Theodore M.
Of course, Abel is so well known, I don't have to say anything about him. I
know everybody who reads this will know who
was. But he was an
international consultant even back in those days, which was pre-1937. He came
to the campus at Hopkins in the fall of `37.
At this time, he was already involved with the Natural Resources Committee?
Oh, yes, and at that time a lot of these publications, the new reports and papers
that were coming in were from the Water Resources Committee of the National
Resources Committee and eventually the National Resources Planning Board,
although really it was not named that until about 1939.
Anyway, so I was steeped in all of that. Now, did not take hydraulics until
the third year, the junior year, and I didn't take sanitary engineering until the
fourth year, and I still just loved the surveying. In my sophomore year, I took
railroad surveying. And in the second semester of my freshman year when I
absolved the French I couldn't just goof off for that hour, which was four times
a week, so they let me take advanced surveying, and that was a thrill because
I was with the senior class of 1936 at Hopkins. Taking advanced surveying
involved things like shooting the North Star at night and what they call the
three-point problem and the two-point problem and all the techniques which
require an awful lot of trigonometry. I just loved it, and at the end of the year
I remember getting a 10, one of only two or three given in this course of
seniors, and I was only a freshman. This was what I wanted-surveying was
what I wanted to do, so I loved that course and the association
the senior
civil engineering students.
And all this shows how chance really affects your life. Although in the
background, I've always loved water, at that time in my life I was headed in
another direction. But I think everybody loves water. It is a part of the human
psyche. There is something about it that appeals to us. A lot of people have
written more eloquently about that than I ever could. And I was getting an
education that would help me when I got pointed in the direction of a career in
water resources.
In my senior year I had my only course under Abel. He taught a course called
Legal and Social Aspects of Engineering and I'd say of all the courses I took,
it was the one that had the most relevance to my future career.
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