Thayer School

Members of the Thayer School family continue to make news meriting repetition in this column for the sake of those who may have missed the original announcements. Overseer James H. Wakelin Jr.,DC'32 was appointed Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Science and Technology on March 1, succeeding Dean Tribus whose move to Xerox was reported here last winter. Dr. Wakelin was the first man to hold the position of Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research and Development and more recently had been Chief Scientist of the Ryan Aeronautical Company.

Overseer Donald N. Frey has recently resigned this position as President of General Cable Corporation to accept appointment as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer for the Bell and Howell Corporation.

Dean Ragone's expertise in the area of air pollution from engine exhausts has been recognized again by his recent designation as Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Advanced Automotive Power Systems. The purpose of ACAAPS, as it is familiarly (?) known, is to advise the Executive Office of the President concerning the status of various power systems programs and to provide technical advice to agencies involved in federal programs.

Bill Allen '70 is a candidate for a master's degree at the University of Hawaii and has a part-time job at a laboratory investigating the economic recovery of sand from the ocean. He has written to Professor Long that "the more I hear and see, the more sense the Thayer School approach to total engineering education makes. It really helped me to have an interdisciplinary background."

If your home needs dialysis or your hospital needs pure water, write to Osmonics Inc., 2641 Louisiana Avenue South, Minneapolis (adv.). Company owner DeanSpatz ME'68 will be glad to supply a reverse osmosis machine which he has developed from its beginnings in the 1963 ES-21 course.

Or, if your needs are, more basically, a home, write to Dennis Kaufman '67, Apt. B-317, 103 G Street, S.W., Washington, D. C. (adv.). By the time Dennis receives your inquiry, he and Hector MotroniME'68 may be able to supply plans, shop drawings and procedures, materials lists, specifications and cost estimates for a vacation or low-cost home. These are not untried, for last summer, with the assistance of his wife, Mark Tuttle '66, Peter Titcomb '67 and others, he put up a two- story 16-ft. by 24-ft. cabin in Norwich in two working weeks at a cost of less than $3 per square foot (future prices not quaranteed).

Hugh McLaren '40 was honored at a function in the- Waldorf-Astoria grand ballroom in New York last winter when he received the Construction Industry's 1971 Good Scout Award. Since 1967, Hugh has been Executive Director of the New York City Office of School Buildings, moving to that post from his position as President of the Vermilya-Brown Construction Company.

Dick Mooney '28 retired last May from the John Deere Company in Des Moines. lowa. Since then he and wife Paully have been catching up on some traveling within the United States which they have long wanted to do and some birdwatching. A letter from Dick last winter reported that "we leave tomorrow for a few weeks in Arizona and besides birds we hope to visit Lewis Waterbury '13 who gave me my first job." We are looking forward to seeing the Mooneys here next fall, too.

Ground was broken, very literally indeedlate in March for the new $3.5-million Murdough Center building which will span the west end of Tuck Mall connecting Thayer and Tuck. The Center will serve both schools and provide facilities also for special College uses. The workmen effectively blocked off the end of the Mall for the weekend by parking a Link Belt Speeder back hoe on caterpillar treads across the barricade opening. As I left my office last night, I thought perhaps I should investigate whether they had anchored their machine more securely than had the operator of a pavement roller, left in the same place on a summer weekend fifteen years ago, tempting the Thayer School summer class beyond their power to resist. But this machine remained unmoved during the night. Is this progress?