Alumni

Fred Spagnoletti graduated from Michigan Tech in 1965 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. Before graduation he accepted a position with Rocketdyne, with whom he had interviewed while at Tech. His first assignment was at their test site in the Santa Susana mountains northwest of Los Angeles on the turbo pump for the F-1 rocket engine. This was the engine on the Apollo program Saturn V main booster . . .

Dr. James C. Gerdeen (BSME '59) retired as Professor and Department of Mechanical Engineering Chair from the University of Colorado - Denver. After graduation, Jim worked in industry before completing his MS in 1962 from Ohio State University and later his PhD from Stanford in 1965, both in mechanical engineering. He returned to Michigan Tech as a faculty member from 1968 to 1989. He received his M. Divinity, Theology, . . .

Bill Turunen joined General Motors in 1939, after graduating from Michigan Tech with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. After four years with the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1942-46 and earning a MS in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University in 1946, he spent his career in various capacities at the GM research laboratories before retiring in 1979. Beginning as a research engineer, he was promoted to head the mechanical . . .

After completing his doctoral degree in structural mechanics at Michigan Tech, Vijay K. Sazawal (PhD ’75) joined Westinghouse Electric Corporation in the Advanced Reactors Division as part of the design and technology team working on the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project. His tenure at Westinghouse lasted twenty years during which time he rose through successive management positions with responsibility for . . .