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Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus, and his name is Bob.
Robert Aittama ’73 first set his sights on being Santa Claus for a pretty Grinch-y reason.
"I started out in a greedy way," he confesses. Aittama was casting about for a decent stream of retirement income, and playing Santa seemed like a good deal: not only did he look the part, he found he could make a sizable sum in six weeks, "about ten times more than I’d get as a Walmart greeter," he says.
The Cover
With all due respect to General Mills, we would like to submit three nominations for appearances on a certain cereal box.
- Michigan Tech’s 1961–62 championship hockey team, which remains a touchstone for athleticism and esprit de corps fifty years after its NCAA triumph
- World War II airman Robert Peterson ’49, who survived a year and a half in a POW camp after his plane was blown out of the sky over Germany
- The Huskies Helping Heroes Senior Design team members, who are engineering better hand cycles, and the veterans who ride those cycles in marathons, despite having lost limbs in Afghanistan and Iraq
Bob Peterson insists that he was not a hero. The heroes, he said, were the guys who never made it back home. But we can still honor those who go above and beyond, who lift our spirits to celestial heights or astonish us with a degree of sacrifice that is beyond appraisal.
- Marcia Goodrich—Editor
- Clare Rosen—Graphic Designer
- Sarah Bird—Photographer
