Beta Theta Pi - MIT

3 S heila, living across the street at 120 Bay State Road, gave us an idea of MIT's social life in 1958. While grinding out problem sets, we kept an eye on Sheila, who ran MIT's women's dorm. Bill Widnall '59, Beta Theta Pi's Chapter President and 119's leading citizen, also kept an eye on 120. While Sheila and Bill were celestial beings much above our lowly state, we were aware Bill was sweet on Sheila. Soon, Bill and Sheila passed beyond our ken to increasingly important assignments. One day, to our surprise, and without asking for our say so, Bill and Sheila got married to drift off to wherever married people went. Marriage overtook all of us–– children became the center of attention and socializing. Sheila and Bill Widnall threw great parties at their apartment in Ashdown House, now Maseeh Hall, on the corner of Memorial Drive and Mass Avenue. That was handy to Sheila's lab, and intellectual curiosity took Sheila well beyond fluid flow studies. She arranged to give birth between teaching terms while building and playing her harpsichord. After a bit of Bach, she looked up and said: "Jim, you must study Buxtehude!" That was a jolt. As it happened, Sheila and Bill lived just down the street from where Sheila's mentor, Stark Draper, had lived during the Great Depression. Stark had found that spot handy to his lab. In the spring of 1935, Stark's roommates, who had been with him for several years, were Aethelstan Spilhaus, who worked on air-driven gyros for aircraft instruments and meteorology, later becoming an acclaimed ocean scientist, and Red Blair, who piloted instrument test flights with Stark. At that time, Stark, not yet "Doc," took the last of his immense string of MIT courses as Aethelstan recollected: "We took a course with Norbert Wiener on the summability of series." Wiener was pretty tough to understand. There were only three of us in the class. The other one became, and I can't recall his name, but he became the professor of mathematics at Annapolis. He was a bright, East Side boy from New York, and he knew what Wiener was talking about. We were all pretty poor, so we would invite him and trade a meal after Wiener's lecture––the day of Wiener's lecture––and he would go over it again with us and explain it." The other one was likely Bernard Friedman of Brooklyn, who explained Weiner's lecture to Athelstan and Stark over steak and beer. Some things never change at MIT. Looking back, Sheila, in the blink of an eye, seemed to have stepped up to become a full professor, faculty chair, associate provost, secretary of the Air Force, National Academy of Engineering vice president, president of the American Institute for the Advancement of Science, board member of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster investigation, and MIT institute professor. Once, after I had conceived and helped push through the USAF asset Cobra Brass, I visited Sheila in her grand Pentagon office. I can report that it had a fine view and walls covered with photos of Sheila with important folk. In 1991, Sheila, USAF Captain Brian Hibbeln, and I attended a Draper Prize celebrating Frank Whittle's and Hans von Ohain's invention of the jet engine. It was thrilling to be there with Sheila, who later was appointed the Air Force jet fighter "Top Gun" by President George W. Bush. Sheila's thoughtfulness often moved people and programs in the right direction. Jim Cunningham '57 was a friend of Sheila's. Jim died shockingly early in 1983. In Jim's memory, we set up the Cunningham Scholarships for MIT undergraduate women, MIT's first endowed scholarship dedicated to women. As chairman, I convened annual Cunningham luncheons. One year, Sheila, our guest of honor, presented her path as a leading woman academician. She wound up asking: "What MIT department has the highest proportion of women undergraduates?" No one could say. Sheila surprised us by stating: "Chemical engineering!" That year we did not have a Cunningham scholar, but we did the next! Sheila is far-sighted, provocative, and remarkably able to apply intelligence to difficult problems and come through to pragmatic solutions. Beta Upsilon Brothers share in the glory of the Cunningham scholarships, the first endowed scholarships for women at MIT, now covering eight departments (courses 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 16, 20, and 22), established in memory of James E. Cunningham. To learn more, please visit giving.mit.edu/search/node/Cunningham. Sixty Years in Sheila's Wake Submitted by James Draper '62 with remembrances of when the Annex was the MIT women's dorm, and of his great friend, Sheila Widnall '60. James Draper '62, Sheila, and USAF Captain Brian Hibbeln at the Draper Prize award ceremony. Donn W. Barber '42* Frederick W. Weitz '51 Louis J. Lee '52 David L. Vogel '54 John P. Seagle '55* John T. Sutton '55 Alfred E. Wechsler '55 R. Gordon Black '56 Robert C. Brigham '56 Ward D. Halverson '56 Harry B. Lee Jr. '56 Robert A. MacDonald Jr. '56 Robert L. Malster '56 Lawrence R. Hoover '57 Robert E. Kersey '57 Henry C. Young Jr. '57 Edwin C. Bell '58 Samuel R. Fryer Jr. '59 Stephen J. Yeretsky '59 Allan J. MacLaren '60 Richard H. Oeler '60 Gary W. Bickel '61 Philip J. Robinson '61 Alexander G. Ross '61 Richard C. Williamson '61 Dr. James S. Draper '62 Richard L. Horttor '62 G. Mead Wyman '62 Leslie M. Boring Jr. '64 Jon E. Burkhardt '64 Richard A. Carpenter '64 Robert A. Grant '64* Michael J. Monsler '64 Richard E. Nygren '66 Peter B. Dinsdale '67 William T. Stewart '69 Bruce A. Lautenschlager '70* Jeffrey C. Murray '71 William H. Preece Jr. '71 Daniel J. Nadler '72 Stevan B. Jovanovich '73 Paul J. Shapiro '74 Stanley J. Shursky '74 Simeon Chow, Ph.D. '77 Lampros M. Fatsis '77 Robert D. Knecht '78 Thomas A. Hauer '79 Roger W. Lacy '79 John C. Kerins '80* Michael G. Feinstein '82* David A. Krall '82* Alan L. Laves '82* David A. Milich '82* Seth M. Davis '83 Patrick K. Fowler '83 Mark P. Bouchard '84 John R. Chisholm '84 William T. Maimone '84* Richard C. Steines '84* Michael E. Flanagan '85 Dimitri N. Kazarinoff '85 Raymond A. Mills '85 Kenneth J. Shine '85 Bob Struble '85* Anthony P. DiPesa Jr. '86* Alexander A. Romeo '86 Lei H. Tung '86* Ken Bryan '88* Robert E. Mentle '88* James S. Cureton '89 Michael P. McGovern '89 Michael D. Rechtin Jr. '89 Bennett J. Silverman '89 Daniel T. Moriarty '90 Earl J. Watkins '90 Godard K. Abel '93* Frank J. Leibly III '93 Michael W. Miller '96 Andrew Mutch, III '98* Chet Reshamwala '01 Mehul P. Shah '02 Andrew V. Martinez '03* Matt Saunders '03 Ryan P. Luersen '09 In memory of Eric R. Scarborough '05 Jacob Wachlin '16 Yaseen S. Alkhafaji '21* Colin P. Chaney '21* Benjamin D. Richards '21* Tyler M. Schoulte '21* Swochchhanda Shrestha '21* Kyle A. Markland '22* Keith G. Mokry '22* Samuel Sesena '22* Ashar Farooq '23* Justin D. Schiavo '23* *2020 Beta Theta Pi Day of Giving Donor Thank You, Loyal Brothers, for Donating to Beta Upsilon's Annual Fund B eta Upsilon sends its sincere thanks to the generous Brothers who have contributed to the Chapter's annual campaign. Our brotherhood would not be where it is today without their dedication to the Chapter. Those who donated to the Beta Upsilon Association in 2020 and 2021 to date are listed below. If an error has been made in recording your name, we sincerely apologize. If corrections to your giving record are needed, please contact the campaign coordinator at (785) 843-1661. Thank you, again, for your loyal support.

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