Alumni

Paul W. Fernstrum, a mechanical engineering alumnus, is chairman and past president of Menominee-based RW Fernstrum & Co., a third-generation family-owned company that invented—and continues to manufacture and market—the Gridcooler keel cooler, a marine engine heat exchanger, which was developed during World War II for landing craft. Paul began his career at RW Fernstrum as a draftsman. In 1975 he . . .

Pete Knudson earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Tech in 1964 and began his career with the Budd Company as a management trainee. He would spend the next 19 years with the company, including stints as executive vice president and general manager of Auto Manufacturas and as president and general manager of Budd's Canadian subsidiary. He became group vice president of automotive products for Budd in . . .

John Drake is serious about giving back to his alma mater. He attributes his success in large part to "the training and rigor of a Michigan Tech education with its insistence on understanding." Drake earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1964 and a master’s in business administration in 1969. "Nobody was better prepared to understand and solve problems than Tech grads were," he says. . . .

Mary received her bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences in 1983, a second bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1991, and a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1993. Following her "First" graduation, Mary worked as a high school math teacher in Stephenson, MI and then as a computer science teacher at Menominee High School. After returning to Tech and receiving her next two degrees, . . .