Assistant Dean of Students Neal Dorow scored a landslide victory in the Big Screw election, raising $979.97 in the Lobby 10 voting held April 3-7. Professor Donald E. Troxel of electrical engineering and computer science finished second with $640.19.
Overall, $2,909.16 was raised at a penny per vote for 11 candidates and write-ins. Dean Dorow donated the entire pool in the winner-take-all contest to the Atlanta hospital in which sophomore Josiah Seale is undergoing rehabilitation from a severe brain injury suffered in an automobile accident in January.
"Josiah is a great kid from a great family," said Dean Dorow. "I was happy to win it because the money will help them. It was also nice to see peoople in the MIT community rally behind one of our own."
Mr. Seale, who was a passenger in a car on a ski trip to Lake Placid, NY, when the accident occurred, spent four days in a coma in a hospital in Burlington, VT before he was transferred to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta. A member of Chi Phi, Mr. Seale had been elected to the Interfraternity Council's risk management chair prior to the accident.
Chi Phi has donated about $670 raised in an April 8 road race to the Shepherd Center. Members and alumni of the fraternity have also raised $1,220 to give directly to the family of Mr. Seale, who plans to return to school next semester.
Last year's Big Screw winner, Carl D. Martland, a senior research associate in civil and environmental engineering, presented the three-foot aluminum and wood screw to a member of Chi Phi representing Dean Dorow in ceremonies at the Stratton Student Center on April 21.
The election, sponsored by Alpha Phi Omega, was held for the first time in 1967 and revived sporadically through 1991. It has been an annual event since 1993. Dean Dorow, who also won the Big Screw in 1997, is the first repeat winner.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on May 3, 2000.
