NEWSLETTER – RETIRED AFIT FACULTY - SPRING 2000

SPRING LUNCHEON:

The Spring Luncheon will be held at Noon, April 8, at the Wright-Patterson Officer's Club. For simplicity (and economy) we are holding the menu to one entrée: Chicken Almondine Supreme at $8.35 per plate (including gratuity). As we will all be guests of Jim Bridgman (who has retained his membership), please bring exact change (or check payable to Jim) so we can all reimburse him in an efficient and timely manner. Jim will be off doing his spring thing of officiating at a track meet, but Lucy will be with us.

To make your reservation, please call one of the following:

    Jim Bridgman by Monday, April 3 or
    Harold Kepler by Monday, April 3, or
    Peter Torvik by Thursday, March 30


BASE ACCESS:

Please see that your decal is current, or arrange to ride with someone having a valid decal. If neither is possible, please call Jim by April 4 so he can have your name placed on an access list for the event.

Those of you needing to renew your decal will find the most convenient place to do so is at the Area B Visitors center, located between Springfield Street and the Springfield Street guard shack. When you go to update, three items are essential: (1) A valid ID card, (2) the number from your current sticker, and (3) your current motor vehicle registration. This last item seems superfluous, but is required for a good reason. The base has to assure compliance with clean-air regulations, and they do this by relying on state registration as proof of testing. Thus, you need to prove current registration from an e-check county, or have the e-check.


NECROLOGY:

Henry Colson died peacefully at home on February 11, 2000 at the age of 79. Henry came to AFIT in the early 50s, and moved on to OSU in about 1959. He and Virginia attended our Retiree's Luncheons on a regular basis. Her address is 3592 Delamere Ave., Columbus, OH, 43220. Funeral services were held in Columbus, and attended by Wally and Ethelene Breuer, Cecil and Myrtis Bailey, and B. E. Gatewood. The AFIT Retirees sent a donation in his honor to the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. He is remembered for his love of life, good music and opera, good manhattans and martinis, applied math consulting and research, and for his superb teaching skills.

Two especially well-known and well-liked former members of the School of Engineering Staff died during the past quarter. Kay Randall will be remembered by many for bringing some much-needed life to the Physics Department and Mel Corbin for his roles in developing the EE laboratory empire.


SOCIAL FUND:

Our fairly faithful financeer, Harold Kepler, reports that the present social fund balance is $132.92 (less current mailing expenses), so we don't need to solicit donations at this time.


AFIT FOUNDATION AND ASSOCIATION OF GRADUATES

Jim Bridgman and Wally Breuer recently joined Peter Torvik on the Board of Directors of the AFIT Foundation. This reflects a significant change in the composition AFIT Association of Graduates (AOG). As originally formed, the AOG restricted full membership to graduates (resident or non-resident) of AFIT. As more recently constituted under the AFIT Foundation, membership now includes Faculty as well as Graduates, and the emphasis is on graduates of the resident graduate schools (now a single Graduate School of Engineering and Management.) Other new board members include Col (Ret) Frank Moore (MS and PhD from AFIT) and State Senator Charles Horn. General Richard Saxer is completing his term as Board President and will retire from the board.

The Foundation is undertaking the project of creating and maintaining a web site for the Foundation and the AOG. This web site will contain information on AFIT programs and activities, as well news of faculty (present and former) as well as graduates. It should be up and running as afit-aog.org by the time of our Spring Luncheon. The primary objective of the site is to be a a means of communicating with and maintaining contact with graduates and former faculty.

More and more of our members have adopted the Internet as a means of communication. If you have an e-mail address, please pass it on to Peter Torvik, Jim Bridgman, Wally Breuer or Harold Kepler


ACTIVITIES AND TRAVELS OF MEMBERS

The Barrs ( David and Mary) are going to England later in the Month of April for an extended visit with their son who is there with a US corporation.

Joe Cain's retirement home is in the country outside of Dallas. He is enjoying his season tickets to the Dallas Philharmonic and the Dallas Opera, which he finds to be international class organizations. He is also doing a little substitute teaching in high-school History, Mathematics, and Spanish. The Spanish is especially interesting, as Joe does not speak Spanish, and many of his students have Spanish as their first language.

The Crouchs (Jack and Annett) spent New Years Eve 2000 in Paris France.

John and Fiona Przemieniecki left late February for a trip around the world. This will involve extensive cruising of Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and the Middle East. Their daughter, Anita, is still in Cincinnati at P&G, so Ohio visits are likely. Son Chris is following the faculty footsteps with a teaching and coaching job at a private univesity in Tennessee. John remains Editor of the AIAA education series, but finds time to play tennis for two hours every day!

Clarence Edstrom reports that he recently spoke with Professor Harling. Reg recently passed his 99th birthday, but is as chipper as ever. Clarence is experiencing some medical problems which keeps him from driving.

Bill and Ann Ericksen drove to Arizona in February (4 days each way) to visit their daughter Jane. On their way back, they visited their daughter Susan in Illinois.

Chuck Richards appears to be enjoying the Florida life of golf, travel and boating.

Guy Risley also continues to enjoy the Florida life. He has a new lady friend and a new house. The new house is on open water (Tampa Bay), with six feet of water at low tide, so he needs a bigger sailboat to fill it. He is keeping the old house for his retirement. No details on the lady friend, but Guy may be in Ohio in June, at which time we may learn more.

Pete and Pat Torvik have been getting around a bit – visiting their son in Paris and touring some of the rural areas, seeing numerous old friends from Minnesota at their snow-bird homes at Phoenix, watching spring come to the Great Smokies, and dashing to Iowa to celebrate the 90th birthday with Pat's mother. Pat is in the middle of a two-year term as president of the Greater Dayton League of Women Voters, but they still managed to boil twenty gallons of maple sap down into syrup.


WORDS OF WISDOM

Some of our members who are getting a little older have compiled, for the benefit of the younger ones, some of the many advantages of getting older. They say that:
  • Finally you can eat dinner at 4:00.
  • Your investment in health insurance is beginning to pay off.
  • Kidnappers are not very interested in you.
  • It's harder and harder for sexual harassment charges to stick.
  • People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.
  • Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them either.
  • Your eyes won't get much worse.
  • Things you buy now won't wear out.
  • There's nothing left to learn the hard way.
  • In a hostage situation you are likely to be released first,


PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO PHONE IN YOUR RESERVATION FOR APRIL 8