60 | LEHIGH ALUMNI BULLETIN | CLASS NOTES married to Jean (BBA, Temple ’80). I worked at the Philadelphia naval base for 37 years and retired eight years ago. My final job was propulsion program manager of the Navy, and I traveled the world a lot in the early days, but mostly to the Pentagon in the final years. I now spend some of my retired time working on my 1967 Jaguar E-Type, which I have had for 43 years.” Don Newhart reports that after graduation, he completed a Ph.D. in math at the University of Virginia in 1980. “I specialized in a newer field focused on error-control codes, which are a crucial component of digital technology. At one point, NSA came recruiting, and I decided to try it out! The work was certainly stressful at times, but also rewarding when one makes a difference. In retirement, I moved back to my home state of Pennsylvania, about eight miles north of Penn State.” After the pandemic, he turned his attention to music. “One consequence is that I recorded a song I wrote, now available on streaming, under my stage name, Don Newhart, with the title ‘If Only.’” This column is feast or famine! After this issue, we are officially in a famine, so drop me an email! Here’s a sobering thought to leave you with: Fifty years ago, we had just finished our freshman year at Lehigh! ’78 Gail D. Reinhart, 215 N. Center St., #1407, San Antonio, TX 78202-2723. ladygailus@ yahoo.com Shout out to Greg Scott for his many efforts on behalf of Lehigh and our class, including this year’s changes to our Facebook group (facebook. com/groups/Lehigh1978) that have banished the constant stream of spammers and scammers. Greg reminds us that although our 50th reunion is still nearly four years away, the reunion committee is already starting to make plans. If you’re interested in helping or have some great ideas for this reunion, please let him know. You can message him through the above-mentioned Lehigh University Class of 1978 Facebook group or email him. He says, “It doesn’t matter how old you are, what shape you are in or what you have going on. We want as many of our classmates as possible to join us in celebrating our golden anniversary.” Aside from his Lehigh activities, Greg reports that he recently celebrated 30 years as president and owner of Scott Engineering, Inc., where he’s proud to have employed and trained over 56 engineers, designers, draft persons and surveyors. Greg has three sons, six grandchildren and a wife who, in her husband’s unbiased opinion, is “nothing short of absolutely amazing.” He’s also actively involved in a boys’ mentoring program called Royal Rangers and loves teaching the boys in many areas, including camping, sports, arts, trades and technology. He also continues to stay active in CrossFit, which helps him to keep up with the boys. Debra (Morenci) Gault ’83G reports that Phi Sig brothers including Bryan Gault, Bill Phillips ’79, Dave Mendenhall, Dan Saunders, Chris Bailey ’77 and Bill Long met in St Petersburg, Fla., for spring training games, golf, corn hole and other shenanigans to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Debra and Bryan hosted a similar gathering last year. Good times roll on! Mitch Liswith is enjoying chasing after his first grandchild, Cory, who’s just short of the terrible twos and, in her grandfather’s unbiased opinion, “very entertaining.” Jeff Swiatek has retired after a 43-year career in journalism and public relations. He was a reporter at the Indianapolis Star from 1983 to 2015 and spent the past eight years as a public relations consultant for Indiana University Health. His retirement plans include baseball umpiring, volunteering and travel with his wife, Julie. That’s all the news I have on hand, and I’ve easily stayed under my word limit, so please send more! You can reach me by snail mail, email or Facebook. ’79 Lance M. Bell, 952 River Run Dr., Macedonia, OH 44056-2369. (216) 219-3729 (mobile); lanceb344@gmail.com If you were expecting a report from our 45th reunion, I’m sorry to say you’ll have to wait until the winter edition. The deadline for this column was before reunion weekend. But stay tuned as I expect to have lots of good news to share in the next column. I’m already marking my calendar for our 50th class reunion in 2029. I enjoyed viewing photos Bruce Colligen posted from his vacation in Ireland. He’s been to Ireland each of the past six years. During the 2024 trip, he was in Westport, Galway and Dublin. Bruce can advise as to where the finer pubs are located if you’re looking for a pint of Guinness. Rich Earl sent me a note to share that he stepped away from full-time pastoral ministry a few years ago and entered the business world working in sales. After a couple of great years with Renewal by Anderson, he’s moving on to spend more time with his three grandchildren (including twin toddlers) and selling books on eBay. He’s also doing interim pastoral ministry at a small church in Danville, Pa. Lynn Cutter posted that she visited her 69th country, Grenada, and was considering what country to visit next. She enjoyed snorkeling and swimming in Tobago Cays. On this trip, she was also in Guadalupe, Bequia, which is a little island in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and she also visited the island of Domenica. Of course, it was a Smithsonian Journeys/PONANT cruise! Frank Vultaggio announced his retirement from Chemalloy after over 14 years of service and 45 years in the metals industries. He announced his retirement at the end of 2023, unretired, worked special projects for a quarter, retired again, but will continue to do some part-time consulting for Chemalloy. This all sounds very familiar to me as I started retiring in 2018 and didn’t finish the transition until 2022. Frank has leisure travel on his calendar, with trips to Canada and Portugal scheduled. After I return from visiting family in the Hershey, Pa., area for Easter, I’ve got a full-bag golf club fitting scheduled here in Macedonia, Ohio. It’s time to transition to senior flex shafts and lighter weight heads to compensate for slower swing speeds. I’m sure I can carve out a few rounds of golf from my volunteer commitments and trips to hike local trails. ’80 Mark Hembarsky, Mhembarsky1980@gmail.com Jim McCormick, our Lehigh Athletics Hall of Famer and All-American, shared the following: “As Lehigh celebrates 50 years of women’s athletics, the brothers of Delta Tau Delta wish to congratulate all female athletes, but especially our special classmates who helped pioneer the foundation of those sports programs. Good job—take a well-deserved bow!” I spoke with the Alumni Office, and the records show we had 44 female athletes in the class, including nine who participated in two sports and three who participated in three sports. Let’s recognize each of our classmates for their contributions to the early years of Lehigh women’s
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