March 26, 2019: Crossword Champ Feyer ’99; NYT on Mueller ’66’s Return to Private Life

Crossword whiz Dan Feyer ’99 won a record eighth title at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Stamford, Conn., March 24. (Stella Zawistowski ’00 placed fourth.) Read about the tournament in The New York Times and revisit PAW’s 2013 feature on Feyer.

Robert Mueller III ’66 kept a low profile as special counsel, and friends and colleagues expect he will continue to avoid the public eye now that his investigation has been completed. — The New York Times

Former Federal Aviation Administration administrator Michael Huerta *80 says that in reviewing the FAA’s initial certification of the Boeing 737 Max, “it is important for us to consider not only the decisions that were made, but how they were made.” — NPR
 
Dennis Markatos-Soriano *08, executive director of the East Coast Greenway Alliance, discusses the group’s continuing work to add trails and signage to its Maine-to-Florida bicycle route. — USA Today
 
Ariel Investments CEO John Rogers ’80 jokes that there is one downside to working alongside company president Mellody Hobson ’91: “[S]lowly but surely, your friends and associates stop calling you because they’re calling her.” — Crain’s Chicago Business
 
Economist Emily Glassberg Sands ’09, the head of data science at Coursera Inc., is lead author of a new study that found the United States workforce lags behind Europe in technology and data-science skills. — Bloomberg 

 “Other teams’ analytics guys, they just see the numbers from a computer, from a piece of paper. He’s seeing it in-game, in-person …”

— Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Tommy Pham on Jonathan Erlichman ’12, the first major-league analytics coach to wear a uniform (No. 97) and sit in the dugout with the rest of the coaching staff. Read more about Erlichman in The Wall Street Journal.

Rajiv Vinnakota ’93, who co-founded the SEED Foundation and most recently led the youth and engagement division of the Aspen Institute, was selected to be the next president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. — The Chronicle of Philanthropy
 
In a recent interview, transportation entrepreneur Stephen E. Still *85, an engineering Ph.D. who got his start at the University of Buffalo, spoke about the power of public universities to change the trajectories of their students. — The Buffalo News
 
Socialism has different meanings to different people, according to Lawrence University historian Jerald Podair *97, with some emphasizing government services and others focusing on its “confiscatory” elements. — Appleton Post-Crescent
 
To mark World Down Syndrome Day March 21, author Amy Julia Becker ’98 wrote about how her daughter Penny, who has Down syndrome, has helped shape the priorities that her family values most. — Hartford Courant

After carding his first hole-in-one, former President George W. Bush thanked playing partner Ken Hersh ’85, the CEO of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, for his helpful coaching. — Golf.com
  
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor ’76 is among this year’s 10 inductees to the National Women’s Hall of Fame; the ceremony will be held in September in Seneca Falls, N.Y. — Associated Press