2020 Spotlight on Philanthropy

These articles originally appeared in the 2020 Engineering @ Northeastern magazine.

Hard Work Pays Off

David House, ME’69
photo courtesy of David House

NO ONE KNOWS THE VALUE OF HARD WORK more than David House, ME’69, electrical engineering. Growing up in Muskegon, Michigan, where nearly everyone worked in a factory, House had an early love of science and a dream of becoming an engineer.

But because he lacked the financial resources to spend four years at a university, he attended Muskegon Community College for general education credits―then transferred to Michigan Technological University, where he ambitiously crammed three years of study into two, earning his BS in Electrical Engineering in 1965.

The value of education

“It was a great time to graduate as an engineer, and I received 19 job offers from all over the U.S.,” recalls House. “I worked hard for those opportunities, and I wanted to explore them all.” He only had one caveat: He wanted to work near a leading engineering university, where he could earn a master’s degree. The winning combination turned out to be a job at Raytheon and a graduate degree in the (then) Department of Electrical Engineering at Northeastern. “I was attracted to the broad range of classes at Northeastern and the faculty’s industry experience,” House says. “It was the hands-on, problem-solving nature of the engineering curriculum that attracted me.”

For three-and-a-half years, House worked a full-time job at Raytheon while attending classes from 6 to 9 p.m. at Northeastern. “When I wasn’t working or in the classroom, I was doing homework,” House states. “I capitalized on the opportunity to learn everything I could, including computer design and digital systems.” Those skills paid off in 1974 when he was recruited by a little-known, $68 million company in Northern California called Intel. In a wildly successful 23-year career at Intel, House rose to senior vice president, coining the famous tagline “Intel Inside” and leading the development of the revolutionary 386, 486 and Pentium microprocessors. As general manager for microprocessors, he grew that business from $40 million to $4 billion in revenues.

Paying it forward

These days, David House owns House Family Vineyards on 73 acres of Silicon Valley real estate that he started amassing in the early 1990s. He spends time with his children and grandchildren, who live nearby. He enjoys racing cars, yachting, and heli-skiing.

Equally important to House is giving back to organizations like Northeastern’s College of Engineering that helped fuel his success. Since 2012, House has served on Northeastern’s Board of Trustees.

Currently he and his wife, Devi Kamdar, are helping to finance a much-needed renovation of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Lab in Hayden Hall. The new facility will include a teaching laboratory and a maker space that encourage the kinds of hands-on problem-solving House experienced at Northeastern 50 years ago.

Why is it so important for House to support this project? “Education is one of the most powerful gifts you can give to someone,” he explains. “I grew up modestly and improved my circumstances, in part, because of the education I received in the College of Engineering. I want to give younger people those same opportunities to learn and advance themselves.”

I grew up modestly and improved my circumstances, in part, because of the education I received in the College of Engineering. I want to give younger people those same opportunities to learn and advance themselves. David House, ME '69

Giving Back and Forward

Loretta and Bob Maddock, E’72
photo courtesy of the Maddocks

WHEN IT COMES TO SUPPORTING his alma mater, Bob Maddock, E’72, is proud to follow the example set by his father Tom, a 1942 Northeastern graduate who, like his son, earned a chemical engineering degree, achieved professional success, and went on to give back to the university through generous financial support.

The first in his family to attend college, Tom Maddock endowed two undergraduate scholarships—The Davies Semple Maddock Engineering Scholarship and the Davies Semple Maddock Health Scholarship—to benefit future engineering and nursing students, the latter in honor of his wife and daughter who were nurses.

Today Bob and his wife Loretta, who is also a chemical engineer, are poised to continue that philanthropic tradition with a significant gift through their estate. The majority of their gift will establish a first-of-its-kind graduate fellowship in chemical engineering—a key recruiting tool for Northeastern—while the remainder will fund an undergraduate scholarship.

As a steward for his father’s scholarship, Bob visited Northeastern as often as possible with Loretta to meet with scholarship recipients and professors and sit in on classes, experiences that left the couple consistently impressed with both the growth of the college and the caliber of students and faculty. It was a meeting with Chemical Engineering Professor Rebecca Carrier and her grad students that ultimately inspired the couple’s desire to create their own plan to give back. “I sensed at that meeting that both Rebecca and her grad students struggled with finances,” says Bob. “The school wants to attract and retain a high level of student and it’s expensive to go to school and live in the Boston area. Those are the sorts of things that cemented our idea to go ahead and establish something to support the university and students.”

“We spent a lot of time figuring out what we could do,” says Loretta who credits Senior Development Officer Kit McCarthy and Carrier for providing help and direction as the couple considered various options. “Funding a graduate fellowship enables Northeastern to attract top candidates and enhances the quality of engineering education,” she says. “We think grad level students have already established a commitment to an engineering career by completing the undergrad program. And this fellowship would allow that person to establish a career in teaching or research.”

“When you start to reach the age I’m at, you start to think about the mark you have left and what you can do for the future,” says Bob. “There was an opportunity for us to give back and give forward. We wanted to do something more forward looking, something that would help the university as much as the students.”

“This is our first opportunity to give back on a big scale,” adds Loretta. “For us, it’s very meaningful and we can see what impact it has. You don’t have to have millions to make a difference in this world. Having the ability to go forward with this plan, it just feels good.”

As the Maddocks move ahead with their philanthropic support, the family’s generational connection to Northeastern continues: their niece, Katherine Hall, attends Bouve’s nursing school, pursuing the same career as many of her family members. “She’s in her second year and loves it,” says Bob.

 

Living the American Dream

Diana and David Salmon, ME’65
photo courtesy of the Salmons

GROWING UP IN RURAL NEW ZEALAND, David Salmon, ME’65, electrical engineering, seized every technical opportunity, building radios, electric motors, and model planes from scratch.

His school-vacation jobs included laboring on wharfs, houses, and barns. He scraped sludge from the feeder of a fertilizer factory and the tanks of a paper mill. He surveyed land for a new road and measured the strength of concrete samples.

“I realized I would not be satisfied with any of those jobs as a career,” Salmon says. “I was motivated to continue studying.”

Salmon earned his BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Auckland. He worked a year for the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation. At that time, they were introducing television to the country. The work was interesting, but he still was not satisfied.

Professor Bogle, of the University of Auckland, visited U.S. engineering schools. On Bogle’s recommendation, Northeastern University accepted Salmon sight-unseen as a lab assistant, enabling him to secure an immigrant visa.

The Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Northeastern, Dr. Clayton, met Salmon and his wife, Diana, at the Boston airport with an advance check for $500. That enabled them to buy groceries and pay rent.

From 1963 to 1965, Salmon earned his master’s degree at Northeastern, while Diana worked as an administrative assistant in the College of Engineering co-op program. The then Dean Scott was a welcoming mentor. His excellent textbooks were a revelation. “I was learning rapidly, and between the earnings of Diana and myself, we were saving more than we had been earning in New Zealand.”

An entrepreneur is born

Salmon next traveled to the University of Illinois to earn his PhD. Upon graduation, he spent a year at Stanford Research Institute, then joined Systems Control—a think tank that solved technology problems for the military. He left the company in 1975 to chase his own dream.

Salmon tried twice to found technology start-ups. With his brother, an engineer at Intel, he formed a company to develop a thermal printer. The idea had merit and the company gained venture capital, but it failed due to inability to manufacture thin-film print heads at adequate yield and cost. Then he led an effort to develop manufacturing management software. That failed due to inadequate financial backing and marketing acumen.

Salmon wrote software to support his own trading. After five years of solo effort, he made an alliance with Campbell and Company, a commodity trading advisor. For the next 25 years, his code made the buy and sell recommendations, as the firm grew from $1 million to $1 billion in invested capital.

Looking back ― and giving back

At 80 years of age, Salmon still writes code for his own use. After undergoing open-heart surgery in 2019, he looks back at critical moments in his life. “Northeastern’s hospitality to me and Diana comes immediately to mind,” states Salmon. “We are grateful and will include the College of Engineering in our estate plan.”

“Northeastern took my knowledge to a new level, forming the foundation for my success. My journey to America was life-changing.”

 

A Planned Gift: It’s Just Good Chemistry

Jeffrey and Diane Kontoff

Jeffrey Kontoff, E’74, ME’76, knew that landing a full-time job during the deep recession of the mid-1970s would be challenging. As a chemical engineering major at Northeastern, he had held co-ops in his home state of Connecticut—but after earning his bachelor’s degree, the economy tightened and businesses pulled back on hiring.

“There weren’t many companies interviewing or hiring,” Kontoff recalls. So, he opted to pursue his master’s degree at Northeastern, also in chemical engineering, hoping that the job market would improve in time. It did, and after a fortuitous conversation with the head of the department, Kontoff secured an interview at Monsanto in Springfield, Massachusetts. The economy was on an upswing and he was hired.

“Northeastern was directly responsible for me getting my first job, in addition to my education,” says Kontoff. “I moved out to western Massachusetts and spent my career with Monsanto.”

When talking about the university’s influence on their lives, Kontoff and his wife, Diane, include their extended family. “Our son studied music business at Northeastern, and a couple of my cousins went there too,” he shares. Diane’s aunt and uncle are also alumni, and “Jeff and I both have a big family connection to Northeastern,” she adds.

Visiting Northeastern now, the couple is impressed with the changes on the Boston campus, from new buildings to academic progress. “The engineering department is really focused on research and solving cutting-edge problems,” says Kontoff.

Kontoff knows that Northeastern made a difference in his life, and he has decided to do the same for future students. Through a simple estate gift intention to the university, he is including beneficiary designations in a trust and retirement plan. Inspired by Northeastern’s commitment to research, Kontoff encourages graduates to visit the campus to see how much it’s changed.

Proud of the university’s global reach, Kontoff adds, “It’s been a remarkable transformation.”

Northeastern was directly responsible for me getting my first job. Jeffrey Kontoff, E’74, ME’76