Alum Notes

Alum Notes

We take pride in celebrating the good news of our fellow alumni. Where has life taken you since graduation? Tell the Tech alumni community about career changes, achievements, family news, awards, and more by submitting an alum note using the form below.

All Notes
  • All Notes
  • Awards & Publications
  • Career Milestones
  • Life Celebrations
  • Memories
  • Technite Diamond Club
  • Volunteering

Class of 1948

Jack Kinstlinger

December 1, 2023

I’m forever grateful to Tech for the wonderful education I received and the many friends I made there. Among my friends at Tech is Joseph Weber who became my roommate in our freshman year at RPI and with whom I Zoom every Friday morning.
Following graduation at Tech I went on to RPI and MIT for my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Civil Engineering, respectively. After completing Naval Officer Candidate School, I earned a commission as a lieutenant in the Civil Engineer Corps of the U.S. Navy. During the next three years, I was stationed at several overseas bases, overseeing the construction of military facilities. I then spent 11 years with Tippetts, Abbett, McCarthy, Stratton at the firm’s New York headquarters and as manager of the company’s New England office. During that time I rose to the position of associate and directed many engineering and planning projects, including the Fall River Area and Southeastern Massachusetts Regional Transportation and Arterial Studies, planning for seaports at Barbers Point, Oahu, Gulfport, MS and the Port of Philadelphia and urban renewal studies in Binghamton, NY, Flatlands, Brooklyn, and Alexandria, VA.
I later served as Deputy Secretary for Planning for the Pennsylvania Department of Highways, which in 1970 became the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. In this position I was responsible for all long-range planning, capital programming, budgetary and intergovernmental coordination for transportation improvements. In 1975, I was appointed Executive Director for the Colorado State Department of Highways. As director, I was responsible for the on-time and on-budget completion of the $120 million second bore of the Eisenhower Tunnel, the award-winning Vail Pass section of I-70 through the Rockies, as well as the planning and start of construction of the $500 million Glenwood Canyon section of I-70 and of the C470 Beltway around southwest Denver. Beginning in 1984, I served in several capacities at KCI Technologies, including president, CEO, and chairman of the board. KCI is an employee-owned engineering consulting firm headquartered in Sparks, Maryland, with offices throughout the U.S. I helped found the company in 1988. Currently, I serves as chairman emeritus for KCI. I also have served as vice chairman of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association and director of the Maryland Association of Non Profit Organizations and Health Care for the Homeless.

Currently, I reside in a retirement community in Towson, Maryland. My wonderful wife Marilyn died in 2020. My two sons and 4 grandchildren thankfully all reside close by in the Baltimore area.

Class of 1963

John V. Mustaro

December 1, 2023

I graduated from Tech in the Electrical Program, then went on to Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. However this is not about me but a classmate I never met. William Henry Bauer graduated with us and also went to Brooklyn Poly (Chemical Engineering). After graduation he was drafted into the Armed Services and was killed on May 1, 1969 in Tay Ninh, Vietnam.
I looked up his picture in the ’63 BluePrint and even though he was a complete stranger, my heart ached. He was just a kid like the rest of us.

Class of 1968

Steven Satin

December 1, 2023

I have great memories of my four years at Tech and absolutely no regrets about choosing to attend a (then) all-boys high school. My best memories were of my classmates; too many to list and my Math teachers, like Ms. Berlin, whom I actually spoke to during my career in education. After graduation, I was part of the first class that spent four years at Lehman College, formerly Hunter in the Bronx. I started teaching in New York City public schools immediately upon graduation in 1972. I taught at several schools, including DeWitt Clinton High School, Eli Whitney Vocational High School, and Fort Hamilton High School. I then had the privilege to apply for and get the position of Assistant Principal of Organization at one of the new schools created in 1993: the  High School for Economics and Finance. That led to a parallel move that I could not turn down when I applied for and was chosen for Assistant Principal for Organization in 1996 at Tech rival Stuyvesant High School. I was there on Sept. 11, 2001 and the memories of that day have stayed with me since. Stuyvesant spent about a month sharing space at Tech while lower Manhattan was cleaned. Some teachers I ran into then at Tech actually remembered me all those years later. I can only guess why. My final move was applying for and being chosen as Principal at Norman Thomas High School in 2002, from which I retired in 2009. Thirty-seven years serving the students of New York City was extremely rewarding and it is great to keep in touch with so many former teachers and students now. I left Brooklyn a few years after retirement and now live in Port St. Lucie, Florida, with my wonderful wife Lenora. We enjoy family, golf, playing basketball in our pool and cruising around the world. I will always be grateful to my teachers and fellow students at Tech for setting me on my life’s path.

Class of 1978

Albert Diaz

November 11, 2023

On July 8, 2023, I assumed duties as Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. I’ve served on the court for 13 years, which sits in Richmond, VA and hears appeals of federal cases originating in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Class of 1964

William (Bill) Powers

November 11, 2023

Mine is an American success story, but only if you read to the end. Entering BTHS in 1960, I traveled the Staten Island ferry with a small contingent of fellow travelers throughout most of my high school career. Graduation night 1964 was the last time I saw any of them, although I have made some clandestine attempts to discover what has become of them after all these years.
From Tech I traveled north to SUNY Binghamton, called Harpur College at the time, nestled in the beautiful rolling hills of upstate New York. I was a Chem major at Tech. While Tech prepared me well for college, I was ill prepared in every other way. Socially awkward, I became depressed, unable to concentrate on my studies, and ultimately given a psychological withdrawal after two years. This was at the height of the Vietnam War. My younger brother, who had been attending Harpur, also dropped out. He was drafted and sent to Vietnam, where he was killed in the Mekong Delta on his very first day of battle. I was adrift and aimless. The draft board called my number. At that time, I was seeing a therapist. When I went to Brooklyn for my medical, I was given a psychiatric 4F, which I always found odd since so many of my friends were trying their best to avoid the draft, when I, who had lost the ability to care, received one without even trying.
My brother had named me as beneficiary for his Army life insurance. I used some of the money to purchase grave sites for him and my parents, and traveled north back to Harpur, where I hung out with some friends and eventually purchased a dairy farm near Binghamton. Given my total lack of experience, it is not surprising that my career in farming didn’t last long. I then followed some friends out west, to Berkeley, California.
In Berkeley, I attended auto mechanics’ school through Merritt College. After two years, I was ready to graduate, but emotionally still broken and depressed. It was my auto mechanics teacher, a Mr. Pacheco, who saw my dire situation. He was not much older than I, but clearly wiser. I don’t know what would have happened to me were it not for him, and for that I here thank him. At the time, it might not have seemed like much, but in hindsight he had an important impact on what followed. He found me a job. Who knows whether I would have had the energy to do so otherwise.
For much of my time since dropping out of Harpur, I had been marginally employed, often homeless, crashing in pads here and there, even living for a spell illegally in an attic. Now, at 24, I began making a steady income. I quickly moved up to working in a repair shop, tuning foreign cars, rebuilding engines. I enjoyed learning something new every day. But after two years, I had enough. I wanted something more challenging. So, I decided to go back to college. I didn’t know what would happen there. I had to try again, just for the sake of trying. In 1973, nine years after graduating from Tech, I started college all over again, across the Bay, at San Francisco State. I started out pre-med, but quickly discovered it was math and physics that attracted my more analytical interests.
I’m deeply grateful for the opportunities provided me by both Merritt College and San Francisco State. Merritt College was, at the time, free. San Francisco State, as I remember, was $99/semester. Anything else would have been very likely out of my reach and resulted in a radically different trajectory for my life.
I was more than surprised by the success I had at San Francisco State. I was able to concentrate on my studies and did very well. I graduated in 1977 and was accepted into the PhD program at UC, San Diego. I confess that my time in graduate school was one of the happiest of my life. For the first time in my entire life, now in my 30’s, I had money to spare. I didn’t have to worry where I was going to rest my head AND I was doing something interesting. Maybe I was having too much fun because it took me 8 years to graduate, resulting in a 500-page PhD (that I’m probably the only one to have read).
After graduation, I had a brief employment at NOSC (Naval Ocean Systems Center) on Point Loma, before I headed off to Los Alamos National Laboratory for a postdoc in remote sensing. This lasted three years. About this time something I never expected was about to happen: I was going to get married to a gal from South Dakota.
When I moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico, at 38, I purchased my first home. Now that I was about to start a family, it was no longer just me that had to be considered. When my postdoc ended, work in remote sensing was difficult to find, but there were job offerings at the National Lab in computational high energy physics. While I wasn’t a perfect fit, I did have a clearance. And so began my twenty-year career at the Lab, moving ultimately up to team leader for a widely used physics code.
These years at the Lab were among my happiest. I loved my job and the mile-and-a-half high community. It was here that my three children were born and raised, among the canyons and national forests of Los Alamos. In 2007, I was approaching my 60th year. My oldest child was about to enter high school. We wanted to move after retirement to South Dakota where I could return to my earlier interest: farming. Rather than wait another eight years for all my children to graduate from high school, I retired at 60 to South Dakota, where I farm about 70 acres, and do what I have always done: write, even if it’s for my eyes only.

Class of 1966

Howard Fluhr

November 11, 2023

At Tech I was a College Prep major and went on SUNY Stony Brook (B.Sc., Biology, 1970), then to the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine (DMD, 1974). I practiced in the Philadelphia area until 2022, when I retired. My experiences and education at Tech were instrumental to my future career and success. Dr. William Pabst was the principal during my time at Tech. I remember so many of my teachers by name! I am proud to be included in the Diamond Club membership. I was co-captain of the Swim team. I was present at my 50-year reunion in 2016 and marveled at the level of intelligence of the modern Technite, as well as the technological changes the school has undergone (the foundry is out, and computers are in!). I wear my Brooklyn Tech cap religiously, and occasionally meet someone from New York who is aware of Tech’s reputation, which is always fun for me.

In short, I am grateful to the New York City school system for the education I received. Let educational excellence continue for future generations by continuing to properly fund Tech and the other specialized high schools.

Class of 1955

Edward R. Wolpow

November 11, 2023

I graduated Tech in the winter class of 1955 and was class valedictorian. There were two large issues I had wanted to discuss in my valedictory address but was dissuaded by both parents and faculty — and, regrettably, I didn’t discuss them. The first was the striking difference between my classmates and a random group of Brooklynites — say, the folks at the RKO Albee down the street watching the latest movie. Looking at my copy of the Blueprint, there were three Blacks, one Asian, and a handful of Latinos (most notably, Richard Farina, who made a name for himself as a writer and folksinger). And, needless to say, no women. That all changed for the better over the years. I remember being told there were just not that many girls interested in science in Brooklyn (although, judging from Bronx Science, that did not appear to be true in the Bronx). Has the story been told about the steps toward inclusion at Tech over the years?
These were the Eisenhower-McCarthy years, and two of my best teachers, Meyer Case (Economics) and Raymond Blau (English) were fired by the New York City Board of Education for failing to take a “loyalty oath” required of New York City teachers. Mr. Case’s testimony before the notorious House Un-American Affairs Activities Committee of Congress is available online. For all I know, there may have been more victims than just those two. I wonder what information about those years might still be available at the school. I also hear echoes in today’s news. In 1954, Eisenhower signed a bill adding “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, which the entire school spoke each morning in unison. There were teacher-monitors who roamed the halls checking to see that we students (and I presume, teachers, also) said it right.
I am a three-years-retired neurologist; my practice was at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, and I taught at Harvard and Northeastern. I am widowed and have two married daughters and four grandkids. I didn’t become an engineer. What did I learn at Tech? Specifically, at the least, the glories of math, with Mr. Glaubiger, and I believe that later learning the very complicated anatomy of the brain and spinal cord was helped with Solid Geometry (is that still required?). I also learned at an early age that I did not do everything well. My worst course at Tech was Freehand Drawing, where I managed a minimal 65, only because the teacher told me that since he was the only person teaching that course, and definitely did not want to see any more of me, we’d agree on 65. And I ran into so many classmates in college and medical school who had never done poorly in anything in school until they ran into unexpected trouble. I’d gotten over that feeling so many years earlier!

Class of 1964

Gabriel Goldberg

November 11, 2023

After Tech, I attended Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, now NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Having enjoyed physics at Tech, I entered Poly as a Physics major. Midway through, I thought better of that and switched to Math. Graduating with a B.S. in Applied Mathematics, I figured I could go to graduate school (no), drive a taxi (also no), or work with computers, since I’d enjoyed them at Poly. That led me to IBM in Poughkeepsie, NY.

It was a wonderful first job, but Poughkeepsie was too sleepy for me after growing up in New York City. I told recruiters to focus on New York City and Boston, where I had friends and relatives. A recruiter who didn’t pay attention asked, “How about Washington?” I said sure, since I’d enjoyed visiting relatives there. So, I came to DC to work at Mitre, a non-profit government consultant and never left. After Mitre, I joined a small enterprise software company and left in 1992 to become a freelance technology writer/editor/consultant.

I wrote for the Washington Post for seven years, co-edited three giant McGraw-Hill technology books, and contributed to many trade publications. I’m almost-but-not-quite retired but busier than ever volunteering with local and national technology organizations, the Fairfax County Police Department, and, since my wife is a retired federal employee, our chapter of the organization for federal employees. I’ve attended the Fairfax County Citizens Police Academy, the FBI Citizens Academy, the Fairfax County Fire & EMS Citizens Academy, and the United States Park Police Citizens Academy. I highly recommend these opportunities, which are available in many areas.

A Tech coincidence: A couple of years ago, sitting in restaurant in Sedona, Arizona, I heard a patron and waiter discussing New York City bridges. I chime in and we chat a while. At some point, introductions were made. The other patron: “”Hey, I’m from Brooklyn.” More conversation: “Where’d you go to high school?” “Brooklyn Tech.” “Hey, I went to Tech. What year did you graduate?” “1964.” “Hey, I’m class of
1964, too!” Of course, we didn’t know each other, which, with 1200 graduates in our year, was not really surprising. But still, an interesting and unlikely coincidence!

Class of 1956

John C. Bilello, FASM

October 17, 2023

John C. Bilello ’56, Professor Emeritus of the University of Michigan, former Dean of Engineering at Stony Brook University, and Dean of Engineering and Computer Sciences at California State University Fullerton, Fellow ASM, turned 85 on October 15, 2023.

Class of 1971

Kevin Hamburger

September 28, 2023

It’s hard to believe that I graduated from Tech over 50 years ago. I have not been back since then, but have fond memories of my time as a student. Tech prepared be very well for college and for life. After attending Tech, I graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Upon graduation, I started working in broadcasting and am still working in the television industry. Although I started my career in TV engineering in New York, I shifted many years ago to TV production in Los Angeles. Currently, I’m head of production at STARZ. Glad to see that there’s an active alumni organization.

Write an Alum Note

Write an Alum Note