Howard Grossman
PC '52
Howard is a true example of "Not four years, but a lifetime." He has been a great supporter of 15FratRow.Com, providing us with great pictures and info from the 50s. His life has been pretty interesting, even after Pilam, read on....
1952
1998
After graduation in the summer of 1956 I left for southern California to work for Hughes Aircraft and attend UCLA graduate school. I lived in the Pi Lam house there. Rafer Johnson was living in the house at the time. I switched to USC after one year and graduated in 1959 with MSEE degree. I checked software for interceptors while working at Hughes.
In 1960 I went to the Florida homecoming and took a blind date, Karen Sherman, to the activities. We were married six months later and had three children, Debbie now 36, Paul 35 and Michael 32, before we were divorced. I have seven grand children with an eighth due in January 2000.
I went to work for Space Technology Laboratories, now TRW, in 1961 verifying software for the Minuteman I missile. Spent 31 years being responsible for the Minuteman and Peacekeeper software as it grew from 2,000 lines to over several million. Also managed the software development for the abort guidance system for the Lunar Excursion Module that participated in the saving of Apollo 13.
Remarried in 1970 to Kathy Mueller, now Kat, and moved to San Bernardino. Served two four year terms on the city board of education, temple, symphony and concert association boards, headed the fund raising drive to build a museum at California State University San Bernardino and founded START OUT SMART – READ (SOS – READ).
SOS – READ has educated the parents of over 16,000 babies on the importance of reading to infants and children and provided them with an appropriate book. Compiled and edited the “Grossman Family Cookbook” with all proceeds going to cancer research at Loma Linda University and Loma Linda Hospital.
I would not have become an electrical engineer if Stu Lubitz hadn’t roomed with me in the Pi Lam house the first semester of our sophomore year. He kept telling me that I would starve as a math major. Stu also got me to have good study habits. He came through again with a good recommendation when I needed a lawyer for a divorce. Of course being a Pi Lam is for a lifetime.