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ASHRAE Chapter History Leadership Recall Interview Jacksonville, Florida Chapter (034) Date: June 20, 1997 |
When and where were
you born?
I was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on October 16, 1947.
How long have you lived in Florida?
I moved from my former job in August of 1990 to take a position with
Gresham, Smith and Partners to begin Engineering Services in their Jacksonville, Florida
office, which was purely architectural until that time. I spent several months commuting
between their main office in Nashville, Tennessee and Jacksonville until moving my family
here in January, 1991.
Tell me a little bit about Gresham. Smith and Partners.
G,S&P is a full service Architectural and Engineering Firm that had about 350 employees when I began. Over 50% of their work has historically been in the healthcare field. St. Luke's Hospital and
Nemours Children's Clinic in Jacksonville are examples of some of their former projects.
They also had an office of approximately 60 employees in Birmingham, Alabama when I began. I was the eighth employee in Jacksonville.
Where did you so to school?
The majority of my life was spent in Knoxville, including all schooling. I received a BSME in 1972 from the University of Tennessee.
What did you do early in your career?
I spent my first nine years at Union Carbide's Nuclear Division in Oak
Ridge, Tennessee. I was one of only a handful of engineers in Environmental Control
Engineering who had a BSME with an HVAC Design Specialization. Environmental
Control Engineering was the HVAC Design Group for projects at the Oak Ridge Gaseous
Diffusion Plant, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Plant. It was
a great place to learn due to the large diversity of projects and the hands-on experiences. I
was also privileged to work for Ernie Choat, an ASHRAE Fellow and Fred Felte, an
excellent motivator. Fellow employees, such as Julian Morrison, who was one of the most
practical, hands-on designers I have ever known, really helped me early in my career.
Projects ranged from small environmental chambers within glove boxes to the Heavy Ion
Facility, a large linear accelerator, to the $500,000,000 Cascade Upgrade Program to the
$5,000,000,000 Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plant. The last two projects were projects
designed to improve the separation capacity and efficiency of U-235 from natural uranium
for a variety of purposes including fuel rods for nuclear power plants.
It sounds like interesting work.
It was, although I didn't realize it at the time. Most of our buildings were industrial and industrial ventilation was a big part of what we did. I was naive enough to believe that there were bigger and better things out there like high rise hotels, shopping malls, high rise office buildings and hospitals. I left UCC-ND in 1981 to join Joe Miller, a former UCC-ND engineer, who had started a consulting engineering firm in Knoxville a few years earlier. His company was West Miller Welch Engineers. I soon found that my most enjoyable work was back at UCC-ND. Joe realized the same thing and
soon returned to Oak Ridge. In the interim, I became familiar with hospital design work at
Holston Valley Hospital in Kingsport, Tennessee and found that it satisfied my desire to
work in large, complex, aesthetically pleasing facilities.
After four years I left to join I.C. Thomasson Associates in Nashville who specialized in
health care design. I replaced Tom Fisher, a former colleague at UCC-ND as a M.E.P. team
leader. I really enjoyed my stint in Nashville, but was soon transferred back to Knoxville to
fill an extreme need there. Although I was transferred to become a resident BLAST energy
analyst for an Army Corps of Engineers' project, I soon gravitated to hands-on engineering
for the University of Tennessee Medical Center at Knoxville and St. Mary's Medical Center
and then back to projects at Oak Ridge. Again, I was privileged to work with another
ASHRAE fellow, Don Heffron. I became an Owner in the Knoxville office of thirty-two
employees (Vice President - Engineering), but a local recession and a moratorium on new
projects at Oak Ridge for one year, resulted in increasing tensions between partners and a
four to two split on almost all voting issues. Two of us were soon gone. I was the first to
leave. I came south to the Sunshine State while Larry Kaminsky went to Oak Ridge along
with several other employees.
It looks like we have come full circle.
I believe so.
How did you get started in ASHRAE?
I actually began using the Handbooks during my senior design project at the University of
Tennessee. J. Mack Tucker was my professor and he was highly supportive of ASHRAE and
a very good teacher. I borrowed Handbooks for my first few months on the job until I joined
in 1973. Ernie Choat, Phil Breman, Bob Forde, Cliff Burchstead, A. B. Fuller, Judd Kahn
and many other notable engineers at UCC-ND were highly supportive of ASHRAE. The
handbooks were my first motivation and I did not start regularly attending meetings for
several years.
I didn't receive an official committee assignment until John Sealy of the University of
Tennessee asked me to chair Membership Promotion in 1984/1985 for the East Tennessee
Chapter. I really enjoyed that year and came in at third place in the Society in terms of
PAOE points, if I remember correctly. I also served as a regional judge for the Energy
Awards that year. I became a Governor in 1985/1986 prior to moving to Nashville. I
regularly attended meetings in my short-lived move to Nashville (ten months). When I
returned to Knoxville in November, 1986, the position of Chapter Secretary was open and
I accepted that office. I continued as Treasurer in 1987/1988 prior to resigning due to the
weight of my company's support of the East Tennessee Chapter. We were positioned to have
our employees hold three of five presidencies from 1986 through 1991.
Upon my arrival in Jacksonville in 1990, I mentioned to Bob Baker and Lane Jackins that
I would be interested in helping out with committee assignments in order to help acquaint
myself with the area. It only took a few months to take over the Educational Activities Chair
as Suzanne LeViseur assumed additional responsibilities. I continued as Educational
Activities Chair and Governor in 1991/1992. I became Secretary in 1992/1993, Vice-
President and Programs Chair in 1993/1994, President-Elect in 1994/1995, and finally
President in 1995/1996. I am currently Past President and Chapter Historian. I have
accepted the appointment to complete Lane Jackins' term as Regional Vice-Chair for
Refrigeration for 1997/1998 and 1998/1999. Although, in general, I have enjoyed each
assignment, it seems that work related pressures are becoming more significant for all of us.
Would you recommend a career in the HVAC industry to middle or high school students?
Yes. The technical challenges are exciting and have been a lot of fun for me. The only
problem that I have is that, in the area of building systems design, mechanical engineers are
sometimes treated as sub-professionals by architects, owners and contractors. The industry
is unfairly and unethically based on low fee and low cost construction rather than competent
design with proven systems done at a professional fee.
How could we improve the operation of our chapter?
Seeking our motivated, competent leaders like yourself is essential. You have already seen the impact of apathy within certain parts of our Board of Governors. We especially need to gain the participation of our fellow
design engineers.
I appreciate you taking the time for this interview.
I should really be thanking you since I asked you to do it.
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