Tech Topics - Fall 2007 - (Page 38)

Burdell&Friends power generation facilities and water and wastewater construction throughout the Southeast. He previously had worked for Continental Consolidated Corp. and helped construct the Hanford Nuclear Power Plant in Washington and NORAD Defense Center in Wyoming. He served in the Navy during World War II. Harry F. Jenkins, TE 40, of Sylacauga, Ala., on June 27. William Jackson “Jack” Lester, IE 48, of Martinsville, Va., on Jan. 8. A textile executive, he retired from Tultex in 1992. He was executive vice president of Lacy Manufacturing Co. for 32 years and became president of the company in 1975. He was chairman of the history committee that published a book chronicling the 150th anniversary of the First Presbyterian Church in Martinsville and was a past chairman of the United Fund. Mr. Lester was a veteran of the Navy. Paul C. Rhyne Jr., BS Arch 40, of Lincolnton, N.C., on Feb. 18. He retired as president of Rhyne Mills Inc., for which he continued to serve as a consultant. Morris Rousso, ME 44, of Atlanta, on June 21. He worked at NASA and Lockheed as an aeronautical engineer and as a civil contractor with the General Services Administration. Mr. Rousso enjoyed painting and sculpting and was a miniature furniture and model ship builder. He also was a golf and coin-collecting enthusiast. Howard Kenneth Schwartz, AE 43, of Melbourne, Fla., on March 29. Mr. Schwartz was a retired civil engineer with the Dade County Department of Public Works. He was a member of the commissioning party for the USS Langley, on which he served in the Pacific during World War II. Survivors include his son, Ben S. Schwartz, ME 77. John Boyd Thomas Jr., Cls 43, of Atlanta, on April 23. He worked for Cotton Insurance Association for 29 years and later joined the insurance brokerage agency Cornwall and Stevens, for From the Hill President’s Scholarship Founder Walter Bloom Walter L. Bloom, credited with establishing the Institute’s bioengineering program and a founder of Georgia Tech’s President’s Scholarship Program, died May 24 at the age of 91. In a 16-year career at Georgia Tech, Dr. Bloom served as associate vice president for Academic Affairs and retired as special assistant to Georgia Tech President Joseph M. Pettit. In 1980, the family of a high school senior with a perfect SAT score visited Georgia Tech and inquired about meritbased scholarships. At the time, Georgia Tech offered no scholarships based solely on academic performance. Dr. Bloom, then assistant to the president, his wife, Suzanne Ferst Bloom, and the Ferst Foundation agreed to sponsor a scholarship for the student. They also brought the issue to the attention of the Georgia Tech Foundation, which set in motion the founding of the President’s Scholarship Program. The Georgia Tech Foundation and Ferst Foundation authorized six scholarships for the 198182 school year. Dr. Bloom graduated from Yale University with a medical degree in 1940. A veteran of World War II, he served four years in the Navy. He later served two years as director of medical education and research at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta and was a professor at Emory University for eight years. Survivors include his son, Walter L. Bloom Jr., Cls 75. Planned Giving Council. A distinguished military student at Georgia Tech, he was a member of Phi Eta Sigma, Delta Kappa Phi, the Briarean Society and the Pershing Rifles. A co-op student, he worked at Whittier Textile Mills. Following graduation, he joined the Army at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. After completing his military service, he managed the cost accounting department at Whittier Mills and later worked for Lockheed Georgia Co. as a pricing and control analyst on the Lockheed C-130 project. A lifelong member of the First Baptist Church of Chattahoochee, he served as chairman of deacons and a Sunday school director and teacher for more than 50 years. Survivors include his son, William T. Lee Jr., Mgt 87. Dr. Murphy began writing. “He wanted to write his whole life, but he didn’t have time with his job and his church activities and all the other things he did. So he just saved it up till he retired and wrote one book after another,” his daughter told the JournalConstitution. In the past two decades, Dr. Murphy wrote more than 20 books, including a self-help book, a murder mystery and studies on theology and history, but did not publish them. Rod O’Connor, Adviser to Presidents Here, Abroad Georgia Tech emeritus professor of management Roderick Francis “Rod” O’Connor, of Atlanta, died April 21 at the age of 89. He was named a full-time professor of management at Georgia Tech in 1961. At Tech, he developed the teaching programs for entrepreneurship, international business and computers in the management of enterprise. Dr. O’Connor was a consultant to CEOs in more than 100 different organizations, including banks, manufacturers and universities. A consultant to government officials in the United States and Latin America, he was an adviser in Atlanta to such people as Jimmy Carter and Ivan Allen. In 1972, then-Gov. Jimmy Carter asked Dr. O’Connor to study business opportunities for Georgia in Brazil. The governor also appointed him to a team to reorganize the state government. Dr. O’Connor was asked by President Lyndon Johnson to serve as an adviser to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Development Organization in Greece. He was a visiting professor at MIT and the Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia, where he was a co-founder of the MBA program for CEOs of private and public enterprises. He received a Medal of Merit from Colombian President Carlos Lleras Restrepo for his contributions to the industrial development of the country. Dr. O’Connor received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1939. Prior to receiving a PhD in clinical psychology from Vanderbilt University in 1953, he served in the Navy in the Philippines during World War II. English Chair Karl Murphy Taught Technical Writing An expert on Victorian poets, Karl Murphy taught Georgia Tech students about such writers as Robert Browning, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Matthew Arnold. But he also helped prepare his pupils for their futures in science and engineering with exercises in technical writing. “One thing he’d do is have the class go out and buy mechanical pencils, take them apart and then write a technical paper describing the pencil,” his daughter, Katy R. Murphy, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “That was his way of making it very practical, knowing someday they might be doing the same thing with airplanes or nuclear reactors.” Dr. Murphy, who taught at Georgia Tech for 33 years and retired as chair of the English department, died June 18 at the age of 92. A native of Ohio, Dr. Murphy worked full time to pay for his undergraduate education at Kent State University. In 1949, he received a PhD from Harvard University, where he met his future wife, Marguerite Pettes, also a PhD graduate. The couple moved to Atlanta, where she began teaching English at Georgia State University and he joined the English faculty at Georgia Tech. After retiring from Tech in 1984, Tech Alumnus, Planned Giving Director Bill Lee William Thomas “Bill” Lee, of Smyrna, Ga., former director of planned giving for the Georgia Tech Foundation, died June 12. He was 73. Mr. Lee received a bachelor’s degree in textiles from Georgia Tech in 1957. He later returned to his alma mater as an assistant director of the Institute’s cooperative education division. He later became director of the financial aid department, during which time he served as president of the Georgia Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. Mr. Lee retired from Tech as director of planned giving for the Georgia Tech Foundation, where he served as president of the Georgia which he served as Southeast president and Southwest managing director. He retired in 1990. During World War II, Mr. Thomas served as a B-24 bomber pilot with the Eighth Air Force in England, flying 35 missions. He later flew the KB-29 air refueling aircraft during the Korean War. He received the Air Medal with silver cluster. TECHTOPICS 1950s Theodore Charles Beacham, IM 58, IE 61, of Fairhope, Ala., on May 25. He retired from General Motors Corp. as a production superintendent after 32 years with the company. He was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon. Colen W. Bedington, Text 50, of Hickory, N.C., on | FALL 2007

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Tech Topics - Fall 2007

Contents Mail Call Alumni House Historic Renovation 007 Buzz Bash Dazzling Daylilies Living History Cover Story: Key to the City The Hill Tapping Technology Robotics Rivalry No Easy Ride Giving Back Balancing Act Student Life Burdell & Friends Epic Story of Heroism Yellow Jackets Very Good Team Passport to Retirement Real World

Tech Topics - Fall 2007

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