At the May 2011 commencement, the Clark School celebrated Golden Terp Engineers from the classes of 1961, 1956, 1951, and so on, including Phillip Cooper, a civil engineering alum from the class of 1931, who is 100 years old.

Front Row (L-R): Seymour Schwartz BS '51 Electrical Engineering, BS '90 Information Systems Management;
Jorge Valladares BS '61 Civil Engineering; Raymond Tate BS '56 Engineering; William Gannon BS '41
Engineering; Philip Cooper, BS '31 Civil Engineering.  Back Row (L-R): Dean Darryll Pines; Howard Pedolsky
BS '61 Chemical Engineering; Joseph Kammerer BS '61 MS '64 Civil Engineering; Ralph Rowland BS '51
MS '55 Electrical Engineering; James Shoemaker BS '56 Mechanical Engineering; Edward Moshang BS '61
Electrical Engineering. Photo by Al Santos

Mouse over thumbnail images to enlarge. All photos by Al Santos.

Bios

Philip C. Cooper, BS 1931 Civil Engineering
Mr. Cooper resides in Salisbury, MD. In 1932, Mr. Cooper helped design and build the Choptank River Bridge in Cambridge, which was dedicated to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, and went on to oversee the construction of the Cambridge Creek Bridge, the Severn River Bridge, and the Route 50 bridge into Ocean City. From 1943-1946, was called to serve in the U.S. Navy as an originating member of the unit known as Seabees.  He wrote a book titled, The Engineer in War and Peace: From Guadalcanal to Main Street, which is both an account of his World War II experience and a recount of the changes he saw as his hometown, Salisbury, developed from small town to small city. In 1950, he took on his role as city engineer and director of Public Works in Salisbury, where he served until 1978. He was accompanied by his daughter, Linda Riggin.

William F. Gannon, BS 1941 Engineering
Mr. Gannon resides in Lauderdale by the Sea, FL. After graduating from UMD, Mr. Gannon was called to active duty in the Army Air Corps and served for more than five years in their weather service, and retired as a LTC. He then joined Western Electric Company and assignments included manufacturing engineering, purchasing, equipment engineering and installation. After 35 years, he retired as General Manager of Operations in Colorado. He was accompanied by his daughter, Caroline Courtney.

Ralph Wilson Rowland, BS 1951, MS 1955 Electrical Engineering
Mr. Rowland resides in Silver Spring, MD. After graduating from UMD, Mr. Rowland was employed as an Electrical Engineer with Vitro in Silver Spring, MD for 36 years. From 1982-2004 he served as one of four editors of the Brain Ticklers column in The Bent of Tau Beta Pi, and tutored for the Mechanical Engineering department at UMCP mainly in Statics and Dynamics.

Seymour Schwartz, BS 1951 Electrical Engineering, BS 1990 Information Systems Management
Mr. Schwartz resides in Carroll Valley, PA (near Gettysburg). He was a Mechanical Engineer for the Department of the Navy, and worked for the Department of Defense until his retirement in 1983. Over the years, his job description changed from Mechanical Engineer to Electrical Engineer and then General Engineer when he retired from Fort Ritchie in Cascade, MD. After retirement, he worked for Kentron in Hagerstown, MD, then returned to UMUC and completed another BS degree in Information Systems Management. He was accompanied by his wife, Marie Schabb Schwartz. Mr. & Mrs. Schwartz have two sons and three grandsons.

James Shoemaker, BS 1956 Mechanical Engineering
Mr. Shoemaker resides in Burlington, NJ. He joined the Air Force from MD ROTC and retired after 24 years as LTC, then served as Director of Hospital Engineering for 18 years.

Raymond Tate, BS 1956 Engineering
Mr. Tate currently resides in Mt. Airy, MD. Mr. Tate is the CEO, President and founder of The Windermere Group, LLC, a Maryland company incorporated in 1998. Windermere is engaged in major information technology and security activities with facilities in Annapolis, Columbia and Largo, MD, as well as Reston, VA and Eatontown, NJ. Mr. Tate’s past career included high profile US Government service such as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Navy and Deputy Director of NSA where he served from 1952-1978. The Robert T. Tate Endowed Scholarship was established in 2004 by The Windermere Group, LLC in honor of Mr. Tate’s 80th birthday to provide support for Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Joseph Thomas Kammerer, BS 1961, MS 1964 Civil Engineering, MBA 1969 (University of Rochester, Simon Business School)
Mr. Kammerer resides in Vienna, VA. He is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Department of Defense and Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force. He began his career with the government as a structural research engineer designing ships and submarines for the US Navy. His government career includes a number of senior executive positions with the Navy, NOAA, Department of Commerce, CIA and Department of Energy. His private sector experience includes Chief Financial Officer of the McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company. Mr. Kammerer’s education includes a BS and MS in Engineering from UMD; doctoral studies in Engineering at the Catholic University of America; and an MBA from the Simon School of Business, University of Rochester. All degrees were obtained through scholarships. He was accompanied by his wife, Maureen Kammerer.

Edward Moshang, BS 1961 Electrical Engineering
Mr. Moshang resides in Towson, MD. His entire career was spent in weapons systems development from target detection to final intercept in all phases, bread design to final testing. Although retired from daily problem solving, he has consultant assignments in the investigations of Electromagnetic effects generated by IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) on TBI (Traumatic Brain Injuries). Mr. Moshang enjoyed his entire career, and stated that Engineering has been both challenging and fun. He enjoys hunting and fishing, and spending time with his 11 grandchildren.

Howard Pedolsky, BS 1961 Chemical Engineering
Mr. Pedolsky resides in Rockville, MD. He worked for the US Navy doing R&D on advanced missile propellant systems for the military. In 1966 he was employed by NASA GSFC ultimately serving as operations director for all NASA communications satellites and NOAA weather satellites. His final effort for NASA was developing the mission and KSC ground communications and operations interfaces for space shuttle satellite and experimental systems. Mr. Pedolsky started his own space consulting business in 1978 and was mission director for several NASA research and military space missions; major Star Wars mission STS39 was his final mission. In 2000 he co-developed a cryogenic refrigeration system for commercial vehicles and until retirement in 2009 was CEO of Ukram Industries, which has been marketing and selling these systems worldwide. He was accompanied by his wife, Dorothy Pedolsky.

Jorge Valladares, BS 1961 Civil Engineering
Mr. Valladares currently resides in Bethesda, MD.  Mr. Valladares is a registered Professional Engineer skilled in land planning and development. After graduating from UMD, he joined La Consolidada, S.A. as a Civil Engineer, then later joined the Prince George’s County Health Department, Bureau of Sanitary Engineering, as a Public Health Engineer. From 1967-2008 he worked for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, and served as Chief of Environmental Planning for 31 years. He was accompanied by his wife, Mary Rose Szoka Valladares, BA 1974 Anthropology, MA ’76 American Studies.