Matthew Hetman '63

I left Troy in 1968 to work at Bell Labs in Whippany NJ. I retired from Bell Labs in 2001 after 33 years of service.

During my career at Bell Labs, I had the privilege of working many different projects from the Safeguard Missile Defense system to the design of seismic resistant structures for the Bell System.

In 1970, while enjoying my favorite sport of Bowling, I met my charming wife Carolyn who also worked at the Labs. We have been happily married ever since and have two sons and two grandsons with the youngest arriving in July of 09.

Both Carolyn and I are part of the “Corvette” culture and enjoy touring the country side in either of our 2 Corvettes. If there is a big Corvette gathering somewhere in the country, there is a good chance you will see us there sharing in the excitement. Check out this link: http://corvetteforum.net/c5/shockwave/

Other hobbies include Computers, Astronomy, Home Theater, Sports Car Events

Although I wasn't very active in the many THS activities, I was very active in the field of amateur rocketry. We formed the Troy Rocket Engineering Club (TREC) of which other members came from THS Class of 64 as well as other area high schools. There were several articles written about our activities in both the Time Union as well as the Troy Record.

However, there maybe one incident fellow classmates may remember. During the 1963 and 1964 Basketball Season, we use to bring my accordion case to several of the home games. In the case was a 12 volt battery connected to a very loud automobile horn. Whenever our team scored a basket, the home crowd was treated to a loud blast of our horn. This worked for a while until the game officials and the opposing team started to interpret the loud sound as something other then a cheer. Although no one ever caught us, the use of this celebration tool became very short lived.(Gee, we had to show some support for our team)