Class Notes These Class Notes reflect information we received by March 15. The Class Notes deadline for the next issue is September 15.
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EDITED BY JOANNE HOSSACK ’82
1951 70th reunion 1952
Ted Ullman sent us a description of an early undertaking following his 1966 appointment to organize a startup called Synvar Research Institute. “In 1970 we had developed a novel analytical method (FRAT™) that used antibodies for detecting abused drugs in urine. Following validation by a government lab, we received a call from Jerome Jaffe, Nixon’s drug czar, asking us to deliver 100,000 tests and three 450-pound instruments to Vietnam in seven days to initiate a planned mass screening program. Somehow we managed to do it. Drug addiction was rampant among our troops, and the program received much public attention. Some focused on false reports that our test results were poor. Additionally, there were complaints and threats about abridgment of civil rights. In fact, the test accuracy was very good, users were not punished, and thousands were sent home and went through successful rehab. The program continued until the end of the war in 1972. Synvar changed its name to Syva Company, and my group ended up creating many new immunochemical methods for a wide array of clinical
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assays that are still sold today by Siemens (EMIT™), Perkin Elmer (LOCI™), and others. In all, I was blessed by a very exciting career. It started at Reed.” After a 55-year career in chemistry, Ted (like Byron Rubin ’65; see our June 2019 issue) chose to sculpt; his work is in wood and is influenced to some degree by chemical shapes. (Any more chemists turned sculptors out there? Send pics of your work!)
1958
In 2020 the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation awarded Mary B. Williams its Excellence in Stewardship Award for her care and documentation of the Weaver-Dallas House, which has been the family homeplace since 1840, passing through five generations of her family. “Dr. Williams represents the fourth generation of independent female ownership of the property . . . During her stewardship of the property, Dr. Williams has painstakingly studied and documented the history of her family, preserving many antiques, artifacts and original features in the house.” Mary writes, “The ‘painstaking documentation’ is actually the result of my having experimented with using an
Ted Ullman ’52 with his wood sculpture Singularity.
app-development program to organize and present the huge amount of historically interesting material: artifacts, antiques, material written by all five generations, and evidence preserved in the physical structure of the house. It turned out to be a wonderful way to present the information EXCEPT THAT digital presentations are easily orphaned by operating system changes. My app can still be explored on a Windows computer, but not on the present Apple operating systems. I feel great sympathy for librarians and archivists who are trying to find ways of preserving digital materials for the future.”
1959
On May 1, international best-selling author Anne Hillerman was a guest on Just Read It, the YouTube book discussion series hosted by Caroline Miller (also MAT ’64). During the half-hour program, Hillerman explained why she stepped into her father’s moccasins to continue the Tony Hillerman series that features Navajo sleuths Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn as they patrol the Four Corners Indian reservations of the American Southwest. Hillerman also discussed her latest book, Stargazer, and provided background on her additional character, detective Bernadette Manuelito. Hillerman’s interview will be in the top slot of Just Read It until June 30 (www.youtube.com/wZyho0AyHZA).
1960
Michael Nelken has produced six kids and two books! “The kids are doing well. Still working. Still trying to decide what to be when I grow up. Counted elephants in Sri Lanka, lots. Counted monkeys in Costa Rica, lots. I am good
A lasting hurrah from Michael Nelken ’60.
