Theodore M.
You don't really do an awful lot of deep thinking at age
I guess you
do some deep thinking-in fact, that's when we have time to do it. But
anyway, that was the way I was thinking then-it may be an anomaly for
someone who has done what I've done over the years.
But anyway, I actually had a June 13th appointment for an interview at the
Baltimore District Office of the Corps of Engineers. I had called up and made
the appointment, and I went down there, and I was interviewed by John T.
Starr, who at that time was chief of the Drafting Section, which was part of the
Design Section in the Engineering Division. The head of the Design Section
was Doug Chittenden-his father was an old-time Corps general and all that.
But these were civilians, of course, and I can't even remember who the district
engineer was.
So I went down to the Baltimore District Office in the
Building and,
to my recollection, the interview with Mr. Starr consisted of just three
questions. The first one was almost like a statement-John Starr knew I was
coming and he said, "Now, you just graduated from Johns Hopkins this year?"
And I said, "Yes. Yes, sir." And he said, "You took civil engineering?" And
I said, "Yes, sir." And the next question: "Can you start work this afternoon?"
And I was flabbergasted, but also I was interested in railroads. We lived up
near the Western Maryland Railroad, and it just happened I had an appointment
with the Engineering Department of the Western Maryland Railroad that
afternoon, and so I didn't say, "Yes, sir." I said, "Well, let me think about it.
I'll call you back."
And so we talked a little bit more, I'm sure. He told me a little bit about the
work and all that. He said, "You'd be doing strictly drafting at first, and then
eventually work into design. I would be working on the small structures
first-on the Susquehanna River flood control. That's what gave the Corps the
impetus for hiring at that time. Money had just been appropriated.
This was a temporary job, salary
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,800 a year. The position was called
I believe, which would be about the same salary as about a GS-4 at the present
time, I guess. I am not sure. This was before the government amalgamated the
sub-professional, professional, and clerical schedules into the GS schedule.
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