Thayer School

AN ENCOURAGING SIGN of progress in these days of generally discouraging delays was the partial setting up of two laboratories in the new mechanical engineering wing during spring vacation. Although our classrooms continue to operate every hour of the day every day of the week and our offices are piled two and three deep with instructors, the new move enables us to separate the internal combustion laboratory from the hydraulics laboratory and avoid the rather uncomfortable condition of operating both laboratories in the same room at the same time.

A 1 Richmond 'l5 visited Hanover for a day just before spring vacation for the purpose of lecturing to our second-year class in Professional Relations and our first-year civil engineering students on the topic of the nature of the engineering profession and the opportunities offered by engineering societies for the development of professional status. His very excellent lecture was enthusiastically received by his audience of about fifty students and Al's friends both in Thayer School and outside enjoyed the chance for a reunion with him in Hanover.

Recent visitors at the school have included Allen Hazen '4O, Warren Quimby '46, Sam Florman '47, and Hjalmar Sundin '4B. Al is still keeping the Maine Central Railroad going, and the other three are all taking graduate work in civil engineering: Warren at Purdue, Sam at Columbia, and Hjalmar at Rensselaer.

A most interesting letter from Jim Kerley '44 came some time ago and has been sidetracked by official news. After receiving his discharge from the Navy last summer, Jim worked as a designer for a contractor in Maryland for some time. Dissatisfied with the methods employed by this firm, he accepted a position as purchasing agent for engineering materials for Italy, working for the Italian Technical Delegation. Some of his stories about mark-ups which dealers make on construction materials make one wonder how anyone ever gets' anything built these days. He gave examples of markups in structural steel from the mill price of about $3 to the dealer's price of over .$20 per hundred pounds. Since the first of February, Jim has renounced commercial engineering to become Assistant Professor, of Civil Engineering at George Washington University.

Jim Skinner '43 is working for the firm of Skinner, Cook and Babcock, builders, contractors and engineers in New York City. This firm has specialized in monumental buildings, churches, theaters, radio stations, and college buildings over a period of some twenty years.

Dick Rugen '43 visited the school during the winter. Dick is studying the textile industry at Lowell Textile in preparation for work in that field with a firm in Stafford Springs, Conn.

Wade Barnes '4B has recently accepted a position with the Charles T. Main Company in Boston. Other recent Thayer School graduates with that company are Byron McCoy '34, Charlie Main '39, and Dick Tousley '42.

Bob Johnson '3l, after serving three years as Commanding Officer of a Malaria Control Unit in the Sanitary Corps of the Army, has returned to his position with Stone and Webster in Boston. Bob is in charge of plans and specifications for water and sewerage systems, a field in which he has been engaged almost continuously since graduation.

The School has recently been honored by the presentation of a metallographic camera as a memorial to Clarence Powers Edmunds of the Thayer School, class of 1948. Powers, who was a brilliant student and a leader in his class, was killed in an automobile accident during the second semester of his senior year in the V-12 program at Thayer School. This memorial gift, appropriately indicating Powers's special interest in metallography, will constitute a permanent, outstanding feature of our new metallurgical laboratory. The manufacturer has promised delivery in time for a simple presentation ceremony at the Thayer School graduation exercises in June.

The graduation of second-year students will be held at the School Friday afternoon, June 6, and any alumni who could attend these exercises are most cordially invited.