Summer 2026 / Foundational Support

Remembering Dick Gorman ’81, SM ’81, SM ’82: MIT Friendships Lasted a Lifetime

Thirty fraternity brothers pitch in to a fund established in his memory

By Mark Sullivan

Describing the late Dick Gorman ’81, SM ’81, SM ’82, of Los Altos, California, those close to him recall his winning capacity for friendship.

“He went out of his way to be exceptionally generous to anyone he considered family or a friend,” says classmate Colin Shepherd ’81, SM ’82.

When Gorman, a longtime Silicon Valley tech executive, died in October 2025 following heart surgery, he left his wife of 43 years, Andrea, two children, two grandchildren with a third on the way—and more than two dozen Delta Upsilon brothers with whom he’d formed lifelong bonds while president of the MIT fraternity house at 526 Beacon Street in Boston.

“He loved going to MIT and living at DU and used the skills he learned at MIT throughout his life,” recalls his twin brother, Dennis Gorman ’81, SM ’81, SM ’82, who with Shepherd led a fundraising drive to establish the Richard “Dick” Gorman Memorial Fund at MIT in Dick’s honor.

Thirty DU brothers contributed to the fund, which will provide flexible support to MIT where it’s needed most.

The DU house mixed sociability with study, recalls Shepherd: “The fraternity was the center of our social lives,” he says. “It was also very good from an academic perspective. Around 5:30 all the brothers would gather downstairs, and we would watch Star Trek or whatever was on television. There’d be a lot of roughhousing and kidding around. We’d have dinner at six, and mess around some more. Then at seven o’clock on the nose, it was ‘quiet hours.’ Everyone went upstairs and studied. But it was a fun place.”

Shepherd tells a story from that time that illustrates the generous spirit of both the Gorman twins.

As a student at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Shepherd hoped to place out of several classes so he could accelerate his degree from two years to one. To place out of computer science, he was informed, he would be required to pass a test in the rudimentary programming language Basic, which Shepherd—versed in the more advanced Fortran—had never learned. The test was the next day at noon.

“I went back to the house and Dennis and Dick were there for lunch,” Shepherd recalls. “I said, ‘I’ve got to take a test in 24 hours in Basic.’ The two of them immediately said, ‘Okay, we’re doing the 24-hour crash course.’ And the two of them took four-hour shifts and taught me Basic. I placed out of the course the next day.”

Asked if he ever used Basic again after that, Shepherd replies: “Never in my life.”

Dick Gorman’s first job out of MIT was in marketing for Apple Computers, where Steve Jobs had just invented the Macintosh. Gorman went on to a career as a high-tech investor and entrepreneur, working in senior positions at Borland Software, Siebel Systems, and Vormetric, where he served as president and chief executive officer before his retirement.

His MIT spirit never waned, and it has now inspired an enduring legacy.

“Dick was really proud of having graduated from MIT,” says Dennis. “Whenever I saw him, he was wearing something from MIT—an MIT shirt, an MIT hat. I thought a great way to honor Dick was to set up a memorial fund for MIT.”