Bob Graham
Tireless College of Engineering Supporter

Bob Graham (BSE NAME '45, MSE '48), recipient of the 2001 Alumni Society Distinguished Service Award and a chair of the Engineering Alumni Society Board of Governors, passed away April 17, 2006. Throughout his years as a Michigan Engineering advocate, Graham contributed his time and talent to numerous projects and activities, serving as a National Advisory Committee member and an advisor on the Tauber Manufacturing Institute\'d5s Industry Advisory Board. Graham was president of the operations consulting firm RCG Associates, a Ford Motor Company vice president and head of Ford's Diversified Products Operations.

NAME - 125 Years of Excellence

The Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering (NAME) has been on the University of Michigan campus for 125 years, a distinguished period that tracks back to an 1879 Congressional act authorizing the U. S. Navy to assign a few officers to engineering colleges around the country. Those who made their way to the U-M campus became the students of Mortimer E. Cooley, the first professor in the department.

NAME's year-long celebration has included highlights such as the establishment of the Richard B. Couch Professorship in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, a gift of John C. Couch (BSE '63, MSE '64) and the department's first endowed professorship. Just prior to the presentation of the Couch Professorship, the audience heard from Harry Benford (BSE '40), a professor emeritus and a modern-day legend whose U-M NAME career spanned more than half the life of the department.

The year also featured the Captain Ralph R. and Florence Peachman Lecture, in which Peter Tang-Jensen, executive vice president, Odense Steel Shipyard, Ltd., delivered a talk entitled "There Is Nothing Like Experience! My 10 Commandments about Ship Design and Engineering."

The conclusion of the year-long 125th Anniversary festivities began Sunday, May 14, with a reception at the U-M Museum of Art. On Monday, May 15, leaders in the maritime world presented their views of the naval industry's future and the contributions that research universities such as the U-M can make. A series of afternoon panels and an evening banquet rounded out the celebration.

Cejka Family Scholarships Honor Patriarch

A $1-million gift from the Joseph B. Cejka and Florence V. Cejka Endowed Scholarship Fund will be providing needs-based scholarships for engineering students throughout their University of Michigan careers. The new fund, established to memorialize Cejka (MSE ME '40) and Florence, his wife, is earmarked to help students from Michigan's Wayne County, where Cejka was raised.

This scholarship gift came at the request of his daughter, Barbara Littleton (BS '68, MS '69) and her husband, David Littleton (MBA '66) of Orchard Lake, Michigan. The awards also reflect the wishes of the Cejkas\'d5 other daughter, the late Mary Cejka Sytsma (BA '65, MA '66).

Along with the gift to endow the scholarship fund, the Foundation gave $50,000 to be used immediately for the first wave of Cejka Scholars, six of whom were named in fall 2004.

Emmett Leith, 1927 - 200

Emmett Leith, the Schlumberger Professor of Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, passed away December 23, 2005, at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor. Leith, a revered CoE faculty member for 52 years, was one of the early innovators of holography in the 1960s.

Leith received bachelor's and master's degrees in physics, and a doctorate in electrical engineering, all from Wayne State University. He received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Aberdeen. His research touched areas such as synthetic aperture radar, optical processing and holography.

At the Optical Society's 1964 spring conference, Leith and other College of Engineering researchers displayed a revolutionary laser-transmission hologram that proved to be a dramatic first step in developments that made life easier, safer and more efficient. Double-exposed holograms, for example, provided data that improved the design of containers for the transport and storage of nuclear materials.

Aircraft engineers used holography to visualize shockwaves and pinpoint the areas of greatest stress on wings and turbine blades. Forensic scientists have used holograms to uncover mysteries in the body. Optical computers use holography to store data. And today's everyday credit cards use holograms to record and store information.

Leith authored or coauthored about 200 papers. He was a fellow of IEEE, the Optical Society of America and the International Society for Optical Engineering, and was an honorary member of the Engineering Society of Detroit. He received numerous awards, including the Liebmann Award of IEEE, the Herbert Ives Medal of OSA, the Gold Medal of SPIE, the Progress Medal of the Royal Photographic Society of Britain, and the National Medal of Science. He was a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Leith is survived by June, his wife of 49 years, their two daughters, Pam Wilder of San Jose, California, and Kim Leith of Baltimore, Maryland, and three grandchildren.

This was the environment that Michigan Engineering students found when they showed up in Quito as part of a contingent of U-M physicians and students who volunteered for a three-month stint during which they provided medical treatment, tutored children and constructed community facilities. College of Engineering students worked with an Ecuadorian engineer to build a community shower.

Undergraduate Heejung Hong came back to North Campus with a feeling of satisfaction. ìI got to contribute something in a very practical way,î he said, ìand when I left, I knew this facility was there for them. It was my reward to know I helped them.