First-Year Experience

In response to your article on freshman orientation (“Welcome Aboard,” December 2001): In June 1949 I graduated from Troy High. My choice of colleges was either RPI or Russell Sage. I chose Rensselaer. At that time there was no orientation camp for women. There were four of us in a class of about 800 men.

My first introduction to Rensselaer was three days of testing to see what our aptitudes were. Then we were given a schedule and it was off to the races. I was fortunate to be in a section of veterans who treated me as a buddy. I went to lunch with them, studied with them in Tin Town, and in general was looked at as a buddy. I never wore a beanie.

Since I lived at home, I did not need to worry about dorms. There was a house on a street off Pawling Avenue for the women students. This lasted my freshman year, then women had to find their own housing. The whole attitude was just to jump in and swim.

I married Norman Pedersen ’53 in ’51 and moved to the ’Wyck. We graduated in ’53 with a B.S. in physics and went on to earn Ph.D.s from Rensselaer in the ’60s. In total I spent 11 years at Rensselaer, four as an undergraduate and seven in graduate school. While in graduate school I was a teaching assistant and a lab assistant. When my husband and I graduated in ’53, we were on the cover of a Rensselaer alumni magazine as the first husband and wife couple to graduate together.

I loved being at Rensselaer and never regretted choosing it.

Jeanne Cassavant Pedersen ’53
Newburyport, Mass.

GM Partnership Extends to Alumni

After reading the article “A Working Partnership” in the March issue, I had occasion to visit the General Motors Tech Center in Warren, Mich., as part of an alumni admissions volunteer training program hosted by GM. I was struck by both the superb facilities made available to us and by the degree of technological excellence and commitment evidenced by the GM team members.

It was obvious, as President Jackson observed in the March issue of Rensselaer magazine, that “strategic partnerships in education and research are absolutely essential to the future of Rensselaer, to the future of corporations like General Motors, and indeed, to the global economy.”

We were pleased that 13 of our Detroit-area alumni were able to participate in such a unique event. The goal is to expand the admissions pipeline into Rensselaer from southeastern Michigan...who better to do that than our own graduates?
Thank you to Dudley Smith ’88 for creating this opportunity and to General Motors
for hosting the event. And, if anybody missed it but would like to participate, e-mail me at longks@rpi.edu.

Karen Long
Director of Enrollment
Programs, Rensselaer
Troy, N.Y.

Beautiful Person

I want to thank you for printing the letters from other alumni remembering Dr. Jeanne Lynch. It brought me great joy to read how others expressed their love for this wonderful lady.

I, too, hold a special place in my heart for Jeanne, as she was my favorite RPI teacher, mentor, friend, and fan. Behind her “tough-as-nails” business persona, Jeanne was a beautiful person who wanted all of us to succeed. Those who dared to get to know her better received from her gifts that will last a lifetime.

Rick Sales ’85
Exeter, N.H.

Value Added?

I was very interested in the article on the distinguished alum Jackson Tai ’72, and the career he has made for himself (“Global Vision,” March 2002). A true story of growth through globalization and not the least is that an RPI education can form the foundation. What surprised me was in the small box at the end, “Family Values,” wherein Mr. Tai is quoted as saying, “Life doesn’t value processors. Life rewards leaders and entrepreneurs.”

Yes, leaders and entrepreneurs receive life’s value, I guess, according to one’s own sense of values. What about the other approximately 5,999,000,000 lives on Earth—are they somehow devalued? I prefer to think that if Mr. Tai were to reconsider his statement, he might word it in a different manner.

Norm Zelvin ’51
Eastchester, N.Y.