Water Resources: Hydraulics and Hydrology
So most of what you learned, you sort of learned on the job, then?
A:
That's right. Learned on the job. Just before I graduated from the university, I asked
Professor Etchevary, "What do you think I ought to do? Go out and get a job, or come
back and get a doctorate degree, study another year or two?" He said, "You'd do a lot
better to go get a job, go get the practical knowledge, and you'll learn more than you'd
learn getting a doctor's degree. So I did that.
Did you have any exposure to foreign texts or books on hydraulics and hydrology?
A:
Not at the university, no.
I was thinking that your background with Dutch, you might have looked at the work that
the Dutch have done in that area.
A:
Although my parents were Dutch, I didn't know anything about Holland. I'd never been
there until the
when I went there several times and got acquainted with the
university people. They do have good reports, but not on dams, because they don't build
any dams. They've got good reports on tidal hydraulics and estuaries for the problems
they have in Holland.
Waterways Experiment Station
Then, at Berkeley, one month before graduation, I was thinking about where I might get
a job. I went to one professor, who taught me two classes in irrigation, and asked him
about where I could apply for a job. I wanted a job having to do with irrigation, the
design of dams, and things like that. He said, "Well, I know the chairman of the
Tennessee Valley Authority [TVA]. I'm on their board. You should write him a letter.
So I wrote him a letter. They replied, and, of course, they stated how much they were
going to pay. They would start me out at 5.00 a month.
A day or two after Professor Etchevary gave me the letter, he asked, "Are you going to
take that job?" I said, "Well, I'm going to wait until I hear from the Waterways
Experiment Station. Professor Morrough P. O'Brien was on the consulting board for the
Waterways Experiment Station [WES], and he said he thought they would have a job
there, and for me to write them a letter, which I did. About another week or so, that letter
came. They would pay me 0.00 a month. So that was my decision, I go to the
Waterways Experiment Station for five dollars more.
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