When the class of '52 started out at Tech, in '48, Baker House was under construction.  It had been only 3 yrs since WWII  ended.  They put us up in what was then called Bldg 22, a military barracks building originally built for war research, I think.  There were 8 to my room at the time.  It was more like being in the army.  Bldg. 22 has long since ceased to exist.  It was located behind another student dormitory called, at the time, Eastgate, now, I believe, the Munroe Haydn Wood Bldg.

In the spring of '49 the Administration accepted applications for the then completed Baker House and they assigned me to Room 140, which I fell in love with and where I stayed through graduation.

We formed solid friendships in those days, but, unfortunately, I have lost track of most of those guys, very particularly because I live in Brazil now. But over the years, I've been stateside numerous times, as an employee of the Gulf Oil Corporation, now a Chevron retiree.  For a couple of years, in fact, I lived in Pittsburgh, PA, working at Gulf's head office.  During my days of professional life, Gulf assigned me to various countries, mostly in South America. Although a Course II graduate, I became more of an attorney and accountant, although I started out in lube oil sector, where they needed a Mechanical Engineer.

With only two of my close friends of those days, I am still in regular contact: Marc Aelion, X, '51, whom I consider to be my "brother", now living in the vicinity of Sao Paulo, Brazil, but born in Egypt.  I talked him into coming to Brazil after he got his post-graduate Chem Engrg. degree and he tells me has never been sorry for coming to this country.  The other one is Luis A. Capandeguy, II, '52, my Uruguayan "brother", who returned to his native Montevideo, Uruguay, after graduation, where he still lives.  He comes to visit me just about every year here in Rio, spending about two weeks in my apartment.  I love those visits.

All of us, of course, are getting pretty old by now.  Marc, Luis, and I were at the campus in '02, alumni day, for our 50th anniversary of graduation. For Marc, of course, it was his 51st, but he had been there the previous year as well and talked the two of us into it.

Many of the guys on the list of student representatives in the period '49/'52 are well known to me, of course, and a number of them were good friends in those days.  Those include Seymour Weintraub and Manolo Lieberman.  I believe Marc is still in touch with Seymour, now living in the New York area.  Manolo Lieberman, whom we used to call the "mad Cuban" (he used to say "comes the Rrrrrevolution" and that was before Fidel).  When the "revolution" came under Fidel, he did not return to Cuba and settled down in Barranquilla, Colombia, where he became a wealthy businessman. Unfortunately, he passed away a couple of years of so ago.

Marc is on the list as Dorm Committee Representative in the '50/'51 period. I am sending him and Luis a copy of this message.

Well known to me also were Don Schlatter and Gerry Burns of the New Dormitory Committee in its first year, Ed Facey, Sandy Kaplan (last I know also in the New York area), and Gus Rath.  Unfortunately, I am not in touch with any one of them.  And then there were two to whom I will be eternally grateful because of the support they gave me in one of my most difficult periods of my life at Tech, after the death of my father: Robert S. (Bob) Gooch and Freddie Lehman.  The last I know of Bob is that he was living in Texas (Amarillo, I believe), but I much regret having lost track entirely of Fred.  Fred married one of the very few coeds at MIT in those days.  I may be far away, but I have not forgotten!!  And Eli Dabora, from Iraq, who became a professor at one of the better colleges on the East Coast, a very close friend then.  My sincere apologies to many of those good friends of Baker House of the early fifties whose names I might not have mentioned.

Of course there was no co-ed living in the dorms back then and, indeed, as I said, there were only a couple or so on the campus.  We had dorm parties each Saturday evening to which we could bring our dates, but they all had to be out of the building by 10PM.  At one time I was yanked before the Dorm Committee because I was "caught" perhaps around 10:30PM, with my date still there, but leaving.  Good times.  The class was already a mixed community, from a nationality point of view.  Not that different from what it is now, except practically no Chinese or citizens from India.

Things have changed so much in these almost sixty years.  I am an Educational Counselor here in Rio and I do get the complete literature about Tech every year which I can use when interviewing the candidates.  The catalogue of courses now being offered contains 95% of courses that did not even exist then (the number may be an exaggeration; my guess). Unfortunately, I have neither photos nor historical records in my files, but Marc may have some.  I have been campaigning for years now to throw out files and photos.  It is a tough job.

Well, there you have a short story of one of the guys of those days yonder.

My very special "abrazo" (Latin American style) to all of those that I mentioned here as well to those not mentioned, whose health and life, I do hope, our Good Lord has preserved for all these years.

Sincerely,

Werner Kahn

IIB, '52.