Margaret S. Petersen
a picture of all the hydrologists and hydraulic engineers in `64, after I left Little Rock. Jay
Pyle, who had been the Chief of the Hydraulics and Hydrology Branch, had also left at that
time. But there are young people in the picture who went on to make major contributions
to the Corps. That's Tony Thomas. This is A. J. Fredrich, who did theSons of
book.
In the Little Rock District?
In Little Rock, yes. The picture includes our field party of three or four people. The
A:
Hydraulics Branch was a small group and most of us started there sometime about the middle
' 5 0 ' s and it essentially broke up after Jay Pyle retired. I was the first one to leave. Irene left
right after me. Then A. J. went out to HEC, and Tony Thomas followed him out there.
Was that primarily because the work on the river had slacked off?
it was really because of the person who followed Jay Pyle as the Chief of the Hydraulics
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Branch, an appointment made by the district engineer without informing the division. The
division was incensed and would have blocked the appointment had they known, because
while he was a great talker, his knowledge of hydraulics was limited. Twenty years later, he
was formally asked to leave, but the appointment essentially destroyed hydraulics in the
district. It was too bad. However, the basic hydraulic work was finished for the whole
at that time, so in that respect it wasn't all that bad.
Vito Vanoni
you about Lorenz Straub and a little bit about Einstein. Vito Vanoni was another
I
name I've come across, but I haven't found out much about him.
I think the last time I saw him he said something about not doing as much [consulting work].
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He'd only been two or three places that year. He was a consultant to the Corps, but I think
his most important contribution was the sedimentation manual he edited that was published
by
Are you familiar with that?
No.
I think it took about fifteen years to complete. The various chapters were written by various
A:
Division
people and were published as papers in the
of ASCE. The
manual was finally published in 1976 and Vanoni was given a special award for it. ASCE
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