Supersonic Trajectories

Brian Muskus, by way of Jim O’Rourke, brought attention to the recognition Paul Bevilaqua has received for invention of something that resulted in a military aircraft capable of supersonic speeds after take-off from a short airfield.   What Jim advises in his note – a look at http://wn.com/Paul_Bevilaqua – is true. Low-key as Paul is in the interview, the video is about something sensational.  Paul recounts the inspiration that came to him in 1986 as he and his group at Lockheed Skunk Works neared the end of a nine-month engagement, one focused on increasing the thrust of a jet engine so that the craft could take off vertically and then attain supersonic speed.  Design News named Paul 2004 Engineer of the Year.  The current aircraft, the F-35 fighter, caught Brian’s attention at http://www.aircraftowner.com/videos/view/f-35b—taking-stovl-to-a-new-level_1126.html.

Paul’s solution, the ability to ascend vertically and then leave a small space at supersonic speed, could have had some application to various class social events over the years.  One can imagine Jim Davis, for example, or Dick Farina or Al Berryman glancing past a date’s shoulder and seeing a fuming ex-girlfriend approaching from the other side of the Rathskellar or the senior bar.

There was no leaving the last Friday of January, however, when Rick McPartlin got a Chicago group together for a Rush Street evening.  President Tom Weyer was away on business that night, but Rick’s invitation brought out Mike Tyrrell, Ted Nebel, Dave Kabat, Bryan Dunigan, Bob Ptak, Tom Gibbs and Tom’s daughter Caroline, and Mick Hyland for some banter that included Bryan’s plans for a Superbowl celebration.  Serious talk concerned Dick Carrigan and the health problems that are plaguing Dick and his wife Mary.  Talk also concerned the sadness of a baby’s death in January: The death of Mikey Heaton at five weeks affected two Notre Dame households in the northern suburbs of Chicago: Mikey’s grandparents are Mike Heaton and Barb, Eb Moran and Judy.

Dan Harshman, whose long tenure at the head of Logan Community Resources in South Bend saw the organization become a solid provider of services needed by the disabled and their families, is going to retire at the end of 2011.  Dan made Logan his career and South Bend his home; both have had the benefit of Dan’s talent and kindness.

Brother John Paige is now applying his talent to the leadership of South Bend’s Holy Cross College, where he became president at the beginning of the year.  John had been vicar general of the Congregation of Holy Cross in Rome.

When the New York Times spoke with members of Congress about enhanced security, Representative Dan Lungren’s photo graced the article.  Dan, who represents a southern California district, is head of the House committee that oversees security.

We have reached that time in life, as Tom Scherer pointed out in his sad January note about the death of Mike Farr, and the death in 2009 of Tom’s former roommate Steve Bernard.  Steve, says Tom, founded Cape Cod Potato Chips, which he had sold to Auggie Busch at one time, and was last running a healthy organic snack food company, Late July, with his daughter.  In her own note about Mike’s death, Sandra Farr remembered the life that began with their meeting at an ND mixer at the Rathskellar Mike’s sophomore year.  They married in the log chapel in 1967.  While creating and running JIST Publishing in Indianapolis, they became parents to Jonn and Lisa.  Sandra’s note, along with a remembrance by their friend Bob Snider, appears in the class blog, http://ndclass-1968.lake-effect.com.

Eugene “Zenka” Siedlecki, the father of Helena Daly (SMC 69) died in December at the age of 91.  Zenka was a POW in Poland before flying for the RAF in Britain.  Clever and hardworking, he settled and raised his family in Woodstock, IL at the end of the war.  Connie McGrath, the mother of Tom Condon’s wife Anne, died in November, 2011 in Connecticut.

Please remember these classmates and friends in your prayers.

Send your news to: Tom Figel, 1054 West North Shore, Apt. 3-E, Chicago, IL 60626, tel. 312-881-7391, tfigel@lake-effect.com.