Thayer School
Last month we called attention to the new book, "Engineering and the Liberal Arts," by Sam Florman '46. This discussion of the arts and humanities, and its valuable listing of references and suggested reading, are recommended heartily to engineers and other professionals. In the March-April 1968 issue of "Engineer" Sam again presents his challenge to us in the article, "The Civilized Engineer." Sam says in his introduction, "We can see that the world is teeming with treasures of the arts about which we know little. We find ourselves somehow excluded from the intellectual and philosophical discourse in which the values and goals of our society are shaped." It is of interest to note that in this same issue of "Engineer" an article by Robert M. Hutchins, "Stamp Out Engineering Schools," is included. Dr. Hutchins' alternative is the truly universal university where "nothing that science can give us will be lost except those applications which are destructive of both science and society."
In response to our request we have received a fascinating account of the many accomplishments of Paul Halloran '20. His Navy career, covering a span of 27 years, is filled with innovative contributions, designs, inventions, and the successful completion of massive operations in World War II. Paul retired as a Rear Admiral, USN, with many decorations including the Navy's Legion of Merit in 1944, with a subsequent award of a gold star. His accomplishments include the engineering and construction, often from his own original concept, of landing vehicles, the Tinian airfields, water supply for Tinian drydocks, bridges, and harbours. These professinonal activities are interspersed with extensive involvement with the arts, such as the design of the Samoan Library, five copyrights on the mathematics of harmony, and diplomas in painting and cartooning.
" Thayer School's emphasis upon broad training in the arts, sciences, and engineering. and upon the generation of creative effort and curiosity, is a continuation of the educational philosophy of Bobby Fletcher which started men in careers such as Paul Halloran's. The 100 th anniversary of the graduation of Bobby Fletcher's class at West Point was celebrated in May 1968. Dean Myron Tribus sent two books, and an album of' the class pictures in which Professor Fletcher appeared, to be placed in the archives at the U.S. Military Academy. Joe D'Esopo, D'29, who was adopted by Professor Fletcher, attended the ceremony with his daughter Mariane.
Bob Foote '47 lectured at Thayer School in April on traffic research in the New York City tunnels. Bob, who is Director of Research, Tunnels and Bridges Dept., Port of New York Authority, has recently published several papers on traffic planning, design, and instrumentation. We were sorry to miss Bill Bonneville '55 when he visited Hanover several months ago to interview students at Tuck and Thayer. Bill, who is comptroller of the Nashua Corporation, Nashua, N.H., has a summer place in Fairlee, Vt., so we hope to see him upon return to Thayer this summer. 2nd Lt. John Kuntz '66 graduated from Officer Training School, Lackland AFB. Texas, this spring and is now located at Hanscomb Field in Massachusetts. He is in the U.S. Air Force Systems Command involved in computer software and operational systems for new aircraft, missiles, space boosters and tracking and recovery facilities. John was married April 1968. The information above was reported by Fritz Offensend '66 who has been busy at Stanford as a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Engineering-Economic Systems. Fritz is spending his year of internship as a member of the Stanford Medical Facilities Planning Group designing math models to be utilized in the creation of new organizational policies, staff arrangements and hospital patient groupings. He is co-author of "An Application of Decision Theory to a Medical Diagnosis-Treatment Problem."
Word was received in January from Eishoku Kuroda D' 64 that he earned his S.M. in Industrial Management at M.I.T. in 1966 and has been working in Tokyo, Japan, in industrial engineering projects, Eishoku plans to return to the United States as a bilingual field engineer in the food processing industry. Rick Wyckoff '64 is located in Pittsburgh working toward the M.B.A. degree at the University of Pittsburgh. Ephraim Aniebona '65 left AT&T in January to attend New York University full time. He must mark time in the United States because his return home to Africa is prevented by the Nigeria-Biafra conflict. Wilbur Smith and Associates have announced the appointment of Jim Decker '54 as manager of the firm's office in Los Angeles. Jim is a principal associate of the company and brings to this supervisory position a broad experience in transportation planning and engineering. He as been in charge of transportation studies and system design in many parts of the U.S. as well as in Greece, England, Australia and New Zealand.
Have a fine summer everyone.
