Scott – There is one thing I miss in the recent TechAlum Newsletters – how much snow fell this week and how much snow for the year so far.
I did appreciate the Winter Carnival results, especially the photos of the winning statues.
Jim Schluckbier – Class of 1969
- Hi Jim! I’ll be sure to make it a regular feature again. For this week, your snow totals are listed below. A little light this year by Houghton standards from what I understand. Which means it would set records just about everywhere else. Thanks for reading! -SB
February total: 41 inches
Season total: 140 inches
Link to snow data: http://mtukrc.org/met/weather_snow_data.htm
Great job with the Alumni News. Keep up the good work. Definitely worth reading and enjoying the news.
Walt Kuntze ‘62
- Thank you, Walt. I appreciate that! -SB
Scott,
I meet my future wife just before Valentine’s Day in 1964 while a Sophomore at Tech and she was a senior at Jeffers High. She attended Tech for two years until I graduated and we were married the week after graduation in 1966. That started our whirlwind lifetime adventure in the petroleum industry with many moves and homes living in California three times, Texas three times, Louisiana twice, Norway and England. We are now happily retired in a small seaside town on the Central Coast of California and this year will be our 50th Anniversary, and it was all because I had the opportunity to attend Michigan Tech.
Best Regards,
Al Stevens (66), and Barbara Paulson Stevens (68)
- Hi Al and Barbara! Thank you for sharing and congratulations on 50 years of marriage. Sounds like you’ve had a great time! -SB
To: Scott Balyo, Michigan Tech Alumni
From Dan Haubenstricker, MTU Class of 1980
See attached 4 photos of this award-winning snow sculpting team and their work. They gave me verbal permission to send my photos to MTU for use in the Alumni email newsletter or magazine.
Their sculpture’s theme “Dive Into a Good Book” referenced “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and won both First Place and People’s Choice Award in the World Class Single Block Division at Zehnder’s Snowfest in Frankenmuth, MI on January 30, 2016. (I live in Frankenmuth.)
Team members are L to R: Luke Dehtiar, Max Dehtiar, and Ryan Olszowy. (They do dress to promote MTU!)
They enter and win lots of snow carving competitions; they might make an interesting story for you.
Dan Haubenstricker
Luke Dehtiar ‘04, Max Dehtiar ‘06, and Ryan Olszowy ‘02.
- Hi Dan, thanks for sharing! That’s a spectacular sculpture. Certainly showing the ability that Tech alums have for the craft. I’ll look for other places to share this as well. Congrats! -SB
I’ve enjoyed reading all the stories of skiing Mount Ripley. It was the main reason I transferred to Tech after my freshman year at a private college south of Minneapolis where I had taken my first ski lessons on the campus rolling hills. (We spent most of our time in those classes side stepping up hills to be able to snow plow back down.)
Mount Ripley was a challenge for one who had just learned the Stem Christie, had never ridden a T-bar, and had only a brief introduction to rope tows. But it became an obsession and indirectly resulted in my choice of career. My junior year I scheduled classes intentionally to keep my afternoons free for skiing. (I missed only 5 days of skiing all quarter.) One conveniently-scheduled class was Constitutional Law, which was held in the evening. The professor kindly suggested I consider law school (possibly based more on my curiosity about how the law handled certain issues rather than my diligence in studying).
Since my post-graduate plan otherwise was to go west to be a ski bum for a while, I felt had nothing to lose, took the LSATs and was accepted to law school. Hated law school, but had fun as a lawyer.
Shirley (Anderson) Brantingham, ’72
- Hi Shirley! I envy our students who get to combine their love of skiing and boarding with their studies. Sounds like you had the best of both worlds too! -SB
Hello,
My favorite memory of Mont Ripley is one I still tell just about every ski season.
I was a freshman in 1985 and was a relatively new skier. My 2 roommates and I decided to go skiing at Mont Ripley. One was pretty green like me, another a little more experienced.
Somehow the experienced one got us to go up to the top of The Chute. As we stood there at the top, only being able to see the crest of the hill as it totally dropped out of sight, the 2 of us were thinking we were going to unclick our skis and walk over to the Center Bowl.
The more experienced one in our group was trying to convince us that it was pretty easy. We were not buying it.
To prove how easy it was, he skied to the crest, turned so his back was facing down the hill, held his hands palms up, saying “piece of cake”.
Well he hadn’t come to a complete stop and started going down the hill backwards. As he did, he started losing his balance and bent over forward to scratch at the snow to try and stop himself, to no avail. He kept picking up speed, going backwards down the hill, grabbing at the snow. Then he was out of sight. The 2 of us looked at each other and were thinking the same thing, there ain’t no way we are going down there.
We clicked our skis off, walked to the blue trail and skied safely down the hill.
As it turned out, he did pick up more speed and crashed into a white cloud, with both skis coming off.
Fortunately the only thing hurt was his pride, and our stomachs for all the laughing at the mighty skier. Laughing still to this day.
Thanks for asking…
Bob Cloutier ‘89
- Ha ha. That’s a great story, Bob. I know the exact spot you’re talking about. Wouldn’t want to go down backward. -SB
Hi Scott,
I wanted to share a small-world moment about Tech alumni connections.
I graduated from MTU in 1976. My husband and I are traveling in South America and ran into proud descendants of a 1906 Michigan Tech graduate, Carl John Kingston (Michigan Mining School at the time).
He went to Peru as a gold and copper miner, then developed a large and successful dairy farm. His great-granddaughter, Courtney Kingston, has used part of the farm to create an excellent winery, Kingston Family Vineyards in Casablanca Chile. We were looking for a winery to visit and had to make it this one once we read about its history. If anyone is interested in our story it’s on our blog, oconbach.net (http://oconbach.net/2016/02/26/the-chilean-connection-cows-wine-and-michigan-tech/) and the winery itself has history (https://www.kingstonvineyards.com/About).
The wine, by the way, is great…and can be ordered from the US! We’re continuing on through other parts of South and Central America. I wonder how many other interesting alumni connections might be out there?
Paula, I happened to have my Women of Michigan Tech t-shirt on the trip with me and wore it to the winery visit to represent PCA! (photos in the blog)
Nancy Bach
BS ChE 1976
- Hi Nancy! Great story and it’s always exciting to meet alums in far-flung places. Look for a future Tech magazine story for more like this! -SB