Thayer School

THE REGULAR SCHOOL YEAR opened at Thayer School last month with 113 students divided, as evenly as possible, between the first- and second-year classes. The distribution of first-year students among the four curricula is quite even, with Tuck-Thayers having a plurality of nineteen.

The annual meeting of the New England Section of the American Society for Engineering Education was held at the University of Massachusetts on Saturday, October 11. Three members of the faculty sacrificed a beautiful fall day and a football game in Hanover to attend: Assistant Professor AlWood, Assistant Dean Millett Morgan, and your correspondent. The last named would probably have succumbed to the Hanover lures except for a paper which he was asked to give at the meeting on "What Should the Engineering Student Bring from his Course in Physics?" Since the audience at Memorial Field might not have been as receptive to such a topic as the audience at the University of Massachusetts meeting, there seemed to be no choice in the matter for me.

Nathaniel H. Knight 'OB, Professor of Physics at Tufts, was another Thayer School alumnus in attendance at the A.S.E.E. meeting in Amherst.

W. H. Allison '18, Acting Head of the Civil Engineering Department at Clarkson College in Potsdam, N. Y., visited the school during August.

Roy Chenderlin '47N, and Mrs. Chenderlin dropped in for a visit during the summer on a vacation tour from Cincinnati where Roy is a sales representative for mechanical equipment such as clutches, couplings, transmissions, etc., with Power Transmission Sales Inc. of Cleveland. Roy currently tips the scales at a neat 250 and complains that his wife doesn't feed him enough.

An article in the U. S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps Bulletin for July, 1947, features the "Doodlebug" which was designed by Commodore Paul J. Halloran '2O. The Doodlebug, or "amphtrack," consisted of an amphibious LVT carrying a wooden ramp on its back. The Doodlebugs, built on Saipan, scaled the 15- foot coral bluffs rising out of the water at Tinian's shore line, by placing their ramps, backing out from under and then climbing the banks "on their own backs" so to speak. The ramps were then used for the landing of trucks and tanks.

Congratulations to the Roy Neviuses '42 on the birth of John Martin Nevius II September 7. Roy is working with the New Jersey Highway Department and sends his "hello" to the '42 gang via this column.

Harold Johnston '47N is working with the County Engineer in Ventura, Calif., and getting a thorough introduction to handbook engineering when it comes to concrete bridges, culverts, etc. Through an experience with movie star Alan Ladd, he has discovered that right-of-way problems can most easily be solved in the cocktail lounge and the dining room, another form of "practical" engineering.

We enjoyed a good visit here last summer with Lt. Commander Bill Norcross '39 USN (CEC). Bill entered service in the spring of 1941 as a lowly ensign in the naval reserve, but transferred in 1943 to regular navy and was rapidly promoted to his present rank. In addition to a few months attached to navy training schools, he had several assignments on construction work including, in approximately chronological order, Resident Officer in charge of construction of a million-barrel underground fuel depot, Project Manager of construction expanding Oak Knoll Naval Hospital at San Leandro, Public Works Officer at Manila and at Subic Bay in 1946-47, the latter being the only base retained in that area by the Navy.

A cryptic card from Harold Stein '44 indicates that he has been in the vicinity of the Cape Cod Canal, but gives no further information regarding his whereabouts or activities.

Belatedly but sincerely, congratulations to the Jim O'Maras '43 on the "completion of the O'Mara Construction Company's first project, Thomas Richard O'Mara .... June 2. .... The public is welcome for daily inspection at the site, 36 Coryell Street, Lambertville, New Jersey."

Also, still more belatedly, congratulations to Jim's classmate Dick Muller '43 and wife on the arrival May 20 of Gail Elizabeth Muller.

From Manitowoc, Wisconsin, comes the announcement calling for congratulations to the Will Pitzes '41 on the arrival on June 24 o£ Penelope Cathryn Pitz.

Making them eligible for the aforementioned derby, congratulations to Charlie Weinberg, also '43, on his marriage, June 30, to Miss Judith Lenore Lahler of New York City.

Jack Scarbrough '39, on vacation from his retail business in Austin, Texas, called at the School during the summer.

Walt Douglas '34 has been made a Principal Associate of the consulting engineering firm of Parsons, BrinckerhofE, Hogan and Macdonald in New York City.

Dick Tousley '42 dropped in for a visit here in September on a weekend jaunt from Boston. Dick has been working during the past summer for the Weil Company, contractors, with headquarters in Boston, but he spent the summer on a job in Maryland "up to his knees in concrete."

Dick saw 800 Hayden '41 in Baltimore last summer and reports that 800 is moving out to St. Louis. No confirmation of this report.