Walter Bevilacqua
Career, Education, Military Experience:
After graduation I went back to Italy where I graduated from high school again, as we have a 13 year school system. Then I took a 5 year degree in electronics engineering – roughly equivalent to a masters in the US system –from Politecnico di Milano. After a short while I went on and got an MBA from the Harvard Business School in Boston. I did my bit of national service as a second lieutenant in the Italian air force, looking after the avionics for two wings of fighter bombers as well as other assorted on board and ground radar electronics. I’ve been working in industry since, with jobs in the chemical, information technology and, for the most part, pharmaceutical industry. I’ve worked mainly in Italy, but also in Switerland and, in the mid-80s, in New York City. I’m still working full time, although I don’t expect that to last very long now.
Favorite Memories of Weber High:
I have many, but let me share with you my very first impression when I arrived. First, I landed in New York after an ocean crossing on a boat, full of young students like me, after several exciting days including a mid-Atlantic storm. I was already tired when we landed, as well as overwhelmed with the new experience. It must have been a Thursday. Then a group of us was put on a bus and driven overnight to Chicago, with a few dropped off in various places. Some stayed in the area. A German girl and myself were put on a plane to Salt Lake City. Friday morning. We were on our own – or it felt that way to us, tired, lost, the plane had to be changed for a mechanical problem. It was my first flight, probably hers too, and she cried profusely over my shoulder. Eventually we got to Salt Lake where I was picked up by my American family, the Woods. Mst of you will remember coach Mel Wood, and what a great and open hearted man he was. The rest of the family was, and is, great too, and I can never be thankful enough to them for all they’ve done for me. It’s our first meeting, and I realize how little real life spoken English I understand, much less am able to speak. So, it’s now Friday afternoon, and on directly to Weber High. Now, school had started already, and it was the opening day of the football season. So the student body – you guys – was gathered in the gym for the first pep rally of the year. Now you should know that in the schools I was used to we have no football, no assembly in the gym, no pep rally, no cheerleading, and so on. So there I am, dead tired, totally lost, and I don’t quite know what’s going on and what to make of all this. But the baptism of fire is yet to come. Walter, the new exchange student, is now called on – which he never expected – to be introduced to the student body and the faculty. A mike is put in hs hand, and he is asked to say something. Walter is not used to speaking in public, much less in a language he has trouble understanding and in which he has more trouble articulating something halfway sensible. It was a trying moment, but Walter stood up to it as best as he could. I guess I mumbled something which must have sounded barely coherent, and very funny, to you all. But you were kind, understanding, and welcoming, and I got my share of undeserved cheers, for which I thank you. Sorry if I’ve taken a while, but this is in a way a paradigm of my year at Weber High and, more generally, in Utah. New, difficult in the beginning, very different. Meeting lots of new people, with whom initially I have trouble communicating but who fortunately are forthcoming and well meaning. Gradually overcoming the language barrier – come Christmas, I found myself dreaming in English. Understanding that there are many ways of doing things, and that different ways can be as good as, and sometimes better than, what one as grown up with. And gradually becoming one of the guys, a member and a part of the community, and coming to love it. A fantastic growing up experience. Thanks for letting me share it with you. For the occasion, I picked up the yearbook, and went through what many of you wrote for me. Going over it, I hope and trust that not only I learned I lot, but I also shared and left something of me, at least with those I knew best.
Have you traveled? where? why?:
Milan to Utah and back with a bus trip through the US with stops in different communities to Washington DC was a good start. I took a liking to going to places and didn’t stop. I have lived in different cities and countries to study and work, and gone around a fair bit both for my job and for pleasure. As an example of a great trip, in the summer of 1970 a team of four guys, including myself, drove a VW beetle from Milan to the Khyber pass, which is the border post between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and back through, among others, Iran, Iraq and Syria, cmping out most of the time. Those were simpler but in many ways better days, it would be foolhardy to do it now. I hope I can continue to see new places for a few years longer.
Hobbies/Interests:
Was and am an avid reader. Not much of a sportsman, but I did become quite a reasonable skier and enjoy sailing – for I time I had a 470 dinghy – and a bit of windsurfing. A fairly useless golfer, but I do enjoy going out on the course. Above all, a family man.