Thayer School

IMPORTANT NOTICE

The annual meeting of the Daitmouth Society of Engineers will beheld at the Dartmouth Club in NewYork City, Friday evening, October 22.All alumni are urged to reserve thatdate.

On the morning of July 1, 1954, three hundred sixty-five days after the beginning of my year's leave of absence, Professor EdBrown '34 greeted me at the Thayer School with a handshake and the files of the editor of the Thayer School News column, indicating that in his mind his pro-tem editorship of this column had terminated. I want to thank Ed for his cooperation in keeping the column going during my absence and congratulate him both on the job he did and on his fleetness of foot in going out the door as I came in.

The June meeting of the Board of Overseers was attended by all members of the Board with the exception of Frank Cudworth '02 who, as reported in the June issue of this column, is traveling in Europe with Mrs. Cudworth. The members of the Board also attended the Thayer School graduation exercises in which two of them participated. Dr.Charlie Goodrich '06 presented the Charles F. and Ruth D. Goodrich Prize to JohnGeorge Avril TT'54 who was adjudged by the faculty to have achieved the highest all-around record with scholastic accomplishment during second-year work a major consideration as specified by the donors of the prize. Henry N. Muller DC'35, freshman member of the Board, Assistant to Vice-President, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, gave an interesting and impressive graduation talk on the subject "Professional Perspective and Your American Heritage."

Also participating in the graduation exercises was Herbert Franklin Darling '27, Vice-President of the Dartmouth Society of Engineers, who awarded the Society's prize to George B. Passano ME'54 whose paper "Kerosene Mist as a Fuel in a CFR Engine" was adjudged the best student paper of the year.

Thayer School opened its doors, or rather its classrooms and laboratories, again on August 18 when 26 first-year students reported for the required summer session courses conducted from that date to the opening of the regular fall semester. Four students were enrolled in the civil engineering course, thirteen in the electrical engineering course, and nine in the mechanical engineering course.

The opening of the fall semester found a second-year class composed of six civil engineering students, six electricals, seven mechanicals, and ten Tuck-Thayers.

Only resignation from the Thayer School faculty this year was that of Robert Jodrey, instructor in mechanical engineering. In the one year Bob was at Thayer School, he earned the liking and affection of his students and faculty colleagues alike. His resignation to enter military service is regretted and we hope that we may see him again at Thayer School after he returns to civilian life.

On leave of absence for the current academic year are John Minnich '29, professor of civil engineering, Ed Sherrard, professor of mechanical engineering, Russ Stearns '38, professor of civil engineering, and John Hirst '39, assistant professor of electrical engineering.

Bill Conway CE'54, who has held an appointment during the past two years as a Teaching Fellow in the Thayer School faculty, returns this year as a full-time Instructor in Civil Engineering.

Chi-neng Shen joins the faculty this year as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Professor Shen's background is unusually broad both educationally and professionally. After receiving his bachelor's degree in engineering from National Tsing Hua University in 1939, he engaged in engineering practice in China and England for ten years. Since 1949, he has studied and taught courses at the University of Minnesota where he has received the master's degree in civil engineering and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. His summers have been devoted to analysis, design, and research work in industry. Among his other duties, he will be in charge of the machine design courses in the mechanical engineering curriculum.

Carl F. Long Jr. joins the faculty as an Instructor in Civil Engineering. Mr. Long has received both the bachelor's degree and the master's degree in civil engineering at M.I.T. During the past four years, he has engaged in a wide variety of civil engineering occupations and has taken graduate courses at M.I.T. Among his other duties, Mr. Long will be in charge of the soil mechanics and foundation engineering work during Professor Stearns' absence.

Tom Ritner EE'55 and George Krall ME 55 continue for their second year as teaching fellow and graduate assistant in research, respectively, while completing their requirements for the master's degree.

Tom Tyler ME'56 and Bill Pierce EE'56 have been appointed graduate assistants in research. In these appointments, they will devote half-time to meeting requirements for the master's degree in their respective fields of study and half-time to research. Mr. Tyler will be engaged on the Project SQUID flame stability contract under the direction of Professor Browning, and Mr. Pierce will be engaged on the ionosphere research project under the direction of Professors Morgan andCurtis.

As in previous years, this month's column uses up its full allotment of space before news of the alumni comes along. With apologies for deferring alumni news to next month and assurances of better things to come, this column is respectfully concluded.