1950s

James Ron Boucher, E'59, ME'65, and his wife, Barbara (Blanchard), of Reading, Massachusetts, are celebrating their golden wedding anniversary this year. The couple met as Northeastern freshmen when they joined the Square and Folk Dance Society and became partners on the dance-exhibition team. They've been partners, Ron writes, ever since. Barbara left Northeastern after two years, worked at insurance company John Hancock, and then opted to stay at home raising their six children. Ron retired from telecommunications and financial-services company GTE in 1993. He notes his career spanned an era that encompassed vacuum tubes, semiconductors and solid-state circuits, and computer-controlled telecommunications systems. Ron and Barbara both enjoy reading, music, theater, volunteer work, and travel.

Theos Dickson McKinney Jr., E'59, ME'61, died on February 4 at his home in Pomona, New Jersey. The Boston native was an electrical engineer at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for many years and served in the U.S. Army for two years. After learning to fly at New Hampshire's Nashua Aviation, he worked as a charter pilot and a flight instructor. From 1978 to 2001, he was a pilot with the Flight Inspection Field Office in New Jersey and later a flight test pilot at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Technical Center at Atlantic City Airport. McKinney also trained student pilots—including four of his children—and served as a volunteer instructor and director for the Negro Airmen International (now Black Pilots of America) Summer Flight Academy. He was a member of the FAA Flying Club, the American Radio Relay League, and the NAACP. McKinney is survived by his wife, Nancy, and children Theos III, Kenelm, Kyle, Alythea, Karena, and Rebekah.