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| 1961 |
Bill Haglund, retired since 1998, served as the architectural plans reviewer for the new Walt Disney Concert Hall in los Angeles
Wallace N. Kelly has joined Kreisler Manufacturing Corporation’s Board of Directors and was elected to the position of chairman of the board. He joined Kreisler in February of 2000 and, after serving as the company’s executive vice president and CFO, is currently a consultant to the co-presidents
John Sturgul has been named the recipient of the 2004 Mineral Industry Education Award, in recognition of his life-long dedication to research and teaching, and his original contributions in mine design using computer simulation. He is professor of mining engineering at the University of Idaho
Robert B. Zalobsky is employed at Yale Tool & Engraving Inc in Plymouth, Mich. |
| 1964 |
Bill Stanley, a retired partner with Coopers & Lybrand, has been named to the board of directors of Kensington Resources in Victoria, BC. |
| 1967 |
Gary E. Anderson has retired from Dow Corning Corporation after thirty-seven years. Anderson joined Dow in 1967 serving in manufacturing roles, then moving into economic evaluation and business management. In 1979, he became director of manufacturing and engineering in Europe. He has served as corporate director, president, CEO and chairman. He and his wife, Judy, plan to travel and enjoy retirement. |
| 1968 |
William McClintock, retired CPA, has been appointed to the Board of Directors of ANPC, the Oregon-based manufacturer of aircraft guidance systems. McClintock was founder and director of Sierra West Bank of California from 1982 to 1999. Currently he serves as an investor, director/consultant to several early-stage and family businesses. |
| 1970 |
Arthur W. Abramson is a PSIA Certified Professional Ski Instructor for the Copper Ski & Snowboard School in Copper Mountain, Colo. He lives in Breckenridge, Colo. |
| 1974 |
Diane M. Feller is a consultant with Feller Associates in Ishpeming, Mich. |
| 1975 |
Candace A. Goulette is employed as an editor at Merion Publications. she lives in Lincoln, Calif. |
| 1976 |
G. Charles Hubscher has been appointed to the Board of Directors at Isabella Bank and Trust in Mt. Pleasant. He is currently the President of Hubscher and Son, Inc. He and his wife, Janice, are life-long residents of the Mt. Pleasant area
Robert Manninen has joined the Coleman Engineering Company in its Iron Mountain office. Bob is a registered professional engineering in Michigan and Wisconsin. He previously was employed by the Michigan Dept. of Transportation |
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Michael Mlinar is general manager of the Hibbing Taconite Company in Hibbing, Minn. |
| 1977 |
Griff Coxey is contgroller for RamRod Industries Ltd., in Spencer, Wis. His son, Dan, will finish high school in two years and he has two daughters at the University of Wisconsin
Donald Frederick is chief financial officer of ClearOne Communications in Salt Lake City, Utah
Howard C. Walker has been elected to the Michigan House of Representatives, serving the counties of Grand Traverse and Kalkaska. He is on the Appropriations Committee and corresponding subcommittees overseeing the budget of the DNR/DEQ, Career Development, Agriculture, and Community Health. |
| 1979 |
Gary Caskey, of Warroad, Minn., has earned a registered professional land surveyor’s license in both North Dakota and Minnesota. He is employed by CPS Ltd of Grand Forks, North Dakota. He has been a registered professional land surveyor in Wyoming since 1986
David A Klein, of Freeport, Ill, is a senior NPD Design Tech at Honeywell ACS. He holds three U.S. patents and is a Honeywell S&C Technical Award Winner
Scott McNelis has joined the staff of Coleman Engineering in Iron Mountain, Mich., as a project manager in the civil engineering department. His responsibilities will include coordination of projects in the areas of design, drafting, contract administration and construction inspection. Actually this is a homecoming for Scott as he returns to the company where he spent 15 years out of his 24-year career in consulting engineering. |
| 1980 |
Timothy Brooks is an emergency physician at the Saratoga Emergency Physicians in Saratoga Springs, New York. He also serves as a consultant to Saratoga County Public Health on Bioterrorism, serves as medical director for the Saratoga Springs Fire Dept. and the county schools AED program. |
| 1985 |
Hamender K. Agarwal is President and CEO of ETS International LLC in South Bend, Ind. His company manufactures electro mechanical products for the automotive industry, including RVs and trucks
Bernie Huetter is a forester with the Schoolcraft Conservation District in Manistique, Mich. Primarily, he will be working with landowners on woodland and wildlife issue. He also manages his family’s Christmas tree operation. |
| 1986 |
Jeff Canfield has joined the intellectural law firm Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione in Chicago. |
| 1987 |
Randy S. Smith has joined Atwell-Hicks as a corporate development manager in the Cleveland, Ohio office. He also has a graduate certificate in Hazardous Waste Management from Wayne State University. |
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Tom Valent: The Man in the Santa Claus Suit
 Tom Valent (he’s the one with the green bag) leads a double life. Most folks in Midland, Mich., know the 1973 Michigan Tech grad as executive vice president of Gerace Construction. But each fall and winter, Valent, 54, dons a rich red suit trimmed with white fur and goes from quiet, mild-mannered civil engineer to the hearty, cheerful embodiment of the Christmas spirit—Santa Claus.
As dean of the oldest Santa Claus School in the country, Valent doesn’t just portray Santa; he teaches others how to be Santa, complete with lessons in feeding reindeer, holding squirmy children, and even how to perfect Santa’s mellow “ho-ho-ho.” Since 1987, more than 700 people have taken the three-day course at the Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School in Midland, learning Santa skills from Valent, who first adopted his holiday alter ego 28 years ago, when he was only 26.
“I didn’t get my calling to be Santa until after I graduated from Michigan Tech,” says Valent, “although I always loved the snow and cold when I was in school. After all, it’s about as close to the North Pole as you can get in Michigan.”
Valent has actually been to the North Pole. He and Holly, his wife, represented the United States at the first International Santa Summit in Greenland in 1995, where they taught the Santa school to Santas from 17 countries. As part of the trip, the Santas took a ship out to the spot that’s as close to the geographic North Pole as you can get.
But for students of the Santa Claus School, the quintessential North Pole exists at Midland’s Santa House, where Valent used his engineering and construction skills to create a fanciful world where polar bears dance, elves play pianos, and a train chugs along a track encircling the room. A chalk board bears two quotes from the school’s founder, Charles W. Howard, a Macy’s Santa back in the 1930s: “To be Santa is a privilege, not a job,” and “He errs who thinks Santa enters through the chimney. He enters through the heart.”
“My goal is to make everyone a believer,” says Valent, who loves to share the “Santa spirit” with both his Santa students and the thousands of children who visit him every year at Christmas. “You can’t argue with 1700 years of tradition. There’s not a better feeling in the world than making children happy.”
Denise Spencer, president and CEO of the Midland Area Community Foundation, calls Valent the “spark plug” behind Midland’s annual holiday celebration, which includes illuminating downtown with Christmas lights and opening up the Santa House to more than 20,000 children who visit St. Nick between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“Just ask any child—they recognize the Santa at Midland’s Santa House as THE Santa,” says Spencer. “The others out there are just Santa’s helpers. Tom makes you believe that he is Santa Claus.”
For more information, see www.santaclausschool.com
— Elizabeth Johnson
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| 1988 |
Jeff Cummings joined the Cummins and Barnard Engineering Co. in April 2004. He, his wife Susan (also a Michigan Tech grad), and their son, Keith, live in Saline, Mich
David Eickmeyer has been named director of engineering at Winsert, Inc., in marinette, Wisc. He had been an engineering manager at the company
Steven Hoffer has been ordained a Transitional Deacon fo rthe Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Vegs, Nevada. He will be ordained as a priest in may 2005. He has been attending St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, Calif
Matthew F. Pumford of Saginaw, Mich., has been elected president of Pumford Construction, Inc. Pumford is the fourth generation of his family to run the company, founded in 1938. Prior to his appointment to president, he served as vice president of operations
David Voss has been promoted to director of information technology at INTERMET Corporation in Troy, Mich. |
| 1989 |
Tim Brannan has received Central Michigan University’s J. Edwin Towle Professorship award, which recognizes outstanding educators. He is a faculty member in the teacher education and professional development department
Jennifer Becker has received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. She is an assistant professor of biological resources engineering at the University of Maryland. |
| 1990 |
Todd Ambler, having served the U.S. Army for 13 years, was most recently deployed to Iraq with his National Guard unit. Todd and his wife, Michelle, have three children, Megan, Jonathan, and Lucas, and live in Port Austin, Mich
Mark Mueller has been promoted to senior consultant at Shainin LLC, a global quality consulting and training firm in Livonia, Mich. He and his wife, Colleen, have two children and live in Pinckney. |
| 1992 |
Richard D. Kathrens has become an associate with the Spicer Group Inc in Saginaw, Mich. He has been employed at Spicer since 1993 and is a registered professional engineer in Michigan and Indiana. |
| 1993 |
Brian Boals has joined Orchard Hiltz & McCliment in Livonia, Mich. He will serve as a client representative in the company’s municipal engineering group, with several client municipalities. |
| 1994 |
Jean Gosenheimer is a senior process engineer at Brady Corporation in Milwaukee, Wis. Following their wedding in May 2004, she and her husband, Mike, reside in Germantown, Wis. |
| 1995 |
Chris Rasmussen is a project manager at Braun Intertec in Bloomington, Minn. He oversees construction and materials testing services performed on Wal-Mart and Home Depot projects. |
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| 1996 |
Robert Jelic has been appointed automation product specialist with the Orbitform Groups. He was previously employed as a project engineer and business engineer at EWAB Engineering in Ann Arbor, Mich. |
| 1997 |
Terry Manty is a county forester in Leelanau and Grand Traverse counties. He will be working with private landowners, as well as local government properties. His wife, Shannon, and 10-month old son, Nicholas, will soon be joining him
Louis J. Northouse, PE, has been promoted to associate at SME, a consulting engineering firm. He is based in the Grand Rapids office, is a registered professional engineer in Michigan, and is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. |
| 1998 |
Jim Rivard is now serving as the forester for the Gogebic Conservation District in Ironwood, Mich. He will assist in a wide range of areas including plant and tree identification, pond and wetland creation, and timber management. |
| 1999 |
Frank Underdown, Jr has been named to the inaugural advisory board of the Michigan Small Tech Association. Underdown is president of the Keweenaw Nanoscience Center and is currently a visiting professor at Tennessee Technological University where is developing nanoscale manufacturing technologies and teaches in the broad area of nanotechnology
Brian Zatloukal is a staff engineer at SME in the company’s Plymouth office. He married in April of 2004 and he and his wife, Maria Zellar, have recently moved to Brighton, Mich. |
| 2001 |
Shawn C. Butler has graduated from Michigan State College of Law with a Juris Doctorate degree. He is currently a first lieutenant in the Army and in January 2005, he will begin serving in the JAG Corps
Mike Humes has joined the mechanical engineering staff of U.P. Engineers and Architects, Inc in Houghton, Mich. He and his family returned to Houghton five years ago and since that time he was employed by Hitch, Inc
Lori Sherman was honored as 2004 Mentor of the Year by the National Indian Women’s Health Resource Center. She is coordinator of Native American outreach at Michigan Tech. |
| 2003 |
Haakon Hagemeister has been hired as a staff forester at Steigerwaldt Land Services Inc. in Tomahawk, Wis
Matthew C. Kern is a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office in Washington, DC. |
| 2004 |
Milan Lathia, a May 2004 graduate, is employed by Shafi, Inc in Brighton, Mich. |
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Fortier Reflects on Baghdad Comedy Tour
Curtis J. Fortier (left) holds BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering worked for Delphi Energy & Engine Management Systems for 16 months before hitting the road as a stand-up comedian. He can be seen in the recently released documentary Trekkies 2 and opened for Stephen Lynch at Michigan Tech’s Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts this past November. He lives in Santa Monica, CA.
The British airman said, “All right everyone, all weapons must be cleared to board the plane.” He had that British non-chalance yet was still all business: after all, he was talking about guns.
At that command, we heard a cacophony of metal clicks as rifle bolts were drawn back, M-16 magazines exited their receivers, and 9mm rounds were ejected. As we stood there, inside that large canvas tent in the hot sun of the Kuwait desert, it finally hit us—we were on our way to Baghdad.
The “we” were five comedians that were part of the Comics on Duty World Tour (www.comicsonduty.com): Drake Witham, Nathan Timmel, Danny Bevins, former Home Improvement star Jim Labriola and me. We did 13 shows in 7 days and performed in Kuwait, downtown Baghdad, Camp Taqaddam just outside of Fallujah and Camp Anaconda in Balad, which is northeast of Baghdad.
We encountered “controlled blasts,” which were scheduled ordinance detonations. At the time, we did not know they were scheduled, which played havoc with our nerves. We saw palaces where the inside was destroyed leaving only the four walls—the entrance hole of the Tomahawk missile that did the destruction eerily apparent in the roof.
The question I’m asked most often now that I have returned home is what I found most memorable. Honestly, it was not the palaces, the Persian Gulf or even the Blackhawk helicopter rides at night over the city.
It was the faces of the men and women we performed for. They entered the show off duty but still on alert. They exited the show all smiles and relaxed. The look in their eyes that said, “You made this place bearable for a few hours.” That was the most memorable part—and it was an honor to make the journey to accomplish that.
— Curtis J. Fortier ’94
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