Wilmer L. Kranich served WPI for 37 years before he retired in 1985. He joined the faculty as an associate professor of chemical engineering in 1948. In 1949, at the age of 29, he was named a full professor, the youngest individual to attain that rank at the Institute. Kranich was head of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from 1958 to 1967 and head of Chemical Engineering from 1967 to 1975. From 1974 until he retired he held the dual posts of professor of chemical engineering and dean of students. He died in 1992.
Ricketts, an electrical engineering major, spent his junior year as an academic exchange student at the Technical University of Darmstadt (THD), where he completed his IQP in German and English. He is a founder of the WPI Jazz Ensemble and a tutor in the ECE and Humanities and Arts departments.
Boynton, a biology major, spends summers in Norway, where her mother lives. For her IQP, she studied the ways in which Norway integrates mentally and physically challenged individuals into society. A member of Tau Beta Pi, Boynton received the Marietta E. Anderson award in 1993. She plans to be a physician.