Class of 1960

Boyce Burdick

Email: bburdick@owt.com

I've almost finished my second year of retirement. I currently am working part-time (20 hours per week) at my old job. I still have some interesting things to do at work so I'm enjoying what I'm doing.

We bought a small trailer this spring as one of our grandsons is living with us and he enjoys the outdoors as much as my wife and I.

My other piece of news is that a friend and I are building a pair of portable N gauge model railroad modules joined by a bi-level bridge. We can work on the modules either individually or together.

Class of 1961

Bob Althauser

Address: 2320 E. Woodstock Place, Bloomington, IN 47401-6179

On June 1 of this year, I officially retired from teaching sociology at Indiana University; an occasion marked by a lovely “Changing Hats” party my wife threw earlier in May and by a dinner out at our now annual two-week May trip for yoga to Lesbos, an island NE of Athens. I passed the HAM radio license in April, thanks in part to my physics major, though the preparation lacked a vital lab component! (I still understand little of the practical conversation at meetings). I’ve taken tons of Red Cross training courses and worked two nearby disasters in the last 14 months. I’m on a local Citizen Corp Council and was CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) trained in June. There are two research-writing commitments left to fulfill, but service activities now replace teaching as their main competitor! Best wishes to all.

Sig Jaastad

Email: sjaastad@buenavistaco.com

Address: 19605 CR 343, Buena Vista, CO 81211

Another good year; I’m still banging on the piano several hours a week and taking lessons along with all the local grade schoolers. Beethoven, Haydn, and Chopin do not yield easily to one of low talent. Sandee and I have finally updated our alpine and telemark gear to the new shaped skis and plastic telemark boots having decided they aren’t really a passing gimmick. We’ve added fly-fishing to our outdoor interests, a natural development given there are dozens of trout streams and lakes within 15 minutes of our home including one flowing through a corner of our acreage. Three years of drought here in Colorado and the consequent wildfires finally forced me to open my pocket book and replace our 20-year-old shake roof with a metal one. I’ll sleep more easily next fire season. Sandee continues with her spinning, weaving, knitting, quilting, and other textile arts. She gets great feedback from the publication of some of her work in related periodicals and frequent sales of her products. Somehow, she manages to coax delicious vegetables out of the ground each year despite our 8,800-ft. of elevation, 10 inches of annual moisture, rotten granite soil, and sharply truncated growing season. Sandee gave us a preview of the perils of advancing age over the past year undergoing 5 surgeries. Fortunately, most of them were sports-induced and all successful. I’ve dipped my toes into local politics on the idealistic belief that it might be possible to actually have sanity in government. An old interest of mine dating from my Astrophysics class as a junior at CC has returned and I’m looking to replace my decades-old Edmunds Astroscan 2001 reflector with something that will take greater advantage of our often clear night skies and good seeing. Any recommendations? We had a taste of the wild this summer when a bear broke into our garage and got into the reserve dog food. Took a bit to discourage the varmint from a return trip. Any Carls passing through the area are welcome so drop in. Peace, happiness, and health to all.

Class of 1962

Stephen Johnson

Email: prairie@ev1.net

Phone: (281) 395-5068

Address: 1802 Blue Sage Dr., Katy, TX 77494

I have survived my first year of retirement—and so has my spouse. Disentangling myself from 22 years at Amoco/BP was a challenge but now the deed is done and I am on my own. I am glad to discover that my books, notes, and journals will fit into a spare bedroom converted into my home office. With extra time there has been traveling: to see my new granddaughter in Oregon and celebrate my mother's 90th birthday in Vermont as an example of two extremes. I have begun to pore over those books and reprints for which I never had time earlier. Hobbies don't have much appeal to me, so I have started consulting part-time and, with the economy starting to improve, I am hoping for more work as a seismic migration expert. I do miss the action.

Bruce Murdoch

Email: btmurdoch@anl.gov

Phone: (630) 252-4905

I have been very busy this year in the field of employee safety and health at Argonne National Laboratory. In March I gave a paper at the International Laser Safety Conference, and took the exam to become one of the first Certified Laser Safety Officers (CLSO’s) recognized by the newly instituted Board of Laser Safety. The family is doing well. We have much to be thankful for.

Class of 1963

William Ford

Email: wtford@pizero.Colorado.edu

Dear Carleton Physics Colleagues, I've been at the University of Colorado since 1976. My wife Ann and I continue to enjoy Boulder a lot. I tore her away from her elementary school library job for a sabbatical at SLAC year before last, and she took the opportunity to "retire". Daughter Stephanie (B.A. Grinnell, M.A. U. of Michigan) is a writer living in Pasadena. Son Alan (B.S. NYU) is a sound recording engineer in New York. All liking what they do.

I have the pleasure this semester to be teaching Quantum to a dedicated group of seniors. We also have several undergrads, in addition to grad students, working in our research group. They're measuring various charmless B meson decays with data from the BaBar detector. They work beautifully together and have accomplished a lot. I've been working mostly with B decays, some tau decays, for the last decade between CLEO and BaBar. Working in an international collaboration of hundreds is "interesting"; the science is great.

I'm afraid I didn't make the 40th reunion. My June adventure this year was a trip to Paris, a conference followed by a vacation week with Ann. Our first visit to that city, and a real treat.

Class of 1964

Alan Fiala

Email: fialaalan@earthlink.net

I'm still enjoying retirement, and thinking about attending the reunion next year.

Diane Wallingford McCarthy

Email: dennis_mccart57@hotmail.com

Phone: (703) 938-4096

Address: 2432 Riviera Drive, Vienna, VA 22181-3121

In January, Dennis’s mother (our last parent) died at age 87. We cleaned out her house in Pennsylvania and sold it in June. Twenty inches of snow February 15-16 followed by two inches of rain flooded our crawl space. We removed about 2800 gallons of water. Heavy rain in May after a wet spring caused a lesser crawl space flood. During September’s Hurricane Isabel we were dry, but lost power for 48 hours.

Since June 2001, when Dennis fell from our ladder and broke his right heel on our cement patio, he has improved steadily. He does special exercises daily and can walk, bike, hike, and dance. Three spots of squamous cell and basal cell cancer were cleanly removed from his back and face in May. He is in his 38th year at the U. S. Naval Observatory.

Duncan (34) is in his tenth year with the National Imagery and Mapping Agency. He currently manages R&D contracts. He continues to date, but “Miss Right” has not appeared.

Deidre (31) will soon complete seven years at the National Park Service. Her multiple sclerosis, diagnosed in May 2000, had been fairly quiet on self-injections of Avonex since October 2000. In December 2002 and May she had incidents, but recovered, and switched to Rebif injections in August. Her 5th metatarsal, broken in May 2002 when the subway doors closed on her right foot, never healed despite being in a walking cast until November. She had surgery in July and this time it’s healing. She is now off crutches and in a walking cast again. She and Martin Mikhail, her boyfriend of 11 years, as well as Duncan, live nearby.

I continue to maintain the home front and teach ballroom dancing for the county park authority. I had successful carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand in May. I also do church and volunteer work and still take a ballet-modern jazz class for exercise.

Travel was the highlight of the year. On June 30, Dennis and I went to Sapporo, Japan, for an International Geophysical Union meeting. Duncan followed. We all went to Mizusawa, Japan, where we had lived for 3 months in 1979. Our next stop was Jayapura, Indonesia, where Dennis’s father was stationed during WWII. Using pictures his dad had taken, we were able to find many of the places he had been. We also went to Yogyakarta seeing several national treasures including Borobudur. At all times we toured with a guide in a car and never felt in danger. Dennis and I continued on to Sydney, Australia, for an International Astronomical Union meeting. Duncan joined us after visiting Surabaya and Bali. After the meeting, we traveled to Ayer’s Rock where the southern sky was spectacular with the Magellanic Clouds and zodiacal light visible. We dived the Great Barrier Reef at Cairns and stopped in Fiji before arriving home August 2. In mid-September I accompanied Dennis to Warsaw, Poland, and St. Petersburg, Russia, for more meetings.

Paul Zitzewitz

I continue in my role as chair of the Natural Sciences Department at the University of Michigan, Dearborn. I continue to teach an inquiry-based course for future elementary school teachers. Because of high demand, I do this three times a year. Our research group in Ann Arbor published our most recent positronium decay rate result in PRL last spring. After almost 30 years of disagreeing with theory, we are now in good agreement. The last remaining disagreement between experiment and QED has been resolved.

Barb and I enjoyed seeing Bill Gage and Bill Sipfle at the Class of '64 mini-reunion last February and plan to attend the 40th reunion this coming June. Hope to see some of you there! Best wishes to everyone for a happy holiday season.

Class of 1965

Barbara Goss Levi

Address: 1616 LaVista del Oceano, Santa Barbara, CA 93109

I have stepped down from my full-time position at Physics Today to be a consulting editor. I'll write only about half as many news stories as before. That gives me time for my aging parents and my growing grandson. It also gives my husband and me more time to take great trips like our 3-week trek to New Zealand (we even walked the magnificent Milford Track). This spring I'll be a "journalist in residence" at the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics at UCSB. My best wishes to former classmates and teachers.

Robert Henry

Phone: 301 229-4936

Address: 6006 Wellborn Drive, Bethesda, MD 20816-1158

Retirement continues to be great! My son is a junior at Pomona College and my daughter will attend Grinnell College next year. I’m still active as assistant treasurer and finance committee member of a non-profit low-income housing finance corporation. My wife and I continue to travel extensively. The latest trip was to the exciting new addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum—150-foot wings that open and close.

Richard Karon

Email: karon2@cox.net

2003 brought big organizational changes to Raytheon and with it expansion of my duties at Manager of Technology Investments. The new Division, "Integrated Defense Systems" now encompasses all of Raytheon's Naval and Ground based systems, so my Technology Management responsibilities span the management and guidance for everything from sensors to unmanned platforms (including weapons). The sensor spectrum ranges from virtually DC to optical frequencies. The platforms span underwater and ground launched air vehicles. The Processing and C3I algorithms and software cover the full spectrum of small to large multi-platform systems. Our increased emphasis as a Mission System Integrator adds a further level of technologies and system complexity, and increased emphasis on large-scale system modeling and simulation.

With this backdrop, I spent much of the year leading the development of a Division Technology Roadmap: formulating the path forward in key technologies and formulating the mechanisms for displaying the multi-dimensional relationships across our diverse products and initiatives. This living Roadmap is now the foundation for our future technology investments.

I continue to hone my communications and mentoring skills as Vice-President of Education for our local chapter of Toastmasters International. I earned the Competent Leader and first (Bronze) Advanced TM certificates after completing another series of speech projects.

Linda and I continue to enjoy grandparenting. Rhienna, our second granddaughter is now mobile and her parents in Texas have their hands full. Miss Sadie is now approaching age 3 and continues to challenge her parents. She enjoys our frequent visits to her home in Massachusetts. Four generations of my family (11 of us) celebrated the 50th anniversary of our first trip to our favorite ranch in Jackson Hole, WY with another visit this summer. Besides the joy of spending a week together, the highlight of the trip was meeting VP and Lynn Cheney, who are long time friends of the ranch owners. We discussed our mutual fly-fishing experiences and their memories from the U. of WI, where they (and my parents) graduated, and where he developed his interest in politics. Best wishes to everyone for 2004.

Don Ljung

Email: donljung@aol.com

Fellow physicists, I retired for a second time this year and I love it! Two years ago I retired from Lucent (along with the rest of the world) after 20 years. My final year was spent as a technical manager in their wireless division. I then went back to school to get a high school teaching certificate, and a year ago I started teaching high school physics at Fremd High School in Palatine. Unfortunately, earlier this year I decided to retire for good after my second surgery on my left eye for a detached retina. I now keep busy being a “housewife” (Ellen retires at the end of this school year), and even better with weekly visits into Chicago to baby-sit our three wonderful grandchildren. I am also mentoring a student on a physics project in general relativity!! And I have recently been hiking up Wheeler Peak (13000 feet) in New Mexico and down canyons in Utah. Actually, I am so busy; I don’t know how I ever found time to work before.

Class of 1966

Eric Lasley

Email: eric.lasley@att.net

Address: 4349 Corte de la Fonda, San Diego, CA 92130

It has been an eventful two years since I last responded to the call for inputs to the annual newsletter. The biggest event was late last year when I retired from my position as Vice President of Research and Engineering at BAE SYSTEMS after over 27 years with the same company. The company’s fifth reorganization and change of ownership finally got to me after about three years under the latest generation of management. I am certainly finding life a lot more enjoyable and less stressful outside the strictures of the workplace. However, like many retirees, I vastly over estimated my ability to keep up with the flow of interests, including reading, concerts, self-study, magazine subscriptions, and the general effluvia of life. Even without a full-time job, there isn’t nearly enough time to keep up with everything, much less pursue all the new interests that I had in mind. Some highlights: A ski trip to Mammoth Mountain. A summertime visit to Minnesota to attend some family reunions and visit my old stomping grounds in Northfield and the Detroit Lakes area. Nearly continuous attendance at all the events (concerts, master classes, interviews, recitals, rehearsals, lectures, etc.) associated with La Jollaís classical music festival (SummerFest) this past August. The recent sale of my home in Escondido, CA and the purchase of a home near Del Mar, CA closer to the beach, the city, the university and most cultural activities (both properties were outside the recent fire zones, I am thankful to say). I also enjoyed meeting Rob Oden and hearing his views on Carleton and liberal education during one of his visits to the West coast. He seems to be a worthy successor to Steve Lewis. Best wishes to the Physics and Astronomy Department staff and my fellow alumni.

Class of 1967

John Elk

Email: cjelk@pacbell.net

After several years of silence, the guilt of not responding to the newsletter request has become too great; herewith a short synopsis of our recent doings.

Our travel stock photo business continues to prosper, and despite the rapid swing to digital we continue, at least until early 2004, to soldier on relying primarily on film capture—often followed with digital scanning for clients.

But the real joy of our lives is the learning and adventure of the travel itself.

In 2001 we drove to the tip of Baja and back, went to Jordan and Syria in the spring, took a float trip through the Grand Canyon in the summer and spent two weeks shooting fall foliage in New England in the fall. In 2002 we spent a month in Micronesia, then three months in Denmark, France and Italy. That fall we spent six weeks in Turkey. This past winter we spent our time finally putting up a web site, then left for another 2 1/2 months in Europe, again mostly in France and Italy. (Our coverage of Tuscany is now quite detailed)! Two weeks ago I returned from my most recent trip, some work in Oklahoma and a re-shoot of Louisiana.

On Dec. 3 we will be leaving again, returning to SE Asia for 2 1/2 months; Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and several tribal areas of West Myanmar are the focus of this trip. Next year we will again be returning to Europe, with visits planned to Ireland, Andalusia, Sicily and Malta.

Despite the rabid Republican scare tactics about travel, we continue to find the world a wonderful place to see, and people everywhere (even those "terrorist supporters" in Syria) warm and welcoming. Our best to all.

Bob Hanson

Email: hanson@ucolick.org

URL: www.ucolick.org/~npm

I'm a Research Astronomer at Lick Observatory, University of California, Santa Cruz, where I have worked for nearly a quarter century on several large programs to measure the motions and distances of stars in our Milky Way Galaxy. This year marks a major milestone, with the completion of the mammoth Lick Northern Proper Motion program, a 50-year project representing the work of three generations of Lick Observatory astronomers. Now, having measured motions of 400,000 stars, we are using the data to study the history and kinematics of the galaxy and its stellar populations.

My wife Nancy has also worked for UC Santa Cruz since the early 1980s. She is enjoying her second year as Department Manager in UCSC's Theater Arts Department. Nancy finds that 20 years' working with scientists has prepared her well for dealing with all manner of prima donnas! The department is growing, and planning to start an MFA program. Nancy likes working with the faculty and students. Plus, she gets comp tickets to all the performances, including Shakespeare Santa Cruz in the summer.

Both of our kids are out of the house now, nearly grown up, and finding their way in the world (or at least in Santa Cruz). Bobby, 25, gets enough local gigs as a jazz musician (bass) to pay his rent and keep him happy. He's also a part-time college student (music) here in Santa Cruz, and plays in more groups than I can keep track of. Katie, 19, dropped out of UC Davis, and is back in Santa Cruz. She's working in a local women's clothing store while she figures out what she wants to do in the long run.

The years continue to pile up; sixty looms large on my horizon. Budget cuts may nudge me into a phased retirement over the next several years. This is fine with me—I'd rather spend my 60s choosing what I want to do (some astronomy, some travel, getting back into shape, draining my wine collection, and lots of reading), rather than keeping my nose to the grindstone until the nice folks from the rest home come to get me. Nancy is a couple years younger than I am, and plans to work some years longer now that she has a job she really likes. After we both retire, we expect to stay in the Santa Cruz area. Our many travels have never found a nicer place to live year-round. Greetings to any of you old alums who might remember me!

Duncan McBride

Email: dmcbride@NSF.gov

Address: 4608 Tara Drive Fairfax, Virginia 22032

We are living in the suburbs about 15 miles west of Washington DC. I am a Program Director at the National Science Foundation in the Division of Undergraduate Education, where I handle physics and astronomy proposals for undergraduate labs and courses, and work in several other programs that don't involve physics. NSF's budget continues to grow, as do the number of programs but not the staff. In addition, there are areas of emphasis that go across much of NSF. One of the most prominent that I have been involved with this year is nanotechnology, which has aspects of physics, chemistry, engineering, education, biology, geosciences, and social sciences, at least. Outside of work and keeping up a house that makes demands, I sing with a good local chorus in 4-5 concerts a year.

Ann is teaching classes for young children at the Washington National Zoo, part of the Smithsonian, and continues to do a few classes in science at the co-op preschool where she had taught full time. Alicia (Carleton 2000) is in her second year of graduate work in a Technical Communications program in the University of Washington Engineering School (technical and scientific writing, technical graphics and animation design, web page design, etc.). She has had a couple articles published and is on track to finish a master's degree in June. I have managed to make two trips to Seattle last year and will be there again before Christmas. Justin is now two years out of high school, living with us and working while he continues to explore what will come next—probably more education of some kind, although probably not an academic program right away.

I look forward to more news from Carleton and from everyone else. Christmas Greetings to all.

Class of 1968

Chris Riddiough

Email: criddiough@igc.org

Hi Folks, I just got the letter asking for news and thought I'd send this on before I forget.

This summer my partner, a friend, and I took a two-week trip to Sweden. We have been talking about it for a while and finally made it happen. We spent about four days in Stockholm—which was beautiful and then headed north to Lapland. That was fascinating. The real land of the midnight sun, we saw herds of reindeer, crossed the Arctic Circle and wound up in Norway along a fjord.

I'm currently working for SAS (statistical analysis software) doing technical training. I'm teaching both programming and statistics courses and am able to use some of my old astronomy examples like Hubble's law. That's been fun and given me an opportunity to go back and revisit some of the material I learned years ago at Carleton.

Barbara Whitten

Email: BWhitten@ColoradoCollege.edu

Dear everyone, during my sabbatical two years ago I began a project to study female-friendly physics departments, and compare them to more typical departments. This project has taken over my life-lots and lots of folks are interested in my results, and I've spent every spare moment running around giving talks. There is an article about the project in Physics Today last September. If anyone is interested in hearing a talk on the subject, let me know.

I taught a freshman seminar this year on the Copernican revolution, and used Casper and Noer's Revolutions in Physics. I was a lab assistant for that course the first year it was taught, when I was a senior at Carleton. It was fun to come back to that material, and the students really loved it.

Penelope is a sophomore this year at Mesa State College studying journalism—she is a writer and artist, emphatically not a scientist. Jake is a senior in high school and starting to take the idea of college seriously. I am starting to wonder what it will be like to have an empty nest.

I am very sorry to hear of your sad news this year. I hope this new year will be better. Happy Solstice to everyone at Carleton,