Words from Prof Thorsen

Remembering a Mistress

Professor Richard Thorsen

In this section, there will be a brief description of the life of Prof Richard Thorsen, who has been part of Poly and subsequently NYU, for over 60 years. He went through every transition and saw the institution become what it is today. He decided to write a book about it, called “Remembering a Mistress”. 

Professor Richard Thorsen has a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from NYU. In addition to being a Professor at Poly/NYU. He served as a consultant for the Lunar Module, the F14 Tomcat and Space Shuttle fuel system. He is described as “instrumental” in the 1973 merger.

He describes the merger as being a result of “financial stress” of both the institutions and New York City itself. He stated that in both entities, there existed an unsustainable situation that could not go on very long. The merger was also expedited through certain political necessity and both institutions were amicably forced to merge with each other. He also stated that this political merger was the reason why the merger took so little time to complete.