I’m guessing y’all want to know from where the title arises.

Back when I was at MIT, we had T-shirts and sweatshirts made up.  On the front, they said “MIT, PhD, Money” in circular fashion.  In the center of that circle, one found Mickey Mouse.  (So you know, “mickey mouse” was vernacular for something way too easy to essay.)  On the back was the MIT logo of the time- Building 10, the Dome.  And, the  ditty was sung to the tune used by the Mouseketeers.

The design lasted long enough for me to have bought a T-shirt or two (plus one sweatshirt) for my eldest daughter.  But, the design violated trademark and copyright rules.  (No, we did not have permission to use the Mickey Mouse image.)  So, the depiction above is a very poor rendition of the quality of our shirts from way back when.  Because cease and desist was the order of the day.

And, now back to the recently departed.

Samuel Wright Bodman III wasn’t a professor at MIT very long.  But, after obtaining his PhD from MIT in 1965, he became the head for the School of Chemical Engineering Practice.  That is the oldest ‘school’ at MIT; one with no dean and where every student learns and operates off-campus.  This special program involves lots of practical experience, so if one is opting for an industrial career, its graduates almost always are on the fast track to success.  (David Koch dumped a lot of money into the program in the 1990s, thereby ensuring its continued existence, when the funding [and rationale for the school] was being called into question.)  Bodman’s experience as the Director led him to author the book, The Industrial Practice of Chemical Process Engineering.

After teaching at MIT, he switched careers to that of venture capital.  First, he became the Technical Director of American Research & Development Corporation, a position he left to head up FMR (the owner of Fidelity).  Sam was the guy who convinced an unknown researcher, Peter Lynch, to head up the Magellan Fund.

In 1987, he left FMR to serve as the Chair and CEO for the Cabot Corporation.   While one of its business sectors was LNG (liquid natural gas); it had failed in its diversification into ceramics and semi-conductors.  But, by 2000, he dumped the LNG business and had Cabot firmly ensconced in carbon black, inkjet printer pigments, and other chemicals used in the burgeoning electronic component markets.

14 years later, he was appointed Deputy Secretary of Commerce and then became Deputy Secretary of the Treasury within 3 years.  A few months later, he became the Secretary of Energy, where he served from 2005 through 2009.  (All these were under Bush I).  His tenure at energy involved revitalizing the nuclear energy segment (and the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository) and a significant push into biofuels as an alternative fuel.  Dr, Bodman also was the guy who terminated FutureGen- the clean coal project that had been started back in 2003.  (It was clear it wasn’t going to capture carbon dioxide and stored, at reasonable costs.)  That was the same concept that the current resident of the White House believes is the way to go.

One of his biggest complaints about the government was its“stove-piping”-  the compartmentalization of each function that the government effected.  As such, he realized that a ‘vision’- whether it was for energy development or manufacturing- was unlikely to ever reach fruition. 

Oh- Dr. Bodman also was a Republican who understood science- especially the first law of thermodynamics.  He urged the White House to develop plans to combat global warming.  But, being one of the very, very few espousing that scientific thought, his party’s pushback led him nowhere in that quest. 

There’s still time for my special offer re: the new tax law and your business. You can find the offer particulars here.   And, it involves you purchasing my book (at a very reasonable price!)

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