John W. Morris
Having worked directly with the Office of Management and Budget so frequently when I was
the director of Civil Works, I knew the people there. Initially, Bert Lance was President
Carter's director of
later, he was replaced by Jim McIntyre.
When the division engineers conferences were held in Washington, I tried to get an outside
speaker who would be of interest and of value. On one occasion I invited Mr. Lance. He
spoke to the division engineers in the conference room in the Forrestal Building.
It was an excellent event, and we carried on from there. Every time we'd have the division
engineers conference in Washington, I would bring in someone from somewhere-including
the Secretary of the Army.
To stay with OMB for a moment, there were people at OMB who were constantly looking
for ways to save a few bucks on the taxpayers' expense account. I subscribed to that in
general, but one of the things they got after was the magazine Water Spectrum. Joe Tofani
had started Water Spectrum and it was a valuable magazine with a good subscription. It was
very popular, widely read, and the articles were excellent.
That magazine, in the eyes of the OMB workers, seemed unnecessary. We were able to put
them off, at least during my term, although subsequently, it has been stopped, I understand.
Too bad. Joe Tofani created Water Spectrum and published it out of Civil Works. He
wouldn't let the public affairs people have it, to start with because he didn't think they could
suit the way he wanted it done. He may have been right.
Chief of Engineers and Mrs. Morris cut a birthday cake on the 204th Corps anniversary in 1979.
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