Alumni > Connections
Alumni Connections 1950 - 1959
1950 - 1951 - 1952 - 1953 - 1954 - 1955 - 1956 - 1957 - 1958 - 1959
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Robert S. Hale, M.S. '51
Candidate area: Electrical Engineering
Advisor: Myron Swarm
I retired in 1993 from GTE Government Systems / General Dynamics (Mt. View, California) as a Senior Technologist. In the eighties I received two advanced degrees from the University of Santa Clara - a Masters in Applied Mathematics and the Engineering Degree. I am a senior life member of the IEEE. After retiring, I played a lot of golf for about 6 years. We then decided to join my daughter in the San Diego area and moved to Carlsbad, Califronia in 1999 (after 36 years in Northern California). We have a son still living in San Jose, CA.
Since arriving in Carlsbad, I was elected to the board of our home owners association; I volunteered at the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, became a docent and gave weekly tours on Saturday; I renewed my interests in ballroom dancing nad became an instructor at the YMCA in Encinitas, California; I joined the board of the Carlsbad Friends of the Arts and volunteer at the Carlsbad TGIF Jazz in the park-10 free summer concerts in local parks featuring top touring bands. Instead of being involved in technology, I am now "embedded" in music.
We live close to the ocean in a nice community and enjoy our current life style and hope it continues.
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Stephen L. Dyrnes, B.S. '55
Candidate area: Electrical Engineering
Advisor: Prof. Floyd Robbins
Place of internship: Boeing Co. - Seattle
State Electrical Inspector, Tillamook Oregon.
Travel Tillamook County performing Electrical Inspections per the National Electrical Code, for Commercial, Industrial Installations, as well as Residential Multifamily Dwellings.
Previouly retired from Bussmann Manufacturing Co. St. Louis, Missouri. Also was Industrial Occupations Dept. Head Portland Community College, Portland, Oregon.
Prev. with Tom Sparling &Associates, Seattle, Wash.
Also Consulting Electrical Engineer;active with IEEE,NSPE,and NFPA National Electrical Code 73 Committee.
Past Member Oregon State Board of Engineering Examiners.
Prev. traveled as consultant to Greek Islands, on Electromagnetic Interference Project.
Wallace Eckton, B.S. '55, M.S. '62
Candidate area: Electrical Engineering
Advisor: Dr. Shimada
I am retired. I retired from AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1994. I went back to work one month later and retired again in 2005. I am am married and we have four children (two boys and two girls). We also have seven grandchildren, ranging in age from 1 year old to 15. We spend our summers in Maine and the rest of the year in Pennsylvania. We have traveled and have seen most of the world.
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Jim Dean, B.S. '57
Candidate area: EE
Most recent employer: Lockheed Martin
Transistors were announced in 1948. I graduated form the UW in 1957 but we spent less than a few weeks studying transistor circuits and NO time with the solid state theory understanding. These were the important things of the future for us yet the UW was not prepared to teach these subjects. We were all completely indoctrinated in AC and DC machinery and vacuum tubes instead. Therefore I came to Stanford for an MSEE to learn something about current electronics. First quarter I learned about transistor circuits and semiconductor theory which I should have learned at the UW. I hope the UW has improved their teaching to include the latest devices in their teaching. Software in only small part of it. We have a shortage of engineers that can work in the RF and microwave areas today!
Jim Dean
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F. Ross Holmstrom, B.S. '58
Candidate area: Electrical Engineering
Ph.D. in E.E. - Stanford U. - 1965
Nasa Electronics Research Center, Cambridge, MA - 1964-70
UMass - Lowell E.E. Dept. - Faculty Member - 1970-2002. Now Professor Emeritus.
In 1970 the NASA Electronics Research Center became the U.S. Dept. of Transportation Systems Center, and I began a part-time and consulting relationship there that lasted for years, mostly in the area of EMI/EMC related to rail transit propulsion and signaling. I also consulted independently in the same area, as I am still doing. Since 1998 I have been working as a consulting engineer on Sound Transit's Link Light Rail extention from downtown Seattle to and through the UW campus, focusing on the mitigation of stray magnetic fields that would be caused by DC propulsion currents and by the subway cars' perturbation of the earth's magnetic field. THese magnetic fields would have the potential to disrupt operation of lab and medical equipment on campus.
Additionally, my wife Lynda (a Sociology professor at Boston College) and I travel, ski winters, sample the cultural offerings of the Boston area, and spend time with our children and grandchildren.
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Leonard W. Barlow, B.S. '59
Candidate area: Electrical Engineering
I started UW in 1946 in pre-engineering and was accepted to be an AE in 1948 when I had to leave for Pensacola, FL to become a Naval Aviator. Back in 1958 when the Navy allowed me six quarters to get a degree. AE didn't want me because my math was so old, but EE accepted me as long as I finished Differential Equations by the time the Transits course was offered (was taking "Diffy-Q" by correspondence). I have great remembrances of many professors (especially Hill) and loved every minute. By now I had four kids but it was fun. Had a great display for open house with several headsets using magnetic coils from a small TV set speaker loaded to 3.2 ohms that would pick up the sound from anywhere in the classroom where the display was held. It was a popular display in its day.
Now at, almost 78, I am still involved with magnetics. I have a couple of young EE men working with me on very low cost, light weight, fast, efficient (200mpg equivalent at 100mph) guideway for Personal Rapid Transit (PRT). I find that we now need an engineering group that puts many disciplines together as I find ourselves working with ME, AE, CE and other engineering and business people to make things happen. This seems to be happening for Mega projects, but not on or for the "garage and shop innovators" on a low budget.
Oh, I almost forgot, I taught sophomore and junior physics for three years at the Naval Academy, and was director of computer Services at SPU from1974 to 1983 teaching a class each quarter. We were responsible for several startups. My predecessor and I (with our staff) had a small role to play on a rather successful startup known by the initials: MS.
Stay tuned, we have some great ideas, even in old age.
John Kropf
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