A. Richard Kassander, Jr. a bit ol Chairman, Board of Trustees, UCAR and Director, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, background on UCAR The University of Arizona

Not quite ten years have passed also gave us a budget which we are a little behind on, since the January 25, 1958, re- but I suspect it is simply too much to expect, even of lease of the National Academy of this group, that they could have forecast the Viet Nam Sciences-National Research Council conflict in 1958. Committee on Meteorology Interim We did deviate a little from their suggested name. I Report entitled "Research and Edu- don't believe the only reason for this was the discovery cation in Meteorology." This was a by one member of our group that the initials for the Na- A. R Kassander Jr remarkable committee, chaired by tional Institute of Atmospheric Research spelled RAIN Lloyd Berkner and composed of backwards. Horace Byers, Henry Booker, Jule Charney, Hugh Dry- The rolling of the ball was started on January 31, den, Carl Eckart, Paul Klopsteg, Thomas Malone and 1958, when a meeting described as an "Informal Re- Edward Teller. Until their grievous loss in 1957, the search Planning Conference" was called to order at the committee also had as members Drs. John Von Neumann office of Associated Universities, Inc., with Dr. Malone and Carl Rossby. It cannot be imagined that such a dis- acting as chairman. Representatives of thirteen univer- tinguished group could produce such a thoughtful re- sities heard members of the Committee review the re- port without its being followed by significant results. port. The meeting concluded with the passing of a reso- That we are able to have this dedication today, in less lution, without negative vote, as follows: than a decade, is one more tribute to the wisdom of these individuals who have given so much to our national sci- "Resolved: It is the sense of the assembled repre- ence. I feel particularly honored that I have been intro- sentatives of universities and kindred institutions duced by the Vice Chairman of this committee, who also engaged in meteorological, oceanographic, and re- has given great leadership to the UCAR development. lated research and teaching, that the interim report The second of six recommendations of the report of the Committee on Meteorology of the National called for the establishment of a National Institute of Academy of Sciences be endorsed; that present sup- Atmospheric Research which, among other things, should port for basic research in meteorology at academic and related institutions should be substantially in- "constitute a center of intellectual activity that creased; and that a national institute for atmo- would bring together scientists from meteorology spheric research, operated by an association of uni- and related physical sciences versities, should be established to bring together sci- entists from meteorology and the related physical and sciences and to provide research facilities on a scale "provide research facilities on a scale required to required to cope with a global nature of the me- cope with the global nature of the meteorological teorological problem. It is further requested that problem" appropriate organizational steps for establishing such an institute be taken immediately by the Na- and tional Academy of Sciences, acting in concert with "be independently operated by a corporation spon- the universities and kindred institutions." sored by a group of universities under prime con- tract with the National Science Foundation" Dr. Detlev Bronk, the President of the National Acad- emy of Sciences, had earlier pointed out that he would Our respect for this committee is attested by the man- present the Committee on Meteorology report to the ner in which we have followed their instructions. They Government through Dr. Ivillian's office and the Na- tional Science Foundation. His comment on the passage 1 Speech presented at the Dedication Exercises Luncheon, of the resolution was that it would be welcomed by the NCAR Laboratory, Boulder, Colo., 10 May 1967. National Academy of Sciences.

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/30/21 03:33 AM UTC Bulletin American Meteorological Society The next step was Committee 011 Meteorology Vice- tion. To be sure, there were precedents in AUI and Chairman Byers' suggestion to Henry Houghton that AURA, for example, but these were centered in large, appropriate university department chairmen have a fairly easily justified facilities for which there was ob- meeting to consider the steps required to implement the vious scientific need. The UCAR dream was to elevate recommendations of the report. On February 14, 1958, a whole science and to be prepared to do things on a Henry Houghton wrote a letter calling for a meeting to scale commensurate with the global scale of the atmo- be held on February 26-27 at UCLA on invitation of sphere. Professor Morris Neiburger. However, this wasn't all that was accomplished in that This meeting was convened, and Professor Houghton first wonderful year. While the academicians wrestled was elected chairman. Working groups were set up, and with problems of politics, policies, and principles, an- the committee constituted itself as the University Com- other group got down to the hard facts in detailed plan- mittee on Atmospheric Research. The acronym UCAR ning for a National Institute of Atmospheric Research. became known across the land. Drs. Tom Malone, Roscoe Braham and William von The next year was an extremely busy one. We met al- Arx devoted essentially full time to this for several most monthly at various institutions around the country. months. Seventeen two-day conferences were arranged, First we had to thoroughly convince ourselves that the each one devoted to a different aspect of the atmospheric short-term risk of staff loss at the universities was justified sciences and attended by five to fifteen prominent au- by the long-term gains for the profession. Although we thorities in each field. Over one hundred and fifty scien- had all completely endorsed the NAS report, the time tists gave of their wisdom and interest in detailing the was rapidly approaching when there could be no indica- problems and requirements for research that the NIAR tions of any internal misgivings. Each meeting saw a few should give attention to. The result was the famous new faces, and each one of us felt obliged to go over the "Blue Book," the second progress report of UCAR, pub- whole concept in detail for the newcomers. We met with lished in February 1959. This remarkable document still key people in all branches of government and did it all makes for very pertinent reading, as I have rediscovered over again, and finally the wonderful day came when we in the last few weeks. were joined by our counterparts from the university ad- Again let me comment that all of these things hap- ministrative ranks. This was perhaps the real moment of pened in slightly over one year. The next steps had to be truth when we faced our traditional devil's advocates slower. These involved choosing a director, choosing a with a requirement for a commitment of university funds site, gaining the funds to make the whole thing work, to demonstrate our convictions. and building a staff. At the first Board meeting in During this time our backing from the National Acad- Tucson, a committee for nominating the director was emy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation elected with Horace Byers as Chairman. I was on that was magnificent. The names of Earl Droessler and Alan committee. Waterman will always have a special place in the hearts In all, forty-seven names were proposed to the com- of those who have worked long on the UCAR ideals. mittee. These were all discussed. Some were contacted. By July 1958 the fourteen universities of UCAR had This could not be hurried, since it might well prove to passed a resolution endorsing the establishment of a non- be the most important decision the Board would ever profit corporation for the purpose of the promotion of make. I think it proved to be. At the April 25, 1960, research in atmospheric problems. The National Science UCAR Executive Committee Meeting in Chicago, the Foundation made a grant of $52,400 to the Massachusetts committee presented the name of Walter Orr Roberts. Institute of Technology on behalf of UCAR for the fur- The Executive Committee passed a resolution that his therance of its program, and twelve of the fourteen mem- name be presented to the full Board. The following day ber institutions signed an agreement for cooperation, the Board met, and Dr. Roberts became Director of pledging $2500 each for the purposes of the corporation UCAR, and NCAR was on its way. to be formed. The other two member universities were I wish time would permit me to elaborate on all of prevented by statutory limitations from participating in the details of the negotiation with Dr. Roberts. It won't, the formation of a corporation. but a few things must be said. When the Nominating In March of 1959, the first meeting of the incor- Committee put Dr. Roberts at the head of the list, I was porators was held, and the first meeting of the Board of asked to contact him, I suppose because it is generally Trustees of the University Corporation for Atmospheric understood that Amherst men have a special kind of Research was held in Tucson, Arizona, April 2, 1959. bond. Walter told me that he was interested in the po- Henry Houghton was elected Chairman of the Board sition but thought we shouldn't waste each other's time and Horace Byers Vice Chairman. because he had conditions that would be unacceptable. Now I submit that a few months over a year is a rather These included the requirements that NCAR be in remarkably short period to get enthusiastic and unani- Boulder and that the High Altitude Observatory be mous agreement from fourteen universities, have them somehow merged into UCAR. I suggested he let me pledge their dollars when dollars were short, and to work talk to him anyway and let the Board decide on the ac- out all the legal details for the formation of a corpora- ceptability of his conditions. He agreed, and so 1 left

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/30/21 03:33 AM UTC Vol. 48, No. 7, July 1967 Tucson on a beautiful February clay and arrived in the magnitude of the project meant that we should have Boulder in the middle of the winter. I made careful note the very best. Moreover, it was clear the job would be a of his thoughts and brought them back to the Board. plum to be eagerly sought after. Since Federal funds were The HAO issue was simple. This was a distinguished involved, we wanted to be able to defend our choice and organization whose focus was on an aspect of atmospheric to stay clear of political influence. The NCAR Planning research that a good definition should include. The Committee worried considerably about making the choice merger would provide UCAR with an established scien- until one of our group thought of a great solution which tific operation which could be considered in no other would protect us against all possible criticism. We would way than as a major asset. ask the architecture school Deans of the eight universities Boulder as the NCAR site wasn't a real hurdle either. of our group which had an architecture program to form UCAR's site selection committee had included this gen- a committee to select an architect for us. With the excep- eral area as a promising one, and there were already dan- tion of one who participated in an architectural firm ger signs that the site selection could become a political which could be a contender, the deans agreed. football. Walter's compelling arguments provided a very I frankly couldn't imagine a committee of deans being nice solution to a difficult problem. Subsequent scientific able to agree on something like this, but we met on a developments in Boulder attest to the wisdom of the lovely day in Boulder, made perfect by an idyllic picnic choice. I'm sure that growth of NCAR has had its influ- on the Mesa. It took less than an hour for the deans to ence on these, too. give us their unanimous decision—Ieoh Ming Pei, win- The merger of the High Altitude Observatory with ner of the previous year's A.I.A. Architect-of-the-Year UCAR deserves mention. UCAR was a Delaware Cor- award. On October 9, 1961, the Board authorized the poration. The HAO was a Colorado corporation. J. L. J. negotiation of a contract with Mr. Pei to design the Hart, corporate counsel of the HAO, devised the merger. NCAR building. It went as follows: Meeting in Chicago on May Day, 1964, the UCAR The Trustees of HAO amended the HAO Certificate Executive Committee authorized the acceptance of the of Incorporation to include all the objectives and pur- construction bid of the Martin K. Eby Construction poses of UCAR. Next, they set the number of trustees, Company on the plans that Mr. Pei and his associates the method of their appointment, their composition, and had prepared. the periods of office to be identical with UCAR. Then This is a bit of the history of the events, the culmina- they changed the name of HAO to University Corpora- tion of which we have celebrated today. Quite obviously tion for Atmospheric Research (a Colorado corporation). it is written from the vantage point of a member of the All the UCAR Trustees had to do was to transfer all the Board of Trustees. Little has been said of the tremen- assets of UCAR of Delaware to UCAR of Colorado and dous effort that was made by members of the NCAR dissolve the Delaware corporation. staff all during this period. However, their satisfaction On November 17, 1961, the HAO Trustees took their cannot come from words of the Chairman but exists in actions, and on December 13, 1961, UCAR of Delaware the record of research accomplishment of the individuals was dissolved. The HAO Trustees, who had not been and groups who work within these walls and at NCAR's elected Trustees-at-Large of UCAR were named to a com- field outposts. mittee of the corporation known as the Advisory Board A few more things should be said. Henry Houghton for the High Altitude Observatory. completed his term as Chairman of the UCAR Board NCAR started business in the quarters of the HAO. of Trustees on April 10, 1962. I won't try to deliver a However, this couldn't last very long, and NCAR was eulogy on his leadership of UCAR during its first years. moved to the University of Colorado's old armory build- Everything I have said so far is really nothing but a testi- ing at 1511 University Avenue as "temporary-temporary" mony to his term of office. He was succeeded by Horace headquarters, in anticipation of a move to the "perma- Byers, who had served as Vice-Chairman of the Board. nent-temporary" headquarters in buildings being built He is the only one of us to have served the UCAR ideal by the University of Colorado on 30th Street. continuously as a member of the Board, the Executive The NSF confidence and support of NCAR increased Committee and the NAS-NRC Committee on Meteorol- as the staff and research activity increased during 1960 ogy. He probably should have prepared this history, but and 1961. By late 1961, a sufficient commitment was made it would have been too great an offense to his modesty that we could think of the "permanent-permanent" to be asked to tell the story in which he was so deeply building to be built on the Mesa, which had been Dr. and importantly involved. Robert's dream ever since he first thought of NCAR. He I shall not try to condense all of the important things had made the arrangements for the State of Colorado to that happened during his term of office, which saw a tre- acquire the site and donate it to the NSF for NCAR's mendous expansion in UCAR's affairs. I shall leave that permanent quarters. to the Chairman who speaks at the dedication of the sec- The time had come to appoint an architect. This was ond increment of construction. an extremely important move. The magnificence of the I took office in April 1965. I shall take the liberty of site, our promises to the community to dignify it and speaking of one accomplishment in which I take pride

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/30/21 03:33 AM UTC Bulletin American Meteorological Society because yesterday we also celebrated another important spheric sciences continue the tremendous growth called step. With the great assistance of a committee consisting for by the Committee on Meteorology, as justified by the of Paul Klopsteg, William Golden and Alan Waterman, global importance of the field. I have been privileged to preside over the reorganization I have failed to mention or mentioned only casually of UCAR. Yesterday we had the first meeting under our many who played key roles and worked diligently for new By-Laws. We can now say that any university meet- our program. I apologize for this. Time places limita- ing the same basic criteria that our present membership tions. I hope the satisfaction in what you have seen here meets can join UCAR and have equal opportunity to will override my discourtesies of omission. We still have participate in the management function. Nine additional a long way to go together. The events so far challenge universities have joined the original fourteen, and we us to greater progress, even as we take satisfaction in the confidently anticipate further enlargement as the atmo- remarkable progress of less than a decade.

news and nntes

New director for Weather Bureau Eastern Region Mr. Simplicio now directs the work of nearly 500 fore- Announcement was made in casters—from the 55-man bureau at Washington to the one- May by Dr. George P. Cress- man station at Pittsfield, Mass. He also supervises the work man, Weather Bureau di- of 500 clerical and administrative employees and is in charge rector, of the appointment of of the hiring, promotion, and transfer of personnel in the Silvio G. Simplicio as director region. of the Weather Bureau East- ern Region. The Eastern Re- gion headquarters, recently St. Louis University retains championship moved from Jamaica, L. I., St. Louis University in fine form edged past the University of to Garden City, L. I., has op- Utah in the Winter 1967 Little Rock, Ark., Forecasting Con- erational and administrative test. St. Louis accumulated a point error of 1128, while Utah supervision over Weather Bu- finished second with 1131. Utah has narrowed the gap since reau facilities in 16 states its defeat by St. Louis in the Fall 1966 Oklahoma City Con- (the New England states, Del- test by 16 points. aware, Maryland, New Jersey, Parameters for which forecasts were made were maximum New York, North Carolina, temperature and rainfall (by categories). The seven best fore- Ohio, Pennsylvania, South casters, i.e., those with the least number of error points, from Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia) and the District of Co- each school determined the school's position. The top indi- lumbia. In his new position Mr. Simplicio succeeds Karl R. vidual forecaster was David A. Matthews of New York Uni- Johnnessen, who transferred to Washington as associate di- versity with a score of 137. Other schools participating were rector of the Weather Bureau for meteorological operations. Florida State University, University of Chicago, Texas A&M A native of Red Bank, N. J., Mr. Simplicio had been with University and Oregon State University. the Weather Bureau since 1946, most recently as chief of the Efforts are now being made to enlarge the contest, and it Eastern Region's Scientific Services Division. Before joining is hoped that additional schools will enter in the fall. Schools the Bureau he was a weather officer in the Air Force, where wishing to enter the contest may contact Harvey M. Mogil, he held the rank of colonel. In 1960 he won the Department Secretary, Florida State University Student Chapter, AMS, De- of Commerce Silver Medal for his work in developing the partment of Meteorology, Florida State University, Talla- Bureau's high-altitude forecast service. His bachelor's degree hassee, Fla. 32303. in aeronautical engineering and his master's in meteorology were received at New York University, where he is currently working on his thesis for the Ph.D. (More news and notes on page 468)

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