My father, who earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and a Masters Degree in Naval Architecture from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, was the lead hull designer for the Essex class aircraft carrier. Twenty-four examples were built and none were lost. Those ships were very important in the Pacific Theater and helped assure an Allied victory.
I thank
punkalouver for starting this thread today, for it is, coincidentally, the forty-fourth anniversary of my father's death. He was but sixty-one when he catapulted West into a beautiful sunset for the last time. Oh how he loved the sea and the sky. The perfect combination for a carrier designer, wasn't he?
I'll contribute more to this thread soon - Lord knows I have some stories to relate - but today I toast my Dad and wipe tears from my eyes all these years later. In all my almost seventy years, I have yet to encounter a finer man...
- Ed
