Class of 1960

Bennet B. Brabson
Email: brabson@indiana.edu
Phone; (812) 332-6507
Address: 2000 Crandall Court
Bloomington, IN 47401
Dear Carletonians, physics is marvelous stuff! After 30 years of high energy physics, I began an exciting career in the physics of climate. Not surprisingly, similar mathematics is used in both and one field fertilizes the other. After 10 years of climate physics, I am feeling quite comfortable in this research area. Needless to say, our present misguided administration is still unwilling to acknowledge even the most basic physics of climate. Yet, hope springs eternal. Best from Indiana University

June Matthews
Email: matthews@mit.edu
Phone: (781) 259-0379
Address: 35 Greenridge Lane
Lincoln, MA 01773
I have had a busy year, as usual. I am in my sixth year as Director of MIT's Laboratory for Nuclear Science, and also trying to keep some research going at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center and the MIT-Bates Accelerator Laboratory.
The Carleton-related highlight of my year was being selected for an Alumni Association Distinguished Achievement Award. I hadn't decided whether or not to attend Reunion (my 45th), but after hearing about the Award decided that I'd better show up. There was a good turnout from our class (who ever selected that garish yellow t-shirt, with an odd-looking red tie (q.v. Larry Gould) printed on the front??), and I enjoyed seeing many old friends, including physics alums Boyce Burdick and John Zimbrick. John was the other of the two Awardees in our class, proving that the Physics Department is definitely "above average!"
In addition to a lot of work-related and conference travel, I did take some real vacation: walking tours in Italy (Tuscany and Umbria) and in England (Cotwolds). I also spent a week at a Renaissance music summer school in Cambridge, England.
Back here in Cambridge, MA I try to escape the rat race by playing chamber music every week or so. And I'm still singing with a choral group, Norumbega Harmony. We recently released a (professionally engineered) CD of New England Singing-School Music, called "Sweet Seraphic Fire." It's available on New World Records, for any of you interested in early American hymnody and recently composed music in that style.

Class of 1961

Sig Jaastad
Email: sjaastad@buenavistaco.com
Phone: (719) 395-4849
Address: 19605 CR 343
Buena Vista, Co 81211
Our plans for a month in Norway beginning in mid-May went badly awry on April 27, when a youth in a stolen car traveling at over 100 MPH and being pursued by law enforcement officers slammed head on into Sandee’s car. With multiple fractures involving both legs and her left arm, we consider ourselves very lucky, as she suffered no serious internal or head injuries. After multiple surgeries, she is on the mend, though still on crutches and in a wheelchair. Her spirits have remained very high and she’s as deeply involved in her textile arts as ever.
I am still a member of the Chaffee County Planning and Zoning Commission, a body that is struggling to preserve the treasures of the Upper Arkansas River Valley as more and more people recognize and seek those treasures. Piano has been side lined while I provide care for Sandee but I expect to resume lessons in a month or so. Democratic Party activities take up the rest of my time. Peace and prosperity to all.

Class of 1962

Steve Johnson
Email: prairie@ev1.net
Phone: (281) 395-5068
Address: 1802 Blue Sage Drive
Katy, TX 77494
With the oil industry at full capacity, I am keeping busy as a geophysical consultant doing depth imaging. A 2-month contract led to 12 months and there are more jobs to come. It is exciting to keep active in my field, but 50% workload (instead of 100%) would be more comfortable. Wells costing $20 million each are being drilled partly on my work so there is pressure to get it right.
Joan and I didn't do as much traveling as last year, but we did get out to see our children and granddaughters in Valencia and Portland. Our summer vacation took us through eastern California in a heat wave. Can you believe 95 degrees in Yosemite Park?
When we bought our house here in tiny Katy 13 years ago, rice fields surrounded us. Now we are surrounded by huge housing and business developments, freeways, and possibly a West Side airport so life is more congested than before. Life in Houston was disrupted by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I hung hurricane shutters on the windows but the storms were too far to the east to affect us, fortunately, and we did not evacuate.
I am still putting off developing hobbies to keep me active when I really retire. However, I am still active in Toastmasters and attained my CTM-again as I start the series over.

Bruce Murdoch
Email: BTOMUR@aol.com
Phone: (630) 378-4298
Address: 16401 Grandview Lake Drive
Crest Hill, IL 60435
It occurred to me the other day that my very diverse professional life history is most succinctly described by professional society affiliations. In connection with my current work at Argonne National Laboratory, I am a member of the APS, the HPS (Health Physics Society), AIHA (American Industrial Hygiene Association), and LIA (Laser Institute of America). To add to the mix, until a few years ago I was active in the SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) and the SPWLA (Society of Professional Well Log Analysts) ... go figure! In some sense, the BA in physics from Carleton was a catalyst making all these work activities possible -- a physicist is versatile, right?

Class of 1963

Timothy Barnum
Email: timothy_barnum@yahoo.com
Address: 806 Creek View Road
Severna Park, MD 21146
Having been retired for five years now, I wasn't sure if my life has much relevance to the Physics Newsletter. However, for those close to retirement and concerned about whether they can make the emotional transition, I want to say, "Yes". What I finally realized is that retirement isn't just a single new directed career after ones working career. While those in academia may either be able or desire to continue their original career in some capacity, some of us have made a clean break. With the Protestant Work ethic firmly in one's head, and our country valuing money so much, its hard to realize that one can relax a bit, smell the flowers and maybe do better things for it. In any case I originally planned to be an artist in retirement but found that my liberal education made me interested in too many things to be content with a single goal. My life is evolving and I've become more music oriented. In spite of being a late starting and poor clarinet player, I've switched to oboe. Of course, the trained technologist that I am cannot help but want to find the latest gadget to improve my playing or making reeds. I play in a community band in the summer and another the rest of the year. Not surprising many are engineers and scientists. It’s been a great opportunity to meet new friends. What I'll be doing 5 years from now, I don't know.

William Ford
Email: wtford@pizero.colorado.edu
Address: 2640 Lafayette Drive
Boulder, CO 80305
I've plenty of occasions lately for vivid memories of our senior E&M course, winter term, 1963, taught by Tom Philips using a new textbook by J. D. Jackson. This academic year I have my first go here at Colorado at teaching the graduate E&M course, with the 3rd edition. So I've been busy doing Jackson problems.
The average age of my two offspring is 30, one on each coast. A research workshop in La Jolla in March gave me an excuse for a dinner with our LA-resident daughter, the writer, and we look forward to seeing our son, the sound recording engineer from New York, over the coming holiday. I managed to get my wife Ann to join me for a trip in the summer that included conferences in Uppsala and Prague, and some wonderful time on our own in the Stockholm area.
My review talk at the Prague Physics in Collision conference was about (rare) B meson decays, a subject of my research since the mid 1990's, as a collaborator in CLEO and now BaBar. I'm down for a talk at the next "April" APS meeting in Dallas, as a recipient of the W. K. H. Panofsky prize, related to 1980's work with the MAC collaboration on the B meson lifetime. Maybe I'll see some of you there.

Class of 1964

Craig R. Anderson
Email: marcra@visi.com
Phone: (651) 735-0782
Address: 21 Battle Creek Place
St. Paul, MN 55119
Throughout the long lapse since my last contribution to these pages, the scene has remained pretty much unchanged for Marj and me. We're still living in St Paul, and I continue to explore the mysteries of legal practice as a representative of the government (personified by the Minnesota Attorney General). Just how long these explorations will go on in their present form is questionable. Becoming rapidly more appealing to me is the vision of not having to work for anyone else, spending more time with my spouse, and increasing my participation in the arduous program of managing Molly, our overactive Golden Retriever. I'll keep you posted. Happy holidays to all.

Diane Wallingford McCarthy
Email: dennis_mccart57@hotmail.com
Phone: (703) 938-4096
Address: 2432 Riviera Drive
Vienna, VA 22181
We observed the April 7 total solar eclipse from the ship “M.V. Discovery” in the Pacific Ocean. Arriving a week early to explore and scuba dive on Bora Bora and Tahiti, we departed from Tahiti on April 3 with stops at Moorea and Pitcairn Island before the eclipse. Marvelous on board lectures on geology and astronomy included some by the editor in chief of Sky and Telescope, Rick Feinberg. The weather was clear for the 33-second totality. The sun’s atmosphere complete with prominences was visible all around the limb of the moon. We continued on to Easter Island and Pisco (Peru) where we took a flight over the Nasca Lines. Disembarking at Lima, we took an extension to Machu Pichu. We will cruise down the Nile to see the March 29, 2006, eclipse.
Since June 2001, when Dennis fell from our ladder and broke his right heel on our cement patio, he has improved steadily by doing special exercises daily. He retired from the U. S. Naval Observatory in January after almost 40 years. Under a new program he has been “rehired” on a part time basis and works 2 or 3 days a week. Duncan (37) is in his twelfth year with NGA (National Geospatial-intelligence Agency). He currently manages R&D contracts. He continues to date, but remains unmarried. Deidre (33) will soon complete nine years at the National Park Service. Her multiple sclerosis, diagnosed in May 2000, has been very quiet this year with no major attacks. Her insomnia problem has also abated. She bought a Friesian horse in December 2004 and is learning dressage techniques. Riding has become a very positive factor in her life. She and Martin Mikhail, her boyfriend of 13 years, as well as Duncan, live nearby. I continue to maintain the home front and teach ballroom dancing for the county park authority. I also do church and volunteer work and still take a ballet-modern jazz class for exercise. In June we bought a 31’Cal sailboat from friends. It’s 23 years old and in beautiful shape. We’ve never owned a boat before so we are learning a lot. We remain very unhappy with the direction of the country under President Bush.

Craig Taylor
Email: pctaylor@mines.edu
Address: 115 South Joyce Street
Golden, Co 80401
After 23 years at the University of Utah, Muriel and I have moved from Salt Lake City, UT to Golden, CO where I have taken a position as a professor in the Department of Physics and an administrative position as Associate Director for the Colorado Energy Research Institute. I am excited about forming a joint institute with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, also in Golden. Both Muriel and I are excited about living close to one daughter and one granddaughter. Moving my laboratory equipment from Utah to Colorado, and eventually most of my students, is the only major hassle.

Paul Zitzewitz
Email: pwz@umich.edu
Phone: (313) 593-5158
Address: Dept. of Natural Sciences
University of Mich-Dearborn
Dearborn, MI 48128
URL: http://curie.umd.umich.edu/zitzewitz
Hi to all. A major change in my life since July is due to the fact that after a six-year term I'm no longer department chair. This fall I'm teaching electronics for the first time in many years. I've completely revised the class. I'm using the learning cycle (exploration before explanation), combined lecture/lab, and a sensor-oriented curriculum. We're still doing analog and digital electronics culminating in working with the new NI USB-port DAQs. The class is catching up with me--now I'm about one week ahead. I'm also teaching our inquiry-based course for future elementary teachers using the "Physics for Elementary Teachers" developed at San Diego State. It's a great curriculum the the students like and learn from. In Winter I'm teaching a graduate version of the inquiry course for teachers and the advanced lab, again for the first time in over a decade. With the conclusion of our positronium decay rate work over a year ago my research with the Ann Arbor group has ground to a halt. It was a great 30 years! After some 20 years working in industry, Barb is back teaching chemistry at UM-Dearborn on a part-time basis.
In May our daughter Karin was married at the Henry Ford Estate in Dearborn. She and her husband are completing their PhDs at Columbia in Anthropology and Comparative Literature respectively, but both involved in South Asia studies--she in India and he in Pakistan. Our son Eric and his wife Christine have been kept busy with their twins, now 21 months old. A third is expected in time for the twins' birthdays. The four of them were at Karin's wedding, but mostly we have to go to the Bay area to see them, which is where we will be over Christmas. Best wishes for a great holiday season to everyone.

Class of 1965

Ken Alvar
Email: kralvar@tds.net
Address: 7621 Westchester Drive
Middleton, WI 53562
I retired July 1 and Cathy and I moved to Middleton, WI August 1. I missed the Class of '65 reunion as we were making an offer on our WI house at the time. We sold our house in Los Alamos to Jonathon Thron '77 (Physics) whom I hired to work in my (ex)-group at LANL. Jonathon is working with Duncan MacArthur '77 (Physics) so there was quite a Carleton physics connection. I am not anticipating doing anything technical at this time- just relaxing, and working on house projects. I hope to get to Northfield from time-to-time.

Jay Bergstralh
Email: J.T.Bergstralh@larc.nasa.gov
After 16 years at NASA Headquarters, I transferred to NASA's Langley Research Center, in Hampton, VA, a year ago. I'm still hard at work, but my new surroundings are much more serene than the Washington scene, as are the general pace of life and the cultural outlook. My commute has dropped from an hour and a half to just over a half hour each way, so I feel like I've retrieved a large part of my life.
Allegedly, Langley is the country's oldest national research laboratory. Orville Wright was instrumental in founding it, in 1917, as the research arm of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA - a predecessor of NASA). Its main focus is still aeronautics (think "wind tunnels" - lots of them - in every shape and size), but it also has a strong program of basic research on Earth's atmosphere. My job is to broaden the scope of this atmospheric research to include atmospheres of other planets, especially that of Mars. It feels good to be back in hands-on science.
I was an astronomy major at Carleton. To give an idea of how long ago that was, astronomy was still part of the math department! I attended my class reunion for the first time last June. Was sorry to see that the library in Goodsell Observatory had been divided into offices - that used to be a beautiful room. Hint: the dome needs a new paint job.

Bob Henry
Email: rmh.dcb@verizon.net
Greetings from Bethesda Maryland (inside the Beltway!). I am still in the glow of attending our 40th reunion at Carleton in June, seeing many old friends, meeting new ones and enjoying many old memories of my years there.
We are really enjoying retirement with lots of travel (we will be going on the Carleton South Africa trip in November - our third Carleton trip - the others were China and Greece which were both great experiences). On the South Africa trip I hope to revisit the Southern Cross and other celestial sights not visible to us in Maryland. We have subscriptions to the Washington Opera (directed by Placido Domingo - he sings and also conducts) and to a regional theater which often does challenging plays such as many by August Wilson. I golf twice a week with some success but have had to give up racquetball because of a severely arthritic hip. Also, duplicate bridge is a twice weekly event which I have made a big part of my mental exercise since the games in Burton our freshman year.
My family is doing well (son, Michael, graduated from Pomona in May and is now looking for a job in Latin America in micro-finance and daughter, Margaret, is a freshman at Canterbury University in Christchurch NZ). My current (second) wife and I are celebrating our tenth anniversary today (October 7). She came to the reunion and thoroughly enjoyed it (although not her first trip to Carleton - she was with my son and daughter and me when we visited there when Michael was evaluating colleges - I failed to get him interested enough in Carleton).

Richard Karon
Email: karon2@cox.net
Address: 140 American Way
Jamestown, RI 02835
My responsibilities as Manager of Technology Investments for Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems Business expanded in 2005. In addition to overseeing the development, selection and execution of our Company funded R&D projects; I took over the principal referee role for all of our publications and patents. The retiring manager left me with a Donald Trump "Apprentice" project. This challenge was to organize the annual Authors & Inventors Dinner that is hosted by our VP of Engineering and attended by our Division President and his leadership team. The support team did their best, but there was a significant gap in the notes from my predecessor on how he determined who had actually presented papers to assure that the correct 500 or so guests received invitations and appropriate recognition plaques. Despite the new demands on my time, we continue to refine our Technology Planning and investment process. Especially challenging with our dramatic business growth and more emphasis on Mission Integration, not just products.
My involvement in Toastmasters continues. I completed the highest speaking level [Advanced Toastmasters Gold], and now am an Area Governor to provide mentoring and serve as a resource to several clubs. My workshop at the leader training institute on the use of Toastmasters as an employee development tool across our Business was well attended, with lots of interest in how to better use the Toastmasters program in the workplace.
With our kids and their families now in Portland, OR, we get to see lots of the country from the air. We spent several weeks in Portland enjoying our granddaughters, visiting with their parents and hiking near Mt. Hood. Despite my full time work schedule, I managed a 2nd place finish in the Company tennis league, crewed the summer race series on a 38' sailboat, and improved my windsurfing skills. Happy, healthy and peaceful 2006 to all.

Barbara Goss Levi
I attended my 40th reunion this year and saw many positive changes on campus. How I wish we had had a nice gym like that! I was glad to meet the current physics faculty and some physics grads at the department reception. Life is pretty much the same for me--writing part time for Physics Today, enjoying 3 small grandchildren, pursuing outdoor activities and traveling with my husband. My greetings to former classmates and professors.

Paul Norton
Email: p.norton@verizon.net
Phone: (805) 682-9163
Address: 2922 Paseo Del Refugio
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
Semi-retired now for 6 years – I work half time on infared detector technology for the army in Virginia. Caught some nice fish this summer at my secret lake near the boundary waters and some in the mountains of Wyoming. My youngest son is a senior in high school, a hockey player looking for a school with ice. My older son is at UC Santa Cruz and my oldest daughter is in grad school at U Conn. I attended a conference in Warsaw in September and gave a plenary session talk. I also saw a bit of the country

Class of 1966

Maurice Hamilton
Email: los.altan@gmail.com
Address: PO Box 3006
Los Altos, CA 94024
I continue my quest for the perfect pixel. My second photography book, entitled "Black & White Photography Techniques with AdobePhotoshop," explores the interface between the traditional and digital darkroom. The digital darkroom tools I used to combine my photos of the 2001 total solar eclipse into composite images that emphasize coronal details are described in an upcoming article in Sky & Telescope magazine. I still practice rheumatology part-time and Vivien continues with sleep medicine. Best Wishes for the Holidays.

Class of 1967

Duncan McBride
Email: dmcbride@nsf.gov
Phone: (703) 292-4630
Address: 4608 Tara Drive
Fairfax, VA 22032
I continue to work as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation, where I handle physics and astronomy proposals for undergraduate labs and courses, and work in several other programs that don't involve much physics. A grant program that I have managed, for colleges and universities to award scholarships, was re-funded after a year in hibernation, and that will keep mebusy. NSF's overall budget is doing OK, but the core programs are languishing and long-term prospects can't look good.
Outside of work I continue to sing in a good regional chorus that performs 4 or 5 different concerts a year. I have also managed a few interesting trips this year, to Maui, San Francisco, and Seattle, in each case by adding a vacation on the end of a meeting. Ann continues to teach preschool. Daughter Alicia (Carleton 2000) was married in June and is webmaster and Director for Electronic Communications at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the Quaker lobby in DC. Her husband, Sam Garman, graduated from law school in June and is doing legal research until he passes the bar exam. Our son, Justin, is living at home and working at a custom tee-shirt manufacturer while he decides what to do next. I look forward to more news from Carleton and from everyone else. Christmas greetings to all.

Class of 1968

Barbara Whitten
Email: Bwhitten@ColoradoCollege.edu
This has been a busy year for all of us. I spent much of the summer working on the site visit project I did last fall. Still isn't finished, though I have hopes for winter break. It was particularly nice to work with Cindy Blaha on one of our visits. We have learned that many women's college physics departments use astronomy as a recruiting tool, so her contacts with astronomers were very helpful. And it was fun to spend some time with her.
In May I went to Rio de Janeiro to attend the International Conference on Women in Physics, sponsored by IUPAP. It was exciting and educational to meet women in physics from all over the world. I also visited the Amazon, which was even more awe-inspiring than I expected. I have one more international trip planned this fall-next week I am going to South Africa for the World Conference on Physics for Sustainable Development. I'll be talking about some alternative energy projects I've been doing with some colleagues here, and, I hope, learning a lot.
My son Jake transferred to Colorado College at the beginning of this year, and is majoring in neuroscience. He is working hard and seems to be enjoying himself. It is odd but nice to have him on campus--a mixture of my parental and professional roles that I'm not used to. Penelope is planning start school again next semester-it will be good for her to be moving along academically again. Happy Solstice to all at Carleton.