Franklin
Snyder
Q ..
Like the ones they put in at Boulder Dam, through the rock walls?
A ..
Yes, those went around in the canyon walls or in the sides rather than through the
dam. They were part of the diversion schemes, see. During construction, you had
to divert the water. So those tunnels served both purposes.
Q ..
So they became outlets, too?
A ..
Yes, they also have some tunnels for spillways.
Q ..
So Hathaway looked at all of these designs himself when they came in? Or was it
Corps problems identified.
A ..
No, he just worried about big things. He didn't worry about the details. I think this
was after I got there or shortly after Cochran took over as the head of the branch and
Hathaway became a special assistant. But, this sort of thing was what he did as a
special assistant. I mean, worry about major items like that, and he was real good
at cultivating people so he could get his way through the front office. He, generally,
had a good reason for it.
Q ..
Was he mainly brought in on the very difficult problems, controversial projects?
A ..
Well, I'm sure he was on even things beyond hydrology. I don't remember anything
in particular, but I'm sure he worked on things for the Chief or the Army that
weren't strictly hydrologic in nature. Particularly on some interagency stuff, there
was some interagency group that he was active on. I remember one time when I
accompanied him to a State Department meeting. The group was drafting a U.S.
position on some item for delivery to the U.S. Ambassador to the U. N. But he
knew all of the people in similar capacities in the agencies.
Q.
So he had all of these cross-agency connections. What about the development of the
l
laboratories? We had talked about Hydrologic Engineering Center, but that didn't
come until the '60s. Did the various Corps laboratories, especially WES,
significantly improve their hydrologic capabilities until the ' 5 0 s ? Or were they
already so strong they didn't need to do.
Previous Page
