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Alumni

Founders 2009

WPI officially kicked off the campaign for the new Sports and Recreation Center with a special event on Wednesday, Nov. 18 at Gillette Stadium. Construction will start immediately following the 2010 Commencement, with the facility to be completed by August 2012. WPI seeks to raise $30 million from alumni and friends to support this historic project. The last sports and recreation facility built by WPI is Harrington Auditorium, completed in 1968.

The 140,000-square-foot Sports and Recreation Center is the next major project in the Institute's seven-year capital projects plan. It will be built at the west end of the campus quadrangle, and will overlook the quadrangle to the east and Alumni Field to the west. The building will include fitness facilities and a fitness center, a four-court gymnasium, an indoor running track, rowing tanks, a natatorium with a competition pool, and offices and meeting spaces. Plans also call for large event space that will allow WPI to host conferences, robotics competitions, career fairs, admissions open houses, and alumni events.  

 

Homecoming 2009

Alumni are invited to return to WPI for a weekend full of traditions, friends and family. View the packed schedule of events, class reunion details and travel information.

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Howard Freeman  

alumni

Howard Freeman is not one for complacency. The prominent inventor continues to make discoveries into his retirement and recently said, "To have an invention there has to be a recognized need. If a need presents itself, maybe we'll invent something else."

Name: Howard Freeman '40
Title: Founder, CEO, and Chairman, Retired, Jamesbury Corporation

“ To have an invention there has to be a recognized need. If a need presents itself, maybe we'll invent something else. ”

Howard Freeman '40

Howard Freeman '40 is a world-famous inventor and a true believer in the adage that necessity is the mother of invention.

At the age of 22, he invented the waterfog nozzle, a device that extinguished oil fires with sea water, saving many ships and thousands of lives during World War II. His fire-fighting fogfoam nozzle spared aircraft carriers from destruction during World War II and later saved lives at airports.

He pioneered a high-performance ball valve and founded a highly successful corporation that manufactured valves used in nuclear submarines. His many inventions and discoveries are used for various applications around the world today.

Read more about the fascinating life, and inventions, of Howard Freeman.