Dartmouth Engineer

David Ronald Ehrlich ’47 Th’48 died on March 13. He came to Dartmouth with the Navy V-12 program and earned his master’s at Thayer School. He served in the Army in the Korean conflict. Among his accomplishments, he was the chief engineer for the largest sign company in Los Angeles and received a medal from the U.S. space program. In 1976 he formed his own consulting firm, Ehrlich Enterprises, where he worked until last year. “He aspired to become an engineer from the age of 9, and it was his passion,” says his third wife, Muffi. “He was every inch an engineer, dedicated, precise, quietly getting the job accomplished, and had an admirable work ethic.” He was active in Scouting and with foreign exchange students and was awarded a lifetime membership in the Camarillo (California) City Ambassadors. He was predeceased by two wives, Connie and Roma. He is survived by Muffi, son Tim, daughters Susan and Karen, and grandson Paul.

Ronald Augustine Schiavone ’47 Th’48 of Whitehouse Station, N.J., died in Key Largo, Fla., on January 26. He joined the class in the Navy V-12 unit and went on to graduate from Thayer School, earning a master’s in civil engineering. After naval duty and working for several years for various contractors, in 1956 he founded Schiavone Construction Co. (SCC) in Secaucus, New Jersey. He went on to become chairman and director of SCC, which he grew into one of the country’s most successful “heavy” contractors, employing thousands to complete public works projects. He served as a Thayer School overseer from 1980 to 1984 and from 1987 to 1989. He was also a co-founder of Fiddler’s Elbow Country Club in Bedminster, N.J., and served on the board of trustees at Hillsdale College. He is survived by his wife of 30 years, Jeannie; children Christopher ’82, Cora, Elissa, and Andy; and nine grandchildren.

Photograph by Mark Washburn.

Adjunct Professor Robert D. Collier died August 14, 2009, at his home in Lebanon, N.H., at the age of 85. A researcher, lecturer, and entrepreneur, he had a long career that included pioneering work in underwater acoustics, sonar, noise, and vibration for the first U.S. nuclear submarine fleet. At Thayer School, he enjoyed teaching about acoustics and collaborating with students and Professor Laura Ray on active noise reduction. In 2004, he, Ray, and Christopher Pearson Tu’03 founded Sound Innovations Inc., a company that develops advanced noise-reduction technologies. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Marguerite, three children, three grandchildren, and a sister.

John Fondahl ’47 Th’48, 83, a world-renowned expert on the critical path method for construction management, died September 13, 2008. During World War II he joined the Marines, serving in the Pacific theater. After working for the American Bridge Co. in Pittsburg, Pa., teaching civil engineering at the University of Hawaii, and working as project engineer on California’s Nimbus Dam, he became a professor of civil engineering at Stanford in 1955. He taught there for 35 years, co-founded its construction management program, and served as the first Charles H. Leavell Professor of Civil Engineering. He taught construction management courses all over the world, founded the Project Management Institute, and served as president of the Construction Data Systems Corp. He received the Golden Beaver Award for Heavy Engineering Construction in 1975, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1993, and to the National Academy of Construction in 2001. He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Doris; daughters Lauren, Gail, Meredith, and Dorian; and three grandchildren.

Robert E. Koski ’51, 79, died October 11, 2008. After graduation, he moved to Sarasota, Fla., and in 1970 co-founded Sun Hydraulics, a leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance screw-in hydraulic cartridge valves and manifolds that control force, speed and motion as integral components in fluid power systems. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers honored him when it inaugurated the Robert E. Koski Medal to “recognize individuals who have advanced the art and practice of fluid power motion and control through education and innovation.” In 1992 he was awarded the Joseph Bramah Medal by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers for his “contribution to the resurgence of interest in fluid power in the U.S.A. and beyond.” Case studies of his horizontal management approach at Sun Hydraulics led to his participation in programs at Tuck School of Business and Harvard Business School. Survivors include his wife of 53 years, Beverly; children Christine, Robert and wife Tomeika, and Thomas and wife Sherry; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

­­­Gene F. White ’56 died June 17, 2008 at his home in Berkeley, Calif., after battling leukemia. Having earned a B.S.C.E. from the University of Denver. in 1957, he was a civil engineer specializing in water resources and irrigation in Asia and Africa. He served in the U.S. Army in 1957 and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Pakistan. He began skiing and climbing mountains as a teenager and had a lifetime list of 1,320 ascents, including several first ascents in Pakistan and Canada. His work and mountaineering took him to 60 countries. He spoke French, Indonesian, Pushto, and Urdu. He is survived by Betsy, his wife of 48 years; children Eric, Greg, and Laura; and four grandchildren.

Albert W. Doolittle Jr. ’36 Th’37 died October 7, 2007 at his home in Derry, N.H. After graduating, he worked for the American Bridge Company for a year, then for Jackson and Moreland/United Engineers and Constructors, which later became part of Raytheon. He retired in 1979 and devoted much of his energy to community and conservation projects in Derry. The town honored him as a “Living Treasure” in 2005, and the Conservation Commission, on which he served since 1976, recently named a 95-acre conservation area in East Derry after him. Similarly devoted to Dartmouth and Thayer School, he was a longtime volunteer for admissions and the Dartmouth College Fund, and he served on the Thayer School Annual Fund Executive Committee since 1989. He contributed to the Dartmouth College Fund every year since graduation and to the Thayer School Annual Fund every year since its founding in 1976. In 2001 Thayer School named him a Sylvanus Thayer Fellow for outstanding service to the school, and the Annual Fund Executive Committee established the Albert W. Doolittle Jr. Giving Society to recognize all donors who have contributed to the Thayer School Annual Fund for five consecutive years or every year since their graduation. He is survived by his wife, Edith, sons Paul, David ’64, and Robert, and five grandchildren.

Henry C. Beck Jr. ’38 Th’39, who oversaw such projects as the Cotton Bowl and NorthPark Center as president of the Dallas, Tex. construction firm now called The Beck Group, died October 15, 2007 in Dallas. He joined his father’s business in 1939, prior to a stint with the Navy SeaBees in 1941. He returned to Dallas in 1946 and continued to work for the company, where he was named president in 1948 and became chairman in 1973. Under his leadership the company built Reunion Tower, Hotel Crescent Court and the Hyatt Regency. Other local Beck Group projects include the Texas Motor Speedway, Victory Plaza at Victory Park, and Fountain Place in Dallas. He served as a member of the Thayer School Board of Overseers (1966 to 1973) and was a recipient of the Sylvanus Thayer Fellow Award in 1979. He is survived by his wife, Nell, children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews.

MAJOR WORK: The late Henry C. Beck Jr. ’38 Th’39 oversaw construction of the Cotton Bowl. Photograph courtesy of Henry C. Beck Jr.

Clement F. Burnap ’39 Th’40, a tireless supporter of his class and Thayer School, died February 3, 2007, a few weeks after the death of his wife and lifetime companion, Elaine. He served for many years as class head agent and volunteer for the Thayer School Annual Fund and endowed a fellowship in his wife’s name, the Elaine Schofield Burnap Fellowship, as well as the Clement F. Burnap Project Development and Management Endowment Fund. After earning his Dartmouth and Thayer degrees, he received a master’s in naval architecture and an M.B.A. from MIT. He began working in the shipbuilding industry prior to the start of WWII and then joined the U.S. Navy, involved in the repair of warships damaged in the Pacific theater. After the war he was engaged in a number of large industrial construction projects, retiring in 1987 from Kaiser Engineers. Clem is survived by brother Wilder, numerous nephews and nieces, and other family members.

A. James O’Mara ’42 Th’43, co-founder and chief executive of the civil engineering firm Greenhorne and O’Mara Inc., died of pneumonia November 7, 2007, at Riderwood Village in Silver Spring, Md. He worked as a civil engineer in New York, New Jersey, and Maryland before starting his firm in the Washington, D.C., area in 1950. The firm, which specialized in surveying, land planning and engineering design, became one of the top-ranked engineering firms in the country and developed strong transportation and structural engineering, water and wastewater, water resources, and environmental engineering expertise. It also provided consulting services to the Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He was chairman of a business and community task force formed in 1983 to draft a Prince George’s County, Md., strategic plan. Survivors include his wife of 63 years, Lois; sons Thomas, Michael, Marc, Dennis, and Brian; six grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.

Warren Tuttle Loomis ’62 Th’65 of Norwich, Vt., died of esophageal cancer on November 2, 2007. A keen entrepreneur, inspired tinkerer, and clever prankster, Warren infused many lives with warmth and vigor. He earned his B.A. from Dartmouth, where his fellow hockey players knew him as “Zog,” and his M.S. from Thayer. Inspired by his mentor George Colligan, he earned a Ph.D in metallurgy from the University of Michigan in 1969. He then entered the nascent field of computers and in 1970 founded computer software company Logic Associates, which he led until his retirement in 2001. In retirement Warren took up his lifelong passion for invention and boating by founding ForwardFace! LLC, which designs and produces forward-facing rowing boats (see Inventions). Warren is survived by his wife, Alix Manny; children Aaron, Jason, and Molly; step-children John and Sam; mother Natalie; and sisters Barbara, Betsy, and Natalie.

Joan Queneau, wife of Thayer Professor Emeritus Paul E. Queneau, died September 8, 2007, at Kendal in Hanover. In 1990 the couple endowed the Paul and Joan Queneau Professorship in Environmental Engineering Design. She also showed her commitment to environmental conservation by establishing the Joan Hodges Queneau Palladium Medal, given by the National Audubon Society and the American Association of Engineering Societies and emphasizing the importance of mutual understanding between conservationists and engineers. She was active in numerous community organizations, including Tamarack Twig, Girl Scouts of America, and the Junior League; she formed a Junior Audubon Society in Rochester, N.Y., and was president of its parent-teacher association; and devoted her services to the Church of Christ at Dartmouth. In addition to her husband, she is survived by son Paul, daughter Josephine, six grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and several nieces.

J. Alan Groves ’75 Th’76, who established and led the Hebrew Institute at Westminster Theological Seminary in Glenside, Pa., since 1986, died February 5 after a year-long battle with cancer. The seminary re-named the institute the J. Alan Groves Center for Advanced Biblical Research two months before his death. He earned his B.A. and B.E. from Dartmouth and an M.A.R. (1981) and Th.M. (1983) from Westminster Theological Seminary, where he then spent his career. He is survived by his wife of 28 years, Elizabeth; children Rebeckah, Eowyn, Alden, and Alasdair and his wife, Lauren; his parents; and siblings Warren, Jill, and Bryan.

Ashley Muller ’90 Th’91 died November 18, 2006, after being struck by a car while walking near his home in Cape Town, South Africa. He is survived by his wife, Sarah (Lewis) ’89, his parents, brother, many relatives, colleagues, and friends. He graduated from secondary school in Cape Town and then earned a B.S. and a B.E. from Dartmouth. As a college student, he was committed to persuading Dartmouth to divest its endowment holdings in apartheid South Africa. He worked in civil and environmental engineering for 10 years before returning home in 2001 to pursue post-graduate studies at the University of Cape Town. He was passionate about researching and implementing ways to improve public health through the provision of clean, potable water. His wife, Sarah, writes, “Ashley was known to family, friends and colleagues as a critical thinker, brilliant scientist, an eternal optimist, a teacher and as a thoughtful, giving friend.”

Jane Brechlin Olesin Th’76, ’78, the first woman to complete the B.E. at Thayer School (in 1976) and one of the first women to complete the M.E. (in 1978) died April 17 in Vernon, N.J., in an automobile accident that also claimed the life of her husband, Steve. She was 53. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, she held an M.B.A. from Simmons College. She worked as an engineer for Yale University, Westinghouse, the former New England Telephone Co., and Digital Equipment Corp. before retiring several years ago. She was a member of the Acton, Mass., Congregational Church, Acton Council on Aging, and Acton Garden Club. She is survived by her mother, Ella Brechlin, and her sister and brother-in-law, Nancy and Stephen Hoverman.

Bartlett Frost Miller Th’83 died as the result of a workplace accident October 23 in Lebanon, N.H. A graduate of Williams College, he spent several years in Alaska before entering Thayer School and completing his B.E. degree. He worked for Peter Kiewit Sons in Alaska and other locations until 1998, when he founded Interstate Aircraft Co. in Lebanon to redesign and relaunch the Arctic Tern, an aircraft suited for the rigors of bush flying. He had nearly completed his vision for the Arctic Tern at the time of his death. He is survived by his wife, Karen Spencer Miller, and sons Forrest and Graham, of Norwich, and two sisters.

Joseph Ermenc, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering, died De­cember 31, 2005 in Hanover. He taught at Thayer School from 1942 until 1978. In 1964 he taught the first classes on the history and philosophy of science and technology. He served as atomic energy consultant to the New Hampshire state legislature from 1957 to 1962. As chair of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ National History and Heritage Committee, he helped establish several dozen national historic engineering landmarks. His wife, Mary, predeceased him by five days. He is survived by three children and two grandchildren.

Desmond Canavan ’60, former assistant dean of Thayer School, died March 30 at age 92 in Hanover, N.H. Canavan led Dartmouth’s Navy ROTC program before joining Thayer in 1962. He served as an admissions officer, counselor to foreign students, and liaison between the dean and overseers before his 1978 retirement.

Stelios Orphanoudakis ’71, Th’76 died March 18 at age 57 in his native Greece. A specialist in computational and knowledge-based vision, robotics, medical informatics, medical and diagnostic imaging, and intelligent image processing, he founded the division of Imaging Science at Yale School of Medicine, led the computer science department at the University of Crete, and chaired the board of the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas.