Gear Society Member Spotlight: Richard (Dick) Magee ’63 M.S. ’64 Sc.D. ’68
Richard (Dick) Magee ’63 M.S. ’64 Sc.D. ’68 considers his Gear Society membership one way to give back to the university that he feels gave him so much.
When Magee was a 10-year-old earning pocket change by helping an elderly neighbor clear the “clinker” – the burned-out pieces of coal – from her furnace, he couldn’t have imagined the opportunities and adventures that would come his way as a result of his Stevens education.
“My parents were relatively poor,” he says. “My father, born in Ireland, made a living as a milkman. By the sixth grade I was delivering a morning newspaper while working whatever extra jobs I could on the weekends and in the summer to earn extra money.”
Magee did well in high school, especially when it came to math and science. His guidance counselor encouraged him to study engineering and apply to Stevens. With a scholarship to Stevens and $1,500 that he had saved from his after-school and weekend jobs, Magee became the first in his family to attend college.
Even though he had never played the sport before, Magee joined the Stevens lacrosse team. In his senior year he became co-captain of the team as well as president of Tau Beta Pi, the honorary engineering society. “Both activities helped me develop as a leader,” he says. “Practices, games, and meetings kept me on campus for long hours, which was challenging for a commuter student like me. Fortunately, Stevens continued to support me and by the spring of my junior year I was financially able to move onto campus.”
Magee was prepared to launch his career at Bell Labs when he was approached by Stevens Professor Robert McAlevy to apply for a NASA scholarship to study for a doctorate in M.E. at Stevens. “As an undergraduate I really enjoyed teaching and preparing student groups for major exams,” he says. “Stevens offered me the scholarship to earn my Sc.D., and I decided to pursue becoming a professor. I was a member of the faculty in the Mechanical Engineering department until 1987, when I took on a role at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) leading an environmental center.”
Stevens was always, and remains, close to Magee’s heart. “I thank Providence for leading me to Stevens, and I have immense gratitude for the opportunities that my Stevens education afforded me,” he says. “I have traveled the world, served on United Nations and NATO committees, and was part of exciting projects. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without Stevens. I cannot be more thankful.”
Magee, who received the Stevens Lifetime Service Award in 2019, has expressed his Stevens pride, as well as his gratitude to the university, through over 50 years of consecutive annual giving. “Sustained annual giving allows the university to plan,” he points out. “Plus, it is healthy to remind yourself at least once a year of the value that Stevens has brought to your career. Think about the opportunities you have enjoyed because of Stevens, what you have learned and what experiences you have had, and then give accordingly!”
