Jacob
Douma
Did you ever work with Herb Vogel after that?
No, I never did. I met him a number of times. He was up here working for the World
Bank, wasn't it, for awhile?
Yes.
He was a consultant there, but I never worked with him, never was on any committees or
anything.
How about Gerard Matthes?
No, I never worked with him, either. I wasn't at the station in `36.
Yes, he was there for years.
Not too many years, because Tiffany got his job. Tiffany's biography states that Matthes
was there because the head of the Mississippi River Commission sent him over to be the
Technical Director at the Waterways Experiment Station.
Well, Tiffany was there until `69.
Yes, he was, but he was Director way before then. He was director in the early
It says here when he was director. Here's what Tiffany says: "I served as WES Acting
Director from Pearl Harbor Day in December 1941 when Captain Fields left for active
duty until January 1, 1942. Max Tyler finally changed his mind about me continuing as
Acting Director and instead appointed Gerard Matthes to the job. I did not talk to anyone
about this, but
Moore told me that General Tyler had pulled a raw deal on me
and Bill
told me he was perfectly satisfied with how I ran things when I was
acting director for the preceding six months. These two voluntary statements made me
feel pretty good. I figured out later why he did that.
General Tyler sent Matthes there. Tiffany figured out why he did it: "The MRC had two
top engineers with exactly the rank and the general had to choose between them. One was
Mr. Matthes, who was over 70 years old and a bit senile, the other was Harry Seymour,
who was younger and more vigorous. The general sent Matthes to WES to put out to
pasture, where he could not do anything harmful.
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