Jacob H. Douma
A:
The coastal.
What about the evolution of that particular aspect of your work, the coastal engineering?
A:
Well, it really started when the Beach Erosion Board [BEB] was established in the early
Morrough O'Brien had a lot to do with its being established when he told the Corps
that it needed one. For a long time, he was on our consulting board. He was appointed
to its consulting board and served many years. Dick Eaton was appointed Technical
Director of the Beach Erosion Board quite early. Morrough and Dick became quite close
professionally when Dick was in the South Pacific Division Office in San Francisco, and
Morrough was a professor at the University of California.
Dick expanded the Beach Erosion Board by initiating coastal model testing there. Later,
the Beach Erosion Board was renamed the Coastal Engineering Research Center because
they were doing a lot of coastal engineering research. Then it was placed under the
jurisdiction of the Chief's Office. Previously, the Beach Erosion Board operated
independently of the Chief's Office.
I became involved with the Coastal Engineer Research Center because of its research
work. I would attend their meeting until Neil Parker became a member of the Hydraulic
Design Branch. So that's how it developed.
With coastal engineering, were you playing the same role you played with the navigation
and flood control?
A:
Yes, that's right. Coastal engineering expanded to include navigation, harbors, and tidal
hydraulics in addition to beach erosion.
In coastal engineering you got into things like harbors and jetties, and they are different
types of structures and a different type of engineering, right?
A:
Yes. The Coastal Engineering Research Center was not involved in the engineering design
of projects, except when a tidal hydraulics problem affected a beach.
Like the effect of a harbor entrance on a beach?
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