Alumni News

Thanks to donations from alumni and friends, 280 students have been helped through emergency funds. More than $117,000 has been distributed to help students suffering financial hardship because of COVID-19. Support for any of these funds will have an immediate impact on our students!

Husky Emergency Assistance Fund | Give Now
76 undergraduate students received $27,648
38 graduate students received $14,278.28
11 employees received $5,289

Graduate Emergency Assistance Fund | Give Now
70 graduate students received $35,000 (thanks to a $100,000 lead donation from Chang Park)

Betty Chavis Fund
38 undergraduate students received $15,385 
4 graduate students received $2,343

International Fund
52 graduate students received $21,917 
2 undergraduate students received $745

Midsummer in the Copper Country is a beautiful time to explore the outdoors. There are spots to hike, bike, fish, paddle, and camp all over the Upper Peninsula, especially in the Keweenaw Peninsula. What were your favorite summer activities and locations? Comment below!

PENSACOLA, Fla. — William Powers died peacefully on April 24, 2020 in the comfort of his home in Pensacola, Fla. Born on July 31, 1930 in Davenport, Iowa; he was the son of the late LaVern and Orpha Powers. In 1950, he enlisted into the US Air Force and served honorably. He is survived by his wife, Sally Powers, his three children Mary Mach, William Powers and Matthew Powers (Merrily), and his grandchildren, Jason Powers, Karrie Hilts, Abra Mach and Morgan Mach.

Bill Powers arrived at Michigan Technological University in 1970 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he had been a member of the faculty in English and Director of Freshman-Sophomore English. He spent the next 30 years successively, as the Head of Humanities, the Dean of Sciences and Arts, then as Vice President of Academic Affairs, and at the last as Michigan Technological University’s first Provost.

He believed that university faculty can become administrators, but they also have a continuing faculty teaching responsibility. He taught a course each term and was published – becoming the co-author of one book, the author of chapters in three other books and roughly forty pieces, including papers, short fiction and poetry.

Graveside Funeral Rites will be held on Thursday, May 14, 2020 at 3 pm at Raleigh Memorial Park.

Condolences to the family at www.MitchellatRMP.com.

Obituary and image courtesy of Mitchell Funeral Home at Raleigh Memorial Park.

From “Alumni Work to Fight COVID-19” on Alumni News

“The COVID19 Pandemic is challenging the healthcare facilities around the globe like never before. As the Chief Engineer for EWB-USA, Mike is leading a EWB / Rotary Team in Guatemala to improve the infrastructure of healthcare facilities so they are ready for the increased caseload. Work includes an increase water supply, water storage, hospital triage areas and expanded waiting rooms.” – Michael P.

“Bruce Rossman (’81 Scientific & Technical Communications) is lead media relations specialist at Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids. He is part of the team working to share Spectrum Health’s efforts in the medical response to COVID-19 and educate the public regarding social distancing, best practices in slowing the spread of this disease, and Spectrum Health’s research initiatives.” – Bruce R.

“Emerging and reemerging infectious diseases such as the novel Coronavirus disease, COVID-19 and Ebola pose a significant threat to global society and test the public health community’s preparedness to rapidly respond to an outbreak with effective diagnostics and therapeutics. Recent advances in next generation sequencing technologies enable rapid generation of pathogen genome sequence data, within 24 hours of obtaining a sample in some instances. With this data, one can quickly evaluate the effectiveness of existing diagnostics and therapeutics using in silico approaches.” – Mychal I.

“Translational Genomics Research Institute (Darrin Lemmer ’98) in Flagstaff, Arizona developed a genomic test for COVID-19 and set up a clinical lab to test patient samples for all of Northern Arizona. In addition, TGen is sequencing positive samples from the entire state to be able to compare and analyze the SARS-CoV-2 genome to determine the source of introductions into Arizona as well as the presence and rate of community spread within the state.” – Darrin L.

“Glen Sachtleben (‘74 Forestry) is with FEMA in Atlanta working the FEMA Regional effort to support eight states and six tribes in the southeast U.S. fight against COVID19. Recently battled the Easter Sunday tornado outbreak at same time and ready to respond to hurricane season June-November in a COVID19 environment.” – Glen S.

From “Zoom Backgrounds” on Alumni News

“These are all fantastic! My coworkers will be treated to these on Zoom in the coming weeks. Thank you! – April W.

“Yay! I’ve been looking for a Zoom background.
The sunset lift bridge pic will work great.
Thanks.” – Julie B.

“Great idea and great execution. 🙂” – Eric L.

From “Vote for Former Husky Tony Esposito!” on Facebook

“He should be a shoe-in. No brainer.” – Aaron A.

“About time, eh?!” – Curtis H.

“Amen to that 🏒” – Stan S.

The Copper Country woke up to a dusting on snow on May 8, adding to our 2019-20 season total. See where this year’s 186 inches of snow ranks against our historical records.

Whether it was snow on your graduation day or something else, what are your memories of spring snow in the Keweenaw?

Of course, there’s still snow on Mont Ripley. Will it last until June? Check out the Ripley webcam to see how much remains.

• Give Now

#GivingTuesdayNow is a global day of giving and unity set to take place on May 5, 2020, as an emergency response to the unprecedented need caused by COVID-19. The event will mobilize GivingTuesday’s global network of leaders, partners, communities and generous individuals.

How you can participate:

Make a gift to the Husky Emergency Assistance Fund (HEAF)
The HEAF has been established to help provide financial relief for the Michigan Tech campus community (students and employees) who are experiencing financial hardship as a result of crises (including COVID-19). Donate to the HEAF.

Support any area of campus
A gift to Michigan Tech or any specific area of campus will help us prepare students to create the future. Give now.

Donate food or resources to the Husky Food Access Network
The on-campus food pantry has helped hundreds of students in their time of need. Make a financial donation or email huskyfan@mtu.edu to coordinate a food donation during social distancing protocol.

Use your time or skills in the COVID-19 response
Michigan Tech alumni are putting their education and ingenuity to work to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. See what others are doing and add your story.

On the last GivingTuesday (December 3, 2019) the global giving day generated $2 billion in giving, just in the United States, and inspired millions of people worldwide to volunteer, perform countless acts of kindness, and donate their voices, time, money, and goods. The additional giving day planned for May 5, 2020 is being deployed in response to needs expressed by communities and leaders around the world.

Join the movement! Make a gift to Michigan Tech on Tuesday, May 5!

In response to the widespread use of Zoom for virtual meetings during stay-at-home orders, here are images you can use as virtual backgrounds in Zoom. For instructions on how to set up a virtual background, see the instructions below.

To download images:
On a PC:
• Right click the image (before clicking the magnifying glass).
• Open image in a new tab.
• Go to the new tab and right click on the image.
• Select “save image as.”
On a Mac:
• Click the magnifying glass.
• Right click and select “save image as.”

To set an image as your virtual background in Zoom:
• Open Zoom.us.
• Go to settings (on the home screen, click the gear icon in the upper right corner).
• Select Virtual Background from the left column.
• Click the + symbol to add new images.

Michigan Tech alumni are putting their education and ingenuity to work to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve heard of Huskies involved in many different aspects of the pandemic response: producing parts for ventilators, creating testing kits and making masks.

How are you or your company involved? Comment below.

Here is a sampling of the stories we’ve heard.

Abbott (Lynne Fleischmann ‘95) in Abbott Park, Illinois, launched a molecular point-of-care test to detect COVID-19 in as few as five minutes. Read more.

Calumet Electronics (Meredith Ballard LaBeau ‘04 ‘08 ‘12 and others) in Calumet, Michigan, is filling orders for circuit boards for ventilators as quickly as possible. Read more.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (Dr. David Frendewey ‘76) in Tarrytown, New York, is working on a treatment for COVID-19. Read more.

Alliance Beverage (Shawn Gary ‘80) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, teamed up with New Holland Brewing to produce 1,000 gallons of hand sanitizer. Read more.

Shaggy’s Copper Country Skis (Jeffrey Thompson ‘12 and Stephanie Stevens ‘13) in Boyne City, Michigan is making protective face shields. Read more.

Makerhub.co (Cedric Kennedy ‘16) is connecting 3D printing enthusiasts, sewing hobbyists and other DIYers to create and donate personal protective equipment to hospitals. Read more.

Ben Manning ’17 and Amanda Stenzelbarton ’14 ’16 in Athens, Georgia, turned their garage into a 3D printing facility to make masks and face shields for local first responders and hospitals. You can donate printing supplies to their cause through Amazon.

From “Cool Hobbies” on Alumni News

“I’m in my sixth year of playing trombone with the Coast Big Band. We are a 20+ piece band that plays at festivals, parks, casinos, weddings, parties, churches, Mardi Gras functions, and balls on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I’ve played trombone since the fifth grade and played in the Pep Band and Jazz Lab Band for four years while at Tech. It gets me out of the house and gives me a little ‘walkin’ around money’.” – Mark M.

“When I was a student at ‘da Tech’ I did some free lance photography work. I took photos around the campus and the area, many of which found their way into several yearbooks and other campus publications, including the Winter Carnival Pictorials. I was also responsible for the ME-EM department’s darkroom for two years and took many photo’s for faculty and graduate students in support of various programs and research projects. About 20 years ago the university made a request asking for historical photos taken around the campus and the area, that could they be donated to the school. I offered nearly 800 original color slides, negatives and prints to the archive (if you search on my name, you’ll find that many of those images are accessible to the public). And while I worked as an engineer for nearly 50 years, I continued to take photos, many while I was traveling around the world for my job. Today, I have an archive of nearly 50,000 images, going back to when I was in high school. Since I retired four years ago, I’ve started to offer many of the my image for sale thru a stock photo house and while I’m not making a lot of money (yet) I have sold a decent number of images, several of which were taken in the UP over the years.” – John B.

“I’ve been a backyard beekeeper for over 25 years in Green Bay, ever since a fellow Michigan National Guardsman offered me his equipment at one of our drills. Along with beekeeping, I’ve also been a grower of wildflowers/prairies for years, working to improve the habitats for all pollinators – many of which we are losing because of significant habitat loss. Along with habitat loss, beekeeping can be a challenge because of a problem with mites (smaller than a wood tick). If the mites aren’t under control in a hive, then getting them through Winter can be difficult. But, it is a fascinating much studied insect, because of its importance to our welfare. A bee hive is considered a super-organism – controlling the hive temperature, raising brood, storing food, working as a team, etc. Always glad to discuss bees.” – Ken S.

From “Happy Valentine’s day” on Facebook

“Hubs and I met in Physics lab. Sooo romantic!” – Kari B.

“Yes! Tom & Gail (Stevens) Deans, class of 1985. We met in 1981 at Tech, married Dec 1985, so a big 35th Anniversary is coming up this year! Our daughter graduated 2016, son currently attending.” – Gail D.

“1990- I was teaching scuba classes at the SDC, she was a lifeguard at the pool. A natural match! Celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary last week, and visiting MTU at the end of this month to watch NMU hockey game.” – Todd M.

“Yes! And having our days at MTU in common is one of the best things ever.” – Sarah S.