Real Joseph Balthazar ’62 of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., died on August 21, 2010. Real was born in 1932 in Albans, Vt., close to the Canadian border, 1where he grew up with his two sisters and his mother during the Great Depression. His father died in 1937. Drafted to serve during the Korean1 War in 1950, Real actually served in Europe as an interpreter because of his fluency in French. In 1953, he joined the merchant marine as a seaman on the Great Lakes until 1958 when his captain persuaded him to go to college. He was 26 when he enrolled at Mines and began work on his degree in metallurgical engineering. Real went to work in the California aerospace industry with Sargent Air Rite Aerospace Company and served as a titanium expert on the Apollo program. In 1979, he moved to Hughes Aircraft Company where he focused on failure analysis before transitioning into the rapidly growing field of computers. Passionate about skiing, climbing, hiking, biking and nature, Real retired to Mammoth Lakes in the 1990s. He is survived by his longtime friend, Suzan Carne; sisters, Mariette Moreau and Gil Marie Balthazar; and nieces and nephews in England, Texas and Vermont.