MSU Alumni Magazine, Fall 2004 issue - MSU Alumni Association ...

SPAR10-PL8S—In August this
group gathered at the Ralph
Young Women’s Field Hockey
complex to show off their personalized
license plates honoring
MSU. In the background is the
steel frame of the new addition
to Spartan Stadium. The group
currently boasts 240 members.
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SOUTHERNMOST SPARTAN—
You can’t go further south than
this MSU cap, which was placed
on the ceremonial post marking
the South Pole and photographed
by TSgt. John R. Rayome
of the 109th Airlift Wing
(139th Airlift Squadron), Stratton
Air National Guard Base,
Scotia, New York. A huge MSU
fan, Rayome is married to
Suzanne Alden, ’83. He travels
to Antarctica every year to support
the National Science Foundation
mission in Antarctica.
When he had the opportunity to
visit the South Pole on Nov. 15,
2001, he took his MSU cap
along for this photo op. By the
way, the photo was taken at 12
midnight.
SPARTAN CODEBREAKERS
KEYED VICTORY IN WWII
Given the popularity of The
Da Vinci Code, America is fascinated
with codes and codebreakers.
It turns out two of the
greatest code breakers in American
history are both Spartans.
Nearly a decade ago, the
MSU Alumni Magazine profiled
David Mead (Spring 1995), an
English professor who taught at
MSU from 1948 until his retirement
in 1981. Mead was
the U.S. cryptanalyst who
broke the Japanese military
code in April 1943, thus giving
the U.S. armed forces a tremendous
military advantage.
Mead's role, for which he won a
Legion of Merit in 1945, was
not publicly known until he revealed
it in a magazine story on
the 50th anniversary of Japan's
surrender.
Now, the MSU Alumni Magazine
has learned that Mead was
not the only Spartan codebreaker
whose efforts helped win
World War II. The chief U.S.
cryptanalyst for the U.S. War
Dept. from 1941-47 was Col.
William Frederick Friedman,
who broke the major Japanese
diplomatic code in 1940. Incredibly,
Friedman is an MSU
alumnus, having attended
Michigan Agricultural College
as a student in Fall 1910.
Friedman's breakthroughhelped
the U.S. in many ways,
among them the planning for
the Battle of Midway, where
Admiral Nimitz was able to
fight off a superior Japanese
force. Born in 1891 in
Kishinez, Russia, Friedman and
his family emigrated to the U.S.
in 1893 to escape anti-semitism.
He died in 1969 and is
buried in Arlington National
Cemetery. How Friedman came
to attend MAC is not known,
but Mead, who still lives in East
Lansing, was pleasantly amused
when told of his colleague's affiliation
with MSU. "Yes, I
knew Friedman," he said.
"What an incredible coincidence."
PAGE 54
FALL 2004
MSU ALUMNI MAGAZINE