Washington Area Lunch - September 10, 2010

Pictures were submitted by Dave Carruth

On Friday 10 Sept. the Washington/Annapolis group had their first luncheon of the new season.  We will now have a luncheon on the second Friday of each month through May of 2011.  If you are in town plan to join us at the Army/Navy Country Club, happy hour at 1130 with sit down sometime between 12 and 1230. 

Warren generally tells the Club there will be 40 of us and we don’t deviate from that much but almost always on the high side.  This time we had 37 plus the two speakers and one additional guest who did not speak.  The Classmates and their guest were:

Warren Graham       
Bob and Helga Smith
Bing and AnneMarie Sisson
John Fry
Bob Flood and Judy Tomelden
Ed Kline
Dick Munly and Joanne
Jean and Charlie Mertz
Ed Chapline  in from KS
Charlie and Marguerite Heid
Dave and Betty Carruth
Libby and Cab Davis
Jean and Hank Corley
George and Carolyn Ball
Rosemary Hogg
Bill Bartow
Tom and Alice O’Connor
Warren and Barbara Ortland
Patty and Tony Duncan
Jim and Mary Beggs
Bill Arnold
John and Dolly Rasmussen

Several matters of interest—Bob Flood and Judy Tomelden were planning on being married on the 11th.   Bill and Elizabeth Reed couldn’t make it because Bill fell down the steps and broke his wrist, as well as shaking up some other weakened physical items.  I talked to him yesterday and he says he will get a new cast this week but recovery is going slowly.  Other non-shows cut our attendance to below the 40 line but we are hoping that the Nov. luncheon will get us back on track. 

Our speakers were the Academic Dean and Provost,  Andrew T. Phillips.  He relieved Dean Miller when he retired.  Miller is a favorite of our Class so Phillips has, and knows that he has big shoes to fill for the Class of ’48.  He gave a good, succinct coverage of how things are going academically, covering all the scholarships that the mids are winning.  He is a firm proponent of diversity and says that is occurring because the Academy has broadened it’s area of search to carefully cover all the little back water towns of all 50 states.  This has resulted in the largest applicant pool ever from which the selection committee can pick the incoming class.  Jim Begg, said he also supported diversity, but wanted to be reassured that the entrance standards were not being degraded.  The Dean assured us they are not but that the final answer would have be judged based upon how things looked at graduation.  In answer to questions concerning who is looking after the mission of graduating Naval/Marine Corps officers the Dean said that was not within his purview but was the responsibility of the Supe and Commandant. 

Our second speaker was Raymond Greenlaw the visiting scholar who will be on the faculty for three years, salary paid by the Class of ’48.  A very impressive gent with a staggering list of academic achievements.  Achieved his PhD as follows:

BA  Pomona College (Mathematics) Cum laude  1983
MS  University of Washington (Computer Science)  1986
PhD University of Washington  (Computer Science)  1988

This has been followed by all kinds of Academic and writing awards and honors plus Academic positions in quite-few-schools in this country and several others. (About 7 pages worth so I obviously can’t present them all here).  He will be working in the  Cyber Security curriculum at the Academy.  He was chosen by Dean Phillips.

His other than academic activities I also found interesting- he has hiked the full length of the Pacific Crest Trail and the Appalachian Trail.  Has run the Iron Man Triathlon three times, and several of the 100 mile runs.  He has crested 5 of the 7 main world mountains including Everest.  He is a master SCUBA diver and is looking forward to diving with the Academy SCUBA club. 
After the luncheon I talked with him for a short period and asked how old he was,  49.  I commented that he had crammed a lot of living into 49 years. 

Put Nov. 12th on your calendars for the next gathering and please plan to be there..... Dave