Ralph D. Kodis, E’40, of Newton, Massachusetts, recounts his World War II experiences. “I was among those mentioned by Julius Kendall, E’41, [in the September 2003 issue], who were recruited by Admiral Yarnell. During 1941, I was one of two graduate students studying theoretical physics with Professor Muckenhoupt and working as a lab assistant with Professor Coolidge. (It was the first year NU offered graduate courses in physics and chemistry.) The Navy permitted me to complete the academic year, and on July 1, 1941, I reported for duty as a new ensign to the Naval Gun Factory in Washington, D.C.,” he writes. “During the six months before Pearl Harbor, I was assigned to a group working to understand the technical details of the then novel magnetic mines being used against Britain by the Germans. The civilian director of our group was John Bardeen (Nobel Prize winner in 1956 and 1972). After Pearl Harbor, I spent the rest of the war with the Pacific Command from New Caledonia to Okinawa as a technical and operational naval mine warfare officer, working with ever more sophisticated air-dropped mines.”

Edward T. Barry, BA’41, of Needham, Massachusetts, was inducted into the UMass-Boston Athletic Hall of Fame on October 8, 2003. A charter member of the Northeastern Athletic Hall of Fame, Barry was the hockey and golf coach at Boston State College for more than twenty years (Boston State later merged with UMass-Boston). Barry, who played hockey for the Boston Bruins in the 1940s, won twelve club championships at his home golf course, Newton’s Charles River Country Club, in addition to the New England Amateur golf championship and New England and Massachusetts Senior Amateur championships.

John F. Lovett, E’41, of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, writes, “I was very sorry to read of fellow classmate Israel Katz’s passing. Also, I appreciated Julius Kendall’s note about being in the Navy. I am a retired lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve with twelve years of active duty. My father was a retired lieutenant commander in the Navy with forty-five years’ active duty. My three brothers, all deceased, were in the Navy. I’m lucky to be here after an emergency aorta operation. I am a widower, and my daughter, Joyce, lives with and takes care of me. I also have a son, John Jr. [BA’69, MBA’76], who works for IBM and lives in Needham with his wife, Ann, and a son and daughter.”

Robert I. Brown, E’42, of New Port Richey, Florida, notes, “I’m recovering well from knee replacement surgery but have been slowed down for about a year.”

Ralph Huey, E’43, of Charlotte, North Carolina, reports he retired in 1981 “after forty years with the same firm I started with as a co-op student in 1940.” He’s now working with the restoration team at the Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte, restoring military aircraft and helicopters for exhibition.

Leonard Leto, LA’47, of Hamden, Connecticut, writes, “I am a frequent visitor to Boston. My daughter, Elizabeth Fulton, works down the street as a painting conservator at the Museum of Fine Arts. When her son was born two years ago, she phoned me and said his name is Asa Knowles Fulton. (She saw the name on a Huntington Avenue building.) A future president of Northeastern?”

Ernie Bosselman, E’48, of North Falmouth, Massachusetts, writes of his World War II experiences, “I was one of eight sophomores in electrical engineering at Northeastern who joined the Army Specialized Training Corps, along with more than a hundred other NU students. When the corps was activated, 126 students went to North Station for our trip to Fort Devens. After infantry basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, the eight of us were stationed at various places. We were in Germany when the war ended. When Berlin was divided into four sections, we were sent to repair and operate repeater stations located about every fifty miles between Berlin and Frankfurt. When it was time to be discharged, most of us wanted to return to college, so one person composed a letter to advise NU that we would be returning to classes starting in September 1946. Upon returning to school, we soon found (horror of horrors!) girls were now allowed at NU. Almost seven years after starting as freshmen, we graduated (thanks, in part, to the GI Bill) in January 1948, in the class of 1950AB. By attending classes summer and winter and not doing co-op, we finished three years of study in sixteen months. Later, NU said we could call ourselves graduates of the class of 1948, but I still prefer the class of 1950AB moniker.”

Pete Ziner, E’48, of Nashua, New Hampshire, notes that the civil engineers in the class of 1948 still get together every month, usually at the Doubletree Suites Hotel in Waltham, Massachusetts. “Only eight of us left, of those still in touch, but we’re hanging in there,” writes Ziner. “On a sad note, my cousin, Arthur R. Barzelay, E’42, passed away on June 8, 2003.”

Joseph Willard, E’49, of Hingham, Massachusetts, writes, “I continue to do volunteer work at Hingham Senior Center, including classes in computers and digital photography.”