Summer 2011 - University of Massachusetts Lowell

Classnotes
u CLOSE-UP CLASS OF 2009
James Regis married
Stephanie Broome of New
York last year in an intimate
ceremony among family and
friends, led by Matthew
MacDonald ’06.
René Gauthier passed a note
to Melissa Hanafin in an
Economics class in Pasture
405 in 2004, asking for her
phone number so he could
ask her out. This past February,
René came back to campus
to propose to Melissa in
that very same room. The pair
plan to marry in July 2012.
While at UMass Lowell, René
was a hockey player and finance
major. Melissa was a
softball catcher and graduated
cum laude with a management
and marketing degree.
After graduating, René played
professiona hockey with the
East Coast Hockey League on
the Pensacola Ice Pilots team
in Florida and is now a North
Saoran Roeuth ’09, far right, is a ranger at Lowell’s National Historical Park.
American sports and entertainment
broker dividing his
time between Canada, Michigan
and Massachusetts. Melissa,
after spending almost a
year in the business world at
State Street Bank in Boston
on the international desk,
decided the business world
was not for her and is now
a kindergarten teacher
in Burlington.
2008
Eric Williams has graduated
from the Harvard University
Extension School with a
master of liberal arts in management
with a concentration
in marketing management,
and has established a
business-to-business telemarketing
company named
DartLeads. Eric also won the
laptop cover alumni raffle
for entering class notes.
Filmmaker Ken Burns perhaps said it best, describing the National Parks as
“America’s Best Idea.” Saoran Roeuth ’09, for one, agrees with him.
Roeuth joined the park’s internship program – an effort to increase diversity
among its employees by leading minority students through a structured progression
of training and job immersion to potential permanent employment with National
Parks Service (NPS.)
“I visited 17 National Parks and met with more than 100 NPS employees,
partners and VIPs,” says Roeuth.
“At first, it was just a summer job – a very fun summer job,” says Roeuth. “But
after meeting a number of Park professionals, and seeing their passion for our
parks, I wanted to be a part of it.”
Roeuth brought her niece, Sandra, to Lowell’s National Historical Park, where
she became a junior park ranger, and announced she wanted to be a ranger, just
like her aunt.
“I’m glad to show my nieces and nephews that the parks really are as wonderful
as Burns described,” she says.
2010
Taylor Von Kriegenbergh
came in fourth place out of
417 entrants for his play in
"The Big Event" poker tournament
at the Bicycle Casino
in Los Angeles, where he
played against many poker
legends. “In tournaments like
these, being good and lucky
pays dividends because it’s
always a combination of the
two. I found myself being the
chip leader after Day 4, the
day before the final table
started,” he says. ”I would
have loved to beat them, but
coming in fourth place and…”
taking home $140,000 is
nothing to complain about.”
u CLOSE-UP PROF. EMERITUS
PROF. EMERITUS
SALAMONE ELECTED TO
NATIONAL ACADEMY
Prof. Emeritus Joseph C. Salamone, chief scientific
officer of Rochal Industries LLP in San Antonio,
Texas, has been elected to the National Academy of
Engineering (NAE).
Founded in 1964, the NAE is part of the National
Academies, which also includes the National Academy
of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the
National Research Council. In addition to its role
as adviser to the federal government, the NAE conducts
independent studies to examine important
topics in engineering and technology.
Salamone was recognized for his advances in
ophthalmological devices and wound-healing therapies
as well as for distinguished academic and professional
service. He is credited with developing more than
40 products and product
lines in eye and wound
care that are sold
throughout the world,
and has more than 195
issued and pending U.S.
patents.
While at UMass Lowell,
he served as professor,
chair of the Chemistry Department and dean of the
College of Sciences. At the same time, he cofounded
Polymer Technology Corp., which commercialized
the world’s first high-oxygen-permeable
rigid contact lenses. The company was later sold to
Bausch & Lomb, where he consulted for a number
years, followed by his leadership as vice president of
research. In 1986, he co-founded Rochal Industries,
which has invented and licensed a number of revolutionary
wound-care products.
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