Fall 2010 n Volume 47, Number 2
1904
The Clubhouse/Gymnasium
is built. In 2010, as the ROTC
Building, it will be the oldest
structure on campus.
1905
Tech receives its first
private gift, $2,000 for
Chemical Sciences.
1927
Ella Wood, the first female
faculty member, taught
geography, political science,
and history.
1948
1885
Michigan Mining School
established.
The April 1 Michigan Tech
Lode is printed largely in
Finnish.
1949
Married student housing, aka
“Trailertown” or “Vetville,”
catered to returning GIs and
their families.
Moments
in Time
1985
Dean of Students
Linda Belote
announces that beer
kegs will not be
allowed at K-Day.
1987
Library installs
two computers for
student use.
1974
Soichiro Honda gives
away a motorcycle at
commencement.
1955
Chemistry professor Myron
“Doc” Berry arrives at Tech.
In later years, upperclassmen
would play “Another One
Bites the Dust” to freshmen
heading to their first
chemistry exam.
1973
1993
Bosch Brewing Company
closes one year shy of its
centennial, breaking the
hearts of generations of
students and alumni.
NMU hockey coach Rick
Comley says presence of
Pep Band negates home
ice advantage; WCHA
rules that a school’s band
cannot perform at away
games, except during
postseason.
1959
Harold Meese is named dean
of students.
1965
WMTU goes on the air.
1968
Students claim the new
Chem-Met Building is
sinking; President Ray Smith
provides “photographic
evidence.”
1965
Hockey great Tony Esposito
celebrates Tech’s second
National Championship. Tech
would earn three under the
leadership of the legendary
John MacInnes.
Be part of Tech’s history:
125 years and counting
Michigan Tech is celebrating its
quasquicentennial, and you’re invited to
help build the University’s historical record
by sharing your stories. Go to www.mtu.
edu/125 and post your memories. While
you are there, you can read other people’s
recollections. Do it for fun, for old friends,
and for posterity. In another 125 years, all
those great stories really will be history.
www.mtu.edu/125
4 The heavy bridge
celebrates its golden anniversary
8 Coming to America
International grad students at Tech
1994
Tech closes because of the cold
for first time in 108 years.
2010
Michigan Tech launches
Generations of Discovery
Capital Campaign.
Richard Drenovsky, “Mr. D.,”
retires after 26 years in Dean of
Students Office.
2009
1998
Board of Control approves
switch to semesters to begin
in fall 2000.
Women’s basketball team
achieves back-to-back
regional championships in
2009 and 2010.
14 One good turn leads to another
Tech’s generations of caring
17 Slick trick
Researcher designs
super foam to mop up oil
18 Photo essay: Ties that gently bind
23 Octave DuTemple:
the accidental adventurer
25 2010 Alumni Association award
winners
28 Alumni Association notes
2001
Football team defeats
Northern Michigan for
the first time in 46 years,
though they didn’t play
each other for 29 of them.
2003
RIAA sues computer
science student for
$98 billion for illegally
downloading music.
31 Tech alum three-peats at
Jeopardy!
2006
Tech breaks the Guinness
world records for largest
snowball fight, most people
making snow angels, and
largest snowball.
32 Class notes
Cover, inside cover
We looked back over the years and
selected a few moments to remember at
Michigan Tech. It was great fun; our only
regret was that we didn’t have space to
publish more.
Special thanks to Professor Emeritus
Jack Jobst, whose research uncovered
many of the moments in time.
Photos courtesy of the Michigan Tech
Archives and University Marketing and
Communications
Clare Rosen, design and illustration
Marcia Goodrich, editor
Feedback
Your letters to the editor are available at
mtu.edu/magazine/fall10/stories/letters.
THE HEAVY BRIDGE
Fifty years of (mostly) smooth operations
By Dennis Walikainen
Photos by Ryan Schumacher
Since 1960, locals have loved it and
loathed it, tourists have walked it
and photographed it, and everyone
in the Copper Country—including
students running late for class—
has waited in line on it at least once.
LENGTH OF BRIDGE
UPPER LEVEL
1,310 feet
LIFT SPAN
260 feet
TOWER HEIGHT
188 feet
above piers
WEIGHT OF LIFT SPAN
4.5 million
pounds
COST TO BUILD
11 million
$
WOULD BE $80 MILLION TODAY
WEIGHT OF CONCRETE
35,000 tons
WEIGHT OF STEEL
7,000 tons
NUMBER OF VEHICLES
CROSSING EACH DAY
22,500
T
The high life: John Michels
(right) and Bernie Smith
establish the layout of the
machinery on top of the tower,
200 feet above the lake, in 1959.
Photo provided by John Michels
hree Michigan Tech alumni were on the engineering team that helped build the Portage
Lake (don’t say “lift”) Bridge, which marked
its fiftieth anniversary in June. John Michels ’51 of
Ontonagon was a project engineer and remembers it
as “quite a stressful engineering feat, especially erecting the steel.”
The civil engineer, who worked with Tom
Wiseman ’49 and Don Kero ’58, says the 2,200-ton
center span was assembled on barges in Hancock
and floated down the canal, pulled by tug boats.
It was like threading a huge needle, with only four
inches of clearance at either end of the lift span.
The fact that it fit perfectly, including the expansion
joints, was a relief to all involved, Michels said.
A crew of about one hundred worked on the
bridge each day, including Bernard Gestel of Dollar
Bay, who patrolled the waters in his boat to retrieve
anything that fell in the water, humans included.
Deep-sea divers toiled two hours on, four hours off.
There were surprises: while workers were dredging
the lake bottom, they unearthed a sunken scow, a
hundred feet long and loaded with sandstone.
The lift bridge had three big advantages over the
old swing bridge, says Michels.
“It was functional: you couldn’t gain a large
enough horizontal clearance for lake shipping with
the swing bridge,” he says. “It was also necessary
for railroad traffic, and it was located at the shortest
distance between the two towns.”
That railroad bed (abandoned in 1982) would
play a big role in the design and construction. It is
the heaviest lift bridge of its kind (some 4.5 million
pounds), in great part because of that deck.
“And the railroad is located more toward the west
side,” Michels recalls, “so the counterweights that
balance the lift span are all heavier on the west side
to account for the weight difference.”
More delicate balancing is evident, according to
Michels.
“The balancing chains are composed of steel
blocks, and they offset the weight of the lifting
cables,” he says. “And the weight of the cables shifts
from the lift span to the tower as it opens.”
Smooth operators
Helping control the traffic via waterway, railway,
or roadway has always been the responsibility of
the bridge operators. Wayne Poisson worked the
controls from 1963 to 1988.
He recalls one especially close call in the winter.
“The ore boat Wilfred Sykes was coming through,
and it was snowing very heavy,” he says. “I couldn’t
see him because of the snow, and he couldn’t even
find me on his radar, it was so thick. I looked up,
and all of a sudden he was right at my door. I got the
bridge up just in time. I don’t know how he didn’t hit me.”
Poisson misses the work and camaraderie, particularly the signals that
the boats and bridge would exchange: three long and two short signaling
the master salute, “especially the old steam whistles,” he says. “I would
answer them anytime, day or night.”
Today, five operators share the duties in eight-hour shifts, according
to Bob “Butch” Paavola. These days, most of his traffic is sailboats, and
August is the busiest month. “We get the tugboats and the Ranger, too.”
But ore boats are rare. “The thousand footers are too big,” Paavola says.
It takes only five or six minutes to lift the span, although it seems much
longer to motorists. And, there’s no truth to the rumor that the operators
wait to raise or lower it until traffic is heavy by Keweenaw standards—
during the “rush minute” just before 8:00 am or after 5:00 pm.
By mid-December, traffic flows freely. The sailboats are in dry dock,
and, as the last boat, a Coast Guard cutter, goes through, the operators’
jobs are done for the season.
“I got the bridge
up just in time.
I don’t know how
he didn’t hit me.”
—bridge operator Wayne Poisson
Postscript
Michels returned to the Keweenaw recently and, thanks to Paavola, was
able to visit the new control room and journey to the top of the towers. He
was impressed by all the new machinery and undaunted by the heights.
Fifty years after he finished looking at blueprints, he says, “The height
doesn’t bother me.”
After all, he built it. n
Design engineer comes back
to “his bridge”
After fifty years, Tom D’Arcy is back in town. The design engineer for
the approach spans and the lift span of the bridge, this June he is visiting
the Keweenaw to help celebrate his creation’s golden anniversary.
“Structural engineers love bridges,” he tells a crowd come to hear his
stories about the link between Houghton and Hancock. “Our designs are
exposed for all to see.”
D’Arcy was a young engineer with the firm Hazelet and Erdel when he
was assigned the task of designing the world’s heaviest lift-span bridge.
He remembers receiving some hard-knocks learning as he undertook the
project. At a meeting in Lansing filled with gray-haired state engineers,
his youthful—and in his opinion excellent—ideas were shot down one
after another. On the long ride back home, he asked his mentor, “When
are ideas accepted, regardless of age?”
“When you are the oldest guy in the room,” his boss answered.
This day in the Keweenaw, in this room, D’Arcy was among the oldest,
and the audience was rapt as he discussed the bridge that can mean more
than just safely transporting people and vehicles.
“Bridges connect places, towns, even countries,” D’Arcy says, but he
also stressed the importance of building and maintaining those personal
bridges that connect people’s lives.
And, like the Portage Lake Bridge, D’Arcy says, if we make them
strong, they will endure as they mature and age. n
Operator Butch Paavola, left,
discusses the ups and downs
of the bridge with Tom and
Marie D'Arcy.
Coming
America
to
By Marcia Goodrich
In 2008, as Kaixian Yu’s plane was landing at
Houghton County Memorial Airport, his life was
taking off. He had been accepted into Michigan
Tech’s PhD program in mathematical sciences. He
was excited about working with his advisor in a
field he loved. And, he had studied English for ten
years at home in China and passed the language
competency test with flying colors.
What could go wrong?
“I couldn’t find anywhere to live,” says Yu. “We
spent five days looking. Then, when we finally found
a place, I was trying to set up the cable and Internet,
and the people at Charter couldn’t understand me.”
“It was very difficult,” he says quietly. Then he
perks up. “Fortunately, people here are really kind
and so nice. They understand that English is not
your mother language. I’m not so afraid now of
making mistakes.”
Yu is one of nearly five hundred international
graduate students enrolled at Michigan Tech. If
it weren’t for them, Tech’s phenomenal growth in
research and graduate education would have been
stunted at best. Over the last several years, fully 40
percent of Tech’s master’s and PhD students have
come from beyond American borders.
That’s more than double the national average
of about 16 percent, according to the Council
of Graduate Education. Dig a little deeper and
that discrepancy disappears, however; fully half
of all engineering grad students in the US are
international students. This helps explain why they
are drawn to Tech, says Thy Yang, the University’s
director of International Programs and Services.
“Most international students studying in the
US pursue degrees in STEM [science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics],” she says. “And our
STEM programs have a strong reputation overseas.”
The influx of international students to US schools
is due in part to the value other cultures place upon
educating their children, she believes. “They want
their children to have the highest level of education
so they can have a better career. Jobs in STEM are
also jobs that pay well, and many employers have
trouble filling jobs in these fields.”
Jacqueline Huntoon, dean of the Graduate
School, agrees. “Most US students are not interested
in studying STEM,” she says. “It’s not sexy, not
perceived as having great value.”
Many Americans graduate from high school
lacking the math and science skills needed to
succeed in STEM undergraduate programs, let
alone as master’s and doctoral candidates. With
the US educational system yielding only a trickle
of potential STEM graduate students, American
universities must look elsewhere, says Huntoon. “We
couldn’t have the research program we do without
international students,” she states flatly. “Graduate
students do 75 percent of the grunt work involved
in research. And it’s not just here at Michigan Tech.
Any institutions with vibrant research in STEM
have a lot of international students. There aren’t
enough domestic students to go around.”
All those international students provide domestic
students with some key insights, says Michigan
Tech President Glenn Mroz. “Bringing the world to
Michigan Tech gives US students the opportunity
to learn firsthand what international competition
looks like, and a chance to see just how hard people
elsewhere are willing to work. It’s a win-win for all
students.”
Of the hundreds of international graduate
students coming to Michigan Tech, each has his
or her own reasons for leaving home to spend years
among strangers. Many seek a better understanding
of the United States and its people.
However, graduate school can sometimes be a
tough place to get to know the natives. “I wish there
were more American students here,” says Abhilash
Kantamneni, who is working on his doctorate in
physics. “In my department, there’s only about
one American for every four international PhD
students.”
After earning his bachelor’s degree in India,
Kantamneni was accepted to graduate programs
at the University of Southern California and
the Illinois Institute of Technology, as well as at
Michigan Tech. All offered what he wanted most:
research opportunities and the chance to work
with cutting-edge technologies. He chose Tech in
part because it seemed to offer total immersion in
Americana. Other schools have thousands of Indian
students to pal around with, and Kantamneni was
not looking for a home away from home. “I wanted
to experience more cultures,” he said.
Indian students also have potent economic
motives for getting a graduate degree. American
students can usually find good jobs with a bachelor’s
degree. “But in India, if you want good career
growth, you need to study as much as possible,”
says Kantamneni. “You need at least a master’s to
advance.” Competition is murderously intense to get
into the top Indian schools, so US universities offer
another route to the coveted graduate degree.
PhD student Lei Zhang left her home in China
at the urging of her entire family. “We think we
can learn more here. The culture is different, the
education is different. And I want to make myself
different. There are so many students in China,
and if I go the same way as everyone, I will have an
ordinary life. That’s why I make the effort to study
hard and work hard.”
Zhang chose Michigan Tech because it is
nationally ranked in her field, materials science
and engineering. She also chose Tech because
of Houghton. “Everybody likes large cities, but I
“It’s a huge responsibility.
When I flew here, my dad told me,
‘Remember, you are representing
your family and your country.’”
can’t focus myself as well in a large city. And, it is
very safe here.”
What about Houghton’s intimidating winters?
“I knew that before I came here,” she shrugs. “My
hometown is in the north of China, colder than
here. I like it.”
The weather was also no big deal for Margus
Paesalu. While the vast majority of Tech’s
international students come from China and India,
the rest are drawn from more than seventy other
countries. Paesalu is Estonian and one of the first
participants in ATLANTIS, an exchange program
for forestry students from Scandinavia and the US.
“Part of why I chose Michigan Tech was the
latitude and the Finnish,” says Paesalu, who studied
at the University of Helsinki and the Swedish
University of Agricultural Sciences. “Everyone
thinks I’m American originating in Scandinavia.”
He came to the United States for curiosity’s sake
and for the challenge. “This is a country I heard a lot
of but had never been to,” he says. “Your president is
in the news all around the world, all the time. And a
native-speaking environment is more demanding.”
What he found was a new way of learning. “The
biggest point is the hands-on experience,” says
Paesalu, who is earning an MS in Forest Ecology
and Management. “When I came here, I had to
design my own project. I’m ordering supplies,
estimating costs, and then showing my supervisor.”
Both independence and collaboration are valued,
he says. Education is more a dialogue, “not just
watching a PowerPoint and switching your brain off.”
Along with that practical approach to education
comes a more collegial relationship with the faculty.
“My advisor here is really friendly. He’s always
there for me. It’s really motivating and very much
welcome,” Paesalu says. Faculty in Scandinavia are
also very supportive, he says, “but in parts of Europe,
if you are a professor, everyone is below you.”
Daniel Yeboah of Ghana, who is working on
his master’s in applied ecology, has had a similar
experience. “In Ghana, we always had to address
professors using their title. Here, our professors
prefer to use their first name. It takes away fears,
makes them more approachable. And it gives you an
opportunity to ask more questions.”
Yeboah was inspired to come to Tech after
meeting University faculty and students back home.
He had dreamed of furthering his education in
a place that addressed issues on the forefront of
natural resource management and valued dynamic
thinking. “I saw that in the Michigan Tech people.”
There are major advantages to studying in the
US, and particularly to studying at Michigan Tech,
according to Parinya Chakartnarodom ’08,
who earned a PhD in Materials Science and
Engineering. A Royal Thai Scholar, his government
supported his graduate studies abroad. In return, he
is now serving on the faculty of Kasetsart University
in Bangkok, one of Thailand’s leading universities.
“At Tech I had access to a lot of equipment,
including an X-ray diffractometer, a scanning
electron microscope, a transmission electron
microscope, and an atomic force microscope,” he
says, adding that the department’s technical staff
were a great help. “I couldn’t have finished my
research without their advice.” Chakartnarodom
also praised the thoughtful, one-on-one instruction
he received, both in how to conduct research and
how to teach. Plus, the local hospitality made his
years away from home easier to bear. “Not only did
the people at Michigan Tech teach me a lot, my
landlord and my neighbors were very nice to me.
They taught me a lot of life’s experience. I can’t
imagine doing it without a good neighbor.”
International students bring a variety of gifts
to the University. Not the least of them are exotic
cuisines.
“When we have cookouts, they bring good
food, that’s for sure,” says Greg Odegard, an
associate professor of mechanical engineering–
engineering mechanics. “My students bring this
chicken thing from India that blows away my
burgers and hot dogs.”
Great picnic fare is just a bonus, he is quick to
add. “I’ve been amazed at the work ethic they’ve
shown.”
“The Indian grad students that come here aren’t
offered the kind of financial support that American
students have,” he says. “Many have to work full
Graduate students Margus Paesalu of Estonia,
Abhilash Kantamneni of India, Lei Zhang and Kaixian
Yu of China, and Daniel Yeboah of Ghana
Ryan Schumacher photo
time in jobs completely unrelated to their studies.
Plus, they are taking classes and trying to do their
research.”
But, he stresses, American students can be equally
committed. “I have domestic students who work
harder than anyone,” he says.
“International students tend to bring lots of
energy and enthusiasm,” says Sarah Green, chair
of the chemistry department. She also stresses
that generalizations are dangerous; like American
students, she says, “they are all individuals, all
different. Some have turned out to be terrific
teachers, and others are completely focused on
their research.”
This is true in part because a broader range of
international students is now coming to the US.
Thanks to expanding economies at home, a new
generation of middle-class parents is now willing
and able to help pay for their children’s education
abroad. As a result, international students no longer
depend on a thimbleful of scholarships available
only to the rarefied ranks of the super-smart.
“The first wave of Chinese students who were
allowed to study in the US was absolutely the top
pick academically,” says Green. “That demographic
has broadened over the years. China now has some
very good universities, and we now compete with
European universities as well for the best students.”
Also, as China has adopted capitalist ways,
so have its young people become more like their
American counterparts. “They are more focused on
economics and jobs,” she says. But whatever their
nationality, those who are just in it for the money
probably won’t do well in grad school. “The need to
learn new stuff is what drives scientists. Getting a
PhD is hard work. If you are going to grad school
just to get a better job, this isn’t for you.”
Mechanical engineering professor Amitabh Narain
has advised students from China, India, Malaysia,
Thailand, Indonesia, and Uruguay in his twentyseven years at Tech. There are differences between
domestic and international students, he says. “Their
work ethic is very good, but they require engagement.
You need to be involved with them. Americans are
more likely to take an idea and run with it.”
However, foreign students’ math skills can be
outstanding. “I just finished writing a final report on
a $700,000 grant and two successful new proposals
totaling $400,000. About 60 percent of the work
was computational in nature and was handled by
foreign graduate students,” Narain says.
Like Green, Narain has seen a change in student
preparedness as more and more international
students come the United States.
“We have had an exponential rise in grad
students, and a lot of them are self supported” and
not dependent on research grant funding for their
tuition, he says. “They knock on my door and say
they will be willing to take on a project at no cost
to me. That lets me put a trained person to work
immediately, which is a good thing. But not all of
them are capable of doing the work.”
And then there is the subject of accents. In all
fairness, says Narain, he gets more gripes from
students on his own lilting speech than do his
graduate students who teach classes. “We do have a
responsibility to be understandable to our students,”
he says. “But for students to expect all accents to be
their own is extreme.”
Accents not withstanding, virtually all Indian
students who come to the United States are able
to carry on a conversation with ease. With India’s
dozens of languages and dialects, English has
become the nation’s common tongue. On the other
hand, few Chinese students coming to Tech have
had a chance to master English.
That’s one big reason Chinese students work
so hard, says math student Kaixian Yu. “The
Americans speak English, and we don’t,” he says.
“We have to spend more time figuring out what
the book says. What does this word mean? This
sentence? And then, what is this knowledge? It’s not
double the time, but we spend maybe one and a half
times more than Americans.”
Foreign students face additional challenges
stemming from America’s post-9/11 immigration
and security climate. Many don’t return home
during their entire time at Tech for fear that their
visas will be revoked when they try to come back to
the US. That climate also prevents students’ families
from coming for a visit.
“I have a daughter and a wife in Ghana,” says
Yeboah. “The US Embassy in Ghana is making it
difficult for them to come here. To be away from my
family for two years is very difficult, and it could be
an obstacle to continuing my PhD studies. To wait
another four or five years? That would be terrible.”
The loneliness can be compounded by cultural
differences. Ghanaian society is community-based,
Yeboah says. An American would be hard-pressed
to go to a village and not be swept up immediately
into community life. In the United States, everyone
is friendly, but the social unit is the family, and not
having family nearby can be tough. “It’s a bit of a
hard time, to live alone in the basement,” he says.
Finally, international students are sometimes
surprised to discover that, in addition to succeeding
in their studies, they are expected to be standard
bearers for an entire nation.
“It’s a huge responsibility,” says physics student
Abhilash Kantamneni. “When I flew here, my dad
told me, ‘Remember, you are representing your
family and your country.’ If I’m bad at anything,
people typecast all Indians. It’s a lot riding on your
shoulders.”
Nevertheless, coming to America can be well
worth the labor and the tears. “The grad program of
American universities is world-class,” says Narain,
who earned one degree in India before getting
his MS and PhD in the US. “The one-on-one
interaction that goes into our graduate education
makes it very difficult for others to compete.”
Indeed, Yeboah doesn’t miss a chance to champion
the education he is receiving half a world away from
home. He tells his countrymen, “Go to the place
where you get the best, so you can be the best.”
“You can talk with your advisor a lot and learn
much more here. That’s a fact,” Yu says in nearperfect English, two years after he had to enlist a
friend to order his Internet service. “We should face
that. This is the place to learn what’s going on.” n
Ron Strickland, right, and Gary Campbell
Chee Huei Lee photos
From Mozambique to Mongolia
Grad programs in
business and humanities
draw international students
“If you have students from Venezuela, America,
Many international graduate students are
and Mozambique in class, you get more insights.”
attracted to the STEM disciplines of science,
Students from socialist countries, for example, will
technology, engineering, and math. So, the last
have vastly different points of view on privately
place you might expect to find them at Michigan
owned mineral rights than their Americans
Tech would be the humanities department. And
counterparts.
yet humanities chair Ron Strickland is hell-bent on
These same students also bring strengths in
upping their numbers.
science and engineering. “We’ve had three students
“It lets us draw top-notch students from a much
from Mongolia who have received a good education
larger pool,” he explains. “You can recruit wellin technical issues but came here for economics
prepared students from many different countries,
and finance,” says Campbell. “So, with their tech
particularly from Eastern Europe and Africa. They
background, they are comfortable here. They feel
have excellent educational preparation.”
that they fit in.”
With their emphasis on cross-cultural
Strickland came to Michigan Tech from Illinois
communication, the humanities programs have
State University, where he was the graduate director
a vested interest in global diversity. “We need a
for his department. There, he boosted the number
breadth of perspective, so it makes sense for us to
recruit globally,” says Strickland. “It’s important
of international grad students from eleven to fifty,
to cultivate a climate of intellectual diversity that
largely by recruiting from West Africa, Europe, and
enriches everyone’s experience.”
Southeast Asia. With so many new and different
This year, he hopes to lure students from Germany, faces in the halls, the community became more
Poland, and Ghana. It takes work. “In the
comfortable for everyone, something that he hopes
humanities, you have to actively recruit them and
will happen at Michigan Tech.
not wait for them to come to you,” he says.
“One thing that happens when you have a wide
Economics professor Gary Campbell directs
variety of students is that diversity becomes the
the master’s program in applied natural resource
norm,” he says. “Even if you have a number of
economics in the School of Business and Economics. African American or Latino students, they can
He has found that international students invigorate
feel isolated. But if everybody’s different, nobody’s
the classroom experience. “Our foreign students
different.” n
bring different perspectives on resources,” he says.
One good turn
leads to another
The Tech tradition
of service
By Jennifer Donovan
“It’s easy to make a buck. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference.”
—Tom Brokaw
T
he timing couldn’t have been better. It was late afternoon,
a crisp hint of fall in the air. As Codie Tucker walked out
of the R. L. Smith Mechanical Engineering-Engineering
Mechanics building, her stomach growled, reminding her that it
had been a long time since lunch.
“Have a sub, and come to a Circle K meeting,” a stranger
urged, holding out a tantalizing, wax paper-wrapped sandwich.
“Sure, why not,” Tucker replied. She had no idea what Circle K
was, but she was starving.
Three years and countless community service hours later,
Tucker is president of Circle K, a service club of college
students affiliated with Kiwanis International. She walks dogs
at the Copper Country Humane Society, adopts highways,
reads Dr. Seuss books to kids at the Portage Lake District
Library, and arranges self-defense workshops. And like the
Circle K’er who lured her to her first meeting with a free
sandwich, she makes sure to feed her student volunteers.
“Good snacks do help,” she says with a grin. “When we adopt a highway,
we have a cookout by the side of the road before we start cleaning it up.”
But free food is not Tucker’s primary motivation. “I just love
volunteering,” she says. “It makes me feel so good inside.”
There is a tradition of community service among students at Michigan
Tech. From Make a Difference Day to alternative spring breaks, from
raking leaves for neighbors to baking bread for Little Brothers Friends
of the Elderly, organizations and individuals stream through the Student
Activities office in the Memorial Union, looking for volunteer projects that
match their academic interests and private passions. Established just three
years ago, the community service program headed by Rachel Wussow has
grown and hired student coordinators such as Lindsey Reeder and Briana
Drake to help their peers focus their desire to do something for others.
“It’s the nature of this university,” says Dean of Students Gloria Melton.
“Our students want to apply what they are learning.”
Les Cook, vice president for student affairs, agrees. “Throughout history,
higher education has embraced the notion that you give back. Creativity
and innovation are key elements of a Michigan Tech education, so students
are always looking for new ways to put their creative and innovative ideas
to work for the good of the community and the world. The principle of
service learning—learning by doing—is built right into the curriculum.”
That eagerness to help others has a global slant. Despite its small size,
Tech consistently places more Peace Corps volunteers overseas through
its Master’s International degree programs than any other university in
the country. In addition, D80—an umbrella program sheltering a dozen
or more international service organizations such as Engineers Without
Borders (EWB)—has been growing like wildfire since it was established
just three years ago. The organization is named for the development
challenges facing the 80 percent of the world’s population who are not
typically considered by those creating infrastructure, goods, and services.
“To be concerned about the welfare of others is a hallmark of
this generation,” says Kurt Paterson, associate professor of civil and
environmental engineering and director of D80. “And Michigan Tech
is just the right size: large enough to create all kinds of opportunities for
students and small enough to be fairly nimble about working together
across disciplines to change the world.”
Paterson has asked hundreds of D80 students why they devote so much
time and effort to making the world a better place. About one-third of
them offer pragmatic reasons: “I need the leadership skills and project
management experience.” The rest are more idealistic. “I want to make a
difference,” they say. “I feel we have an obligation to give back.”
“There is a culture of making a difference here,” says Paterson. “It’s
very different from my own experience as an engineering student twenty
years ago.”
Andrew Wiegand, a mechanical engineering undergraduate, explains it
this way: “School often leaves me with a sense that something is missing;
sure, school is fun and there is a lot one can do, but without giving back to
the community, I feel like my life is not complete.”
Has a volunteering spirit always been a linchpin of life at Michigan
Tech? Ellen (David) Nelson, who graduated in 1979, recalls ushering at
hockey games and playing bingo with senior citizens. At first, she says, she
did it because it was required by a service organization she belonged to,
Alpha Phi Omega. Then she discovered that it was fun.
“I met a lot of interesting people who truly appreciated our help,”
she recalls. “Community service added depth to my Michigan Tech
experience.”
Above, Codie Tucker and friend at the Copper Country
Humane Society. Jeremiah Baumann photo
Below, Ellen Nelson and daughter Rebecca fold clothes
the fun way at a local thrift shop. Ellen Nelson photo
Melissa (Trahan) Ward and
friends during an International
Senior Design trip to Bolivia.
Photo provided by Melissa Ward
Tech places more
Master’s International
Peace Corps volunteers
overseas than any other
university in the US.
Since she graduated, Nelson and her husband, Dave Nelson, who
also graduated from Tech in 1979, have continued giving back to their
community, the mountain town of Evergreen, Colorado. They have served
on the board of Team Evergreen Bicycle Club, and Ellen has been active in
several community theater companies.
Growing up in a house where service was a way of life, the Nelsons’ two
children followed in their parents’ footsteps. Scott, who graduated from
Tech in May 2010, and Rebecca are both active in local theater. Rebecca
and her mother helped found a local chapter of National Charity League
and together served meals at shelters in Denver, volunteered for Special
Olympics events, worked aid stations at races, and sorted clothes for a local
thrift shop. They won the group’s annual Mother/Daughter Award for the
most combined community service hours three times.
Adam and Melissa (Trahan) Ward of State College, Pennsylvania,
came to Michigan Tech more than twenty-five years after the Nelsons,
graduating in 2005 and 2006. They accumulated a similarly long list of
campus community-service credits and the same lifetime commitment
serving their community and the greater world. Adam helped found an
Engineers Without Borders chapter at Tech, and both have remained
active as mentors to new generations of EWB student volunteers at several
universities.
“I have always had a desire to use my skills to help communities solve
problems that they recognized but were financially or technically unable to
solve,” he explains.
Both Adam and Melissa majored in civil engineering. “Suddenly the
equations I had studied for four years were coming to life and enabling me
to help people who really needed it,” says Melissa.
Melissa Ward’s sorority required that she do community service, though
Alpha Sigma Tau mandated only four hours per semester. The majority
of members were already heavily involved in service organizations,
Ward pointed out. It was the University itself that fostered a climate of
volunteerism, she said.
“Being involved just seemed like the norm for students at Michigan
Tech. At its roots, engineering is about solving problems and helping
people, so I suppose it makes sense that Michigan Tech students seek out
ways to do just that.” n
Slick
trick
By Marcia Goodrich
A
ssume for the sake of argument that you
wanted to mop up a really, really big oil spill.
Say it’s in a massive body of water teeming
with life that abuts hundreds of miles of white-sand
beaches and sensitive wetlands. What would you
look for in a detergent?
First of all, it should be a super-foamy surfactant,
says Gerard Caneba. That foam should be stable,
able to hold up its suds in the face of lots of gunk.
It should also be really safe, so that fish, turtles,
jellyfish, and toddlers wouldn’t sicken or die if they
were to accidently swallow the stuff.
It would be nice if it were cheap too.
“We’re working on something like that,” says
Caneba, a professor of chemical engineering at
Michigan Tech. “We think it could be used in the
Gulf. This is the most stable foam around. If you
want an analogy, bubble gum is made of this.”
Caneba’s surfactant is a simple chemical, vinyl
acetate-acrylate salt, transformed from a polymer
dubbed VA/AA using a process he developed: freeradical retrograde-precipitation polymerization.
The FRRPP-made foam is so stable that it can
push crude oil off the surface of water onto a solid
structure. Any remaining oil is broken into tiny
droplets that could be gobbled up by microbes.
“It’s not a true emulsifier,” Caneba explains. “It
doesn’t keep on creating contaminated water with
emulsified crude oil.”
So far, toxicity tests on the vinyl acetate-acrylate
salt have shown no ill effects. It is inexpensive,
about two dollars a pound. It’s easy to make, and
it’s amazingly efficient. “You can push one volume
Gerard Caneba
with a vial of his
super-stable foam.
The bubbles form
polygons that hold
their air for many
hours.
Ryan Schumacher photo
of oil with one volume of a 1 percent solution of
the surfactant,” he says. “You could move the oil
somewhere and then suck it up.”
Caneba had originally developed VA/AA and
the vinyl acetate-acrylate salt to recover petroleum
from existing oil fields. Now, as the Gulf of Mexico
slowly recovers from the worst oil spill in history,
he hopes VA/AA and its chemical cousins may
some day have another application: making the
water safe again, for both people and pelicans. n
Glossary
Surfactant: a two-sided chemical, one water-loving and one oil-loving, that reduces the surface tension between oil and water. In
the case of Caneba’s vinyl acetate-acrylate salt, the oil-loving half does not adhere well to the oil, so the foam can push the oil away
from water.
Free-radical retrograde-precipitation polymerization (FRRPP): a novel, efficient process for synthesizing many different types of
polymers. Caneba has authored a scholarly book on the subject, Free-Radical Retrograde-Precipitation Polymerization (FRRPP):
Novel Concept, Processes, Materials, and Energy Aspects, published in 2010 by Springer.
VA/AA: Vinyl acetate-acrylic acid-based block copolymer, a precursor to the vinyl acetate-acrylate copolymer salt surfactant
originally developed by Caneba to recover petroleum from depleted oil fields.
Ties that
gently bind
By Marcia Goodrich
Michigan Tech attracts great people because of its quality research
and educational programs. What keeps many of them here is a
unique quality of life. Here are three faculty members and a research
scientist whose avocations tie them to the Copper Country at least
as securely as their professions.
Hobby farmer
John Gierke ’84 ’86 ’90 wants to make one thing perfectly clear. The llamas were not his idea.
Of all the critters on his family’s twenty-acre hobby farm, they are the crankiest and live here only at the behest of his
wife and daughter, says the professor of geological engineering, who researches ways to provide people in developing
countries with better access to clean water. “If I figure it out, I’m going to implement it at my farm,” he says.
A short drive from Michigan Tech, the Gierkes have three pigs, five sheep, two dogs, five chickens, and two elegant but
mercurial llamas named Stuart and Tina. They also have four acres of U-pick blueberries and a grove of apple trees.
When the blueberries ripen, it gets kind of hectic, “like the opening day of deer season,” says Gierke. But most of the
time, the atmosphere is pastoral, except when the pigs sense a meal coming and get rowdy.
As for the other animals, the chickens lay eggs, the dogs are cordial, and the sheep tag along after Gierke in the
pasture, jostling his legs and begging for handouts.
The late afternoon light washes their wooly backs in amber, and the call of a hermit thrush floats over from the woods.
“We really enjoy it here,” says Gierke, by way of understatement.
Mariusz Nowak photos
Apple cider maker
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
—from “Song of the Wandering Aengus,”
by William Butler Yeats
Aengus may have been the Irish god of youth,
love, and poetry, but the poor besotted fellow
still only had two kinds of apples. Jim Pickens
has his pick of dozens when he presses his
signature cider.
Pickens, a professor of forest resources and
environmental science, researches techniques
for improving the profitability of timber
harvesting and forest management. He also
makes gallons of cider every year, and as far as
he’s concerned, the more kinds of apples, the
merrier. “I’ve got ten or twelve varieties in my
yard,” he says. He also gathers plenty more in
nearby woods and fields. Some are wild, some
remnants of orchards long-abandoned. Some
come from fellow apple aficionado Jim Engel
’82, who selects cuttings from promising trees
he finds in the woods and grafts them onto
rootstock.
You can make cider just about anywhere with a bag of supermarket Golden Delicious.
But to grow and gather varieties ranging from
McIntosh to William’s Pride to wild mystery fruit, you need a happy confluence of weather
and open country. And of course, plenty of
apples, which Pickens finds just beyond his
back door. There’s a stand of sugar maples out
there too, which he taps for syrup. But that’s
another story.
Matthew Peterson photos
Winter surfer
Michael Dziobak ’78 ’85 started kayaking Lake
Superior’s wintery waves in 1988. About seven
years ago he switched to a surfboard, tackling
the breakers of November “to get ready for the
even nicer waves that come in December and
January.”
“It’s really not much different from surfing
warmer climes, minus the jellyfish and sharks,”
says the Michigan Tech research scientist,
who studies the long-range transport of air
pollutants at remote sites around the world.
It sure looks different, which begs the question:
why would anyone surf in weather that hangs
icicles on your eyebrows?
“It is very hard to put something like that into
words, but I think I have an irresistible urge to
make physical contact with the raw power of
the natural world,” says Dziobak. “And really,
it’s nowhere near as cold as it looks; modern
neoprene is truly a miracle fabric.”
Greg Maino, Juskuz Photography photos
Musher
L. Brad King researches space propulsion
systems, those exotic engines that keep
satellites in orbit and power probes on
interstellar journeys. He loves his day job,
but what really keeps King in the Keweenaw
are the winters, the wilderness, and his nine
Alaskan malemutes, who like nothing better
than to pull him and his wife, Karyn, through
the woods on a snowy evening.
“No, we don’t race,” says King, an associate
professor of mechanical engineering–
engineering mechanics. “These are oldfashioned working dogs, and we do it purely
for the love of the sport.
King became enamored of sled dogs when
he was a kid, but his family only had one. “I
always said that when I grew up, I’d own my
own team.”
Working at Michigan Tech has made
that possible. “By profession, I love to do
engineering and science, and by upbringing
I like to do things in the woods,” says King.
“There are not a lot of places where both
those things come together.”
Todd King photo; page 18 photo by Brad King
Octave DuTemple
The accidental adventurer
By Marcia Goodrich
Photo by Adam Johnson ’98
I
f Octave DuTemple were to tell you everything he knew, he’d have to kill you. Fortunately, he’s
so accustomed to keeping secrets that he’d be hard-pressed to break his silence now.
DuTemple’s circuitous and covert career is characterized by second chances, near
misses, and ultimata veiled as polite requests. Born in 1920, he was swept from a workingclass childhood to Michigan Tech, to the inner reaches of the US nuclear weapons program,
and finally to leadership of the American Nuclear Society. In the meantime, he became an
accomplished commercial pilot and flight instructor.
DuTemple was born and raised in the small town of Hubbell, where local mining operations
processed their ore. “My father worked in the smelter and then the reprocessing plant for C&H,”
he says. Closed since 1970, the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company was once the region’s
largest copper mining operation.
His father wasn’t the only wage earner in the family. DuTemple pitched in when he was in
grade school, working for 10 cents an hour helping a neighbor roof his house. “I used to haul the
shingles up to the roof,” he says. “I tried to work ten hours to make a dollar a day, but I never
quite made it.”
He excelled in high school and was awarded the thousand-dollar, no-strings-attached C. H.
Benedict Scholarship, a fabulous sum for 1937. C. Harry Benedict, who funded the scholarship,
was the head metallurgist at C&H and lectured at what was then the Michigan College of
Mining and Technology. After his death in 1963, the University renamed the Ores Research
Building the Benedict Laboratory in his memory.
While he could have gone almost anywhere, DuTemple opted to enroll at Michigan Tech.
Thanks to the scholarship, he was also able to bring along his friend Paul Hainault, who later
taught at the University. “I gave him money to start his first year, and then his family got
together and helped put him through,” DuTemple says.
Before enrolling in college, however, the 16-year-old DuTemple joined the Army Reserve, a
decision that would come back to bite him, albeit lightly. “I fudged my age,” he remembers.
He majored in chemical engineering but drifted away from his studies. “I should have
graduated in ’41, but I had so many incompletes. I goofed off, I guess,” he says. “The main reason
was that I lost my mother; she died when I was a freshman, and I didn’t have her to prompt me.”
After leaving school, DuTemple learned to fly at Tech’s pilot school, eventually becoming
an instructor and earning a commercial license. Pan American hired him as a pilot in January
1942, and he studied celestial navigation and again was asked to serve as an instructor. It was a
pretty good life, says DuTemple. Unfortunately, his considerable skills and reserve status finally
attracted the attention of the army, which gave him the choice of teaching wartime pilots at the
Roscoe Turner Aeronautical Corporation voluntarily—or involuntarily.
DuTemple pondered the matter deeply for a second or two and graciously opted to volunteer.
He taught both flight and ground school at Roscoe Turner, in Indianapolis, then navigation at
Ball State University, before finally being called to active duty in 1945 as an aviation cadet. “I
had to go through all the training again,” DuTemple said, still awed by logic that would require
a commercial flight instructor to take flying lessons. Meanwhile, he helped out his instructors by
signing their logbooks so they could get their commercial pilot licenses.
Though technically a cadet, DuTemple sometimes got to fly. There were a few harrowing
moments, even though he never saw combat. “I remember the first time I landed a Sikorsky
flying boat. It was at Coral Gables, Florida, and I thought I was a submarine,” he said. “Another
•
“We were five or
six thousand feet
over the Atlantic,
and suddenly all
four engines
went dead.”
•
•
The US should
restore its nuclear
power program,
says DuTemple,
“or we’ll freeze in
the dark.”
•
time, we were about five or six thousand feet over the Atlantic Ocean, and suddenly all four
engines went dead. The pilot threw a switch behind my head. And threw it again. And finally,
the engines all started. By then we’d dropped about two thousand feet.”
After his discharge, DuTemple was tapped to deliver a PT19 aircraft to Argentina. Footloose
and adventuresome, he ended up flying around Latin America for a year. “That was really fun,”
he remembers. “In Brazil, we wouldn’t drink the water, so we’d buy beer. After we’d get up in the
air, we’d drink it. We flew about three hours; by that time we were sober, and we’d land. We got
by all right.”
In the spring of 1947, he returned to Michigan Tech, ready to put his goofing-off days
behind him. However, reentry into the chemical engineering program was far from certain.
“[Department head] Dr. Cole said the faculty was split on whether to let me in or not, and he
cast the deciding vote in my favor,” DuTemple said.
Cole’s trust was vindicated. DuTemple completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 1948
and 1949, even as he filled in at his other alma mater, Lake Linden–Hubbell High School,
teaching physics and chemistry for an instructor who was out sick with tuberculosis. After
graduation, DuTemple took Cole’s advice and agreed to interview with Argonne National
Lab. He was given directions that could have come from a John Le Carré novel: proceed to the
Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and walk around. “I did, and after I got there,
someone came up to me and asked, ‘Are you Mr. DuTemple?’ I said yes, the next thing I knew
we went behind an exhibit, though a plywood door, and down the steps. In the bottom of the
museum was a whole group of people working.”
He earned his security clearance and was assigned to the atomic weapons program. “When I
left Argonne, the head of our operation said I was never to discuss what I did with anyone, and
of course, I never have,” he says.
However, he does reveal that he was once given the chance to maneuver a nuclear sub. “There
was a guy who sat next to me and told me what to do. He said, ‘You are either a pilot or you’ve
done this before,’” DuTemple remembers with some satisfaction. “We are out in the North
Atlantic, about a fathom above the sea bottom. It was nerve-racking, so I brought her up. That
was my experience with a nuclear sub.”
After ten years at Argonne, he was recruited for a newly created position: executive director of
the fledgling American Nuclear Society. “I turned them down about three times, and finally Dr.
Norman Hilberry of Argonne said I should go.” So he did. “I’d been in the army long enough to
know that if a superior officer tells you to do something, you do it.”
Hilberry’s advice proved sound, both for the society and for DuTemple. During his thirtytwo-year tenure, the American Nuclear Society grew from about 2,000 members to 17,000. He
launched Nuclear News, which grew to be the most important journal in the nuclear industry.
In 1963, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara invited him to join the Defense Orientation
Conference Association, which allowed him to keep abreast of programs and policies relating
to national security. He traveled the world, making fifteen trips to China alone. His efforts on
behalf of the peaceful use of nuclear energy gained him international recognition, and he was
named an honorary member of the Chinese Nuclear Society. His only regret, he says, was that
never learned to speak Mandarin.
Retired since 1990, DuTemple remains a staunch advocate of nuclear energy. Eventually, the
United States will have to restore its nuclear power program, he cautions, “or we’ll freeze in the
dark.”
Among his awards and recognitions, DuTemple has received the University’s highest honor,
the Melvin Calvin Medal of Distinction, the Board of Control Silver Medal, and an honorary
Doctorate in Engineering from Michigan Tech. The American Nuclear Society renamed its
headquarters in his honor. But perhaps the most distinctive monument to his career is an unlikely
object of outdoor art, just outside the Lake Linden Village Hall.
The huge propeller caught DuTemple’s eye during his travels, when he was visiting a soonto-close American air base in northern Africa. “We were going to be kicked out of Libya, and I
wanted that propeller,” he explains. “I used whatever influence I had through the air force. They
asked how I’d get it to Lake Linden, and I said, ‘You guys are going to fly it up there.’ And they
did.”
When pumped for more stories about his career, however, DuTemple graciously demurs. “I did
lots of interesting things in my job, but I don’t think we’d better talk about them,” he says. “A lot
of that material is still secret, and I’ve forgotten most of it anyway.” n
The 2010
Alumni Association
Award winners
Creating the future through an
ethic of excellence
By John Gagnon
Teresa Schissler-Boichot
Outstanding Young Alumni Award
A
s a student, Teresa Schissler-Boichot loved to venture to the shores of Lake
Superior and watch the northern lights dancing across the sky. They were the
backdrop to a college life from which she fashioned a stellar career.
A native of Lansing, Boichot graduated in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in
civil engineering. She worked for six years at Caterpillar Inc. in Peoria, Illinois.
She then went to Patten Industries, a Caterpillar dealer in heavy equipment
and engines, in Elmhurst, Illinois. There, she led 125 employees as the product
support manager for the engine division, which has $32 million in parts and
service sales. She also started up a Six Sigma Department the following year as
Patten’s Six Sigma Master Black Belt.
In 2007, she joined National Management Resources, a firm in LaGrange,
Georgia, that supplied landscaping, custodial, and maintenance services to
colleges and universities. As executive vice president of operations, she oversaw 650
employees working with twenty institutions in ten states.
She is now an independent senior sales director for Mary Kay Cosmetics, a
company that has $2.7 billion in wholesale sales worldwide, and she has her own
consulting firm in LaGrange, Boichot Consulting LLC.
Boichot says Michigan Tech prepared her well for the real world. “I didn’t
realize how well until I left,” she says. “I went to another school for a master’s
degree and I appreciated Michigan Tech even more.”
She has been closely involved in the Society of Women Engineers. As a student,
she was president of the campus chapter; as a professional, she has participated
in national conventions, conducting a presentation on how women can market
themselves.
Underscoring this leadership—and her overall career success—is an ethic of hard
work and determination. “I try to do my best in everything. Set high goals. Reach
them. Set more high goals.”
She learned that at Michigan Tech, where she had to study very hard. “Looking
back, I wouldn’t want it any other way,” she says, “because then you can be proud of
your degree.”
Joanie Clay photo
Robert Freimuth
Outstanding Service Award
R
obert Freimuth has traveled far in a distinguished career in the automotive
industry, where he has had wide-ranging responsibilities. “The common thread
has been working with others to get things done,” he says. “It’s a people business.”
Freimuth brings that standard to Michigan Tech, where he has coordinated
GM’s relations with the University; supported Career Fairs; fostered research;
hired hundreds of students; and championed campus leadership and honors
programs. He also has helped Michigan Tech establish signature programs,
including the YES! Expo in Detroit, the Enterprise Program, FutureCar,
and Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education,
an industry-university initiative.
He served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors from 1986
to 1992 and is a charter member of the Corporate Advisory Board for
Institutional Diversity. He is also a member of the McNair Society,
which recognizes those who include Michigan Tech in their estate plans,
and the Presidents Club, which recognizes those who provide annual
support to the University.
“My input has always been welcome,” he says about his service. “It makes
you want to do more.”
A native of Calumet, Freimuth joined General Motors after graduating in
1977 with a BS in Business Administration. He has spent his entire career with
GM, most recently as manager of GM’s Global Manufacturing System for Future
Programs.
His career was made possible in part by an education that gave him an “excellent
background” in business, marketing, economics, and labor law. Freimuth rounds out
those assets with “an appreciation for other points of view.”
He draws on that strength to practice his “passion” for good leadership, or, as he
says, “helping organizations be effective.” To share that passion, he teaches an MBAlevel leadership class, passing on the lessons he has learned both in his career at GM
and in his service to his alma mater. The two most fundamental qualities of a good
leader, he tells his students, are “integrity and listening to people.”
Robert Freimuth photo
Richard Henes
Distinguished Alumni Award
R
ichard Henes, who earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1948, is
recognized for his generosity, loyalty to his alma mater, and vibrant leadership.
Henes fashioned considerable success from diligence and opportunity. In 1958,
after working as an engineer and lawyer, he established what was to become the
Henes Manufacturing Company in Arizona. Its products ranged from electronic
instruments to pickup truck beds. “We had success,” he recalls, but he really prospered
in real estate in the then-burgeoning Phoenix area. His guideline: “Buy, hold, and sell
when the time is right.”
His timing was excellent, so excellent that it allowed him to become a
philanthropist, a role he says is the only “sensible alternative” to the accumulation
of wealth. Accordingly, Richard and Elizabeth Henes became stewards of
Michigan Tech. Over the course of ten years, the couple established the Henes
Endowed Scholarship; the Henes Chair in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering–Engineering Mechanics; and the Henes Endowed Professorship in the
Department of Mathematical Sciences. As well, they have provided annual support
for the University and have included the Seaman Mineral Museum in their estate
plans.
Their stewardship is based on an appreciation for a Tech education (It gave him
training and incentive); an especially helpful professor, R. Rex Seeber (“He was
brilliant, kind, and straightforward”); hard work (“I was pretty much driven”); and
his vision of educating an “enlightened generation” (which, he hopes, will maintain
America’s place in the world).
Richard and Elizabeth Henes are members of Tech’s Hubbell Society for their
lifetime giving and the McNair Society for their estate gift commitments. Richard
Henes is also a Golden M member of the Alumni Association; a member of the
ME-EM Academy, which recognizes excellence and leadership; and a member of
Tech’s Generations of Discovery Capital Campaign Committee.
Photo provided by Richard Henes
William Predebon
Honorary Alumni Award
W
illiam Predebon, professor and chair in the Department of
Mechanical Engineering–Engineering Mechanics, has been a
devoted and dependable leader on campus for more than thirty years.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame in
1965 and his master’s and doctorate from Iowa State University in 1968
and 1970, respectively. He joined ME-EM in 1976. He has been chair of
the department since 1997 and has transformed the program.
Under his watch, ME-EM has made great strides in conducting
interdisciplinary research, growing the doctoral program, and expanding
research funding. “Our competition is now global, no longer just national,”
he says. “Our educational and research programs must adapt. More than
ever, research opportunities are pervasive and essential.”
He also has brought diversity to both the faculty and student body.
“Diversity,” he says, “is something that should be part of our fabric.”
Predebon has received numerous honors, including membership in
Michigan Tech’s Academy of Teaching Excellence; the Outstanding
Service Award for his work with the student chapter of the Society of
Automotive Engineers; and the Distinguished Teaching Award. As
well, he received the Distinguished Faculty Award from the Michigan
Association of Governing Boards of Colleges.
He has been deeply involved in the University’s fundraising efforts; has advised both
the Nordic and Alpine ski teams and Delta Sigma Phi fraternity; and has chaired
the building committees for both the Dow Environmental Sciences and Engineering
Building and the Great Lakes Research Center.
His research has involved experimental, analytical, and computational elements. He
has been granted two US patents. He is a captain in the US Army Reserves and is a
member of four honor societies.
His leadership informs his vision for the department. “The world is changing,” he
says, “and we need to respond to its challenges and opportunities.”
Ryan Schumacher photo
Alumni Association notes
Alumni events
October 1–2
Houghton—Homecoming, including Alumni
Broomball Invitational October 2
October 9
Sault Ste. Marie—Pregame dinner, Hockey Huskies
vs. Lake Superior State
Always here
“A part of me will always be here.” This unattributed quote, from page
nine of the 1977 Keweenawan, is one I think almost all of us can relate to as
Michigan Tech alumni. We arrive as young adults, curious about the world
and anxious to find our place in it. We leave educated, accomplished, and
more aware of the world around us. And for most of us, there is something
that eventually draws us back, that small part of us we left behind.
The Tech experience is different for each of us, but few can spend
several years in the Copper Country and not be affected by the place itself.
Weather not encountered in most of the country, a beautiful outdoor
environment, a university that continually strives to improve the student
experience, people who care about Michigan Tech and want it to succeed
in its mission to create the future.
During my tenure as president of the Alumni Association, I’ve had the
opportunity to meet a number of people who come back to Tech because
of that part of themselves they left behind, people who care enough about
Michigan Tech to devote a significant amount of their time and treasure
to make a difference. The Board of Directors of the Alumni Association
is a group of such people, and I would like to acknowledge and applaud
their contributions. These committed folks return to campus twice a year
without recompense, to develop and direct the policies and programs of
the association.
In just the past few years of my term on the Board, the directors, in
conjunction with Director of Alumni Relations Brenda Rudiger and her
staff, have developed a Young Alumni Homecoming event, a network of
regional alumni leaders, a new Alumni Humanitarian Award, an Explore
Your Network mentoring program, and new events and activities for
Alumni Reunion. New programs in the works for 2010 include rewriting
the Association’s constitution, developing an on-boarding program for
new Board members, rethinking our mission and vision statements, and
moving into the Alumni House on campus.
Many others in the Tech family contribute to the University in a myriad
of ways. I encourage you to reconnect with Michigan Tech and make a
commitment to the next generation, perhaps by making a donation to the
upcoming capital campaign, Generations of Discovery. If you believe a
part of you is always here, you’ll want to be part of it.
Thanks to Brenda, Brent, Danielle, Tanya, Matt, and Kay, the people
who make it all work. Without them none of the work of the Alumni
Association would be possible.
Mark Mitchell ’77
President, Michigan Tech Alumni Association
October 9
Saginaw—Football Tailgate, Huskies vs. Saginaw
Valley State
October
TBA Grand Rapids—West Michigan Chapter
Oktoberfest
October 23
Nationwide—Michigan Tech alumni Make A
Difference Day
October 29–30
Madison, Wis.—Pregame event, Hockey Huskies
vs. Wisconsin
November 12–13
Duluth, Minn.—Pregame dinner, Hockey Huskies
vs. Minnesota-Duluth
November TBD
Grand Rapids—West Michigan Chapter Griffins
Hockey gamewatch
December 29–30
Detroit—Great Lakes Invitational Hockey
Tournament
January 30
Grand Rapids—West Michigan Chapter brunch at
Marie Catrib’s
February 4–5
Anchorage, Alaska—Pregame event, Hockey
Huskies vs. Alaska-Anchorage
February 9–12
Winter Carnival
February 18–19
Denver—Pregame event, Hockey Huskies vs.
Denver
February 26
Minneapolis—Pregame event, Hockey Huskies vs.
Minnesota
A number of chapters have regular networking
events for area alumni. Join your chapter’s Facebook
fan pages for details.
For up-to-date listings of regional alumni events,
visit http://mtu.edu/alumni.
Help us
recognize
outstanding
alumni and
friends
Know a great Michigan Tech
alumnus/a or friend of the University?
Here’s a chance to help get them the
recognition they deserve.
The Alumni Association is seeking
nominations for the 2011 Outstanding
Young Alumni Award, the Outstanding Service Award, the Distinguished
Alumni Award, and the Honorary
Alumni Award.
Also, a new Humanitarian Award has
been created by the Alumni Association.
It will highlight the positive impact our
alumni have through their voluntary service to the community, state, or country,
or to an important social cause.
Please consider nominating deserving
individuals for the 2011 Alumni Association awards. The recipients are honored
each August at the Alumni Reunion.
Award descriptions and nomination
forms are available at http://alumni.mtu.
edu/awards or by contacting the Office
of Alumni Relations, 906-487-2400 or
alumni@mtu.edu. The nomination deadline is December 1.
Join Michigan Tech’s
online community
As a Tech grad, you can join over
13,000 alumni and access the
entire alumni directory and group
directories; register for events;
update your info; and share your
news and photos.
huskylink.mtu.edu/join
Elmer (Bud) Rieckhoff ’60, right, of Carson City, Nevada, and Mark Jarmus ’80, of Fort Wayne,
Indiana, toured the Keweenaw Waterway aboard the Agassiz, Michigan Tech’s research vessel,
during Alumni Reunion 2010. The free tours featured talks by Tech Professor W. Charles Kerfoot
on his Great Lakes research. Chee Huei Lee photo
Your access code (first-time number)
is located above your name on the
address label on the back cover.
What are you waiting for?
Get connected. Get involved.
Social networks abound for
Michigan Tech alumni
With the explosion of the social networking sites, Michigan Tech alumni have many
opportunities to connect with fellow alumni, current students, and the University.
As part of Michigan Tech’s exclusive online alumni community,
huskylink.mtu.edu, you can
• Search the Alumni Directory by major, class year, employer,
location, etc. Find your old friends and make new connections.
• Share your news with a class note that may also be included in this magazine.
• Update your profile with the most recent contact and employer data. Stay connected
to Michigan Tech to receive invitations to local alumni events and activities.
• Sign up to be a mentor. The value students receive from alumni who share their
knowledge is incalculable. Acting as a mentor provides a great opportunity to interest
students in pursuing a career in your industry and profession.
This interconnected network of experienced professionals
represents 170 industries and 200 countries. Find and
collaborate professionally with alumni from around the
world by joining the more than 3,600 alumni and students in the Michigan Tech
LinkedIn group.
Join the more than 4,300 alumni who are fans of the Michigan Tech
Alumni Association Facebook page and get current information, Tech
Trivia, and alumni events in your news feed. Many Michigan Tech
alumni chapters have special pages featuring regional news and events to
help local area alumni get connected.
Share your
experience.
Become a
mentor.
The value students receive from
alumni who share their knowledge
is incalculable. Being a mentor is
also a great opportunity to interest
students in careers in your industry
and profession.
Visit www.mtu.edu/mentor to find
out how you can get involved.
Will you answer the call?
September marks the beginning of the 2010–11 Michigan Tech Annual
Fund and Telefund program. Michigan Tech students will begin calling
alumni and friends to encourage your support of and involvement in
the University.
Perhaps it’s been awhile since you’ve been back to campus.
The phone call from a student is an opportunity to bring you up to
date on campus news and events. They can also answer many of your
questions or point you in the direction to find more information.
If you’ve moved or changed jobs recently, our student callers can
update your contact information. The best way to keep you connected
to the University is to make sure we have your current information,
so you will continue to receive important communications from the
University and your academic department.
Michigan Tech’s student callers are a vital component of the University’s
fundraising operation, securing more than $400,000 in commitments
for the Annual Fund and numerous additional University programs.
Life is busy, and we know that your time is valuable. But when the
phone rings and you see it’s Michigan Tech calling, will you consider
answering and saying hello to the student on the other end of the line?
Their call is important.
The Michigan Tech Annual Fund
Give every year. Make a difference every day!
ANSWER: THIS TECH
ALUM IS A THREE-TIME
JEOPARDY! CHAMP.
QUESTION: WHO IS
KRISTIAN ZOERHOFF?
By Marcia Goodrich
T
he last time Kristian Zoerhoff ’97 had entertained a crowd was as a deejay for WMTU.
Sitting alone in a darkened booth playing music for invisible listeners didn’t quite prepare
him for the dazzling lights and the flock of TV cameras on the Jeopardy! set.
“And then there’s that pesky audience,” he remembers. “I was absurdly nervous.”
Now a computer engineer for IBM, Zoerhoff has been a Jeopardy! fan since he was a kid sitting
cross-legged in his living room shouting out answers to Alex Trebek’s clues. He auditioned for
the college tournament when he was an electrical engineering major at Michigan Tech but didn’t
make it past the first round of try-outs.
Zoerhoff put Jeopardy! on the back burner for fifteen years. He and wife Kirsten (Dieringer) ’97
’99 settled down just outside Chicago, in the small town of Gilberts, with their young daughter.
Then in February 2009 Zoerhoff decided to give it another shot and took the show’s online
test. This time, he earned an audition, and in January he flew out to Los Angeles for a day to face
the lights, the cameras, and the audience. Five shows—a week’s worth—are taped in a single day,
a potential marathon for winning players. It wasn’t until the games aired in March that Zoerhoff
could reveal that he’d made it onto three shows and won $36,900.
If it weren’t for the classical music and literature categories, he might still be pressing buzzers
in California. Zoerhoff aced the science and Bugs Bunny questions and, surprisingly, a category
that required contestants to complete palindromes. “As an engineer, you have to think forward
and backward, and that turned out to be pretty handy,” he says.
As fans know, Jeopardy! isn’t just about being smart. “Timing has a ton to do with it, because
if you ring in early you are locked out for a quarter of a second, which is death,” says Zoerhoff.
“A lot is based on your reflex time. Once you get one or two in a row, you get on a roll, and your
brain starts firing at just the right time.”
Being a contestant was a once-in-a-lifetime thrill, says Zoerhoff. But since he returned
home, Zoerhoff has had another chance to play. When his coworkers found out he’d been on
Jeopardy!—and won—they asked him to match wits with a machine.
IBM is building a massively parallel computer called the DeepQA system. Named after IBM
founder Thomas J. Watson, scientists hope it will be able to understand complex questions and
answer with the precision and speed of the brainiest Jeopardy! contestants.
Thus it was that Zoerhoff went head to head with one of the world’s smartest computers.
Which begs the question: Does DeepQA know who created the voice of that wascally wabbit?
Sorry, says Zoerhoff, that’s a secret. We’ll just have to wait until Watson faces Trebek to find
out if the world’s smartest computer draws a Blanc. n
For more on Watson, read the
IBM press release:
www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/
pressrelease/27324.wss
Class notes
Pasty Picnic 2009
UEC Electronics president honored in SBA contest
Rebecca Ufkes BSME ’87, president of Hanahan-based UEC Electronics, was named first
runner-up in the US Small Business Administration’s annual National Small Business Person of
the Year contest.
Philip Ufkes BSEE ’86 is the firm’s vice president. UEC Electronics, founded in 1995, helps
clients develop product ideas by applying manufacturing, hardware, software, and mechanical
and electronic design. The company has grown from a home-based consulting firm with one
customer to an 80,000-square-foot campus with ninety-five employees.
Ufkes turned to government contracting when her largest client fell upon tough times. She
became the first graduate of the navy’s Manufacturing Technical Assistance Production Program.
Her company soon became a prime defense contractor. Revenues grew from $9.7 million in 2007
to $13.4 million in 2008. Employment rose steadily each year, despite the recession.
The National Small Business Person of the Year is selected from the fifty-three state small
business winners, including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam. Before becoming
the runner-up in the national contest, Ufkes was selected as the Small Business Person of the
Year for South Carolina.
Alum: Melting oceanic “fire ice” will turn up the global thermostat
As the author of Cold, Clear, and Deadly: Unraveling a Toxic Legacy, Mel Visser ’59 uncovered the reasons
for the buildup of persistent organic pollutants in pristine environments like the Arctic and Lake Superior.
Now the chemical engineering alumnus has sounded a warning on climate change with his new book, The
Climate Trap: A Perilous Tripping of Earth’s Natural Freeze Protection System.
“For many years, I wondered why Earth cooled slowly as it entered into an Ice Age, then suddenly heated
up rapidly,” he said. “Without some unexplained major source of energy released by some triggering event,
Earth should have cooled down and joined Mars as a frozen sister.”
He theorizes that energy came from methane hydrate, also known as “fire ice,” the same chemical
that blocked BP’s attempt to funnel off the Gulf oil spill. “It is also the compound that is now, as the Arctic Ocean warms,
decomposing to release methane. There is more carbon tied up in ocean floors as methane hydrate than in all the world’s coal
and oil combined,” Visser said. “The story, like most deeply hidden stories, is unbelievably simple when finally uncovered. I have
had it reviewed by oil executives and geology professors who find it amazing.” The Climate Trap is available on Amazon.com.
1950s
Hockey great Ray Puro honored
Ray Puro ’53, named MVP of Michigan Tech’s hockey program in 1952–53, has been inducted posthumously into
the Sudbury Sports Hall of Fame.
A 1950 graduate of Sudbury (Ontario) High School, he received a full hockey scholarship to Tech and was the
leading scorer for two seasons.
After earning a BS in Metallurgy, Puro was employed by INCO Metals in Manitoba. He passed away in 2006 at
the age of 77.
1960s
Boyd Norton’s ’60 newest book (his 15th), Norton’s Outdoor Digital Photography Handbook, is available on Amazon.com.
Pete Davis ’65 ’67 retired after twenty-nine years as a wildlife biology consultant in the Denver area. He has moved to
St. Francis, Kansas, to get away from the city and to hunt pheasants and train dogs.
Michael Russo ’69 was named executive secretary of AEEC (formerly the Airlines Electronic Engineering
Committee) on August 1, 2008.
1970s
Rowland Gray ’78 retired from Ford Motor Company in 2007. He returned to work for the army in Warren as a
program quality manager for heavy and light tactical vehicles.
Book chronicles thirty years of Isle Royale
Vic Foerster’s ’74 book, Naked in The Stream: Isle Royale Stories, was published in April 2010
by Arbutus Press. Written after thirty years of visits to Isle Royale National Park with fellow
alumnus Ken Glupker ’73, the book is an intimate, ongoing story of how a Great Lakes wilderness
affects the people who venture to America’s least-visited national park. The moody, beautiful
illustrations are by Joyce Koskenmaki. The book is available on Amazon.com.
1980s
Scott Weil ’87 was named Inventor of the Year at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a US Department of Energy
multi-program laboratory in Richland, Washington. Weil is an ME graduate and earned master’s and PhD degrees
from Carnegie Mellon University in metallurgy and materials science and engineering.
1990s
Shelley (Williams) Bolbrugge ’94 and family have relocated to Washington, DC. Shelley now works for the US
Department of Transportation–National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as a rulemaking engineer in the
Office of Crash Avoidance. The family lives in Alexandria, Virginia.
SME announces appointments
Soil and Materials Engineers, of Plymouth, recently announced the appointments of four Michigan Tech alumni,
all civil engineering graduates. They include senior associates Laurel Johnson ’93, Lou Northouse ’97, and Joel
Rinkel ’94; and shareholder Paul Schmeisl ’04.
2000s
Dannett Rice ’01 welcomed Naomi Marie on November 10, 2007, and had twins Joshua David and Faith Elizabeth on
November 3, 2009.
Amanda McMahon ’02 announces the birth of Rohan Jakob, born April 28, 2010. He joins big sister Viveka Denali.
Lacey Mason ’04 is working at the Institute for Fisheries Research (a cooperative effort of the Michigan Department
of Natural Resources and the Environment and the University of Michigan) as a computer research specialist (GIS
analyst).
Audrey and Jim Goetzinger ’04 announce the birth of Lucy Marie on May 9, 2009.
Robert Sandoval ’05 graduated from Northwestern University in June 2010 with a PhD in Chemical Engineering. He
is now working as a senior engineer at Dow Chemical Company in Midland.
line
Go On
Now!
University Images
Official Michigan Tech Alumni Apparel and Gifts
www.bookstore.mtu.edu
1-800-850-0688
In memoriam
The Michigan Tech family
extends condolences to the
relatives and friends of those
who have passed away recently.
1941
James B. Hamilton
John W. Helms
1942
Sidney S. Allen
Robert G. Brown
Clifford G. Carter
Joseph E. Francis
1946
Lee D. Carr
1947
Peter N. Handberg
1948
Harold J. Cleary
Andrew Dykema
Walter E. Jennings
William J. McHugh
Robert W. Poull
William A. Van Dell
1949
Howard J. Barrons PE
Frederick A. Fellner
Martin J. Marin
Robert J. Simonson
The fine print
Michigan Tech Magazine
(USPS 345-980)
Published by Michigan Technological
University
1400 Townsend Drive
Houghton, MI 49931-1295
Postage is paid at Houghton,
Michigan, and additional mailing offices.
1950
Clyde Y. Cundy
Robert G. LaForrest
Paul G. Michels PE
Harvey B. Sauder
1951
Charles E. Alloway
Bobby D. Collins
Arthur D. Kellogg
Donald C. Krautter
1961
Robert A. Sega
1953
Prof. Howard B. Anderson
James A. Whalen
Joseph de Bastiani
1954
Virginia L. Hockings (Doane)
Chauncey L. Martin
1957
Richard V. Trax
University
Marketing and
Communications
Vice President for
Advancement
Shea McGrew
Executive
Director
Bonnie B. Gorman
Editor
Marcia Goodrich
Design and Illustration
Clare Rosen
Creative Director
Bill Tembreull
1959
William L. Johnson
Robert L. Sajdak
1960
Albert F. Kaiser
1952
Raul D. Sundstrom
1956
David W. Johnson
Donald H. Scott
Larry V. Suboski
1958
James C. Eschweiler
Rev. Peter C. Torola
1962
Thomas C. Cavis
Thomas E. Dostert
1964
Gerald L. Herriman
Richard L. Hodges
1970
Parkash C. Gupta
Warren D. Ketola
Larry V. Neidlinger
1971
Dorothy H. (Hutchins)
Klingbeil
Linda R. (Robertson) Stuffle
PE
1973
Michael L. Cruce
Dr. Ronald A. Liston
1974
James W. Bulliment
Curtis L. Swanson
1976
Kim E. Brown
1965
Ronald G. Rajala
John L. Stadler Jr.
1979
Scott M. Ekonen
Randy L. LaPeer
1966
Amritlal Kanjibhai
1983
Aaron M. Simons
1969
Frank P. Henderson
John H. Lonskey
Marvin L. Manninen
Rev. Dr. Michael L. Peterlin
1990
Helen R. (Shepherd)
Schesniak
Feedback
You can send your comments to
the editor, Marcia Goodrich, at
mlgoodri@mtu.edu.
Mail: Marketing and
Communications
Michigan Technological
University 1400 Townsend Drive
Houghton, MI 49931-1295
Fax: 906-487-3553
Contributors
Jennifer Donovan
John Gagnon
Brenda Rudiger
Dennis Walikainen
2009
Kyle J. Newbury
Address changes
Correction
Email: gccolaro@mtu.edu
The photo on page 9 of the
spring Michigan Tech Magazine
was taken in Anchorage, Alaska,
not Fairbanks, as the caption
stated. Thanks to all who
caught the error.
Mail: Alumni Records Office
Michigan Technological
University
1400 Townsend Drive
Houghton, MI 49931-1295
Michigan Technological
University is an equal
opportunity educational
institution/equal opportunity
employer.
Make a gift
that will bring
a lifetime of
benefits
With a charitable gift annuity, you make an irrevocable gift to the Michigan
Tech Fund and receive a fixed income for life. You also receive a valuable
income tax deduction in the year you make the gift, and a portion of your
payment may be tax-free. Then, after a lifetime of payments to you, Michigan
Tech will benefit from your wise and generous planning.
Gift annuities have even more advantages if you choose to wait to receive the
annuity payments. In exchange for deferring your payments, you receive a
higher payment rate and a higher income tax deduction.
Call the Office of Gift Planning direct at 906-487-3325
or toll-free at 877-386-3688, or send an email to giftplan@mtu.edu,
for more information and a personalized illustration.
“A conservative way to make
substantial gifts”
Dave McBride started McBride Construction in Petoskey after graduating
in 1982 and has been in business ever since. He credits his Michigan Tech
business education with providing him the tools he needed to succeed. He also
credits Tech for opening his and his wife’s eyes to the benefits of giving. “Joy
and I were able to develop an estate plan in mid-career that includes deferredpayment charitable gift annuities,” he says. “This is an excellent way to make
gifts that will significantly benefit Michigan Tech and the community it serves.
At the same time, we have the flexibility to later receive income from them. Gift
annuities are a conservative way for us to make substantial gifts.”
David ’82 and Joy McBride
(n, in-spin-uh-VAY-shun)
When inspiration meets innovation; like what you’ll
find at Michigan Tech. 130 innovative degree offerings,
the Enterprise Program, and hundreds of internships
and co-ops with some of the world’s top companies,
corporations, and organizations. We do that.
www.admissions.mtu.edu
Michigan Technological University is an equal opportunity educational institution/equal opportunity employer.
We do that.
Michigan Technological University
1400 Townsend Drive
Houghton, MI 49931-1295
inspinnovation