Class Notes: 1946-1969
1970-1979
1980-1989
1990-1995
1996-1999
XP and IXP
1963
1966
1968
1969
1955
1961
CLUB AND CLASS NEWS
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A Progress Report
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In Memoriam
ALUMNI PROFILES
Polly Kawalek, ’78
Kawalek's Staying Power
Lee Hillman, ’79
Bally Total Fitness Shapes Up
Ed Lowenstern reports: “I’ve recycled into a professional writer. For the past six years, a newspaper in Chicago has been printing opinion columns and local news items I’ve written relating to trade shows and business-related activities (including GSB happenings) around Chicago’s Near North Side. I’ve also been writing and marketing travel articles that are appearing, along with my wife’s photography, in papers across the country. This is a dream come true since it permits us to travel extensively and share our experiences with a wider audience.”
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1955
“Having failed retirement for the second time,” writes Richard Wittrup, “I now happily serve as senior adviser to the president and chief executive officer of Methodist Health Care System in Houston. For this they pay me! Experience convinces me that the entire notion of retirement needs to be rethought.”
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1961
Bob Buckman is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Bulab Holdings Inc., the parent company of Buckman Laboratories. He writes: “Buckman Laboratories is a multinational specialty chemical corporation that researches, develops, manufactures, and markets chemical products for use in the paper, water, and leather industries. The company won the 1999 Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE) award, granted by Teleos Corporation in association with Teleos’s KNOW Network, for its world-class knowledge management efforts leading to superior performance in business.” An avid fisherman and skier, Buckman is also a benefactor and trustee of Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee.
Joseph P. Flanagan retired as president of the impact division of Foote, Cone & Belding after 23 years. Last year he started a consulting practice that focuses on marketing communication. The Chicago resident reports that his first client is his former employer.
After 22 years of practice, David Magilavy closed his law office in Newport Beach, California, and is maintaining a minimal practice out of his home to “finish up open items.” He expects to be fully retired by the end of this year.
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1962
Jon Blyth and his wife, Jane, have been living since 1995 in Prague, Czech Republic, where he is program director for the C.S. Mott Foundation’s international work in central and eastern Europe, Russia, and South Africa. As one of its grant-making missions, the foundation supports the strengthening of civil society in countries in transition to democracy and market economies.
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1963
Gerald Blackwill traveled in Chile and Argentina earlier this year. He writes: “I spent 11 days with a group of mountain bicyclists in the lake district of northern Patagonia. There were many more lakes than around my home in Lake Tahoe, California, but the green trees and snowcapped peaks reminded me of home. We biked on dirt roads or trails through the national parks and stayed at the beautiful Llao Llao hotel, an upscale version of the Awahine in Yosemite. I spent some time in Buenos Aires and then took more conventional plane and bus transportation to Igauzu Falls and the marshes of Ibera. Igauzu Falls are spectacular; they are larger than Niagara or Victoria Falls. The marshes of Ibera are a rich biotic region of floating islands. The birding is great. There are egrets, herons, and storks of different varieties. There are also capybaras (they look like 100-pound brown hamsters that swim) and caymans. I stayed at Aguape Station in the small town of Carlos Pelligrini.”
Thomas F. Monahan Jr. writes: “My son Jon graduated from the GSB in 1998 from the International M.B.A. (I.M.B.A) program. My youngest son, Mark, is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.” Monahan lives in Arcola, Illinois, where he is president and chairman of the Thomas Monahan Company.
E. D. Wood reports: “Singapore GSB ‘home’ progress is excellent—I saw it weeks ago on a visit to Southeast Asia.”
For a look at the renovations on the House of Tan Yeok Nee, the GSB’s
Singapore campus, see the photo essay “This Old House.”
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1966
Bob Bent, Eckart Matthes, and Hubert Otto, ’68, continued their golfing meetings at St. Andrews and other Scottish courses last summer. The trio played in Germany in 1997, Ireland in 1992, and Quebec in 1967. Their next event is planned for 2001 in England.
EGS Electrical Group L.L.C., a joint venture of Emerson Electric Company and SPX, promoted John T. Fleckenstein to president of the electrical construction materials unit last September. Fleckenstein lives in Lake Forest, Illinois.
James E. Lewis was elected president and chief executive officer of Philadelphia Factors Inc., a firm that he cofounded. Lewis was also elected to the board
of directors of Commercial Finance Association.
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1967
William A. Cohen, a professor at California State University in Los Angeles, is the author of a new book, Patton on Leadership: Strategic Lessons for Corporate Warfare. The West Point graduate and retired major general also wrote The Art of the Leader.
The board of directors of Alliant Energy Corp. has elected Erroll Davis Jr. chairman of the board. Davis is also president and chief executive officer of Alliant, a major U.S. utility company based in Madison, Wisconsin.
Ron Nietupski and his wife, Tracy, are semiretired and split their time between Tierra Verde Island, Florida, and Lockport, Illinois. Nietupski was recently elected to a lifetime seat on the Board of Directors of the University of Illinois School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineers. His wife writes: “Ron has two patents—one for appetite suppression and the other for smoking suppression, which won the DePaul University Invention of the Year award last year. We are currently seeking international licensees for our products and invite alumni to visit www.StopSmokingLoseWeight.com.”
John C. Simpson Jr. retired from Exxon Mobil in March. He and his wife, Carolyn, live in their two homes in Virginia and Florida. “We are finally traveling for pure pleasure,” says Simpson. “We have also recently become grandparents and are enjoying that new phase of our lives.”
Howard Zukerman has returned from a 31/2-year assignment in Mexico City as executive vice president and chief financial officer of the second largest wireless phone operation in Mexico. Now living in North Potomac, Maryland, he writes that is seeking a position as chief financial officer or chief operating officer with a public company in the U.S.
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1968
In November mPower, a provider of online retirement investment advice, named Dennis Chookaszian chairman and CEO. Chookaszian will shape the company’s strategy as it expands its visibility in the online investment advisory arena. Prior to joining mPower, he served as chairman and CEO of CNA Financial Corporation.
John Culp writes: “I am still having fun being an expatriate in Royal Bavaria. Body and spirits are in good shape with lots of food, biking, and a meditative modus operandi: as the Italians say, ‘piano, piano, ma non troppo’ which means ‘easily, easily, but not too much.’ Professionally I am being challenged by the changes brought about by a small north German company in the document management system software business. I recommend that all my colleagues start living the modest life as early as possible. When you aren’t under any pressure to earn money, the money takes care of itself! The body and spirit need a little more active attention, and then the happiness takes care of itself.”
Hubert Otto (see Bob Bent, ’66)
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1969
Gary V. Awad has moved from Texas to La Canada, California, to join Fluor Corporation’s global development unit. He has a daughter at Claremont McKenna College and a son in high school.
Steve Saine has moved to Blythewood, South Carolina, just outside Columbia. He and his wife, Diana, have combined a favorite pastime with business in a venture developing customized international golf trips for individuals, groups, and businesses. He writes: “Scotland and Ireland predominate, but Spain, Portugal, Ryder Cup, and Masters are also favorite destinations.”
Image Processing Systems Inc. (IPS), a global, high-technology e-visions provider in Markham, Ontario, has appointed Richard D. Schwarz to the firm’s board of directors. Schwarz is president and founder of EI Consortium Inc., a New Jersey–based firm that facilitates intercorporate linkages involving electronic imaging technology, products, and markets.
John Van Dyke was a panelist at GSB’s West Quest last December. See “What Good Is an M.B.A.?”
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