FALL/WINTER 2007
Class Notes
Donald Carl Adams (BS ’42, Science) and his wife celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary on April 28.
Bernetha McGinnis Baumgartner (BS ’48, Science) and Cecil Baumgartner (BS ’48, Aeronautical Engineering) celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary on February 25, 2007. 
They have four daughters, two sons, and five grandchildren. After their graduation in the spring of 1948, the Baumgartners appeared with their daughter, Roxie, on the cover of the Purdue alumnus. 59 years later, they’re still going strong and share this more recent photograph.
G. Richard Culp (BS ’40, Biological Sciences) writes, “after practicing medicine for 41 years, I retired, although I am in good health for my age. After graduation from Purdue, I studied at the University of Michigan for a year, majoring in Botany. I then taught Biology for three years and then studied medicine at Des Moines University to obtain the DO degree. When practicing medicine, I made house calls if I felt such was needed and was never sued for malpractice.”
Eleanor L. Harrison (BS ’42, Chemistry) retired from her position as a senior microbiologist at Kellogg’s several years ago.
Jerry Lee Hathaway (BS ’56, Mathematics) retired after 40 years in education. He is still building houses.
Arnold F. Marcantonio (MS ’57, Chemistry) retired in 2002, but occasionally acts as a science fair judge for Arizona State University Chemistry Department.
Edgar L. Orchard (BS ’50, Science) and his wife, Donna, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on February 5, 2007. It is also the 57th anniversary of his graduation from Purdue. He sold his paper products manufacturing business and has been a site acquisition specialist for the cellular phone industry.
Wendell Dilling (PhD ’62, Chemistry) competed in all 13 individual track and field events in the National Senior Olympics at the University of Louisville track and field facility in Louisville, Kentucky, June 26–29, 2007. In the men’s 70–74 age group he won ribbons for placing 7th in hammer throw and 8th in triple jump. He also placed 11th in high jump, 12th in javelin throw and pole vault, 18th in 800 meter dash, 20th in 400 meter dash and 1500 meter run, 21st in shot put and long jump, 22nd in discus throw, 26th in 200 meter dash, and 28th in 100 meter dash.
Pam Fraker (BS ’66, Biological Sciences) was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in May. She chaired a Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) summer conference titled, “Nutritional immunology: Its role in health and disease.” This national and international conference was held in Tucson, AZ, from July 28–Aug. 2, 2007. Fraker is on the faculty at Michigan State University.
Christian T. Goralski (PhD ’69, Chemistry) retired from the Dow Chemical Company at the end of July 2004, with 35.5 years of service. He started his own business, CTG Consulting LLC, and provides consulting on organic process chemistry for the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries.
Marion T. Jackson (BS ’61, Agriculture; PhD ’64, Ecology) recently retired after 42 years of teaching ecology at the college/university level. He has written two books: The Natural Heritage of Indiana (IU Press, 1997), and 101 Trees of Indiana (IU Press, 2004).
Len Loker (MS ’64, Physics) has become interested in the genetic code. He has set some of the translations to music and is doing some histograms on the constituent proteins. One of his compositions, a human gene on chromosome 5, IRX1, is posted at www.playersparadise.net/song_list.php?genre=45.
Larry J. Swanson (BS ’67, Mathematics) would like to announce that his grandson, Brayden Kalani Swanson, was born on October, 28, 2006, to his son Jeff and daughter-in-law Lisa, who live in Maui, Hawaii.
Phil Sparks (PhD ’65, Biological Sciences) recently developed a new Web site with the Purdue Alumni Association. At www.purduecards.com, visitors can purchase postcards or notecards of different Purdue landmarks or familiar faces like Purdue Pete.
Teodulo M. Topacio Jr. (PhD ’63, Biological Sciences) lives in the Philippines, where he is a professor emeritus at the University of the Philippines; a member of the National Academy of Science and Technology; a member at large of the National Research of the Philippines; chairman of the National Advisor Committee for Animal Disease Control and Emergency, Department of Agriculture; past president of the Phi Kappa Phi honor society, Philippines chapter; and a member of the Sigma Chi, Purdue University chapter.
Carl Cammarata (BS ’78, Computer Science) was appointed to the position of Chief Information Security Officer at The City University of New York in 2005. The university is comprised of 23 colleges and more than 400,000 students in New York City.
Ward R. Gott (BS ’77, Biological Sciences) has been named to the position of tax manager and adviser by CPAs of Naples, LLC.
Nils I. Johansen (PhD ’71 Earth and Atmospheric Sciences) was elected president-elect of the Indiana Academy of Science. He will assume the presidency of the academy in 2008.
Scott L. Ksander (BS ’74, Computer Science) was recently named executive director of IT Networks and Security as well as chief information security officer for Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN.
Keith Schwingendorf (BS ’70, MS ’71, PhD ’78, Mathematics) was appointed to the position of dean of the College of Science at Purdue University North Central. He has been serving as the interim dean since July 1, 2006.
Donald L. Spellman (BS ’77, Science) accepted the position of senior air regulatory specialist with TVA in January 2005.
Ralph J. Sweatte (BS ’77, Biological Sciences) joined iModules Software in November 2006. iModules specializes in technology development for member-based organizations.
John Edward Murray Brown (BS ’87, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences) graduated from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) with a PhD in Dec 2006. He will start a National Research Council post-doc at the Naval Research Laboratory Stennis Space Center, MS in the Ocean Dynamics & Prediction Branch.
David J. Burinsky (PhD ’82, Chemistry) was named as one of four recipients of the 2007 Jesse S. Heiges Distinguished Alumnus Award given by Shippensburg University. Burinsky graduated from Shippensburg in 1978 and is currently a principal investigator with GlaxoSmithKline in Research Triangle Park, NC, working in pre-clinical development. He is an adjunct professor of chemistry at UNC. His professional activities include membership on several committees of national scientific organizations such as the American Chemical Society and the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, serving as peer reviewer for several professional scientific journals, authorship or co-authorship of more than sixty professional publications and presentations, and organizer of numerous scientific symposia.
Barbara Burke (BS ’81, Science), associate professor of speech communication at the University of Minnesota, Morris, is spending her sabbatical at the University of Iceland. She is conducting research on Icelandic interpretations of imported media and is teaching courses in media literacy and advance media theory for the Department of Sociology and Journalism.
Stacy L. Grooms (BS ’85, Chemistry) was recently promoted to director of Americas’ Business Support Operations for IBM Global Financing.
William S. Harwood (PhD ’86, Chemistry) moved to the University of Northern Iowa as professor and head of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Suzanne Debra Mooney (BS ’84, Mathematics) was promoted to division manager in Global Marketing Support at Caterpillar Inc. in Peoria, IL with responsibilities for advertising, tradeshows, television, and meeting events.
Arturo Morales-Acevedo (MS ’82, Physics) is a professor of electrical engineering at CINVESTAV del IPN in Mexico.
Charles W. Neal (PhD ’80, Chemistry) married Barbara Wright on June 17, 2006. They have a seven children, only one of whom is living at home. Daniel is a sophomore at Fairfield High School. Charles has been employed at Procter and Gamble since graduating from Purdue in 1980. He writes, “My first six years were spent providing analytical and process chemistry support in product development. In 1986, I was promoted to technology leader and transferred to product supply in the engineering organization leading raw material and process chemistry efforts. While in product supply I was promoted to section head in 1993 and technology associate director in 2000. In 1996 I was inducted into the PRISM Society (Professional Recognition for Individual Sustained Mastery), consisting of 36 active members worldwide. In 2003, I transferred to Upstream Technology Development with the goal of developing breakthrough products and manufacturing platforms with a time horizon of 5–10 years.”
Brian J. O’Keefe (MS ’82, Computer Science) will retire in September of this year after 29 years of commissioned service, including command of vessels in the Atlantic and Pacific Areas of the Coast Guard.
Bruce Schechter (BS ’80, Physics and Mathematics) finished his master’s in computer science from Stanford University in December 2006. He says, “It was quite an invigorating experience, given that most of my classmates were less than half my age!”
Theresa C. Brown (BS ’90, Biological Sciences) and her husband David (EE 1990) have been married for 16 years. They have two children Lauren (12) and Sara (10). In September 2006, she became the medical director of the new cytogenetics lab at CSI (Cytometry Specialists Inc.), a small oncology diagnostics lab that works primarily with leukemia and lymphoma samples, but also with solid tumors, products of conceptions, and some constitutional chromosomal analyses. David works long distance for Control Engineering (Phoenix, AZ), a commercial HVAC company.
Rebecca Potratz Creech (BS ’96, Biological Sciences; MS ’01, Education) and her husband Brett welcomed their daughter, Allison Renee, on February 16, 2007.
Achille Giacometti (PhD ’93, Physics) is an associate professor at Dipartimento di Chimica Fisica, Università Ca’ Foscari, in Venice, Italy.
Daniel A. Gilchrist (BS ’96, Biological Sciences) received his PhD in Biology from Stanford University in 2003.
Jeffrey Norton (BS ’93, Science) and his wife Diane proudly announce the latest addition to their family, Jack Jeffrey. He was born January 17, 2007 and is welcomed home by three older sisters, Amelia (6), Elizabeth (4), and Julia (2).
Daniel Anthony Pepper (BS ’90, Science) was named director of the Commander’s Action Group, 13th Air Force, Hickam Air Force Base Hawaii.
Bianca Alison (Beaver) Thomae (BS ’96, Biological Sciences) joined the law firm of Amin Hallihan in Chicago as an associate, focusing on FDA and Intellectual Property law.
Ngaingai Tin (BS ’92, Computer Science) was recently hired as the brand manager of Estee Lauder in Toyko, Japan.
Kimberly Waugh Van Gessel (BS ’97, MS ’00, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences) and her husband, Jeramie, welcomed their son, Conner Joseph, and daughter, Chloe Marie, on January 17, 2007. Big brother Jake loves giving them kisses.
J. Andrew Westerman (BS ’91, Science) accepted the middle/high school principal position at the American International School of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia beginning August 2007 and is moving there with his wife Cathy and their two children, Lucy and Rohan.
Steven Ronald Yontz (BS ’97, Chemistry) and his wife welcomed their first child, Grace Louise Yontz, on March 8th, 2007 in Midland, Michigan.
Samuel Blinn (BS ’00, Computer Science) and his wife Kendra welcomed their son Marco Montgomery-Blinn on October 12, 2006.
Yamini Dalal (PhD ’03, Biological Sciences) is a research scientist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA. The center works on chromosome structure and dynamics. She also teaches a course at the University of Washington on recent breakthroughs in chromosome research.
Krista Surratt Damery (BS ’98, Biological Sciences) and her husband Doug welcomed their first son, Evan, in December 2005. Krista is working with exchange students and recently began teaching Biology at a local college. Doug is pursuing his Masters degree in Geology.
Zachary Hollcraft (BS ’01, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences) is attending Old Dominion University for a master’s in environmental engineering.
Betsy Hughes (MS ’04, Statistics) was recently promoted to principal statistician for Boston Scientific Corp. She and her family relocated to the Twin Cities in Minnesota. In December 2006, she and her husband Brett welcomed their third child.
Mark E. Michalski (BS ’05, Physics) writes, “It’s been a busy year and a half since graduation. In that time I have been working for Abbott Laboratories for one year, I married Mary Stoudt (now Michalski) in June of 2006 and we bought a townhouse in Round Lake, IL. I have also since been awarded membership to the Chicago Mensa group.”
Amit Raju Philip (BS ’00, Computer Science) graduated from Duke University in May with his MBA. He will be working at AT Kearney in NYC. At the end of May, he also got married to a fellow Duke MBA alum.
Michael Stoppelman (BS ’03, Computer Science) recently left Google engineering to take a senior engineering position at a San Francisco startup, Yelp.com. He also recently co-authored a paper presented at an internet security conference.
In Memoriam
Stephen Robert Kurowsky (PhD ’70, Chemistry) passed away on December 14, 2006.
Jerome A. McBride (MS ’67, Computer Science) passed away on November 11, 2006.
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