “I liked looking at water and explained. clouds as much as anything. Most of my Davis also provided a true insider’s crew members would look at the land and look at a stay aboard the shuttle. She as soon as we got to the ocean they’d go do showed the North Alabama Georgia Tech something else, but I thought the cloud Club a photo of an astronaut shaving with a formations were really interesting. If you razor that sucks in the bristles of hair and catch it right, islands and clouds form another photo of the shuttle toilet. wakes, like boats. You see these wakes in the “I’m only showing this because I know clouds. There are just phenomenal features you all want to know. The kids ask me. The in the clouds.” adults don’t ask, but they want to know. It’s When it was time to return to Earth, the basically like a toilet, but when you sit on crew put on the orange suits again. the pot you have these bars that you put “You’ve been in space for a week or across your legs so you don’t float off. Here’s two, so everything as you’re coming into the to being in gravity. Your balance is a little off a urinal cup,” Davis said, pointing to the Earth’s atmosphere feels really, really without the effect of gravity, and you picture and drawing snickers from her heavy,” Davis said. haven’t been using the fluid in your ears for mature audience. “You feel heavy, everything you’re equilibrium. You’ll be a little off balance “That’s probably all you need to know,” holding feels heavy because you’re not used when you land,” Davis said. she said.

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Career Missions Accomplished Astronaut and Johnson Space Center-based NASA co-workers on the ground credit Tech with setting them on the right course

By Marilyn Somers and asked him what the career path was On both missions, Poindexter visited and Kimberly Link-Wills like.” the International Space Station, “approach- As a Navy pilot, Poindexter twice was ing a million pounds in space now with lan Poindexter’s enrollment at deployed, during Desert Storm in 1991 and interior space about the size of a four- or Georgia Tech was part of his Southern Watch in 1993. He also earned a five-bedroom house.” planned trajectory into the sky. master’s degree from the Naval Postgrad- He said cooperation aboard the space “I had always wanted to be a Navy uate School before being selected as an station shows that people from around the Apilot. I knew that one of the ways to astronaut in 1998. world, “with a common goal and common become a Navy pilot was through the He piloted STS-122 aboard Atlantis in interests,” can work together despite their ROTC program,” said Poindexter, AE 86, February 2008 and commanded STS-131, a political or cultural differences. who followed his future wife to Atlanta Discovery mission, this past April. “We’re doing science and technology after graduating from a junior college in “Flying humans in space will probably that will benefit all of us for years and years Florida and worked as a part-time fuel never be easy,” Poindexter said. “Launch- to come,” Poindexter said. “From space, truck driver at DeKalb Peachtree Airport ing humans into orbit, meaning you have to there are no borders.” while attending Tech. launch them and their machine at a speed While he was a Tech student, his father, that is somewhere between seven and eight Jumping Hurdles John Poindexter, was serving as a vice times faster than a rifle bullet, takes a lot of Jennifer Scott Williams, EE 01, attended admiral in the Navy. He was the guest energy and is not a simple task. Sometimes Tech through the dual-degree program with speaker at his son’s Navy commissioning people read about it and don’t understand the Atlanta University Center. ceremony at Tech. the complexity, or perhaps we make it look After three years at Spelman College Another speaker helped Poindexter easy because we’re successful most of the working on a math degree, Scott Williams seal his decision to aim for astronaut train- time.” arrived at Tech for two years of engineering ing. He said the crews undergo so much work. “It seemed big and a little bit menac- “I don’t know that I ever made it a training in simulators that there are no sur- ing,” she said of the Institute. career goal until my senior year at Tech. prises during launches. “Afraid is not how She intended to pursue a degree in tex- Admiral [Richard] Truly [AE 59] came and I’d classify it. I’d say alert. You know what tile engineering — until she experienced a talked to us about one of his flights,” you’re getting yourself into,” Poindexter “defining moment.” Poindexter said. “I spoke to him afterward said. “We’re ready to deal with a bad day.” “I went to an electrical engineering

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NASA/Kim Shiflett The STS-131 crew took time out from training for a group portrait looking out from the top of an M-113 armored personnel carrier. In front is shuttle commander Alan Poindexter, AE 86. An M-113 is kept at the foot of the launch pad in case an emergency egress is needed. FE NASA.qxp:Layout 1 6/17/10 6:10 PM Page 74

class in session, and the students were between Spelman and the Institute, Smith using their circuit boards to design circuits. said. “I had to get that degree.” One of the teams … had LEDs, these little Shortly after being hired as a research lights on their circuit board,” Scott Williams engineer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base said, recalling “when they finally got it set in Dayton, Ohio, Smith took a leave of up, the lights started to dance, and I just absence to return to her native Houston to thought that was the coolest thing ever.” care for her ailing grandmother. Scott Williams interviewed with NASA “At the end of six months, she was through the Atlanta University Center. She back on her feet, and she told me to go get also interviewed for jobs in consulting and a life,” Smith said. investment banking. “I was leaving Tech Through a chance encounter with a with the mentality that once I had an engi- Morehouse College graduate who worked neering degree I could do anything,” she for NASA in Houston, Smith secured an said. interview and transferred as a civil servant An on-site interview — and a visit Scott Dinerman to the Johnson Space Center, where she has inside a space shuttle simulator — at the Jennifer Scott Williams, above, and Elizabeth remained for almost 30 years. Johnson Space Center in Houston con- Stewart Smith both earned dual degrees at In her early years with NASA, she vinced her that was the place for her. “I was Georgia Tech and Spelman College. worked in the space center construction an astronaut for like an hour, and I got to division. “This place is amorphous. It con- land the space shuttle. They hooked me,” tinually changes … with new science, new Scott Williams said. technologies,” said Smith, who liked work- A civil servant at the space center since ing on the evolving facility. August 2001, Scott Williams is a shuttle In 1985, she answered a call for volun- flight controller in the communications teers to work on the space station, another division, which monitors everything from evolving facility that houses Smith’s proj- cameras to telemetry. “Anything that has to ects from over the years. “They’re still using do with talking to the crew, that’s what my moding indicator” that lets the space we’re responsible for,” she said. shuttle crew know it’s safe to dock with the An antenna system, also the responsi- station, she pointed out as an example. bility of Scott Williams’ group, failed dur- “I was able to move forward and be ing Poindexter’s shuttle mission in April. promoted. I had lots of opportunities to “We had to come up with another lead. There are a lot of products that they’re method to get video down,” she said, still using that I developed,” said Smith, describing the mood as “very tense” as the now the assistant manager of the space sta- team developed a plan that involved using tion program’s integration office. equipment aboard the space station. out Johnson Space Center wear their white She said Tech prepared her well for the “It was a shock to everybody that it and gold proudly. Scott Williams may be challenges at NASA. broke, but we had to work around it,” she the proudest of them all. She arranged for “It was worth every minute,” Smith said, adding that mission control scenes the group photographs of Tech alums at said. “You are ready for anything. Seriously, from movies like Apollo 13 aren’t much of a Johnson as well as at Kennedy Space you’re ready for anything.” departure from reality. Center in Florida and Marshall Space Flight Tech also taught her how to lead and Tragedy affects everyone at NASA. Center in Alabama. be led, she said. “If you don’t work well Scott Williams remembered the events of with others [at NASA], you’re not success- Feb. 1, 2003. “We were scheduled to land, Evolving Roles ful. A team does come up with a better and everyone was real excited,” she said. Elizabeth Stewart Smith, ME 81, also answer than an individual. It really is true “My group lead called me. I thought it attended Spelman and Tech through the … because you’re pulling from different was so strange to hear her voice. She said, dual-degree program, arriving in Atlanta in areas of expertise.” ‘We lost Columbia.’ I sat there holding the 1975 carrying hot pink luggage and wear- Smith is not disheartened by the im- phone. ‘What? Am I dreaming?’ It did not ing a suit, hat, gloves — “the whole nine.” pending end of the shuttle program. “If connect at all. … Words couldn’t describe it. She also was tough as nails and deter- you’re an old station person like me, it’s I had a million questions and no answers.” mined to make something of herself. what we planned all along. We always said The tragedy brought the close-knit co- “I paid the dues” to be a Georgia Tech there would be visiting vehicles. We always workers even closer. Tech alumni through- graduate through six years of study said there would be an evolution of uses.”

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NASA The International Space Station was photographed by an STS-130 crew member on Endeavour as the shuttle was heading back to Earth in February.

The evolution of the space station “I honestly can’t say I’d be the person I revolves around worldwide cooperation, am today without the Yellow Jacket Flying Smith said. Club,” said Silva, who was able to serve as “Where we are now, the way our world the club’s supplies officer and then the vice economy is set, no one nation can afford to president of programs while attending Tech do it alone,” she said. “We have to learn as a co-op student. that we are not in this all alone. It doesn’t The co-op program first took her to make us less of a leader. In fact, I think it Houston, where she worked for the NASA makes us more of a leader. ... There’s some- contractor Jacobs Technology. thing about the American spirit and the “You get your foot in the door” as a co- way we’re able to innovate.” op student, said Silva, who was able to graduate in four and a half years and was Onward and Upward hired by NASA before commencement. Sathya Silva was in third grade when Sathya Silva earned her wings as an undergrad- Silva is a data processing flight con- she chose her career path. uate member of the Yellow Jacket Flying Club. troller for the space shuttle until September, “One day it just hit me that I wanted to when she enters graduate school at MIT. work at NASA,” said Silva, AE 08. The move from NASA, however, could The desire didn’t wane as she grew Flying Club, which offers Tech students the be temporary as Silva still dreams of one into a teenager. opportunity to get pilots’ licenses more day becoming an astronaut. “I would stay home and watch docu- affordably than at a commercial school, at The end of the shuttle program isn’t mentaries about galaxies,” Silva said. “I FASET, and she joined the club and began clouding her dream. was a little bit of a nerd.” earning her wings soon after landing on “I have confidence that they’ll come up She learned about the Yellow Jacket campus as a freshman. with something,” she said.

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Seventy-eight Alumni and Tech Students Gather at Johnson

mong the Ramblin’ Wrecks at the Johnson Space Center in Houston are these 78 — including three astronauts, three Amarried couples, four students, Jennifer Scott Williams and Elizabeth Smith — in alphabetical order: Patricia Sweet Bahr, ESM 79, human adaptation and countermeasures division assistant chief, and husband Juergen Bahr, a World Student Fund scholar at Tech in 1973-74 from the Technische Universitaet Hannover and now in payload integration for MEI Technologies; Derek Bankieris, CmpE 08, MS ECE 09, automation robotics and simulation division programmer; Michael Bernatovich, AE 08, space shuttle entry, descent and landing analyst; Parker Bray, an aerospace engineering co-op student in the motion control branch; Heidi Brewer, AE 05, a space shuttle flight controller, and husband Kyle Brewer, AE 05, a space station flight controller; Evan Brown, MS AE 02, Constellation program crew representative; Debbie Buscher, MS Math 91, exploration space sytems integration branch chief; Vicky Byrne, MS Psy 93, Lockheed Martin human factors design senior engineer. Jessica Calhoun, AE 08, space shuttle robotic flight controller; Al Conde, AE 80, Constellation program technology integration manager; Wendy Crisman, Mgt 04, contracting officer; Rebecca Cutri-Kohart, AE 01, space shuttle flight controller; Pete Cyr, AE 79, space station avionics and software systems engineer. Kreta Desai, AE 07, United Space Alliance engineer; Lee Echerd, Biol 07, space station visiting vehicle integration office systems engineer; Ben Edwards, ME 84, senior systems engineer, crew exploration vehicle parachute assembly system; Megan Englert, AE 07, test engineer, crew exploration vehicle parachute assembly system; Robin Friedrich, AE 84, United Space Alliance engineer; Matthew Gast, graduating this summer with a master’s in aerospace engineering, United Space Alliance extravehicular activities instructor and flight controller; Sabrina Gilmore, ME 03, MS BioE 04, EVAinstructor and flight controller; Bryan Grant, Mgt 06, human resources representative; Krista Guzelian, ME 08, space station life support instructor. Kavin Manickaraj, mechanical engineering student, cold James Harder, AE 88, Boeing entry GN&C manager; Sarah stowage engineer; Mike Mankin, AE 87, manager, EVAoperations Hargrove, aerospace engineering graduate student, space station office; Daniel Matz, AE 08, Orion entry team engineer; Bill flight controller; Quincy Harp, ME 99, space shuttle flight controller; McArthur, MS AE 83, STS-58, STS-74, STS-92, Expedition 12 James Hill, AE 91, systems engineer, space shuttle systems astronaut, now manager of the space shuttle orbiter project office; engineering and integration; An Hou, MS ESM 93, PhD AE 98, Wayne McCandless, AE 78, group deputy director of mission structural engineer, space station loads and dynamics group, Boeing- systems and technology management; Bill McNicoll, AE 82, MS AE IDS; Robert Howard, AE 95, habitability design center lab manager 83, space station vehicle technical integration; Kevin Moore, EE 80, and human factors lead on the Altair project, lunar electric rover and Barrios space station on-orbit stowage technical lead. lunar habitation team/habitation demonstration unit; Therese Robert Napp, AE 89, space shuttle/station flight controller; Huning, AE 87, U.S. space flight training. Jason Nguyen, CS 99, senior systems analyst; James Orr, AE 71, Genevieve Johnson, EE 94, simulation software manager for United Space Alliance flight software element chief engineer; Jeffrey robotics on-board trainer flight project and robotics flight controller Osterlund, MS AE 98, United Space Alliance Constellation chief trainer; Shane Kimbrough, MS OR 98, STS-126 Endeavour astronaut; engineer and IR&D investment manager; Vickie (Maul) Otto, AE 05, Renee (Johnston) Lance, ME 74, space shuttle engineer; Michael extravehicular activities instructor and flight controller. Leatherwood, MSE 07, space station materials and processes Michele Parker, MS IE 05, project manager; Todd Peters, MS AE engineer; Dave Link, AE 06, space station flight controller. 94, deputy division technical manager of energy systems; Robert

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Phillips, IE 67, Futron Corp. Houston division director; Johanna Stauch, AE 99, Odyssey Space Research GNC analyst; Scott Stokes, Pineiro, AE 09, EMU substation manager/advance technology ME 99, United Space Alliance space shuttle environmental systems development engineer; Kara Pohlkamp, MS AE 07, space shuttle flight controller; William Sun, aerospace engineering student, aircraft flight controller; Gary Pollock, ESM 70, MS ESM 71, space shuttle engineering branch; Casey Swails, Mgt 07, human resources and space station robotics flight controller; Jefferson Powell, AE 86, representative. MS AE 88, computer engineer. Marcus Turner, EE 95, United Space Alliance technical lead, Thillini Rangedera, AE 07, space shuttle flight controller; Kelly Orion simulation model development; Carlos Valrand, AE 65, shuttle Rodrigues, ME 97, Orion vehicle test and verification office, for Booz flight software engineering staff; William Wallace, PhD Chem 03, Allen Hamilton; Sarah (Graybeal) Ruiz, AE 01, rendezvous guidance toxicology lab lead; Doug Wheelock, MS AE 92, STS-120 Discovery and procedures officer; Darren Sabino, AE 05, Boeing robotics astronaut and now at the space station for a five-month stay; Tony verification engineer; Christie Sauers, AE 98, Orion cockpit working Williams, AE 82, Jacobs chief engineer, systems engineering and group/crew module mock-ups lead; Adam Schlesinger, MS ECE 07, integration; Courtney Wright, MS OR 05, Booz Allen Hamilton Avionic communications systems engineer; Kenneth Smith, AE 95, systems engineer, Constellation supportability, operability and space shuttle flight controller, and wife Myra (Dawson) Smith, Chem availability; Jimmy Young, MS AE 05, PhD AE 09, Ares Corp. senior 93, Wyle integrated science and engineering safety specialist; Todd systems engineer. Smithgall, EE 83, Honeywell Orion project avionics architect; Ben Pinpoint the Johnson Space Center crew members in the photo at Stahl, MS AE 07, Constellation ascent and abort analyst; Jason gtalumnimag.com.

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Burdell & Friends

“I’m breathing,” McKinley Conway Science and Industry, a 15-state regional student and became a licensed pilot at 19. retorts when asked about his health. development alliance. In 1954, he started “In the 1930s, Atlanta was a small town. While he says his body is giving out part Conway Data, which launched Industrial Georgia Tech was a center of activity. Social by part, his mind is sharp. Conway, AE 41, Development, the first magazine focused on events were newsworthy. When a Tech fra- who turns 90 in November, recently com- corporate real estate and economic develop- ternity held its big annual dance, that was pleted his autobiography, A Bad Case of Old ment and the precursor to his Site Selection. considered fodder for the society page. I dis- Age: Enjoying a Great Life One More Time, a He founded the International Development covered that the Atlanta Constitution would textbook-size tome. It’s his 47th book. Research Council in 1961 and the Industrial pay for reports; I became their stringer for “It’s a wonderful thing to be able to do,” Asset Management Council in 2002 and Tech social events. I wrote up major dances, Conway says of the time he puts in writing served two terms in the Georgia Senate. listing who escorted whom, what band every day. He entered Georgia Tech at age 15, played, which ballroom was the scene, etc. Conway had a wonderfully varied served on the student council and was editor When the item appeared, I clipped it from career. At age 29, in 1949, he became director of the Technique. He was selected for the the paper. Every Saturday I took my clips to of the fledgling Southern Association of Civilian Pilot Training Program while a Tech the newspaper’s pay window and collected

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several cents per word,” he sometimes had to yield to writes in A Bad Case of Old requests by sponsors,” he Age. writes, recalling that the band In the fall of 1937 Conway played at such venues as the organized the 10-piece band Biltmore Ballroom, Fox Theatre, The Technicians, which started Dinkler-Plaza Hotel and East getting gigs that previously Lake, Brookhaven and Druid would have gone to the Hills country clubs. Ramblers, a group that broke “There was also a profitable up when its members gradu- side venture. Charlie McKinnon, ated. who was my partner as business “This was the peak of the manager of the Technique, and I big band era,” he writes. sponsored dances in the gym “Swing was the thing. Over after home football games. We several years I put together a rented the gym, hired my band library of nearly 200 arrange- and paid a couple of freshmen ments. Some were oldies left to carry a sign around the track behind by the Ramblers. Most at halftime announcing the were newer ones by Glenn Conway escorted future wife Becky Kellam to her Gamma Phi Delta prom. dance, which would be open to Miller, Count Basie, the all for 50 cents a head. It Dorseys and many other big worked. We had big crowds.” names. I got these via a local pawnshop oper- dances held in the Tech gym on Saturday Conway considered staying with the ator who had New York connections. We nights after football games. band following graduation in 1941. paid only $2 or $3 per arrangement. “One O’Clock Jump and In the Mood were “However, I looked closely at some of the “We tried to tone it down when playing all-time favorites. Popular ballads included professional band operations in existence, for afternoon tea dances in small rooms, but Stardust, Night and Day, Deep Purple and Once and I didn’t like what I saw,” he writes. our main menu was made up of loud and in a While. Among more exotic numbers were “Musicians of ordinary talent fell into a rambunctious renditions — the kind that Caravan or Indian Love Call. We tried to avoid rut and never realized their dreams. Only were favored by the jitterbuggers at the such corny material as Beer Barrel Polka, but those with spectacular talent rose to stardom.

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I know pilots are not immortal. Sooner or later we all have to stop flying.

I knew I didn’t have that talent,” he says. choice was to continue toward Manaus and Brazilian military patrol plane lining up on Instead, he landed a job as a junior aero- hope we wouldn’t run out of gas. By the time final approach to land in front of us. Without nautical engineer at the National Advisory we were within about 30 miles of Manaus hesitation, I cut in front of him — it was that Committee for Aeronautics laboratory at both fuel gauges were showing empty — the close — and landed. … When the ramp crew Langley Field, Va., married Becky in 1942 worst crisis of my flying career,” he writes. refilled our 155-gallon tanks, it took a little and was trans- more than 150 gallons. ferred to the Ames We were that close to lab in California in disaster.” 1944. As he nears the “In 1954 I conclusion of the book, launched Industrial Conway writes of the Development, a decision to ground national business himself. magazine devoted “It was a decision I to economic geog- knew I had to make raphy, corporate but still was one of the facility planning most painful of my and area develop- life. I know pilots are ment. It caught on not immortal. Sooner right away. It had or later we all have to taken about five stop flying. By 2003 I years to find a had logged more than niche — tough 7,000 hours as pilot-in- times for the family command. I was a The family’s second airplane, a Cessna 182, took Conway, his wife, Becky, and their daughters, as well as the busi- proud member of the Linda and Laura, on many adventures, including a nail-biter in South America. ness,” he confides in UFOs (United Flying his book. Octogenarians) and “The following had a plaque from the year I made a deal to buy the long-estab- “It appeared almost certain that we Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association hon- lished Manufacturers Record magazine, which would not make it to Manaus. Our best oring my 60 years as a member. I had a good had been published in Baltimore since 1883. option would be to land in the river and record — no FAA violations, no accidents The negotiations were held in the bar of the hope we could survive. I had everybody don and no injuries to crew or passengers. famous Algonquin Hotel in New York. The their life jackets and went over the procedure “However, Becky was having an increas- deal was laid out on a paper napkin.” for getting out of the airplane. Then I got on ingly difficult time getting into and out of the He bought a single-engine Cessna 170 in the radio and called ‘Mayday’ for the first tightly cramped cockpit of our airplane. She the 1950s, when he, his wife and two daugh- time in my life. Repeated calls brought no urged me to take trips without her, but I ters began their worldwide adventures in a answer from the Manaus tower or any other refused, knowing there would be no joys in series of airplanes. Conway kept all his log aircraft. that. After thinking it over and over, I faced books, and the trips — and photos — are “Soon we could see the taller buildings of up to the realization that the time had come chronicled in his memoir. He says the scariest Manaus on the horizon. Both gas gauges rest- for me to give up a way of life that had moment happened in South America, when ed against the E peg. There was no jiggle to meant so much. he was flying his family along the Amazon indicate anything whatsoever in the tanks. I “So I quit cold turkey. I have not set foot River in their twin-engine Aero Commander. held our altitude, thinking that when the in an airplane since. Even now, several years “When we got to the Tefe area, there engines quit I would glide toward the town. later, I dream about just one more flying were heavy thunderstorms covering the “By what seemed a miracle, we got as far expedition. That’s all it is — a dream.” strip. Landing was impossible. Our only as the airport traffic pattern, where I saw a — Kimberly Link-Wills

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1950s Benjamin S. Persons , CE 50, ofAtlanta, has been reappointed to the state board of regis- tration for professional geologists by Gov.Son- ny Perdue. Aconsulting civil engineer and ge- ologist, Persons is a fellow with the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Geological Society of America and a member and subject matter expert of the Council of Geologic Ex- aminers andAssociation of State Boards of Ge- ology.He and his wife, Frances, have three children and five grandchildren. Bill Whitworth , IM 51, wrote a mystery novel titled Butterfly Girl, published by Land of the Sky Books. Whitworth was a training executive with Southern Bell before owning and operating a purebred polled hereford business. He lat- Jim Hickerson er began acting, landing a recurring role as Former POW , CE 56, and wife Carole will be honored by the Honolulu Goody Tate on the TV series In the Heat of the Council of the Navy League of the United States at the council’s seventh annual Ameri- Night and the part of Jackknife Jack in the 2007 can Patriot Awards Dinner on Aug. 7. Hickerson, who retired as a captain after 30 years film Ghost Town The Movie. Whitworth lives in of service to the Navy,spent nearly six years as a POW in North Vietnam after his aircraft Waynesville, N.C., with his wife, Christine, and was struck by a surface-to-air missile during an air mission in 1967 and he was forced to cat, Priscilla. eject. Carole, whose first husband, a Marine Corps captain, vanished in ’67 while pilot- ing a secret helicopter mission in Laos, helped create the National League of Families for 1960s POW/MIAs and served as its second president and a member of its board of directors. Gary M. Cooper , M CP 61, of Birmingham, Ala., was inducted into the American Institute which named him Industry Person of the Year. and American Water Resources Association. of Certified Planners’ College of Fellows in George Thomas “Tom” Humphrey III Willis J. Potts Jr. April. During his 50-year career, Cooper craft- , , IE 69, was elected by the ed one of Alabama’s first greenway plans; re- AE 64, retired from Raytheon after completing University System of Georgia Board of Regents shaped development standards after Hurricane a simulation project on airborne mine coun- to serve a one-year term as the board’s chair Frederic struck Gulf Shores, Ala., in 1979; and termeasures for the Navy.In his 35 years in the through June 30, 2011. contributed toAlabama’s first industrial heritage training simulation field, he was instrumental plan. Cooper also created state and regional in developing flight simulators and training 1970s planning agencies inAlabama, North Carolina equipment for NASA and the Department of Andrew R. “Andy” Chambers and South Carolina. Defense. Humphrey joined Raytheon in 2000 to , CE 75, of Don P. Giddens work on the development of the astronaut train- Fayetteville, Ga., has been reappointed to the , AE 63, MS AE 65, PhD AE ing facility for the International Space Station. state construction industry licensing board by 66, dean of the Georgia Tech College of Engi- He and wife Mary Beth recently celebrated their Gov.Sonny Perdue. Chambers, who is the vice neering, has been elected by the membership 40th wedding anniversary. president of Gallagher Electric and Engineer- of the American Society of Engineering Edu- Lawrence W. Olinger ing Co., has been a member of the board since cation to serve as president-elect for 2010-11. He , MS SanE 68, was 1998. Chambers and his wife, Jeanne, have two will assume the role of president next year. awarded the Harold Williams Award for Pro- children. J.E. “Eddie” Hicks fessional Excellence from Dewberry.Olinger is Thomas D. Gambino , IE 63, MS IM 68, com- president of federal services for Dewberry. , CE 79, president of pleted a two-year term as chairman of the board Olinger is a longtime member of the Associa- Prime Engineering Inc., joined U.S. Commerce of the Worldwide Vending Association. He is tion of State Floodplain Managers and currently Secretary Gary Locke as one of 10 U.S. business the owner and CEO of Prestige Services Inc., serves on its foundation advisory board. He also leaders on the first cabinet-level trade mission near Albany, N.Y., and a past chairman of the is a member of theAmerican Society of Civil En- of the Obama administration. The delegation NationalAutomatic MerchandisingAssociation, gineers, Society of American Military Engineers visited Jakarta, Indonesia, in May to explore op-

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portunities to meet Indonesia’s growing demand for clean energy technologies. Guy Gober , ISyE 75, completed a bicycle ride from Savannah, Ga., to San Diego to raise money for medical scholarships and prostate cancer research. Gober’s son Redding joined him on the 2,500-mile trip. More information is available at prostatecancerawarenessride.syntha- site.com. Gober has a urology practice in a renovated 120-year-old farmhouse in Tiger,Ga. He is an Army colonel who has deployed to Iraq twice to serve in combat support hospitals. H. Scott Kroell Jr. , IE 72, of Midway, Ga., has been appointed to the state board of nurs- ing home administrators by Gov.Sonny Perdue. Kroell is the CEO of Liberty Regional Medical Dave “Bio” Baranek Center in Hinesville. He is a fellow at theAmer- , Psy 79, joined Maverick, Iceman, Goose and Merlin dog fight- ican College of Healthcare Executives; a mem- ing through the sky in the 1986 film Top Gun. Baranek had earned his wings as a naval ber of the Liberty County Board of Health; and flight officer in 1980 and risen to become a Top Gun instructor at the Navy’s elite fight- a board member for The Heritage Bank. He and er weapons school when he was assigned by the Pentagon to assist in filming the flying his wife, Diane, have two children. scenes of the blockbuster movie, featuring Tom Cruise,Anthony Edwards and Val Kilmer. Baranek, just like the pilots in the movie, was a skilled operator of the F-14 Tomcat. That Robert Paul Sherwood Sr. , ChE 74, re- passion for aircraft began with drawing and constructing planes while a child and conceived a master of divinity degree from Colum- tinued through his ROTC experience at Georgia Tech.As Baranek writes in his new book, bia Theological Seminary in May 2009 and Topgun Days, the film experience included “riding in limousines to attend gala premieres joined Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church in and being singled out by giggling teenagers and awed schoolboys who recognized the Augusta, Ga., as associate pastor in January. name ‘Topgun’ on [my] T-shirts.”After finishing a 20-year career in the Navy that included an assignment to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Baranek retired. He now works for a defense William L. Snowden ,MCP77,wasin- contractor in the Washington, D.C., area. ducted into the College of Fellows of the Amer- ican Institute of Certified Planners. He currently is the director of planning and economic de- came a shareholder in 1994. He was named a rebuild the children’s spaces at Fernbank. In velopment for the city of Tuscaloosa,Ala. Snow- principal in 1999 and vice president this year. 2009, King was presented the Chairman’s den previously served as planning director and Tom Hendricks Award from the United Way. later as assistant city manager of Albany, Ga. ,ChE84,hasbeennamedvice Pete McCarthy president at Fluor Corp. He is responsible for the , Text 81, is semiretired and 1980s SoutheastAsia operations of the manufacturing now in a second career as a math and entre- Carine Scarborough Bullock and life sciences business segment. Hendricks, preneurship teacher. In September, he will be , ME 85, has a registered professional engineer with an MBA moving from Andover, Mass., to Melbourne, been named regional plant general manager of from Clemson, has worked for Fluor for 22 years. Australia, with his wife, Sandy,and two of their Florida Power & Light’s newest power plant, Raymond King three children for a two-year sabbatical. While the West County Energy Center in Loxahatch- , Mgt 87, became president there, Sandy will be running Asia Pacific busi- ee, Fla. She lives in Palm City with her husband, and CEO of Zoo Atlanta June 1. He replaced ness for Mercer Retirement, and McCarthy “will Douglas. fellow Tech alumnus Dennis Kelly, ME 76, rent surfboards on the beach.” David Deiters who left earlier this year to head the National Carole McFee , IM 82, has been promoted to Zoo in Washington, D.C. King spent the last , Text 85, was promoted to di- co-president of global consulting firm North 22 years working at SunTrust, most recently rector of quality assurance of the VF Corp.’s Highland. Deiters previously led North High- as the senior vice president for community jeanswear coalition. McFee, who recently cel- land’s flagship Atlanta office. affairs. He has chaired six nonprofit boards in ebrated her 10-year anniversary with VF Corp., Jeffrey Hankin recent years: Research Atlanta, Theatre in the will have responsibility for quality assurance , EE 89, was elected to the Square, Committee for a Better Atlanta, Re- functions in Greensboro, N.C., and Monterrey, Sparling board of directors at the annual meet- gional Business Coalition, Metropolitan Mexico. ing of shareholders. Hankin is vice president of Atlanta Arts and Culture Coalition and the Gregory Tarasidis market development and principal of the San Fernbank Museum of Natural History. King , AE 87, an otolaryngol- Diego office. He joined Sparling in 1990 and be- recently led an $8 million fundraising effort to ogist in Greenwood, S.C., was installed as the

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149th president of the South Carolina Medical Association in May. He is chairman of South Carolina PhysicianAssurance Co. and the out- patient surgery center at Self Regional Health- care and a South Carolina alternate delegate to theAmerican MedicalAssociation. Tarasidis received a medical degree from Emory Univer- Jamiesity’s School of Medicine. He and his wife, , AE 87, MS AE 88, have two children, Anna and John. 1990s Desi Bellamy , CmpE 95, returned toAtlanta and started Ink2net.com, for which he is CEO. Ink2net.com provides a messaging service that allows people to share, discuss and buy off-line content from magazines. Bellamy,a 1999 graduate of Harvard Business School, started Des-

tiny Information Technologies while a freshman Photo by Horace Gifford, courtesy Edward DiGuardia at Georgia Tech. Christopher Rawlins Danielle Phillips Davis , Arch 95, wrote the cover story for the Summer 2010 issue of , IntA 97, MS IntA Modernism magazine. The article serves as a preview of his upcoming book about beach 99, and her husband, Chad, announce the birth house architect Horace Gifford, whose Sloan Residence, above, was built on Fire Island, of son Harrison Clarke Davis on Nov.30. Har- N.Y., in 1972. Rawlins is president of Rawlins Design Inc. (www.RawlinsDesign.com), an rison joins siblings Hadley Kate, 2, and Thatch- architectural and interiors firm based in New York. er, 4, at the family’s home in Leesburg, Va. Melissa Jones Efferth ,Mgt99,ofAl- Kristine Lawrie Williams pharetta, Ga., announces the birth of a son, joins sisters Ashley, 4, and Lexi, 7, at the fami- , CE 99, MS CE Walker Benham Efferth, on Dec. 11. Efferth is ly’s home in Marietta, Ga. 00, and her husband, Kristian, announce the a full-time mother. Scott Machovec birth of daughter Samantha Violette on March Amy Billups Engel , ME 97, was promoted to 17. Williams, a professional environmental en- , Mgt 98, and her hus- senior mechanical engineer by Southern Com- gineer, works for Providence. She and her husband, Nate, announce the birth of a son, Max pany Services. He is in the design engineering band will celebrate their two-year wedding an- Carter, on April 28. Engel is a corporate mar- department at the National Carbon Capture niversary Oct. 18. keting manager for the U.S. GolfAssociation in Center in Wilsonville,Ala., operated by South- Christy Richards Wright Far Hills, N.J. ern Company for the Department of Energy. , ABiol 99, and Jancie S. Hatcher Colleen Varley McCann Greg Wright, CS 00, MBAMoT 09, announce the , MS Chem 90, recently , IE 99, of San Fran- birth of sons Bradley and Bennett on April 12. received a doctor of pharmacy degree from Mer- cisco, completed an MBA in May at the Uni- The twins joined siblings Anna Claire, 3, and cer University and has accepted a position as versity of California, Berkeley,with a focus on William, 5, at the family’s home in Marietta, Ga. staff pharmacist for Ingles Pharmacy in Cleve- marketing and strategy.She works in invento- land, Ga. ry strategy for Gap Inc. 2000s Cayman Percy James Nick Melitas Christopher Argote , CE 99, MS EnvE 01, , AE 97, has been promoted to , AE 09, is working at and Daniel James, EE 00, announce the birth of avionics engineering manager at Northrop Georgia Tech’s Aerospace Systems Design Lab- son Riley William on Feb. 19. Riley joins his Grumman in Melbourne, Fla. oratory while he pursues a master’s degree. brother, Ethan Rex, 2, at the family’s home in Brandon Sherstad During the summer break, Argote is working Peachtree Corners, Ga. Cayman works part time , IE 99, and his wife, in Indianapolis for Rolls-Royce. The company with CH2M HILLas an environmental engineer, Christina Sewall Sherstad, Mgt 01, announce the awardedArgote a graduate fellowship.Argote and Danny is a contractor with AT&T’s oper- birth of a daughter,Harmony Grace, on Dec. 31. attended Georgia Tech with help from a schol- ations and services development. Brandon is a senior manager for Ernst & arship from the NationalAction Council for Mi- Dana Thompson Lowenthal Young. After eight years working in the Geor- norities in Engineering Inc. Todd Lowenthal , MgtSci 96, gia Tech Office of the Dean of Students, Christi- Stephanie Carter and , IE 96, announce the na is a full-time mother. The family lives in , Biol 05, of Atlanta, has birth of sonAndrew Scott on March 24.Andrew Fayetteville, Ga. been named special assistant to the commis-

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sioner for policy and projects at the Georgia De- partment of Transportation. Katie Dieterman Dino Sammarco , Mgt 08, Psy 08, married , AE 06, Mgt 06, on June 5. Dieterman is a human capital analyst with De- loitte Consulting in Atlanta, and Sammarco is a senior consultant at Radiant Systems in Al- pharetta. The couple live in Atlanta. Robert Dunton , MS ME 08, was promoted to chief information officer at Tully Rinckey PLLC. Dunton is responsible for overseeing and developing the firm’s IT infrastructure and Web site and supporting the firm’s ongoing growth initiatives. Dunton previously was a marketing associate for the firm. Will Eidson , Mgt 04, completed his first Half Ironman triathlon, 70.3 miles, in May.He swam Troy Rice 1.2 miles and biked 56 miles before running a , IE 01, and his wife, Tracy, announce the birth of daughter Reagan Marie half marathon. Eidson, an attorney with Thomp- Rice on March 31 in West Palm Beach, Fla. Rice is director of corporate sourcing for son & Knight LLP,lives in Dallas with his wife, Florida Power & Light and a member of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association’s Melanie Murray Eidson , ID 05, who works board of trustees. in commercial real estate for Stream Realty Part- ners LP. Jennifer Yu Hardy ,AE 04, and her husband, Send Us Your News and Photos Brent, will celebrate the first birthday of their son, Luke Dylan, on July 22. Six weeks after their To have your news included in the Ramblin’ Roll, send us the details at Ramblin’ Roll, son’s birth, the couple moved back to Atlanta 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313, or e-mail us at [email protected].. Photos may be submitted for inclusion in the online Ramblin’ Roll at gtalumnimag.com from St. Louis, where Hardy was a systems engineer at Boeing working on the F-15 Singapore Simulator. Emily Hein Who: ______, MS BC 08, announces the birth of her son, Westen Paul Hein-Warren, on Feb. What: ______24. The family lives in California. Eileen Hitcho ______, IE 01, MS HS 02, and her husband, Shawn Symonds, announce the birth of ______son Dean Michael on Nov.25. Hitcho, who grad- ______uated from residency in June, works as an emergency medicine physician in Charlotte, N.C. When:______Occupation: ______Alicia Hodler Hurley Adam Hurley , CE 00, and , CE 00, announce the birth of daugh- Degree: ______Year: ______ter Bridget Faye on March 26. Alicia is a project manager for Brasfield & Gorrie. Adam is a Phone: ______E-mail: ______foundation manager for Berkel & Company.The family lives in Marietta, Ga. Street: ______Daniel James City: ______State: _____ ZIP: ______, EE 00, and his wife, Cayman Percy James, CE 99, MS EnvE 01, announce the birth of son Riley William on Feb. 19. Riley joins brother Ethan Rex, 2, at the family’s home in Peachtree Corners, Ga. Danny is a contractor

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In Memoriam with AT&T’s operations and services development, and Cayman works part time with CH2M HILL as an environmental engineer. Yulong “Clark” Li , MBA02, has joined Balen- tine as global investment research director. He is responsible for leading the investment team’s 1930s Italian POW camp at Fort Rucker, Ala., overall research efforts. He previously served William D. Evans Jr. upon his return to the United States. as executive manager of the research depart- , IM 38, of Winston- William Dayton “Bill” Francis ment for the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Salem, N.C., on May 10. He worked for , IM 43, Robert Madayag many years with Crawford & Company in of Roswell, Ga., on May 4. He served in the , ChE 02, was selected as Raleigh and later was vice president of Army and Army Reserve before beginning a director of the management division of the safety for Carolina Casualty Insurance Co. in a career in textile manufacturing manage- American Institute of Chemical Engineers for Jacksonville, Fla. He was a major in the ment. An Eagle Scout, he later served as a a two-year term. He is an attorney in theAtlanta Army during World War II. Scout leader. He also was a Mason and a office of Woodcock Washburn LLP and a trus- member of Knights Templar and the Ros- tee of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association. 1940s well Rotary Club. Grace Ou LeRoy A. Aarons Jarrell Bland Goodwin Jr. , MS IDT 05, a co-founder of Rival , ChE 43, a resident of , GE 44, of Industries, was featured in the April issue of Falls Church, Va., on Jan. 31. He was a mem- Augusta, Ga., on June 7. Mr. Goodwin re- Digital Signage Magazine in response to Rival’s ber of Alpha Phi Omega while at Tech and ceived a law degree and served in the Navy award-winning touch-screen applications Vir- retired from the Navy. aboard the USS Riddle in World War II. He tual Home and Mobile Games Market, which Robert Curtis Barrett was employed by the Georgia state legal were showcased at Samsung’s inaugural Race , ChE 42, a resi- and highway departments. He was a treas- to Innovation competition and the 2010 Digi- dent of Cartersville, Ga., on April 1. He was urer and an elder emeritus at his church. tal Signage Expo in Las Vegas. sales manager for Chemical Products Corp. Harold William Harrison Ravi Puri in Cartersville for more than 35 years, retir- , EE 43, of Los , MS MoT 00, has been appointed ing in 1987. Mr. Barrett previously worked Altos, Calif., on April 2. In 1962, Mr. Harri- a vice president of the global consulting firm in Venezuela for Standard Oil of Louisiana. son co-founded Aertech Industries, which North Highland. Puri leads North Highland’s He was a deacon and elder at his church. specialized in semiconductor and micro- CIO Services & Supply Chain Management Jack Cook wave technologies pertaining to radar, tele- practice. Puri previously held leadership po- , IM 49, of Wimberley, Texas, communications and satellite components, sitions at IBM and Deloitte. on April 28. Mr. Cook retired following a 37- some of which were used in the United Christina Sewall Sherstad year career with Southern Bell, at which he States’ first manned mission to the moon. , Mgt 01, and was a manager responsible for advancing The company was sold to TRW in 1974, but Brandon Sherstad, IE 99, announce the birth of computer automation systems. After grad- Mr. Harrison continued to serve as presi- a daughter, Harmony Grace, on Dec. 31. After uating from Georgia Tech, he served in the dent until 1977. He later worked in opera- eight years working in the Georgia Tech Office Navy. Survivors include his son, Jack S. tional consulting, specializing in corporate of the Dean of Students, Christina is a full-time Cook Jr., ABiol 76. turnaround and merger situations for tech- mother. Brandon is a senior manager for Ernst Paul Truett Dietz nology-based companies. During his career, & Young. The family lives in Fayetteville, Ga. , Cls 47, of Georgia, on Mr. Harrison also spent 13 years working Jeff Weese April 24. He left Tech to enlist in the Navy for the National Advisory Committee for , MS IDT 05, a co-founder of Ri- and in 1944 received his wings and commis- Aeronautics, later NASA. The first real-time val Industries, was featured in the April issue sion. He returned to Tech in 1949 but was application of a digital computer to solve of Digital Signage Magazine in response to Rival’s called back to active duty in 1952. He trans- aeronautical problems was developed un- award-winning touch-screen applications Vir- ferred to the Navy Reserve in 1959 and con- der his leadership. In 1957, Mr. Harrison tual Home and Mobile Games Market, which tinued flying until his retirement in 1971. was employed by General Electric to help in were showcased at Samsung’s inaugural Race Millard R. Dusenbury the design of the largest banking computer to Innovation competition and the 2010 Digi- , ChE 40, of Jekyll at the time. He also served on the national tal Signage Expo in Las Vegas. Island, Ga., on April 23. He spent 35 years committee, which established the encoding Greg Wright working for Hercules Inc. in Wilmington, in use today on all checks. Mr. Harrison , CS 00, MBA MoT 09, and his Del., and Brunswick, Ga. A member of served on the Georgia Tech Advisory Board wife, Christy Richards Wright, ABiol 99, an- Sigma Chi and the marching band while at from 1976 through 1982 and was inducted nounce the birth of twin sons Bradley and Ben- Tech, he served as an Army captain during into Georgia Tech’s Engineering Hall of nett on Apri 12. They joined sister Anna Claire, World War II, participating in the Middle Fame in 1994. 3, and brother William, 5, at the family’s home East, North African and Italian campaigns, W. Hugo Heidenreich Jr. in Marietta, Ga. and was the commander of the German and , IM 48, of

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Charlotte, N.C., on May 1. He retired from the master’s degree in aeronautical engineering A B-25 combat bomber pilot during World insurance business in 1998. He joined the from MIT. His last Navy assignment was in War II, he received the Distinguished Flying Westbrook Insurance Agency in 1948 and es- weapons systems evaluation at the Pentagon Cross. He retired as a colonel in the Air Force tablished the Heidenreich Agency in 1968. from 1959 to 1961. Reserve and in the 1980s received the Defense During his career, he was president of Char- Monroe Jerome Smith Jr. Department’s Distinguished Service Medal lotte’s Mutual Insurance Exchange and served , TE 41, of At- and a Patriots Award from the United Service on the Charlotte Mecklenburg Parks and Rec- lanta, on April 24. He was a retired manufac- Organizations. He served as a national board reation Commission. Mr. Heidenreich lettered turer’s representative with C-R-S Inc. He was member of the Army Reserve Association and in football and track at Georgia Tech, where a member of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity while at president of the Atlanta chapter. He also was his studies were interrupted by service in Georgia Tech. a 30-year member of the Atlanta Rotary Club. World War II as a lieutenant in Gen. George Kenneth W. Sutton Patton’s 3rd Army. , Cls 49, of Ocilla, Ga., 1950s Archibald Little Jr. on May 11. Mr. Sutton founded Farmer’s Trad- Louie Joe Allison , IM 48, of Stillwater, ing Co., which later became Sutton Tractor , Text 51, of Kingsport, Okla., on May 29. Mr. Little retired from the Co. of Ocilla. Mr. Sutton was the last active Tenn., on April 11. He retired from Tennessee Public Service Company of Oklahoma in 1981 charter member of the Ocilla Rotary Club. Mr. Eastman Co. in 1986. In his 36-year career with after working in various positions with the Sutton served as a deacon, trustee and clerk the company, Mr. Allison was awarded two company in Tulsa and Bartlesville for more and a member of the Steadfast Seekers Sunday patents for textile improvement. AWorld War than 30 years. In his 20 years in Bartlesville, he school class at his church. II veteran, he served in the Army Air Forces served as an officer of the Chamber of Com- Franklin Duncan “Frank” Tidwell 15th Air Force. He was a member of the Amer- merce, the Kiwanis Club, the Jaycees, the , Cls ican Legion and the Optimist Club. Mr. Alli- United Fund, the American Red Cross chap- 45, of Douglasville, Ga., on May 13. Mr. Tid- son also was a Scoutmaster and a longtime ter and the Boy Scouts. Mr. Little and his wife well began working with Tidwell Construc- committee chairman of the Boy Scouts of spent many years showing dogs with the Mid- tion Co. in 1939. He later served as its presi- America Sequoyah Council. Continent Kennel Club of Tulsa. During dent and was part owner of the firm until Edward Ray Beeman World War II, he served in the American Field retiring in 1982. He then evaluated the safety , IM 50, of Zephyr- Service as an ambulance driver attached to and probable life spans of bridges as a con- hills, Fla., on May 20. Mr. Beeman helped the British 8th Army. sultant to the Georgia Railroad. An Army vet- Florida Power establish its first corrosion con- Charles Robert Minors eran of World War II, he served under Gen. trol department and worked for the company , EE 45, of Darien, George Patton in the 95th Infantry Division. for 28 years. He served in the Coast Guard and Ga., on April 5. He worked for Georgia Power Known as the “Iron Men of Metz,” the infan- was stationed on Tennessee Valley Authority Company from 1946 to 1984, retiring as vice trymen liberated Metz, France, from German dams during World War II. president of consumer affairs. He later spent occupation. Mr. Tidwell was an avid photog- Roy W. Blanton Jr. several years working for the Edison Electric rapher and a member of the Veterans of For- ,MSME59,PhDME Institute. A Navy veteran of World War II, he eign Wars. 63, of LaGrange, Ga., on May 12. A certified served on the USS California in the Pacific. William Dawsie “Bill” Tucker professional engineer, Dr. Blanton worked in John L. Rhodes Jr. , IM 43, of academics, research and consulting during his , IM 49, formerly of Gainesville, Ga., on April 21. He worked for career and retired from the University of Ala- Milledgeville, Ga., and Atlanta, on May 19. He the Georgia Association of Petroleum Retailers bama in Huntsville as a professor. retired as senior manufacturing engineer fol- before moving to Florida, where he spent 22 Arthur Louis Burress Jr. lowing a 32-year career with Lockheed Air- years as executive director of the Allied Gaso- , IM 53, a resi- craft in Marietta. Also a graduate of Georgia line Retailers Association. He returned to At- dent of Metairie, La., on May 27. Mr. Burress Military College, he was an Army officer dur- lanta in 1977 and served in the business office received a master’s degree from Tulane Uni- ing World War II and received the Purple of the Georgia Baptist Convention until his re- versity and retired from Shell Oil Co. Heart with two oak leaf clusters. tirement in 1990. He was treasurer of the Em- Robert Weyman “Bob” Bussey James F. Sands bry Hills Investment Club from 1982 to 2003. , EE 52, , Cls 43, of Statesboro, Ga., He was in the Army for three years, serving in a resident of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., on on April 16. After retiring from the Navy as a Hawaii and Saipan, and was among the first Feb. 16. Mr. Bussey worked for Florida Power commander, he began a second career at Johns U.S. troops to occupy Japan. & Light Co. for 36 years, rising from engineer Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where James Fennell Williams to a division manager of the Southeast divi- he researched air defense systems from 1961 to , EE 49, of At- sion before retiring from the company in 1988. 1981. He joined the Navy as an aviation cadet lanta, on May 26. He worked briefly as a math After receiving his wings in 1953, Mr. Bussey in 1941 and was a fighter pilot during World instructor at Georgia Tech before joining the served in the Army Signal Corps as a liaison War II. He also was involved in nuclear weap- Coca-Cola Company in 1950. He became a pilot in Texas and Germany. ons training. He received a bachelor’s degree vice president of the company in 1965, retired James Freddie Conner from the Naval Postgraduate School and a in 1982 and served as a consultant until 1994. , EE 50, a resident

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HonoraryJeanne Rolfe Ferst, wife of the Alumna late Jeanne Ferst Dies Robert H. Ferst, ME 38, died May 27 at her home in Atlanta. She was 91. Though she attended the University of Chicago, Mrs. Ferst became a proud sup- porter of Georgia Tech after marrying into one of the Institute’s most dedicated alumni families in 1940. During Tech’s Capital Campaign, Mrs. Ferst made a commitment of $1 million to the Institute for the naming of the Robert Ferst Center for the Arts to honor her husband, who died in 1991. She later served on the center’s advisory board. The Ferst Center, which over the years has hosted performances by Arlo Guthrie and Penn & Teller as well as a recent campus visit by Gen. David Petraeus, is located just steps away from the winding street named for the Ferst family. Mrs. Ferst, a retired real estate broker, was named an honorary alumna of Tech at the Alumni Association’s Gold & White Center’s National Committee for the or co-chair of presidential finance commit- Honors ceremony in 2008. Performing Arts; the Commission on tees. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Her service off campus included chair- Presidential Scholars; and the Georgia reported that former Georgia Rep. and ing the Fulton County Economic Public Telecommunications Commission. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was Development Advisory Board and serving Mrs. Ferst five times served as a dele- scheduled to serve as a pallbearer at Mrs. on the Fulton County Economic gate to the Republican National Ferst’s funeral. Development Corp. and the Southern Convention. She was a chair and member Memorials in her name may be made Center for International Studies boards; of the Georgia Republican finance com- to the Georgia Tech Foundation for the the Georgia Higher Education Savings mittee and treasurer of the Georgia Jeanne Ferst Director’s Chair in the Robert Plan board of directors; the Kennedy Republican Party. She also served as chair Ferst Center for the Arts.

of Huntsville, Ala., on May 23. Mr. Conner re- trical and Electronics Engineers and a past Office of General Services as a contract admin- tired as chief of product assurance and testing secretary-treasurer of the American Institute istrator for many years before retiring in 1993. of the Pershing missile program in 1980 after of Electric Engineers. Mr. Conner received the Mr. Cummings served in the Marine Corps 37 years of combined federal service. Mr. Con- Cross of Military Service from the United and was a member of the White Plains Ma- ner served as a Navy airman in the Pacific Daughters of the Confederacy. sonic Lodge and a member and past president theater during World War II. He began his ca- Ben M. Croker Sr. of the Rotary International Club of Rotter- reer as an engineer for the Armed Services Se- , Text 54, a resident of dam, N.Y. curity Agency, which later became the Na- Dallas, Ga., on April 24. He retired from John Edmund Diehl tional Security Agency, and spent 10 years Burlington Industries in 1998 after a 38-year , IE 56, a resident of working for the Navy at the Mine Defense career with the company. Following gradua- Huntsville, Ala., on April 23. Mr. Diehl retired Lab in Panama City, Fla., before working for tion from Georgia Tech, he served in the Navy from the Chrysler Corp. following a 30-year the Army on the Pershing program. He was for six years, achieving the rank of comman- career with the company. Mr. Diehl served in present at more than 400 Pershing missile fir- der, and later in the Reserve. the Army during World War II and the Korean ings. Mr. Conner received the Meritorious Walter L. Cummings Jr. War. Civilian Service Award in 1967. He was a , Cls 53, a resident Randolph William “Randy” Driggers member of the Sons of the American Revolu- of Schenectady, N.Y., on April 15. Mr. Cum- , tion, a senior member of the Institute of Elec- mings was employed by the state of New York Cls 59, of Atlanta, on April 26. He worked for

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In Memoriam

Wayne F. McWhorter MM Systems Corp. for 35 years. After earning 18. He was a retired Army lieutenant colonel. , ChE 51, a resident a master of divinity degree in the 1990s, the James D. Huddleston III of Louisville, Ky., on May 30. He served in the Rev. Driggers left his business career to serve , EE 53, MS EE Army Air Forces during World War II and re- as minister of education at Briarlake Baptist 75, of Stone Mountain, Ga., on May 12. Mr. tired from Celanese Chemical Corp. as a Church in Decatur, Ga. He was involved in Huddleston retired as a principal engineer chemical engineer. several Atlanta-area churches, serving as a with Georgia Power. He began working for Robert Lewis “Bob” Morris deacon, Royal Ambassador leader, youth the company in 1951 while a co-op student at , ME 59, a worker and an adult Sunday school teacher. Tech. In 1969 he received the Georgia Power resident of Atlanta, on April 4. A professional He was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity Engineering Association Engineer of the Year engineer, member of the American Society of while at Tech. Award and in 2006 the association’s Lifetime Mechanical Engineers and licensed instru- Edwin O’Rear Faulkner Achievement Award. He served as a consult- ment-rated pilot, Mr. Morris solved engineer- , IM 54, of Jack- ant to the Georgia Power corporate archives, ing problems for a variety of national firms son, Ga., on May 23. He was the founder and to which he recently donated his lifetime col- through a business he started in 1967. While a president of Faulkner Co., a wholesale dis- lection of electric meters. He was a life mem- student at Georgia Tech, Mr. Morris worked at tributor of commercial HVAC and refrigera- ber of the Institute of Electrical and Electron- the Engineering Experiment Station. Mr. Mor- tion products, and owner and president of Jo- ics Engineers. ris, who had autism, served as a mentor to Ness-Co Controls, an automatic controls panel John C. Huskisson Jr. other adults with the disorder beginning in the engineering and manufacturing firm. Mr. , IM 51, of Savan- late 1980s. Faulkner spent 10 years coaching youth sports nah, Ga., on May 30. He began his advertising Sidney Thomas Nutting Jr. in DeKalb and Fayette counties and served career with General Electric Co. in 1951, guid- , IE 50, a res- four years as the Fayette County High School ing the preparation of parts catalogs, instruc- ident of Savannah, Ga., on May 6. Mr. Nutting athletic booster club president. He was a mem- tion books and maintenance manuals for in- was employed by Union Camp Corp., later In- ber of Kappa Sigma fraternity while at Tech. dustrial and military equipment, and later ternational Paper Corp., for 43 years, retiring Forest LaVerne Fowler Jr. worked for advertising agencies in Florida as vice president of unbleached papers with , IM 54, of At- and Georgia. He was a former executive vice mills in Prattville, Ala., and Savannah. He pre- lanta, on April 29. In 1956, he joined the fam- president of the Pidcock & Company agency viously served as mill superintendent of the ily insurance business, Forest Fowler Agency, in Savannah and for 15 years operated Hus- Franklin, Va., bleached paper mill and earlier from which he retired in 1990 after 15 years as kisson Advertising. He was a charter member was manager of the Honeycomb Divi- chief operating officer. Following graduation and president of the Advertising Club of Sa- sion with plants in Wisconsin, New York and from Tech, where he was a member of Chi Phi vannah, which twice awarded him its Hadley New Jersey.During his career, he served as na- fraternity, Phi Eta Sigma and the Industrial B. Cammack Award for excellence in adver- tional president of the Paper Industry Man- Management Society, Mr. Fowler was com- tising. He was awarded the Advertising Fed- agement Association and as vice president of missioned as a second lieutenant in the Army eration of America Silver Medal in 1960. Fol- the mid-Atlantic region of the American In- and served two years at Fort Campbell, Ky., lowing retirement, he had a 15-year career stitute of Industrial Engineering. Mr. Nutting and Fort Belvoir, Va. He was a life member of with Publix Supermarkets. During World War also served on numerous boards and councils the Capital City Club; founding director and II, he flew 18 combat missions as a B-26 pilot and held both city- and state-level positions second president of the Benedicts of Atlanta with the 9th Air Force in Europe. While a stu- with the Chambers of Commerce in Alabama social club; and founding board member of dent at Georgia Tech, he was an editor of the and Georgia. He served as president of the Sa- New Life Center, a Christian rehabilitation Blueprint and a member of ANAK, Omicron vannah and Franklin, Va., Rotary clubs and as ministry. He was a deacon emeritus at his Delta Kappa and the Ramblin’ Reck Club. a director of the Montgomery, Ala., club. A church and a member of the Atlanta Kiwanis Marion Anderson Jones Navy veteran of World War II, Mr. Nutting Club with 50 years of perfect attendance. , CE 54, a resi- was a member of Alpha Pi Mu and AIIE while John William “Bill” Fussell dent of Atlanta, on April 21. Mr. Jones retired attending Georgia Tech. He was elected to , IE 57, a res- from Lockheed as a senior structural engineer vestries and served as a senior warden at var- ident of Atlanta, on May 7. Mr. Fussell earned following a lengthy career with the company. ious churches over the years. Mr. Nutting’s a master’s degree in city planning from the Mr. Jones received an MBAfrom Indiana State survivors include brother-in-law J. Earl Catholic University of America in Washing- University. Gilbreath Jr., IE 54. ton, D.C., while working in the real estate op- James Byron Kemp Jere G. Osmer erations of the Postal Service. He also was a , IM 55, of Chiefland, , ME 57, of Hendersonville, registered professional engineer. Mr. Fussell Fla., on April 8. In 2005, he retired as owner of N.C., on March 24. Mr. Osmer retired from served in the Navy on the battleship Missis- Cedar Key Island Hopper Tours, a business he Pratt & Whitney. sippi, on which he was a fleet boxing cham- established in 1987. Mr. Kemp served in the Tom F. Pattillo pion, and in the Merchant Marine during Army Intelligence 111th Counter Intelligence , ME 51, a resident of New World War II. Corps from 1955 through 1957 and received a Smyrna Beach, Fla., on April 8. Mr. Pattillo, a James Frederick Holcomb law degree from Atlanta Law School in 1964. citrus and fern grower, was past president of , MS EE 58, He co-founded and operated Kemp Realty in Pattillo Fruit Sales Inc. and a past field repre- who was a resident of Springfield, Va., on Dec. Jonesboro, Ga., from 1960 to 1976. sentative of Florida Orange Marketers. Mr.

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Yellow Jackets, NFL Veteran Nick Rogers Former Georgia Tech football star and NFL player Nick Rogers, Mgt 03, died May 3 in a single-vehicle accident in College Park, Ga., when his car hit a utility pole. He was 30 years old. Mr. Rogers, a two-year starter at defensive end at Tech, earned second-team All-ACC honors in the 2000 and 2001 seasons. In his player profile on the Georgia Tech Athletic Association Web site, he was noted as “one of the best all-around athletes on the team with excellent speed, strength and agility.” In 2002, he was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the sixth round and moved to linebacker. In four years in the NFL, he also played for the Green Bay Packers, Indianapolis Colts and Miami Dolphins. He last played for the Colorado Crush in the Arena Football League in 2008. Following his football career, Mr. Rogers opened a barber- shop and renovated homes, Sean Gregory, a friend and former Tech running back, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Nicholas Quixote Rogers was a native of East Point and a graduate of St. Pius X High School, where he lettered in football, basketball and track. He was not the only member of the Rogers family to wear the white and gold. Survivors include his brother, Phillip, Mgt 99, a former Yellow Jackets running back, and his sister Dana, Mgt 05, a former member of the track team. Georgia Tech Athletic Association

Pattillo served in both the Navy and Army. a career in environmental engineering with career as a cost accountant with the company. David A. Smith the U.S. Public Health Service, rising to assis- A graduate of the Georgia Military Academy, , Cls 50, of Peachtree City, tant surgeon general with the rank of rear ad- he stood guard at the 1939 Atlanta premiere of Ga., on Oct. 19. He was an industrial engineer miral before retiring in 1971. He then was an Gone With the Wind while a cadet at the acad- with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. executive with ITT Palm Coast. He received emy.He served in the Army with the 406 Anti- Joseph Edwin Tatum Jr. master’s degrees in civil engineering and pub- tank Division in the 102nd Infantry during , EE 50, AE 57, of lic health from the University of Michigan and World War II. Canyon Country, Calif., on March 25. In a ca- was a diplomate of the American Academy of Sam L. Wohar reer with Lockheed Aircraft, Rockwell Inter- Environmental Engineering and chair of the , ME 52, of Alpharetta, Ga., national and Northrop Aircraft, Mr. Tatum city of Ormond Beach environmental advi- on May 2. Mr. Wohar worked for Lockheed worked on the L-1011, space shuttle, stealth sory board. He enjoyed performing in musi- before joining Player and Company in 1971. bomber and stealth fighter programs. An cals and served as president of Civic Music He retired from the company in 1998 as chair- Army captain during the Korean War, he was and the Daytona Playhouse and as a member man and CEO. Mr. Wohar served in the Army a past president of the Tri-Canyon Kiwanis of Seaside Music Theater’s advisory board. and attended Georgia Tech on the GI Bill. He Club and a member of the Military Order of James Walker III was a member of the American Society of Me- the World Wars. , Text 56, of Amelia Is- chanical Engineers, National Society of Engi- Marshall Ray Twitty Jr. land, Fla., on May 11. Mr. Walker held various neers, National Certified Pipe Welding Bu- , IE 58, of Man- positions in the textile industry in Georgia, reau and Atlanta Rotary Club. chester, Ga., on May 20. An Army veteran of Florida, Ohio, New York and North Carolina the Korean War, he was a retired civil engineer and eventually purchased his own company, 1960s with Raytheon. He was a member of Alpha North American Rayon Corp. He sold the Rutledge M. Beacham Tau Omega fraternity while at Tech. company to its employees in 1985. , Cls 68, of Atlanta, Richard Dugger Vaughan Homer Watkins Jr. on April 6. Mr. Beacham spent the last 32 years , CE 51, of Or- , ChE 50, of High Point, of his commercial real estate career working mond Beach, Fla., on May 28. He served in the N.C., on April 6. Mr. Watkins retired from for the Atlanta-based firm Carter, ultimately Army during World War II and in 1951 began Burlington Industries in 1989 after a 39-year overseeing more than 2.7 million square feet of

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In Memoriam

Douglas Grey Outlaw Charles Polke Yeomans office, industrial and retail properties in At- , CE 66, MS CE 67, , IM 60, of More- lanta. He was a longtime member of the Build- of Tallahassee, Fla., on April 13. He worked for head City,N.C., on May 28. Mr.Yeomans, who ing Owners and Managers Association, serv- the Army Corps of Engineers for 22 years and earned a master’s degree in accounting from ing a year as president of the Atlanta chapter for the Department of Environmental Protec- Georgia State University, established World and two years as president of the Southern re- tion for 18 years. He served in the Army Re- Imports of Fayetteville and Shore Decor in gion. In 2003, BOMA awarded Mr. Beacham serve for 28 years and retired as a lieutenant Morehead City. its Huey Member Service Award. He also was colonel. 1970s an Eagle Scout and a recipient of the Boy Wayne M. Peavey Scouts’ Silver Beaver Award. , IM 63, a resident of James Everette Arnold David Bruce Clark Fitzgerald, Ga., on May 26. Mr. Peavey was a , EE 77, of Rixey- , Cls 69, of Woodstock, retired insurance adjustor for Allstate Insur- ville, Va., on June 3, following a swimming ac- Ga., on May 11. Mr. Clark completed his un- ance Co. He served in the Marine Corps Re- cident off the coast of Emerald Isle, N.C. Mr. dergraduate and graduate degrees at Georgia serve and was a member of the Elks Club and Arnold received a master’s degree in electrical State and began his career at Sears before start- a former member of the Jaycees. engineering from MIT and served as director ing his own computer company, Professional Joseph Martin “Marty” Reynolds of the advanced systems and technology divi- Consultants Inc., which he ran for more than , MS sion of the National Reconnaissance Office. 25 years. He served in the Army in Vietnam Phys 64, MS NE 70, a resident of Atlanta, on Earl Stanley “Stan” Bean Jr. and received the Purple Heart. Mr. Clark April 2. He worked as an engineer, business , Text 72, of played golf; ran with the bulls in Pamplona, development executive and contractor adviser Atlanta, on May 26, from a heart attack. He re- Spain; participated in basketball and baseball with Sun Microsystems, ASTI, Bull and vari- tired as president of Uniblend Spinners in New leagues in Woodstock; and enjoyed Civil War ous technology companies in the Southeast. York. He began his career in textiles as a su- history, playing Guitar Hero and perfecting Mr. Reynolds also built computers and audio pervisor with Milliken in Greenville, S.C., then dovetail joints. equipment, operated and maintained ham ra- worked in sales management with Fiber In- Kenneth Joseph Gillam dios and restored and rode motorcycles. Last dustries in Charlotte, N.C., and New York. A , AE 61, a resi- year, he took flight instruction training and member of Beta Theta Pi at Tech, Mr. Bean en- dent of Charleston, S.C., on April 12. He was flew solo. tered the Institute as a civil engineering major the president of ABC Awning & Venetian Henry Grady Rylander Jr. in 1963. His studies were interrupted by serv- Blind Co. He served in the Air Force. Mr. , PhD ME 65, a ice in the Army as a chief warrant officer and Gillam was a deacon at his church and served resident of Austin, Texas, on May 22. Dr. Ry- Cobra attack helicopter pilot. Mr. Bean served as a member of the Executives Association of lander, who earned a bachelor’s and later a an extended tour of duty in Vietnam with the Greater Charleston and the National Rifle As- master’s degree in mechanical engineering 101st Airborne Division, receiving a Bronze sociation. Survivors include sons Kenneth J. from the University of Texas at Austin, was Star and the Purple Heart. Gillam Jr., IM 85, and David Allen Gillam, AE involved in the design of jet engines at the Will Chamberlin 89, MS AE 90, and daughter-in-law Cynthia Westinghouse steam division before returning , IM 74, of Watkinsville, Gillam, IM 85. to Austin in 1947 and beginning a 50-year ca- Ga., on April 9. Mr. Chamberlin was an indus- Hallie Bowen Holmes reer teaching in UT’s department of mechan- trial engineer for Reliance Electric for 20 years. , BC 60, a resident ical engineering. He served as chairman of the In 1989, he and a friend started Classic Race of Flowery Branch, Ga., on April 6. Mrs. department from 1976 to 1986 and was one of Services, a company that facilitates road races Holmes, who also had a bachelor’s degree in the founders of the Center for Electrome- throughout the Southeast. He served on the pre-med from the University of Georgia, as- chanics. Dr. Rylander, who researched tribol- Sandy Creek Nature Center board and was a sisted with the family real estate business, T.C. ogy and machine design, published more choir member and elder at his church. Holmes & Son. Mrs. Holmes was a member of than 100 technical articles and wrote or edited James E. Delk III the Daughters of the American Colonists, for three books. , APhys 76, of Atlanta, on which she had served as national president; Guillermo Velasco Jr. May 15. Mr. Delk spent his career in nuclear the National Society of Southern Dames of , TE 60, a resident of energy. He obtained the rank of Eagle Scout. America; the National Society of New Eng- Norcross, Ga., on April 16. Mr. Velasco was a Christopher Lee Feucht land Women; the Gavel Society; and the Wally founding member of the Bolivian Association , IE 72, of Chesa- Byam Caravan Club, for which she had served of Atlanta. peake, Va., on April 17. After leading short- as national treasurer. Charles Leroy Windham Jr. term medical teams in needy areas across the Julian C. “Bo” Jett Jr. , IM 63, of globe, Dr. Feucht became director of missions , IM 68, MS IM 70, Decatur, Ga., on May 22. A member of the at New Life Christian Fellowship’s family of a resident of Charleston, S.C., on April 15. Mr. football team and president of Sigma Chi fra- churches in 1998 and for 12 years mobilized Jett retired as executive vice president of ternity at Tech, Mr. Windham served as a lieu- missionaries and mission teams in ministry Macey & Company.While he was a student at tenant junior grade in the Navy and spent his efforts. He received a doctorate of medicine Georgia Tech, he was a member of Chi Phi fra- career in chemical sales. He was a member of from the Medical College of Georgia. In the ternity. the Masonic Temple in Atlanta. 1970s, he and his wife spent three months serv-

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ing at a mission hospital in Tanzania. His fam- ernment Solutions in Columbia, Md. He re- 2000s ily moved to Chesapeake in 1994 to work at ceived his bachelor’s degree in engineering Charles J. Whittington Operation Blessing with the Flying Hospital. from Stevens Institute in Hoboken, N.J., and en- ,CS05,ofFort John Michael McClure joyed skydiving. Campbell, Ky., on March 27, 2009. He worked , MS IM 76, of Ma- William George Lunsford for a software firm in Alpharetta before enlist- rietta, Ga., on May 11. A veteran of the Army , TChem 80, of ing in the Army in September 2006. He later National Guard, he retired following a 33-year Atlanta, on May 30, from complications of was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the career with Georgia Power and the Southern colon cancer. A textile chemist, he was the field artillery and assigned to the 320th Field Company. He also was a graduate of the Uni- vice president of product development for Artillery, 101st Airborne Division already de- versity of Georgia. Denim North America, located in Columbus, ployed to Iraq, where in January 2008 he was James Patrick Mellin Ga. Mr. Lunsford, who traveled around the assigned to train the Iraqi army in and around , MS EE 72, of world to inspect jeans and fabrics and spot Tikrit. He later was assigned to the 1st Squad- Bloomington, Minn., on Oct. 27. A retired lieu- fashion trends, had visited all 50 states and ron, 32nd Cavalry and worked as a fire support tenant colonel, he served as a helicopter pilot in more than 60 countries. Earlier this year, officer.The unit redeployed to Fort Campbell in Vietnam and received the Distinguished Fly- Denim North America honored Mr. Lunsford late 2008. First Lt. Whittington’s survivors in- ing Cross for heroism. He was a 1958 graduate by naming the company’s development cen- clude father Terry Whittington, IM 73. of the U.S. Military Academy. ter for him. He joined the company in 2002 Friends Clyde Patrick Molloy after working for various textile companies. , ME 70, of El Paso, Mr. Lunsford earned a master’s degree in tex- H. Roy Carroll Texas, on May 28, of cancer. He served 15 years tile chemistry from North Carolina State Uni- , 93, of Seneca, S.C., on March of active duty in the Army and seven years in versity. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution re- 10.An avid Georgia Tech fan, he was the former the Army Reserve in a variety of staff and com- ported that guests attending an open house owner of Carroll’s Union 76 Station. He was in mand positions with operational troop units in in Mr. Lunsford’s memory were asked to the Civilian Conservation Corps. Air Defense Artillery and Field Artillery, retir- dress in denim. Thomas K. Hamall ing with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He then , 77, of Peachtree City, worked for Hughes Aircraft from 1985 to 1995 1990s Ga., on April 29. Before serving as director of as a senior member of the technical staff and Randall Y. Grimes university partnerships at Georgia Tech, Mr. with Raytheon as a principal systems engineer , PhD ME 97, a resident Hamall was executive vice president of the from 1995 until earlier this year. He was a Boy of Atlanta, on May 18, from complications of MetroAtlanta Chamber from 1974 to 1983, dur- Scout pack and troop leader and a recipient of pulmonary hypertension. Dr. Grimes was a ing which time he was a leader in race relations the Silver Beaver Award. partner at WellStar Cardiovascular Medicine and international trade. With Mr. Hamall at its Richard E. Schier PC in Marietta. Dr. Grimes earned bachelor’s helm, the chamber welcomed its first African- , IM 71, of Chattanooga, degrees in molecular biology and physics American member and first twoAfrican-Amer- Tenn., on April 21. He worked for Unum Prov- from the University of Georgia and a medical ican chairmen. Mr. Hamall’s survivors include ident for 29 years, retiring in 2001. He was a degree from the Emory University School of daughter Claire Moyer,IM 86, and son Kenneth member of the Order of Charlemagne and the Medicine and received the American College Hamall, ME 95, MS ME 97. Chattanooga chapter of the Tennessee Orni- of Cardiology Young Investigator Award Paul H. Nichols Jr. thological Society and a senior warden at his while completing a three-year cardiology fel- , 88, of Atlanta, on May church. Mr. Schier played guitar and was an lowship at Massachusetts General Hospital in 19. Dr. Nichols graduated from Emory Dental avid bird photographer. Boston. While at the hospital, he had ad- School; served in the Navy Dental Corps in Laird Wadsworth Shull Jr. vanced training in transesophageal echocar- World War II and the Korean War; and prac- , IM 74, of Las diography. In 1999, Dr. Grimes received a fac- ticed dentistry in Toccoa, Ga., for 40 years. A Vegas, on May 31, from cancer. A member of ulty appointment to Harvard University in longtime fan of Georgia Tech sports, Nichols Kappa Sigma fraternity while a student at the echocardiography division of MGH. Dr. paid $1 in 1933 to attend a Tech football game, Georgia Tech, Mr. Shull worked for Eastern Grimes was board certified in internal medi- his first college football game. Memorials in his Airlines from 1965 to 1990 and then spent 15 cine and cardiology. Dr. Grimes was a fellow name may be made to the Alexander-Tharpe years with NorthwestAirlines before retiring in of the American College of Cardiology and Fund. 2006. Mr. Shull’s hobbies included gardening, held a patent for devices and methods for per- Naron Damar Searcy bowling and playing tournament blackjack and cutaneous mitral valve repair. Dr. Grimes also , 70, of Eufaula, Ala., poker. participated in the Ironman triathlon nine on June 8. Mr. Searcy had a 33-year career with times and was a marathon runner and master the federal government and later worked for 1980s division swimmer. Georgia Tech, retiring as assistant director of Albert E. “Burt” Edwards Kenneth Andrew Yousten auditing. Mr. Searcy,a singer and guitar player, , MS EE 80, of , Arch 91, a res- would volunteer to do taxes for senior citizens Arnold, Md., on April 16. He worked for many ident of Fabius, N.Y., on March 26, from com- and to lead sing-alongs and teach square danc- years as an executive director of AT&T Gov- plications of Friedreich’s ataxia. ing to disabled children and adults.

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Yellow Jackets

LeadingCaptain of 1990 championship by now directing Example weight-loss campaign By Van Jensen to try Healthe Trim, a diet pill that includes green tea leaf extract. hen Jerimiah McClary walked Shortly after beginning his effort, onto the Georgia Tech campus as McClary was listening to Atlanta radio a student, the promising station Q100 when he heard it was running a freshman defensive lineman from three-month weight-loss challenge WLawrenceville, Ga., weighed a trim 230 sponsored by Healthe Trim. He applied and pounds. was selected for the challenge. Four years later, through a regimen of McClary’s efforts were recorded in a lifting and eating, he’d bulked up to nearly blog on the station’s Web site. 300. His massive frame broke through the “As the days on the calendar continue to interior of one offensive line after another as fall off, I am happy to report so have the the Yellow Jackets claimed the 1990 national pounds,” he wrote. “This has been a trying championship with McClary as team month for me — at the start of the month I captain. twisted an ankle, and the pace in which I “In school, I would burn 9,000 calories a was progressing has slowed considerably. day,” said McClary, Mgt 91. “There’s “However, I am pleased to report that I nothing to deprogram guys at the NCAA have not fallen off of the wagon. I have level. They’re giving you all the food, and made the transition to a ‘lifestyle’ approach the coaches are yelling at you to gain weight. home to only a handful of families. on my eating habits. What that means to me There’s a challenge there. If you fail to After Harrington’s death, McClary and is … at each and every meal I stop to [adopt healthy eating habits] at that age, a brother partnered to take over the consider what’s in the dish and how it will you’re probably not going to do it the rest of business, which is now called Flavors impact me and my goals.” your life.” Catering & Events Services. He had been taking in 6,000 calories a McClary, who didn’t play professional “It’s almost like a conflict of interest,” he day and cut that to 2,100. He was feeling football, never changed his eating even as he said. “You have to sample the food, but you miserable at first and described it to a friend stopped burning so many calories. He was don’t want to go overboard.” who had quit smoking. McClary’s friend busy with work, including stints at Coca- Yet, at 42, with the 20th anniversary of said it sounded like his body was under- Cola and the Ford Motor Company. the title looming [See page 96.], McClary going withdrawal. A healthy lifestyle became even more realized his weight had grown into a McClary said an important realization difficult to maintain following the death of problem. The scales tilted at 485 pounds. was the emotional connection he had to his mother, Johnnie Mae Harrington, in He and his wife, Nicole, had begun food, and that certain foods affected him 2006. talking about having children, and he more than others. Even with the constant “I have nine brothers and sisters,” worried about how his weight might temptation of the catering job, he knew he McClary said. “My mother had to cook a lot challenge him as a father. had to cut out fried food. for us. She just said, ‘If I’m cooking this “I couldn’t imagine running after a 4- “It was life or death,” he said. much already, I’ll just make it a business.’” year-old,” he said. “The body starts turning McClary also enjoyed once again feeling Harrington started J & L Catering in against you. When your knees and ankles like he was part of a team. He and the seven Lawrenceville. It featured the country start to go, then you can’t exercise. It’s a other participants encouraged each other. cooking that traced back to the family’s roots vicious cycle.” “With this group, we had a common in Buggtown, a rural former slave McClary had tried losing weight before, cause,” he said. “As an athlete, you have a community in Gwinnett County that was but diets never worked for him. He decided team. But then you’re on your own, and that

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Kelvin Kuo Down 50 pounds, Jerimiah McClary hopes to lose another 50 before Tech’s 1990 championship football team reunites during the upcoming season.

accountability is lost. This is like getting weight-related health problems, McClary what he’s learned. As a pastor at New Vision ready for fall football and two-a-day said. As the captain, he decided to lead the Praise and Worship Center in Lawrenceville, practices.” way. he’s been working with congregants on McClary also had the support of his At the end of three months, an early- changing to healthier lifestyles. former teammates. He said most of the 1990 morning weigh-in at the Q100 studios “Our responsibility is to take care of team had reunited on Facebook. Looking revealed that McClary had lost 50 pounds. ourselves,” he said. “You can’t go out and back on the championship, he said what he While it’s no small accomplishment, witness to people if you can’t go out. Jesus held most clearly in mind were the McClary made it clear he wasn’t satisfied. sent his disciples out walking. They had to friendships he’d made and kept through the “I was hoping it to be more,” he said. walk everywhere!” years. “But 50 pounds in three months, that’s McClary also wants to help current While reconnecting, McClary stellar.” college athletes transition to their post- discovered he was far from the only former McClary is hoping to lose at least playing days. He plans to call the program player experiencing weight problems. another 50 pounds before the team holds a Heaven Can Weight. The same challenge of switching from a reunion during this football season. “I’d be “Once I lose enough weight, that’s life of constant exercise to a more normal happy to report at my playing weight,” he something I want to go back and start,” he existence was adding to their waistlines as joked. said. “I think that would carry a lot of well. One had even passed away from McClary also plans to help teach others weight — no pun intended.”

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Georgia Tech Athletic Association The Tech tennis team netted a berth in the NCAA tournament after claiming the ACC championship team victory despite several players being injured.

JacketsBy Van Jensen Dominate Spring Season student athletes, coaches and staff mem- Derek Dietrich, Cole Leonida, Thomas bers.” Nichols, Chase Burnette, Kevin Jacob and n the busy spring sports season, Baseball Jeff Rowland. Georgia Tech racked up team and Tech also had four recruits drafted by individual accomplishments both on The Yellow Jackets had a dominant major league clubs. The 10 total draftees tied and off the field. season, claiming 47 wins and, at one point, a school record. I Though Tech didn’t add any the No. 2 ranking. McGuire was named a Louisville championships this year, five teams did But in the NCAA regional played at Slugger All-American along with first make it deep into NCAA tournaments. Russ Chandler Stadium, Georgia Tech came baseman Plagman, who finished the season It also was announced that five Tech up a few runs short, losing 10-8 to Alabama with 21 home runs. teams — baseball, golf, volleyball and men’s to end hopes of a College World Series Softball and women’s cross country — had placed in appearance. the top 10 percent in the NCAA’s academic Tech’s pitching staff was led by ace Deck The softball squad had one of its most progress report scores. McGuire. The junior compiled nine wins successful seasons, winning 51 games before Overall, the Institute’s APR scores and was selected 11th overall in the Major falling to Oregon in an NCAA regional improved for the third consecutive year. League Baseball draft by the Toronto Blue tournament at Tech’s Mewborn Field. “We’re very happy and proud of the five Jays. Nine other players were selected in The Yellow Jackets were led by standout teams recognized for their work in the later rounds of the draft. senior second baseman Jen Yee and classroom,” director of Athletics Dan Those selected were seniors Tony freshman pitcher Hope Rush, both of whom Radakovich said. “It’s a tribute to those Plagman and Andrew Robinson and juniors were named Louisville Slugger/National

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Sports Briefs

Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Americans. Yee, who set team career records in several batting categories, also was recognized as 1990 Championship Team Reuniting the ACC player of the year and a finalist for the USA Softball player It’s been 20 years since the Georgia Tech football team claimed of the year. the Institute’s fourth national championship by capping off an 11- 0-1 record with a win over Nebraska in the Florida Citrus Bowl. Women’s Tennis A season-long celebration of the anniversary will culminate with players, coaches and staff from that team returning to cam- A season marred by injuries ended on a high note for the pus in November. women’s tennis team. Led by sophomore All-American Irina The team will have a private gathering at Hotel Palomar on Falconi, the Yellow Jackets claimed the ACC championship before Nov. 12 before attending the Nov. 13 game against Miami at Bobby falling short in the NCAA tournament. Dodd Stadium. The 1990 squad will lead the current team on the Falconi claimed 23 consecutive matches before dropping a 6-2, march down Yellow Jacket Alley before kickoff. 6-4 decision in the NCAA singles championship quarterfinals. She Tech started off the 1990 season unranked before claiming five finished the year 40-3 in singles, setting a team record for winning straight wins. After a tie against North Carolina, the Yellow Jackets percentage. reeled off another six consecutive wins. “I’m very proud of Irina,” coach Bryan Shelton said. “I know “It takes a special group of guys to win a national champi- the goal was to win the tournament, and she is understandably onship the way we did, and it created an eternal bond,” said disappointed. Still, I feel nothing but pride for her. It’s been great Marlon Williams, Mgt 94, who played on the 1990 team. “I’m real- to work with her these past couple of years and watch her ly looking forward to being in the presence of such classy and develop into a great player and a great person.” courageous teammates again. I am certain the fellowship will be Golf unforgettable and the reunion a huge success.”

Tech’s golfers had a furious finish to the NCAA tournament in June, narrowly dropping a 3-2 decision to Augusta State in the Women’s Crew Takes Dad Vail Silver On a final day of racing marred with high winds, the Georgia quarterfinal round. Tech women’s varsity crew team claimed a silver medal at the The Yellow Jackets came in third in the stroke-play portion of Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta. the championship, which was played at Ooltewah, Tenn. Competing on the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia in May, Tech made eight birdies to only one bogey over the final six the lightweight eight crew came in second. The team beat third- holes against Augusta State. The team came within a 10-foot putt place SUNY-Buffalo, an NCAA Division 1 team, by .016 second. on the final green of forcing extra holes. Tech had two men’s teams place sixth in the lightweight four Men’s Tennis and novice lightweight eight categories.

After making a run to the NCAA singles championship round of 16, Tech’s Guillermo Gomez was named an Intercollegiate Curry Inducted into Atlanta Hall Tennis Association All-American. On June 12, former Georgia Tech football coach Bill Curry, IM Gomez, a junior from Spain, finished as the fifth-ranked 65, was enshrined in the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame. player in the country. He is a three-time ACC all-conference player Curry, now the coach of Georgia State’s new football team, and finished the season with a 29-8 singles record, including a 16- also played at Tech and had a 10-year NFL career. Curry is the 6 mark against ranked opponents. author of Ten Men You Meet in the Huddle: Lessons from a Football Life The tennis team finished the season ranked 25th. and is a former ESPN analyst. Track and Field

Three members of the Yellow Jackets track and field teams Bracken’s Hardships Inspire Book When Sam Bracken first went to a football camp, his mother qualified for the NCAA outdoor championships held in June at sent him with an orange duffel bag. Through years of hardships the University of Oregon. and homelessness, that bag was a constant in his life. From the women’s team, sophomore Bianca Stewart Bracken, IM 86, a former football star at Tech, describes his jour- competed in high jump. She came in tied for 13th place on the first ney in a new book, My Orange Duffel Bag. The book describes the day of competition. abuse he went through as a child and his struggle to overcome those The men’s team had two athletes qualify in seniors Steve experiences. Marcelle and Alphonso Jordan. Bracken writes glowingly of former Tech football coach Bill Jordan qualified in the triple jump for the third consecutive Curry and credits Curry with helping him off of the field. year. He came in eighth and earned All-American status. Bracken now lives in the Rocky Mountains with his wife, Kim, Marcelle qualified in the shot put for his fourth straight and four children. A portion of the proceeds from his book will go season and was an All-American last year. to the Orange Duffel Bag Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to at- He came in 13th. risk and homeless children.

96 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine July/August 2010 YellowJackets.qxp:Layout 1 6/16/10 2:28 PM Page 97

Tech 100 Business Club: Alumni Making the Tech Connection

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To be part of the Tech 100 Business Club, contact Holly Green at [email protected] or (404) 894-0765. YellowJackets.qxp:Layout 1 6/16/10 2:28 PM Page 98

Tech 100 Business Club: Alumni Making the Tech Connection

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Financial Services Frank Beacham Attorney at Law JERRY COX, CLU, ChFC Georgia Tech Alumnus, BME 1985 Atlanta Planning Group 3715 Northside Parkway, #200-490 Brinson, Askew, Berry Atlanta, GA 30327 Investments, Estate, and Life Insurance Planning Seigler, Richardson, & Davis, LLP www.brinson-askew.com for Personal and Business Needs P.O. Box 5513 Telephone: 706-291-8853 (404) 816-1153 Ext. 304 Fax: (404) 814-1703 615 West First Street Atlanta Line: 404-521-0908 Securities offered through Investors Capital Corporation, Rome, GA 30162-5513 Telefax: 706-234-3574 Member FINRA/SIPC [email protected] YellowJackets.qxp:Layout 1 6/16/10 2:29 PM Page 99

To be part of the Tech 100 Business Club, contact Holly Green at [email protected] or (404) 894-0765. YellowJackets.qxp:Layout 1 6/16/10 2:30 PM Page 100

Tech 100 Business Club: Alumni Making the Tech Connection

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Jeni Bogdan The Saxon Group, Inc., Industrial Contractors 790 Brogdon Road, Suwanee, GA 30024 770-271-2174 FAX 770-271-2176 YellowJackets.qxp:Layout 1 6/16/10 2:31 PM Page 101

To be part of the Tech 100 Business Club, contact Holly Green at [email protected] or (404) 894-0765. Calendar.qxp:Layout 1 6/21/10 12:38 PM Page 102

Calendar July

Meet the President during G. P. “Bud” Peterson’s tour of Georgia July 12-16.

gtalumni.org/pages/meetthepresident Torian Parker

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Student send-offs are being hosted by Flicks on Fifth outdoor film series in Georgia Tech Clubs across the country, including Technology Square continues with screenings Washington, D.C., on July 24; Sarasota, Fla., and of The Hurt Locker on July 7, Fantastic Mr. Fox Phoenix on Aug. 7; Tampa, Fla., and Las Vegas on July 14 and Hot Tub Time Machine on July on Aug. 8; and Douglasville, Ga., on Aug. 14. 21. flickson5th.gatech.edu gtalumni.org/pages/studentsendoff

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August

Alaska’s Inside Passage is the destination of an eight- day Alumni Travel tour that embarks from Juneau Aug. 6. gtalumni.org/tours

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Classes for the 2010-11 school year commence Aug. 23.

Kelvin Kuo

Rob Felt Summer commencement for the awarding of bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degrees will be held at 7 p.m. Aug. 6 in Alexander Memorial Coliseum. commencement.gatech.edu

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In Retrospect

Cycling and Politics

inBy J. Paul Oxer the Summer of 1970fraternity had collected. Maddox, on his n the summer of 1970, I handlebars, and I rode read an article in the our bikes around the Atlanta Constitution Capitol for the press. We about draft legislation in shook hands, I flipped Iboth the Georgia and down my Ray-Ban Florida assemblies to Aviators and I was off, provide funding for 4-foot- riding away from wide bicycle lanes on key downtown at exactly routes. Georgia’s then-Gov. noon. Lester Maddox was well The first night I made known for his support of it to Thomaston, where I cycling and for his press stopped at the police stunt of riding his fat-tired station to ask where I cruiser inside the Capitol might find a safe place to rotunda as he sat backward camp. Recognizing me on the handlebars. from the day’s news, they That year I stayed in invited me in for a Atlanta after my sopho- J. Paul Oxer, CE 73, poses with his 10-speed Schwinn before his 1970 ride from Atlanta shower, a meal and a bed more year at Georgia Tech to Tallahassee, Fla., and with his Trek Madone before a more leisurely outing in 2010. in an air-conditioned cell. to earn some cash rather They had a good time than go home to south taking “mug shots” and a central Florida. The intermittent odd jobs aside legislation, I’d deliver it by bicycle. picture of me and my bike in front of the that I struggled to string together left me Still clasping my hand, he looked me entire night shift. with time on my hands, some of which I straight in the eye for a split second, and The governor’s office had alerted the spent at my fraternity house with the guys then, with a grin, told both of us to wait in state patrol of my planned route to attending summer session. As I read the his office, that he wanted to speak to us with Tallahassee, so occasionally a blue-and-gray article, I thought about what a great idea it his press secretary. cruiser would come alongside and the was, and I wanted to do something to help. Fast-forward a week to July 31, 1970, officer would ask from beneath his brim, Cycling, which had given me my first real and I’m back in the Capitol rotunda, now “You that boy carrying the letter from the sense of freedom and mobility, had always being interviewed by Atlanta’s major radio, governor down to Tallahassee?” “Yes, sir.” been a joy to me, and my nascent political TV and print media outlets as I prepared to “You need anything?” “Well, I could use activism was looking for purposeful outlet. take the governor’s letter to Tallahassee. The some more water,” I once replied, A fraternity brother, Ron Currens, owner of a local bike shop had provided me whereupon the officer stopped and suggested we go to the Capitol the next a 10-speed Schwinn road bike, along with a produced a gallon jug from his trunk and Wednesday, “People’s Day,” to see the pump, patch kit, spare tube and one folded refilled my canteen. governor. As Maddox made his way along spare tire. In the rear deck bag I had an extra I asked an elderly gentleman sitting on the line greeting visitors, Ron and I stepped pair of cut-off jeans, two pair of socks and his porch somewhere along Georgia’s old up to introduce ourselves. When the underwear, a couple of tie-dyed T-shirts and Highway 3 if I might fill my canteen from governor shook my hand, I told him that if a blue bandana for a headband. I strapped a his yard hydrant. As I did, he recognized me he would write a letter to Florida Gov. big, clunky FM radio over the handlebar bag from the story that had run two days earlier Claude Kirk supporting the bicycle lane set- that held my canteen and $40 the guys at the in his local paper and invited me to “come

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J. Paul Oxer sealed a deal with Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox to deliver a letter supporting bike lane funding and landed in the Atlanta media spotlight.

sit on the porch and rest a bit,” out of the Georgia parks department invited me to tentative turns on the cranks with knees stiff August heat. I did, gratefully. speak of my adventure at a number of from inaction and how good it felt to be free Owners of several restaurants in small events in support of the proposed again. towns gave me lunch or dinner when I told legislation. I’ll be 60 in the fall of this year, 2010, the them what I was doing. I stayed half price in Ultimately the bill passed in both states, 40th anniversary of my adventure, and a small motel after my longest day of riding, and soon new bike lanes with their cycling is still a passion. Even now, I get a pulling up well after dark and thankful just distinctive markings began to appear along joyous rush when I first clip into the pedals to be off the road. One afternoon I stopped highways, giving cyclists a little more room and make the first few turns. for a quick swim in a pond adjacent to the and showing them a little more courtesy. I’m 30 years, 30 pounds and four knee highway, just taking off my shoes and socks The next summer, while I was out with operations past being anything like and slipping into the cool water. And one some fraternity brothers one weekend in competitive, but at least I’m out there morning I crested a hill just as the sun was early July 1971, a drunk driver ran a red hammering away at it in charity rides. Even breaking above the trees, gliding along light at 70 miles per hour and plowed now, I struggle with the aftereffects of that several miles afterward just simply enjoying straight into the right side of the car in accident in 1971. the ride. which I sat in the back seat, leaving me with, Cycling has evolved significantly in the The trip did have its tense moments. I among other internal injuries, a massive past couple of decades with major was run off the road several times, suffering concussion, a broken jaw and left cheekbone, improvements in equipment, clothing and minor cuts and bruises and a sprained ankle; and a right leg broken so badly that the safety gear. Interest in the sport continues to hit in the back by one of numerous beer doctors considered amputating it. grow. Thankfully, so does the respect bottles and cans thrown at me; and regularly After six weeks in traction, much of it generally afforded to cyclists on the road. scared witless by tractor trailers passing too with my jaw wired shut from two major It was nice to play a small part in close and too fast as I hugged perilously operations to repair the damage, I left the helping create some safer places for all of us close to the edge of the asphalt. hospital more than 60 pounds lighter, with a to ride in Georgia and Florida. When I reached Tallahassee on the boot-to-hip metal brace holding my right leg __o fourth day out, a local TV station filmed my in alignment. _-\<,_ approach up the hill in traffic along I managed to get back into school that (*)/ (*) Appalachee Parkway to Florida’s Capitol as fall, taking a minimum full-time load. Tech Pedal safely! See you down the road! I arrived to deliver the letter to Gov. Kirk’s registrar Frank Roper helped me schedule at office. (He wasn’t in at the time.) Two days least an hour between classes to give me J. Paul Oxer, CE 73, of Smyrna, Ga., is the later, I set off again, finally arriving at my time to poke across campus with a cane. managing director of McDaniell, Hunter & home in Lake Placid four days later, after Months later, when I could walk Prince Inc., which provides transaction support logging a total of just over 600 miles. unaided again, I got a bike to help in my and project development for investment in infra- When I returned to Tech that fall, the rehabilitation. I still remember my first structure.

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