Class Notes

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Class Notes

1960s

Eustace Dereniak ’63 (Electrical Engineering) was selected as the recipient of the 2015 International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) President’s Award in July 2015.This award is presented by the International Society of Optical Engineers to an individual who, in the opinion of the SPIE president and board of directors, has rendered a unique and meritorious service of outstanding benefit to the society

John Rees ’65 (Civil Engineering) reports: “Whidbey Island,Washington, has natural beauty every fall. This is one example.”

1970s

Greg Schurig ’72 (Mechanical Engineering) has retired after over forty-two years in the pharmaceutical industry. He retired (the first time) as director of engineering at RP Scherer (Cardinal Health) after a thirty-two-year career, and finally from HKA Enterprises as project manager. He and his wife, June ’74, split their time between Kalamazoo and Lewiston, Michigan.

Richard Newell ’70 (Electrical Engineering): “These days I am riding twenty miles on either my Gazelle or my Panasonic. I have also been swimming from 1,000 to 2,000 meters about four times a week. This year will mark thirty-four years as a Boy Scout leader. My son, Richard U. Newell, has been playing in regional and national contract bridge tournaments. I should never have taught him to play bridge.”

1980s

Allyn Abel ’81 (Mechanical Engineering Technology) has spent the last thirty-two years in various aspects of machine/ systems design and project management. He has been an adjunct professor for twenty-plus years at Western Michigan University, ITT-Tech of Grand Rapids, and Baker College of Muskegon, including eight years as a full-time department chair/ instructor of CAD, Arch, QI, and industrial tech programs. Currently, he is designing industrial band saws used for cutting wood, metals, and other materials.

Susan Ulanowicz ’82 (Business Administration) is a senior global marketing project manager for the Roche Sequencing Unit of Roche Diagnostics in Pleasanton, California

Scott Zull ’85 (Mechanical Engineering) retired after more than nineteen years as senior manufacturing engineer at Bradford White Corporation in Middleville, Michigan. Scott plans to continue coaching high school volleyball and travel with his family.

1990s

Stacy Schwarze LaPrad ’96 (Scientific an Technical Communication) and Joseph LaPrad ’96 (Chemical Engineering) married on Oct. 4, 2014.

Bridgette (Chapman) Rillema ’96 (Environmental Engineering) married Jacob Rillema on May 17, 2008. On December 28, 2013, they welcomed daughter Caroline Grace Rillema. They are currently living in Kent City, Michigan.

2000s

Nick Dahlheimer ’06 (Mechanical Engineering) and wife Nancy had their first child, a little boy, David Joseph, on February 23, 2015.

Mike Maksimchuk ’09 (Biology) married Anne Worfel on February 20, 2015. Mike also completed his M.Ed degree in March from Concordia University. The couple resides in Kent City, Michigan.

2010s

Brandon Maurisak ’10 (Civil Engineering) was a graduate of the Class of 2015 American Public Transportation Association’s Early Career Program.

Jordan Klocko ’10 (Computer Network and System Administration) has been promoted to IXN network operations manager with A. J. Boggs & Company, a Michigan-based software development and managed hosting company. He joined A. J. Boggs in August 2013 as a systems administrator and recently achieved his certification as a VMware Certified Professional (VCP). Jordan manages the IXN VMware vSphere environment for clients seeking cloud services, disaster recovery, backup, and other simplified computer/network infrastructure management solutions.

Anne Pond ’12 (PhD, Forest Science) shared this photo of Tech alumni, taken recently at the 2015 Western Mensurationists’ meeting, an annual gathering of forest mensurationists and biometricians.

Kerstin Cleveland ’14 (Chemical Engineering; Pharmaceutical Chemistry) married Nathanael Green ’14 (Pharmaceutical Chemistry; Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) on the ultimate pi day—March 14, 2015 (or, 3/14/15)—in Houston,Texas, where they both live and work. They are second-generation Michigan Tech sweet-hearts, with Kerstin’s parents, Michael ’82 and Marie ’82 (Weiss) Cleveland, meeting at Tech as well.

Q & A with Steven Bailey ’10

Steven Bailey ’10 (PhD, Rhetoric and Technical Communication) is an associate professor in the English Language and Literature Department at Central Michigan University, where he directs the composition program. He has written four travel guidebooks and is actively researching composition and rhetoric, creative nonfiction, and travel writing.

How did you start writing travel guidebooks?

I was fortunate to grow with a small San Francisco-based company that published the travel magazine Things Asian, which later morphed into a travel website: www.thingsasian.com. I wrote nearly 100 pieces for them on everything from Vietnamese water puppets to Filipino jeepneys. When the company relocated to Hong Kong and began publishing books, I proposed a series of guidebooks. My first guide to Macau—the former Portuguese colony about 40 miles southwest of Hong Kong—was published in 2007, and I have written three more since then.

How do you approach guidebooks in a scholarly way?

Plenty of scholars have noted that while many travel guidebook publishers claim to be socially conscious, their guidebooks do not really deliver on this promise. However, no scholars that I am aware of have offered concrete, practical solutions for rethinking the travel guidebook genre. I aim to fill this gap and ask how the genre can be redesigned to produce the socially conscious goals that the big guidebook publishers claim to shoot for.

Writing is sometimes viewed as antiquated, something people used to do. Why are writing skills relevant in the 21st century?

Writing technology has certainly changed—writing is now almost entirely performed in a digital environment—but the need for writing itself has not. Research has shown that college students who learn to write well tend to do better in the workplace. Strong written communication skills are more vital to student success than ever before—including STEM fields.

Writing centers are prominent at many universities. Why are they so central?

At Central Michigan University, the Writing Center is going strong. Another graduate of Tech’s RTC program, Dr. Lori Rogers, serves as its associate director, in fact. The CMU Writing Center supports student writers, contributing to their academic success. This improves student retention and graduation rates—a central concern not just at CMU, but on all university campuses. However, writing centers are also coming to the forefront on university campuses because they help students develop the written communication skills employers say they need in new hires—but haven’t been seeing in recent graduates.

What’s the most interesting place your travels have taken you?

I have been to nearly 50 countries, and every last one of them was interesting.That said, Hong Kong has held my interest for several decades. A grant allowed me to spend some time there this summer researching for a book project, which focuses on the American air campaign against Japanese-occupied Hong Kong during the Second World War. I found Hong Kong to be just as fascinating as I did when I first visited the city in 1986, when it was still a British colony.

In Memoriam

The Michigan Tech family extends condolences to the relatives and friends of those who have passed away.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to nearly 7,500 students from more than 60 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.