Water Resources People and Issues
After finishing up in southern Maryland, I worked down on Northern Neck for
the Northern Neck Electric Co-op. I worked for the Bull Run Electric Co-op
and then eventually, the next year, made an inventory of the whole line in
southern Maryland. One Christmas holiday, I remember going down to finish
up some work-working for two weeks during the Christmas holiday down
there in southern Maryland just to get a little bit of money. So I did get to use
my surveying, but when I got out of college there weren't any jobs. I tried to
get back on an REA job over on the Eastern Shore, where one of my buddies
was working, but that didn't work out.
Engineer Division, Baltimore District
I'm pretty sure we graduated on about June 4, 1939, and I pounding the
pavement seeking appointments and interviews with potential employers for a
week. Then I went back to Hopkins for something and someone, I don't
remember who it was, told me, "I understand that the Corps of Engineers is
hiring. Maybe you could go down there. And that's how I became associated
with the Corps of Engineers.
But you mentioned the other professors. The other professors that I particularly
remember at Hopkins were Truman Thompson who taught transportation
engineering, and he also taught concrete and various things like that, and John
who was brought in to kind of understudy Abel
and did
succeed him later as head of the department-he was a sanitary engineer of
quite some note, coming out of Harvard. And the one that I worked a lot with
was Tom Hubbard who taught surveying. Of course, I had a real affinity for
him because of my interest in surveying. Later I had a real falling out with
Truman Thompson because he didn't think I applied myself well. During that
last year, with the work on the
and various other extra curricular
activities-I was on the student council and working with the YMCA-I didn't
seem to have much time for school work. My marks had been very good up
through the junior year, but there was a real drop-off in the senior year, just
because I was doing other things.
At times, I guess everybody in college thinks, "Well, maybe I should continue
my studies and get a master's degree." But Truman Thompson, who was the
department head, didn't encourage me to think about going on, and he said, "I
hope you get a chance to continue with surveying. I know that's what you're
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