School Story:
[From 50th Reunion Yearbook...]
Don wrote this for our 25th reunion in 1982:
I completed my education with a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at Cornell in 1962 followed by an MS in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins in 1966. While four years may seem like a long time for a master’s degree, nobody knew what a biomedical engineer was in those days, so we had to figure it out as we went along.
I then came straight to California where I have been developing computer systems in support of various biomedical research programs at Lawrence Livermore, and most recently, at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. I am currently involved in the development of Positron Emission Tomography, a new medical imaging technology related to CAT scanning. I still don’t know what a biomedical engineer is.
After enjoying bachelorhood for many years, in 1978 I married Rhondalynn Summers. Roni is a clinical psychologist in private practice, is active in women’s rights, and is an avid collector of antiques. We both like cross-country skiing in the winter and white-water rafting in the summer, having taken several trips on the rivers of California, Oregon, and Idaho. Our only child is a wheaten terrier named Shannon.
My other passion in life is flying. I have owned a couple of single-engine planes and traveled to such places as the Bahamas, Mexico, and El Salvador (before the shooting started, fortunately). Now I am very active in sailplanes, and spend a lot of time soaring the Sierras in the summer. I have made cross-country flights as long as 240 miles and as high as 31,000 feet. Any Hermonite who finds himself in the San Francisco Bay area is welcome to join me for a sailplane ride at the local airport.
John Parker, MH ’57: I will share a remembrance about Donald Uber, who was my roommate senior year. In the early 1970's, I visited Don in Oakland, CA where he was living at the time. We had about 4 days together and had a great time, but the thing I remember most is that Don flew the two of us into the Sierra Nevada Mountains where we stayed at a very primitive flying club campsite. It was September and very cold over night, but the next day was warm, so warm in fact that, at that altitude, we didn't have enough lift to get airborne until very late in the day. The thing that Don had neglected to tell me in advance of our trip (probably on purpose) was that there was wreckage of 5 or 6 planes that had not successfully taken off (or landed, as the case may be) scattered around the primitive air strip. We did get airborne and had some trouble gaining enough altitude to get over the highest mountains (we flew over Mt. Whitney with only a few hundred feet to spare, waving to some hikers at the top as we passed by). We then headed back to Oakland, getting a good view of Yosemite National Park and the waterfalls on the way back. Of course, I didn't tell my wife about any of this until later. She was at home in Buffalo, NY with our three children, all under the age of 6, and would not have appreciated the risks Don and I took. I also have a regret that I didn't look Don up during the year my wife and I lived in the SF Bay area in 1999. I thought about it often but never got to it, thinking there would always be time later.
