Written by Stan Gasner (IndE 6T4)
On July 14, the industrial engineering class of 6T4 had one of their impromptu reunions at the Keating Channel Pub in Toronto.
Our reunions generally are every two to three years or as the occasion requires, such as our 50th anniversary in 2014.
The occasion for the latest reunion was due to our farthest away classmate and oldest member, Bill Mossie (pictured centre), who resides in Los Angeles, deciding to come to Toronto. Bill fought in the Korean War and saw his share of action, is 85 years old and proud of it. Bill’s philosophy is that his metabolism is such that he will live to 105, which means he will have to organize his own reunion-of-one and he can have it in LA.
The attendance was 12 guys and not our normal total of about 18 due to Bill’s short notice. We have a great group and our reunions include spouses who all know each other.
IndE 6T4 started at U of T in 1960 when industrial engineering program still had some basic engineering subjects. We saw our course gradually change to a more systems engineering orientation with all kinds of higher mathematics subjects like control theory, operations research, programming etc. The overall result of our four years gave us a varied education in many fields as well as a good basis of actual engineering.
During our stint at U of T, our class did not just sit around – we took part in the Toike Oike, Athletic Society, Debating, Skule Nite, Ice Palace design, Engineering Stores, Basketball, Football, Hockey, Water Polo, Charities, Grad Ball, IE Club plus a few more.
The main thing that we learned, however, was how to think (and maybe drink). As a result, on graduation, our class entered many varied and impressive fields, such as consulting engineering, manufacturing, computers, medicine, charities, accounting and teaching.
Our class graduated 21 students, and we are still 21. We, unfortunately, lost Marv Mandlebaum in 2009 but also added an honouree 6T4 member, Dave Talbot, a graduate of 6T5. It has been 53 years since we received our degrees from U of T Engineering, and our friendship and bond only grows stronger. I am already looking forward to our next 6T4 reunion in 2019 to celebrate IE’s 55th anniversary.