 |
ASHRAE Chapter History Leadership Recall Interview Jacksonville, Florida Chapter (034) DATE: January 31. 2005 |
EDITOR’S NOTES: The interview began with a request in December to complete a chapter recall questionnaire. A telephone interview on January 31, 2005 completed the process.
This is an official historical recall interview of Mac Newell, one of the past presidents of the Jacksonville chapter of ASHRAE.
Mac is a Florida native and was born on June 21, l924 in Miami, Florida. His childhood was spent in Miami. Upon graduation from Miami Edison High School, Mac’s college plans were delayed by his "Uncle Sam." Within two weeks after graduation, Mac was in the Navy. After boot camp, he was transferred to England for the duration of World War II. Upon receiving an honorable discharge from the Navy with the rank of quartermaster, he was off to the University of Florida under the G.I. Bill. Through Newton C. Ebaugh, the Mechanical Engineering Department Head, he became interested in power plant design, and both ASME and ASHVE Technical Societies. (Editor’s Notes: Mr. Ebaugh and Mr. Goethe, a fellow teacher in the mechanical department went into private practice in the 1950’s. Their firm did major power plants, hospitals and central chilled water plants through out Florida. They enjoyed an international reputation for their work at the Marineland Park in Florida).
Upon graduating with a BME from Florida in 1950, Mac was unable to find employment in power plant design in the Southeast. ( Editor’s Notes: University of Florida classmates of Mac included former Jacksonville Chapter Presidents, Jim Hammond 1959-60 Frank Houser 1969-70 and Jim Grinnan 1973-74) So with his wife and two children, he headed north to Cleveland for a job with the Austin Company. (Editor’s Notes: The Austin Company was a large design build contractor founded in 1875 with headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. Today it employs over 1,000 people in over 17 offices in North America and Europe). While in Cleveland, Mac became a registered professional engineer in 1955 and in the same year he was given responsible charge for a major addition at Mt. Sinai hospital. In 1957, Mac went into private practice in Cleveland. Health issues with his family brought the Newell family back to Florida in l959, as the assistant supervisor for building codes for the city of Jacksonville. With a family that had expanded to three children while in Ohio, Mac moved to Atlantic Beach in 1960 and still resides in the same home. After 12 years in city government, Mac in 1971, returned to private practice which he maintained until 2002. As a consulting engineer, Mac worked on a variety of projects – schools, hotels, private residences, churches and office buildings. Duval County and Koger Properties Inc. (Editor’s Notes: Ira Koger is credited with creating the office park concept in 1957. His company was based in Jacksonville and had over 30 office parks and 300 offices building prior to its break-up in the late 1990's. ) were major clients when he started his practice in Jacksonville. As for technical societies, Mac has been active in both ASHRAE and ASME since 1950. In fact is a life member in both organizations. (Editor’s Notes: ASHRAE listed his official election date as 12/1/1950. He was elevated to life member on 7/31/1988). To make his life interesting, Mac served local concurrent leadership positions with both ASHRAE & ASME. He was the president of the Jacksonville Chapter of ASHRAE and the chairman Northeast Florida Chapter of ASME respectively in 1967-1968. It was certainly a double dose of juggling your business and serving your profession. "As chapter President, my goal was to increase membership which was accomplished". The chapter was more of a social club with a good mix of contractors, engineers and vendors. As an engineer, we didn’t have a lot of free time during the day so the evening meetings really worked well for us. Our big social back then was the President’s Ball in the spring, Shrimp and Oyster Roast in December. The President’s Ball back then always had a theme i.e. Country Western, Roaring 20’s, etc. It was not until 1969 that the December social became an oyster roast. Back then the members did everything from set-up, cleaning the oysters, cooking the side dish of shrimp, servicing the food and clean-up the next morning."
In 2002, after 52 years in engineering design and code enforcement, Mac decided to close this chapter of his business lift by retiring. He now spends his time traveling with his wife Helga and enjoying his three children, 5 grandchildren and one great grandchild. Looking back on his career he credits Newton Ebaugh, George Evans (Editor’s Notes: His mentor while at the Austin Company) and Les Avery (Editor’s Notes: Les Avery was president of his own contracting company in Cleveland and later became President of the Society) as some of the dynamic people that had an impact on his career. As for any regrets or changes he would make in his chosen profession, Mac responded "NONE!"
This site maintained by Bryan Pratt