Fall 2010 – WIT Magazine

Obituaries

John B. Gray, Hon. ’04 John Bullard Gray died on June 14, 2010. He was 82. Gray served as a corporator at the Institute for 26 years and was a member of the Institute’s Board of Trustees from 1990 to 2004. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Wentworth...

Wheels of Change

Jonathan Hicks, BMET ’06, passed the Jamaica Plain headquarters of bicycle recycling nonprofit Bikes Not Bombs every day on his way to classes at Wentworth. But it wasn’t until two years after he graduated that a growing disconnection from the community pushed him through the door. “I wanted to...

Class Notes

1939 Edward Rudis, MC&TD, retired from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Lab. 1950 Gerhard Robichaud, S&DE, is retired. He only opens mail, counts money, and complains— claiming to be rather good at each. 1953 Charles Vatcher, BC, has been retired since 2001. He is currently living in California...

Commencement

Summer Commencement was held at the Bank of America Pavilion for the first time. The Institute awarded 628 students with Bachelor of Science (537), Associate in Applied Science (32), and Master of Architecture (59) degrees. The College of Professional and Continuing Education (formerly The Arioch Center) graduated its first...

Spirit of Giving

Not even scattered showers could dampen the mood aboard the Spirit of Boston as nearly 200 Wentworth supporters set sail for the annual celebration of leadership and loyalty. In addition to celebrating the Institute’s most generous donors, the event recognized Jack and Lillian Smith, their generous gift, and their...

Digital Donation

A child in Chirimoto, Peru, tries one of the 25 new computers that were donated to the local community center by the Chirimoto Development Project, Inc., a nonprofit founded by civil engineering professor Jerry Hopcroft. In addition to helping rebuild the town after a devastating flood, the organization has also...

Building a Stronger Haiti

As a native of Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Systems Pierre Arthur Elysee has seen firsthand the substandard construction that contributed to the high death toll from the country’s January earthquake. “I’m not going to say I could predict what was going to happen,...

Rock of Middle Ages

Twenty-five years ago, Wentworth sophomore David Lovering, EE ’87, and three Boston friends formed The Pixies, often using Lovering’s parents’ garage in Burlington, Mass., as a rehearsal space. The band went on to become a defining rock act in the late 1980s, cited as an influence by everyone from...

Toy Stories

Thanks to ubiquitous advertising, children of the 1990s likely remember the Skip-It. A small plastic ball attached to the ankle, the toy spun around the leg, forcing a skip with the opposite leg while a ticker counted each revolution. This August, a group of Wentworth students took on the...

High Water Mark

Freddie the Fire Hydrant, a vision of an interactive children’s lawn sprinkler, was one of 20 designs that helped David Fustino, BIND ’11, win an undergraduate scholarship from the Industrial Designers Society of America. In addition to helping him secure $2,500 toward his tuition, the sprinkler design has attracted...