Vernon Armour
Lake Forest, Ill., Illinois Institute of Technology Life Trustee, was the great-grandson of Philip Danforth Armour, who responded to Reverend Frank Wakely Gunsaulus’s “Million-Dollar Sermon” with a donation in that amount to found Armour Institute, the predecessor to Armour College of Engineering. Vernon Armour had a career in investment management and was active in various civic organizations in Chicago and Lake Forest. Vernon was a member of Illinois Tech’s Philip Danforth Armour Society, which was named in honor of his great-grandfather and recognizes families who have made transformational gifts of $1 million or more in support of the university’s mission.
Bahman Atefi
McLean, Va., served as president and chief executive officer of IIT Research Institute (IITRI) before becoming president and chief executive officer of Alion Science and Technology Corporation in 2002. He spent 15 years at Science Applications International Corporation, last serving as senior vice president of the company’s Energy and Environment Group, before joining IITRI. Atefi formed the new employee-owned Alion from the sale of the majority of IITRI’s assets. In 2017 Atefi left those positions to assume the role of vice chairman of the Alion Board of Directors. He was elected to the Illinois Tech Board of Trustees in 2003.
Charles Bauer
Norridge, Ill., professor emeritus, began teaching computer science courses at Illinois Tech in 1962 and retired from the university earlier this year. One of Bauer’s notable achievements was coordinating a noncredit Saturday program in the 1960s to help advance computer education for high school students; more than 15,000 students and 1,200 teachers participated. Bauer also taught Introduction to Programming to Illinois Tech students and wrote a number of self-instruction guides on programming languages. All four of his children are Illinois Tech alumni including Matthew Bauer (MATH ’86, M.S. ’87), a senior lecturer of computer science at the university.
Frank Crossley
CHE ’45, M.S. MET ’47, Ph.D. ’50, Attleboro, Mass., was recognized as being the first African-American United States Navy officer, the first person to earn a Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology, and the first person of African ancestry in the world to earn a Ph.D. in the field. Crossley entered into the historic naval V-12 program at Illinois Tech, and his outstanding leadership as an officer influenced then-President Harry S. Truman to ban discrimination in the military in 1948. As a metallurgist, Crossley obtained seven patents and invented a new class of titanium alloys.
Dolores Hanna
LAW ’52, Chicago, was an award-winning trademark attorney who worked to encourage the advancement of women in the legal profession throughout her career. She served as the first woman president of the International Trademark Association among other organizations and chaired the federal Trademark Review Commission in the 1980s. Hanna founded the trademark practice at Bell, Boyd & Lloyd (now K&L Gates) and retired from the firm in 2006. Chicago-Kent College of Law honored Hanna with the Professional Achievement Award in 1995 and named her among the 125 Alumni of Distinction in 2013.
Richard Jaffee
Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology Life Trustee, was president (1960) and then chief executive officer (1962) of Oil-Dri Corporation of America. He retired in 2001 and served as chairman until his passing. Before joining Oil-Dri, Jaffee, a certified public accountant, had a brief career at Deloitte & Touche and served as an officer in the United States Army. He was active in various civic and philanthropic efforts and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Illinois Tech in 2001.
Arthur Paul
Chicago, Illinois Tech attendee, was the founding designer and art director of Playboy magazine who created the iconic rabbit head that became the instantly recognizable symbol of the Playboy corporation, headed then by Hugh Hefner. Paul served in the United States Army Air Corps then enrolled at the Institute of Design, where he took courses for four years. The subject of numerous articles and a documentary slated for release later this year, Paul was the recipient of many awards including a Professional Achievement Award from the Illinois Tech Alumni Association in 1983.
Nicholas Thomopoulos
Ph.D. IE ’66, Burr Ridge, Ill., served as a faculty member at Illinois Tech for 44 years and advised 32 Ph.D. students on the completion of their theses before retiring in 2010 as professor emeritus. He published more than 70 papers and 11 books including 100 Years: From Greece to Chicago and Back, a memoir about growing up in a Greek immigrant neighborhood in the city. In 2009 Thomopoulos received the Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award from Illinois Tech. His wife, Elaine, and their three daughters are all Illinois Tech alumnae.