Engineer Memoirs
My father's landlady's daughter, who became my mother, wouldn't marry him until
he became a U.S. citizen. As my father tells it, he went before a sleepy examiner
in the Baltimore immigration office. He was asked to describe the separation of
powers in the United States. He began rattling off the answers when the examiner
interrupted him. "You know all that," he said. "What ship did you come over
on?" My father, in his typical independent manner, sensing the dullness of the
My father's application for citizenship
examiner, answered: the Mayflower.
reads: "Ship travelled to the United States: Mayflower."
He married my mother in 1916 and I was born a year later. He volunteered for
the Army during World War I, but was deferred because shipyard workers were
exempt.
When I was six years old my younger brother was born. My mother became quite
ill and I was sent to live with my mother's parents. My grandfather died a year
later and I lived with my grandmother until I finished high school. By this time,
my mother had recovered her health, and I went back to live at home.
My high school was the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute from which I was graduated
in 1933. I then went to Johns Hopkins University from which I was graduated in
1937 with a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering.
Q ..
You must have attended Johns Hopkins at an early age. How old were you when
you graduated?
I entered Johns Hopkins when I was 16 and graduated when I was 20 in 1937.
A
While at Hopkins, I spent part of my junior year on a scholarship in Europe. I met
my paternal grandparents at their farm home in Nagoszevo. My grandfather was
a local magistrate, the head man of his village.
My academic studies were at the Jagellion University in Krakow. Part of my
scholarship was the equivalent of a Eurail pass which allowed me travel throughout
Europe. I went to Rome, Prague, Budapest, Paris, and Berlin. While in Berlin
I went to see the 1936 Olympics where Jesse Owens earned four gold medals. But
what shocked me was the stridency and militancy of the Nazis. I was deeply
concerned and became convinced that there would be another world war. When
I got back home I decided to get in on the ground floor of the war effort and
attend& West Point. When I was graduated from Hopkins in 1937, I gave up my
commission as a reserve second lieutenant and on the first of July 1937, entered
West Point.
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