Engineer Memoirs
Q:
And president of the Mississippi River Commission, is that right?
A:
Yes. That's right. His next big job that affected me was Director of Civil Works, then
Deputy Chief of Engineers, and then division engineer of the Lower Mississippi Valley
Division, after which he retired from the Army. After he retired, he worked for a time
as a consultant on the staff of Senator [John C.] Stennis.
Q:
He is listed in the West Point book as on Senate staff.
A:
He was one of the senior advisers on Senator Stennis's staff. Since he retired from that
position, he had been living here in Rosslyn. He died this past year.
Q:
He, in a way, followed your father's footsteps, getting involved in the political end of--
A:
Yes. Let me say that we have dozens of senior engineer officers who have had these
jobs. The key in the civil works program is that the object is to serve the needs of the
people. The way you work that problem is to be in touch with the members of
Congress, who are elected to serve their constituents.
Q:
You mentioned him and you mentioned General Lampert as both extremely able and
admirable people. And I wanted to ask you what you based that assessment on. What
made these men admirable to you?
A:
They were bright, of course. But the thing I felt I had to learn about, that both of them
showed me, was the way you deal with people. They thought through what needed to
be done, and they knew how to make plans. But they also were very good at getting
agreement on their plans. Of course, I think it is obvious that not everything in this
world is simply submitting your recommendations to your superior, who then approves
them, and then you do it.
There is a lot of lateral coordination that has to go on. You are forever in this world
working with other people, and they were both expert at putting together plans and
getting people to agree on them and working with a diverse group and making
allowance for the varying needs and desires of others.
That's something I thought I had to learn about, and their pattern of conduct taught me
a lot about it.
Lampert never criticized anybody unless there was a purpose behind it. He was no
namby-pamby.
Q:
But he didn't lose his temper.
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