58 | LEHIGH ALUMNI BULLETIN | CLASS NOTES list of local agencies and church groups who would appreciate your assistance … even as you are reading this message six months after the storm. Now, a couple of class-related items: Lehigh Athletic Partnership Ambassador David Thomson ’83 hosted a mini-reunion this past September of cross-country runners from the IC4A Championship era in the early 1970s. Those who attended were Lehigh’s Hall of Fame Cross Country Coach John Covert and his wife, Carol, who live in Bethlehem; members of the IC4A and MAC Championship team, Mike Strockbine, Kentucky; Roger Jackucewicz ’72, New Jersey; John Heil ’72, Virginia; and Bob Detrick ’71, Montana. Other former runners in attendance were Dave Koons ’74, Florida; and Jim Davis ’79, Connecticut. Speaking of mini-reunions, Donald Stengel has expressed an interest in setting up a series of Zoom chats with small groups of class members. If you are interested in participating, contact me and I will facilitate with Don to make these chats happen. ’74 Bill White, 5418 Holiday Drive, Allentown, PA 18104, whitebil1974@gmail.com Jose Arencibia won one of Lehigh’s Distinguished Alumni Awards this year. He received the Outstanding Entrepreneur Award, presented to an individual or team who has demonstrated professional achievement of the highest caliber in the management of an enterprise. Jose, who also earned his Lehigh mechanical engineering master’s in 1980 and his chemical engineering master’s in 1990—and is one of our class’s former reunion chairs—is the founder and retired president of Arencibia Associates, Inc., which develops technology to enhance process efficiency and reduce carbon footprints for industries like aerospace and pharmaceuticals. His company designed systems for Pfizer’s Lipitor production and holds two registered patents. He lives in Denver, where he focuses now on developing environmentally green houses. Lehigh recorded videos for the award recipients (tinyurl. com/2ya25687), and Jose’s video gives you a more complete picture of his accomplishments. I’ll quote a bit from the video. “I’ve always been curious, and information is only possible if you understand the rules, and in this case, the rules are the laws of nature,” Jose said. “Every time I took a class I asked a question: What is the meaning of this law and how does it affect me?” He explained, “I developed, designed and built the special reactor that makes Lipitor, which is a cholesterol-lowering drug. That original thought and the tools to make the design into a piece of hardware came from a course that I took from Dr. John Chen as a part-time graduate student at Lehigh.” Jose said he started his company after a February 1986 seminar with Lehigh’s Small Business Development Center, which helped would-be entrepreneurs understand what it’s like to start and run a small company. He concluded that if he had help with the parts that weren’t technology-related, he could do it. The rest is history. William Luyben, Lehigh professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, said of his former student, “He’s certainly an entrepreneur. He’s working on important problems and has been a real contributor for many, many years.” Jose concluded, “I learned a lot about myself and about the world by being associated with such a great institution, and the benefit I got from the relationship I had with professors as well as with other students still goes on today.” Switching gears, I’ll report that our Kings of Tailgates team—led by Gus Gustafson, Bob Mulholland and Rick Ross—deep-fried 15 turkeys for this year’s Lafayette game tailgate and provided great food all season for these gatherings of people within and beyond our class. They’re awesome. Finally, I’ll note that many of you promised at Reunion that you would be sending me updates about your activities. Since I haven’t heard from any of you, I’ll offer this final reminder before I’m forced to resort to more drastic measures. ’75 Thom Hirsch, 139 McHenny Court, Chester, MD 21619, ThomasHirsch44@Outlook.com At the beginning of our last semester 50 years ago, many of us were still job hunting or getting ready for more schooling, “Wheel of Fortune” premiered, Immaculata University defeated the University of Maryland in the first nationally televised women’s basketball game, Bill Gates founded Microsoft, former U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell and White House aides HR Haldeman and John Erlichman were sentenced to prison as part of the Watergate scandal, and the war in Vietnam was coming to a controversial conclusion. These events are reminders that our 50th Reunion will be held on June 12-15, 2025, and our reunion committee continues with its planning to make this a great occasion. For our reunion gift, we will be raising money to renovate a meeting room in the Clayton University Center, which is undergoing a major overhaul. Our class will be permanently recognized in the meeting room. What a great way to improve the quality of life for current students and to honor our great class. We need to raise $100,000 for this project, and we are already over halfway there. Keep an eye out for emails with information on how you can donate (or make a five-year commitment) to this project and for information about our 50th Reunion. We hope to see you there! Jane (Palestine) Jamieson was presented The Lifetime Commitment to Lehigh Award. Jane’s service to Lehigh has included nearly two decades on the Board of Trustees, where she held key leadership roles, including vice chair and chair of several committees. She cochaired the Presidential Search Committee and was instrumental in various initiatives that shaped the university’s direction. She continues to support Lehigh through her role on the Art Galleries Advisory Council. We thank Jane for her tremendous contributions and are very proud of her significant accomplishments. After having heard from Gina Hanna as reported in the last column, Janet Scagnelli reached out to say that she and Gina, along with Debbie (Crislip) Lovelett ’76, traveled to Greece this past spring. Janet has spent the majority of her professional career as an in-house lawyer representing various railroads in the northeast. She held a variety of antitrust, administrative and regulatory litigation, compliance and environmental positions with both CSX and Consolidated Rail Corporation, and became general counsel of Conrail back in the ’90s. Janet retired in 2020, but still handles some environmental litigation matters on a contractual basis. She resides in Haverford, Pa., and has a daughter who eschewed a legal career to be an investigative journalist in NYC reporting on tech industry issues. Janet is planning on attending our 50th Reunion. When I recently posted a picture on Facebook from a trip that my wife and I made to Cumberland, Md., to ride the Western Maryland Scenic Train, I received a surprise comment from Mary Beth (Carmada) Young saying she lived in Cumberland. I wondered how Mary Beth went from being a Bethlehem native to the western stretches of Maryland. Mary Beth answered that it was a “long and winding road story!”
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