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Valley Will
Miss Innovator from Golden Age
By John Michitson
“I really wish we
still lived in the golden age of old school engineering. Those
guys rocked out loud.”
- Engineering colleague
of Author
 The Merrimack Valley
lost an innovator with the passing of my Father, Arthur Michitson,
who died on August 9 (2006) in his hometown of Haverhill after
a bout with cancer. He was an innovator in industry, in his community
and in his family life.
This is the story about an ordinary
person with an extraordinary desire to impact all facets of his
life with an innovative spirit and gobs of tenacity. While Frank
Sinatra sang “My Way,” Arthur Michitson actually did
it his way. His wife, Demetra, who Arthur boasted was “the
best thing that ever happened to me,” contends that he was
so ordinary that he was outstanding.
 After serving his
country during WWII in the Philippines and other places until
1945, he graduated from Northeastern University with a mechanical
engineering degree in 1950. Arthur was employed as a mechanical
engineer at RCA in Burlington, MA for over 20 years. His most
notable accomplishment was his contribution to the design, development
and testing of the Apollo 11 Moon Rocket for the Lunar Excursion
Module (LEM) that enabled the first humans to land on the moon
and return home safely. A friend of mine at work spent considerable
time Googling to find an old NASA test report on the LEM. After
reading it, he said: “I really wish we still lived in the
golden age of old school engineering. Those guys rocked out loud.”
[ Report, “APOLLO
EXPERIENCE REPORT - MISSION
PLANNING FOR LUNAR MODULE DESCENT AND ASCENT”,
is attached to this article. Download
PDF Report Here. ]
Adobe® PDF File Format
- His wife, Demetra, contends
that he was so ordinary that he was outstanding.
This was not merely the design
of an IPod to lure consumers, but a breakthrough scientific endeavor
to stretch our understanding of and penetration into the great
unknown, space, with human lives on the line. The whole world
was watching and holding its breath on July 21, 1969 when the
first astronaut set foot on the moon. Meanwhile, in an ordinary
single-story ranch on 47 Lackey Street in Haverhill, there was
a huge sigh of relief that the mission was completed successfully
and all of the astronauts returned safely.
- This was not merely the design
of an IPod to lure consumers, but a breakthrough scientific endeavor
to stretch our understanding of and penetration into the great
unknown...
Back on the home front in the
1970s, Arthur was trying to take one small step to initiate one
giant leap for his community. He was one of the first activists
to recognize a negative trend in public education performance
in the 1970s. He was an outspoken advocate for higher standards
in public education and better management techniques that he
coined “quality control” to try to help students with
poor academic results so that they would not fall through the
cracks.
He proposed that teachers, administrators,
parents and students work together to identify common problems
across classrooms and school districts, as well as individual
student challenges, and to seek and apply solutions. He referred
to the groups as “quality circles,” an analogy to the
industry best practice at the time that was leveraged to land
the first human on the moon. In the 21st century, they call this
collaboration and every public and private organization in the
world is trying to leverage the collaborative Internet for better
results. He was a firm believer that throwing money at the problem
alone would not reverse the trend. Better approaches were needed.
- Back on the home front in the
1970s, Arthur was trying to take one small step to initiate one
giant leap for his community.
Arthur also suggested that the
collaborative teams with the best results be recognized and rewarded
for their contributions. This view, along with his recommendation
of leveraging “quality control” techniques to help
improve student performance were and are still major points of
contention with many educators and school committees. Arthur,
who was from the old school and Greek heritage, never shied away
from his position or conflict with educators, school committees,
or with anyone on any topic for that matter.
Arthur was a doer. He didn’t
allow the contentious issues to dent his primary mission to help
students. Recently, State Representative Brian Dempsey recalled
Arthur’s candid participation in the State’s Education
Reform hearings that took place in the early 1990s that led to
higher standards for public schools in Massachusetts. What is
still missing is the safety net for the less fortunate (i.e.
quality control), collaborative problem solving (i.e. team approach)
and success recognition and reward. Public school systems generate
scores of test data, but new ways of applying the information
may lead to better results. Unfortunately, today’s remaining
limitations are mired in a bureaucracy that too few are willing
to challenge.
Arthur also became a teacher;
he worked at Minuteman Vo-Tech in Lexington and Whittier Vo-Tech
in Haverhill. He also served a short term on Whittier Vo-Tech’s
School Committee. Arthur participated in Northeastern University’s
outreach program that shared best practices in math and science
with public schools and he often participated in the Nettle Middle
School’s annual science fair. My father and I initiated
a “one-on-one” homework help program at the Haverhill
Boy’s club, and together we founded Danny’s Friends
mentoring program for Haverhill’s youth, which is in its
12th year and is being capably run by Children’s Friend
Inc.
Arthur continued to innovate
on behalf of his community. While in his seventies, he and his
best friend, Edmond Daly (they graduated from Haverhill High
School together), organized the Haverhill Taxpayer’s Association
to oversee the city tax structure on behalf of residential homeowners,
including seniors on a fixed income. Early on, Arthur went door
to door and recruited several hundred members. In recent years,
Arthur and Ed would carry the load and call upon a couple dozen
long term members when they needed support. As always, Arthur
and Ed would not shy away from the contentious issues, such as
tax overrides and tax classification, which occasionally pitted
them against their son and daughter respectively, who served
on the City Council together.
Arthur demonstrated his innovative
spirit for his family. It was crucial because it underscored
the importance and value of a sound education for his two sons,
my brother Jim and I. Arthur and our mother worked hard to finance
our college educations, so that we would have a solid foundation
for our futures. They also emphasized the need to participate
in our community. Jim is a chemist for the city and is Haverhill’s
first emergency management director, which is a very serious
matter in the 21st century. He is very innovative in trying to
meet critical safety needs with few resources. Due in large part
to my top campaign helper, my Father, I had the honor to serve
on the Haverhill City Council for 10 years, including my last
two years as President. It is also no surprise that my current
job in electrical engineering for the MITRE Corporation is to
help extend the Internet to space using future satellite networking
technology.
It is an honor and privilege
that Arthur Michitson is my Dad. We miss him every day.
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