Remains of missing WWII airman returned
Remains of missing WWII airman returned
The plane was one of 100 U.S. aircraft missing in action in China during World War II. Lt. George Pierpont '40 and his crew of nine were on a mission that would take them east toward Japanese-occupied Taiwan. Anti-aircraft gunners on the ground knew the bombers would be passing low overhead. The night sky was flooded with light, making Pierpont's plane an easy target. Pierpont, along with his crew, would simply disappear into the darkness on this night. It was August 1944.
In October 1996, the remains of Pierpont, his crew, and their B-24 were finally discovered in a ravine on Little Cat Mountain. After 52 years, Nancy Pierpont Mountcastle, Pierpont's sister, can bury the past.
Mountcastle says it is a relief to know what happened to her brother. "After all these years, it's hard to bring it up again," she told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Pierpont's bomber group was vital to cutting off supply lines for Japanese shipping lanes. The mission information was kept secret after the war due to a new radar technology being used for low-altitude night bombing raids. For years after the war, the information was still classified.
The plane was part of the 375th Bomb Squadron, 308th Bomb Group in the 14th Air Force.
The work of Earl Swensson (architecture '52, M.S) and his firm, Earl Swensson Associates, is readily visible to anyone visiting to Nashville. Swensson designed the Opryland Hotel, the Wildhorse Saloon, and Tennessee's tallest office building.
Swensson has been involved with Opryland Hotel since its inception in the 1970s, designing the original structure and additions in 1983, 1988, and 1996. The recent $175-million expansion makes the hotel the seventh largest in the country and the world's largest convention-center hotel. The firm also provided interior design for the latest addition.
The city's skyline is dominated by the BellSouth "Batman" tower, designed by Swensson's firm. The structure is credited with revitalizing a flagging downtown area.
Swensson's designs for more than 2,000 medical facilities in 29 states earned the firm a spot on Modern Healthcare's list of the top 10 architectural firms in the nation in 1995. The firm currently is at work on the first hospital Mayo Clinic has ever built from the ground up.
Swensson began his firm as a two-person operation in 1961. It now is the largest architectural firm in Tennessee, with 136 employees and nearly 6,000 projects completed.
In August, Virginia Tech's Department of Wood Science and Forest Products is sponsoring a nine-day conference on the "Preservation of Russian Antiquities: Its Impact on Russia's Rejuvenation" on board the MS Andropov while the ship is traveling Russia's northwest waterways.
The cruise will start in St. Petersburg, Russia, sailing to Kizhi Island, Karelia, and many other points of interest before ending in Moscow. The conference is offered under the auspices of Virginia Tech's Continuing Education division, the International Council of Monuments and Sites, the Association for Preservation Technology International, the American Society for Testing and Materials, and Vyatka State Technical University in Kirov, Russia.
The total cost of the nine-day cruise, including the additional days in St. Petersburg and Moscow and roundtrip airfare from New York with two days in Helsinki ranges from $2,995 to $3,195, double occupancy, depending upon cabin location. For details, contact George Stern, Professor Emeritus of Wood Construction at Virginia Tech, Brooks Forest Products Center, 1650 Ramble Rd., Blacksburg, VA 24061-0503; (540) 231-6639.
One minute into the second quarter of the 1996 Super Bowl, Antonio Freeman (housing, interior design, and resource management '95) insured his place in the sports record books by catching a Super Bowl-record, 81-yard touchdown pass. The former Virginia Tech star was on the field in January for the Green Bay Packers' 35-21 Super Bowl win against the New England Patriots.
The week before the Super Bowl, Freeman was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Not bad for the last of four third-round draft picks by Green Bay in 1995.
Freeman missed four games last season after breaking his left arm, but still finished the regular season with 56 receptions for 933 yards.
Freeman originally was drafted as a return man, returning 24 kickoffs for a 23-yard average and averaging 7.9 yards on 37 punt returns in the 1995 season. His Super Bowl stats of three receptions for 103 yards come close to his 1995 season totals of eight catches for 106 yards.
But Packers quarterback Brett Favre found that the same peripheral vision that makes Freeman a dangerous return man makes him a good receiver. "He's a real receiver," says Packers receivers coach Gil Haskell. "He has a good feel for the open field."
Charles V. Thomas (electrical engineering '72) won a gold medal in the environmental category at the Invention Products Exposition for a temperature-smart thermostat he patented. The device also was selected out of a field of 1,500 entries as one of 150 inventions to be showcased at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center during an exposition last fall sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce and Intellectual Property Owners.
Thomas, a telecommunications engineer for Virginia Power in Richmond, designed the thermostat to monitor both indoor and outdoor temperatures and to adjust the indoor temperature based on the difference between the two. It allows for more gradual changes of temperature than is possible with thermostats controlled by timers.
"If your thermostat is set on 75 when it gets hot outside during the day, this device might let the house get up to 80, but would continue to run the air conditioning periodically as the temperature rose so you would stay comfortable," Thomas says. "This is more fuel efficient than setting a traditional thermostat on 75, a temperature at which an air conditioner might have to run continuously on a hot day, or even at 80, at which point the house would take longer to cool in the evening."
Thomas has applied for a grant from the Department of Energy to further develop the thermostat and is hoping to find a manufacturer for the product.
With no military experience and little culinary background behind them, three Virginia Tech alumnae managed to capture three of the highest positions at Johnson and Wales University, College of Culinary Arts in Norfolk.
The school, originally open to military personnel only, responded to popular demand by opening its doors to the public in 1985, leaving Debra Cox Gray (health and recreation '76), Tammy Goetz Jaxtheimer (communication studies '84), and Torri Yufer Butler (psychology '84) the task of combining their experience to make the Norfolk college a success.
Gray is currently president of the Virginia campus of Johnson and Wales. She is also in charge of heading the university's newest campus in Vail, Colo. Jaxtheimer is director of advancement and professional training, getting corporations to invest in the school. Butler is director of student affairs.
The three women did not know each other before heading to Johnson and Wales. Gray had been at J and W for several years when Jaxtheimer was hired to help set up for the planned Virginia location. "Tammy was one of my top recruiters," Gray says. "She now has her own department and so does Torri."
Other Tech alumni include Paula Howell Retz (marketing management '91), an admissions officer, and Greg Retz (human nutrition and foods '92), who teaches nutrition classes part time.
The College of Culinary Arts at Johnson and Wales University offers a two-year degree program in culinary arts and baking and pastry arts. Bachelor's degrees are also available in culinary arts, foodservice management, food marketing, and food entrepreneurship. More than 500 students are enrolled in the Norfolk program today.
After paying her dues in small markets, Hoda Kotb (communication studies '86) says she's content to remain as local news anchor of the nation's top-rated CBS affiliate, WWL in New Orleans.
Kotb took on-air jobs in Greenville, Miss.; Moline, Ill.; and Fort Myers, Fla., before hiring the agent who helped her land her current job in 1992. She co-anchors Channel 4's local news and hopes to continue to contribute to the station's No. 1 dominance of the market.
Included in her perks with this job are a clothing allowance, complete with advice from a clothing consultant, and a throng of local fans. "This town is friendly to news anchors," she says. "People are always asking for autographs."
At Tech, Kotb served as news director of WUVT, the student radio station. "I liked the idea of live news...everything that was happening was new," she says.
She still thrives on the day-to-day changes of news coverage. "It's nice to be able to record history," she says. "you always have a first row seat."
Scott Acton (electrical engineering '88) has been named the Outstanding Young Electrical Engineer for 1996 by Eta Kappa Nu honorary society for his contributions to the field of image processing.
Acton directs the Imaging Laboratory at Oklahoma State University, where his research has centered on image processing, including multi-resolution image representations and image restoration.
"My early exposure to the computer era and the experience I gained at Virginia Tech were what interested me in this area," he says.
Image processing serves various functions, including such diverse tasks as using satellite photos of the Earth to help farmers estimate soil moisture or helping the army identify targets.
Acton, an assistant professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Oklahoma State University, will receive the international award from the honorary for electrical engineers on May 5. The society presents the award annually to an electrical engineer for outstanding achievements in his profession as well as for meritorious service for humankind.
Where can you find job listings, alumni resumes, career advising, and other job search resources? The best starting point for more information is the Virginia Tech Career Services web site at http://www.career.vt.edu.
The department offers many other services to alumni long after they have left campus. Virginia Tech graduates may meet with career counselors to discuss conducting a job search, developing a network of employment contacts, and preparing for interviews.
To have your resume included in an alumni notebook available to visiting employers, send a copy to the Career Services office. You must renew your request every six months.
The Candidate Referral Service is a DOS-based program, which offers a user-friendly method of designing your resume on disk. Career Services maintains a current resume database that they can search and forward to employers looking for specific skills. For a $35 fee, you will receive a packet including disks and instructions. Once uploaded, a resume remains on the database for six months or until renewal.
For more information about any of these programs, contact Leigh Anne Leist at Virginia Tech Career Services, Henderson Hall (0128), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061; phone (540) 231-6241; fax (540) 231-8268.
Designing a virtual reality adventure ride involving interactive computers landed Jarvis Davis (electrical engineering '96) a grant for graduate school and a cooperative education job with the Walt Disney company. Davis won Disney's annual "Imagi-Nations" theme park competition for his theme park ride.
Davis developed the graphics for his project, called "Just an Illusion," on computers in the university's media center during spring semester of his senior year. Then he compiled the information into a book that explains the game and the engineering concepts behind it. The game is designed to lead visitors through a variety of adventure and educational scenarios.
Davis is using his grant money to attend graduate school at North Carolina State University. His co-op job at Disney's Imagineering company began in January.
Disney has not yet said whether or not it will create a park attraction based on Davis' project.