Harrison T. Loeser ’43, the oldest living alumni of Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, has written a book of vignettes of events that have occurred over the course of his career as a naval architect and marine engineer.
His career began in 1943 as Assistant Superintendent at the U. S. Naval Shipyard in Pearl Harbor, repairing damaged vessels in the Pacific Theater. After the war, he accepted a position designing military and merchant ships at Bethlehem Steel in Quincy, MA. He was next tapped by Electric Boat to take a MS in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at MIT with courses in nuclear engineering to prepare him for overseeing the design of the reactor shield tank for the first nuclear-powered submarine – the USS Nautilus, the first vessel to go underneath the North Pole.
He continued at Electric Boat working on submarine design, such as the USS Skate which was the first vessel to surface at the North Pole. He later moved over to the Naval Underwater Systems Center (NUSC) where he was in charge of the the Mobile Acoustic Communications System (MACS) project which involved installing acoustic equipment on the de-commissioned Nautilus to obtain fundamental data on long range propagation of sound. After retiring, Loeser publishes two books on acoustics, Sonar Engineering Handbook and The Fundamentals of Ship Acoustics.
Tales of an Engineer begins with a story about his sophomore Winter Term experience on a freighter headed for Rio. Other stories recall instances while working on the USS Skate and shepherding the development of the “Submarine – Test and Research (STAR)” series of one-man submarines during his tenure at Electric Boat.
Loeser has stories of his year as Science Advisor to the U. S. Navy’s Second Fleet and a stint as a consultant for students at the Newport War College, where he designed the “Free World Frigate” to their criteria, which caught the eye of the U.S.N. Chief of Naval Operations.
The publisher, his daughter Jane Loeser Clukay, hopes it will encourage others to write down stories from their careers and to give Webb undergraduates an opportunity to get a glimpse of one alum’s adventures in the field they are embarking on, as well as, inspiring those interested in research to advance the field. Loeser also has two sons who also graduated from Webb Institute, Christopher T. Loeser ’70 and Douglas Douglas J. Loeser ’73.
The book is available free online, thanks to Webb Institute. The 60-page soft cover, perfect bound book can be obtained by sending a check for $10.00 plus $2.50 shipping and handling to The Proper Exposure at P.O. Box 1070, New London, CT 06320.