Young Palma

The circumstances attendant to Palma’s birth are less clear to me. I do recall that Jean went to Alta Bates but when she arrived there nothing transpired for some time and she walked in order to start the birth process going again. I think that finally she was given something to induce labor. I believe that this was along toward evening and that the birth occurred about mid evening. Muriel must have been temporarily with Jean’s sister in Walnut Creek — I have no recollection of her on the scene when Palma and Jean came home from the hospital.

There are several happenings in Palma’s early life that are indelibly etched in my memory. Perhaps the first of these is her “reading” ’Twas the Night Before Christmas for the assembled family one Christmas Eve. And I remember her reading the abridged version of Black Beauty that she knew by rote long before she could read.

Then there was the time when we were on vacation with my brother Verner’s in Rock Island and she strayed off with her doll and buggy. That was surely a scary experience until she turned up. I wonder if that may have been the start of her reluctance to be alone. I seem to recall that it may have started, according to Jean, once when she woke up from a nap and Jean wasn’t around to respond to her call. At any rate she was very averse for a long time to being out of sight of either Jean or some familiar person. This extended to being left at Rhythm School [pre-school] although I think she finally accepted this.

Vicissitudes of Parenting

As I look back at our child-rearing I can’t help but feel that we lacked understanding and empathy at times for our three daughters. Perhaps it was just the press of other activities, such as household tasks or the attention given to work at Shell, but too often I think we didn’t sense what was turning over in those little minds. Since Muriel was the first I think she was the most disadvantages in this respect — sje passed through all the stages of infancy, childhood and teenage years first and it was new to Jean and me as well as to her, so we suffered from obtuseness of outlook and perception.

I look back on a few incidents and I just sort of melt inside now at what she faced from us and circumstance. Once with Muriel during the time was was being toilet trained I was sitting alongside her as she say on the potty. She was not producing (with Muriel’s holding capacity at the time this was not surprising) and my function I guess was to impress on her what we wanter her to do. In response to my psychological pressure on her she finally came out with “I can’t” in sort of a plaintive voice that I can still hear and which cut me to the quick then, and the memory of it still does. This little being, not being able to satisfy her demanding patent, giving voice to her desperation.

Then there was the time when Muriel was going to go on some sort of skiing outing with a church group at Epworth. We had arranged to rent what seemed the appropriate attire, which include ski pants etc., but also included these big clunky ski boots. She had these one, and I think we should have sensed that, while they might have been the right thing for skiing they weren’t the footwear for this outing. She had no basis for assessing the situation and her parents had unthinkingly placed her in a position where she was awkward and out of context at best. I don’t recall how the situation finally developed, but looking back I just feel that we didn’t consider adequately what she was facing. Then and now, I just wanted to put my arms around her in an encompassing embrace and ask her forbearance for what had been done to her.

There were happy times and incidents of course — playing endless games of Parcheesi or other board games, reading and re-reading the favorite stories, seeing them playing in the sandbox on the patio or on the swing or glider set, going to the playground down in Oakland and watching them slide down the corkscrew slide endlessly.

Muriel Arrives

With Muriel we actually made two trips to Alta Bates. The first time we went nothing transpired so Dr. Aitken sent Jean home. She [Muriel] was born on the second visit, shortly after noon on August 25, 1954. There actually was an unseasonable light rainy spell in Berkeley to herald her arrival.

Jean and Muriel came home from the hospital after the usual several days and it seems to me that Jean’s mother was on hand for awhile that day but mostly it was I coping with making baby formula for the first time along with well the other rather unfamiliar household tasks, as well as those specific to the homecoming. By the end of the day I was exhausted and Jean still remarks how I snored that night.

Jean had borrowed or obtained in some fashion a bassinet and Muriel slept in that her first months. Often during our evening meal she would be in a wakeful, fretful period and we would have her in the kitchen beside us, where we would be moving the bassinet with one hand and eating with the other.

I recall that when Muriel was born she had little tufts of hair on the top tips of her ears — I guess these little tufts soon disappeared as I have no recollection of them later.

Girl babies sometimes have a slight flow of blood, similar I suppose to menstrual flow, shortly after birth. I (we) were unaware of this so when it occurred with Muriel we were considerably perturbed until reassured by the pediatrician. The latter was one Dr. Brown, who both lived and had his office in a house in north Berkeley, sort of at the point where the Alameda and the old Grove Street (now ML King Street) meet.

Brown was really a character, but he loved children and was very good with them. He was one of the homeliest men I think I’ve ever seen — he was called “Old Hatchet-Face” by his colleagues in the medical profession and indeed the description was rather apt. One of Brown’s recommendations was that orange or other citrus fruit should always be eaten first, on an empty stomach, so that the body could best use and assimilate the vitamins etc.

Jean’s expenses at the hospital were I think covered by Shell’s medical plan, but I’m not sure about this. I think both Dr. Aitken’s bill for care during pregnancy (I think it was about $100–$150 for the care through the delivery) and Brown’s package deal for the first year of care for Muriel were our responsibility — at least I have no recollection of submitting a claim to Shell for reimbursement. At that time medical insurance coverage was just starting to be used; nowadays much is made of the need for it — then most people just did without and made do as best as possible.

One of Jean’s recollections of Alta Bates, from her first birth experience there as well as subsequent ones, was the wonderful meals that were served. It was when Muriel was born that Jean met Lucille Piehl, who was in the same two-person ward as Jean. Lucille was also having her first child, Marybeth, and this chance meeting led to a long-time acquaintanceship between our two families. The Piehls lived for a long time in El Sobrante; we sort of lost track of them when they moved to Napa. They had subsequently two boys, John and Billy. Billy, the youngest, was one of the most appealing little boys I have ever encountered.

Muriel and Carl, December 17, 1954

I have various recollections of Muriel as a young child. She was an inquisitive child and it was necessary to keep a close eye on her or she would be “getting into things.” I suppose it was when she started crawling or toddling around the kitchen that Jean resorted to tying the cupboard handles together so that they couldn’t be opened. And she spent time in the playpen — over the years we had two different pens. The first one was the larger and we acquired it secondhand I think. The bottom needed replacement which I made, but what I made did not fold up as the original had so it wasn’t as easy to transport. Later we disposed of it I think and purchased a smaller one.

I can still see Muriel standing in the first, larger playpen just beyond the door into the dining room and adjacent the living room table (one of the items that Jean brought with her). It was from the dining room table where Jean had been sewing a shirt as a Christmas gift for my brother Vincent and had left the buttons for the shirt that Muriel reached and proceeded to swallow at least one of the buttons. We recovered it (them) and they graced the final shirt.

It was at a later time that Muriel scratched her name on the tabletop of this same dining room table. Muriel was walking as I recall before she was a year old and some time when she was a toddled we took her with us when we attended an open house given by a Shell visitor from Holland who was about to return to Holland. The visitor had rented a bric-a-brac–filled house during his stay and I spent the time we were at the open house following her around and steering her away from all the little items she was attracted to.

It was with Muriel that Jean obtained a little harness with a little leash attached to use when she had her with her outside the house. I can remember “losing” her when we were in Capwell’s in El Cerrito plaza; I suppose this was before Jean had found the little leash.

Settling in at 411 Bonnie Drive

I had furnished 931 Seaview with various pieces of secondhand furniture and appliances and enough kitchenware and dishes so that I could accommodate my parents when they visited me in early 1953. I had my desk and chair, plus I think I’d acquired a bookcase somewhere along the line. I bought an old sofa and chair, the sofa being convertible into a bed. I also bought a spring and mattress which I used until my parents’ visit. I made a support for the spring to keep it up off the floor. As my parents used it during the visit I also had a small cot that I used. I had also bought a used refrigerator, a table and some chairs.

When Jean and I were married we moved all our separate furniture belongings into 411 Bonnie Drive and the combined sets of furniture, dishes, etc. were sufficient to set us up in housekeeping. Gradually the items I had were replaced over the first few years with better quality furnishings. I think the first household items we bought were a vacuum cleaners and a washing machine. Actually I think the vacuum cleaner came first, for a few months at least Jean took our wash down to her parents’ and used her mother’s Maytag.

There was a stove at 411 Bonnie Drive which the Wilsons left for us but we replaced that with one more to our needs. The refrigerator we used for a uear or so until we got a new one — I remember selling it for $50 to the father of the lady next door. He was the head of the Addiego clan in El Cerrito and had several apartment houses, where I think the refrigerator ended up.

We still had the sofa and chair at the time Muriel was born. I can remember Jean spending time in the chair one night when her labor pains were starting. The chair we kept I think after the sofa was discarded and I seem to remember thatMuriel had it downstairs in the bedroom she occupied (after the extension was finished). She didn’t like it when we finally disposed of it — I at least wasn’t aware of her attachment to it, another example of a parent not knowing what’s going on in the mind and feelings of an offspring.

Early Retired Life

After we were settled in Ashland, I did make a few rather desultory probings about getting some employment, not necessarily along the line of engineering but looking into that also. Nothing came of these efforts however locally and they gradually dwindled. I have mentioned the idea I had of getting a BS in business from the college here, but this too wasn’t implemented because of a lack of pressing reasons.

During this time I wrote to my last supervisor at Shell for a possible recommendation in my attempts at securing some engineering work. It happened that the engineering department was scheduled to develop a large, rather complicated design for one of Shell’s processes or s potential licensee and he needed to assemble the staff for the project. Anyway he offered me the opportunity of working on the project as a “consultant” and I decided to take him up on it.

So from March 1975 through October or November I spent most of the year in Houston, plus a brief period in early 1976. Initially I simply stayed at a motel near downtown Houston, later I was able to set up a series of house-sitting periods when various Shell personnel were on vacation etc., so I didn’t use the motel facilities from then on. This afforded Jean a good opportunity to join me which she did for a considerable part of the time. During the summer of 1975, Palma also joined us in Houston; first she worked I seem to recall as a “temp” but later she was continuously employed at Pennzoil I believe it was.

The work was quite profitable money-wise and in addition it provided sort of a tapering off of my engineering career, which in retrospect softened the transition process into retirement.

Since I came back after the brief stint in 1976 I have done no engineering work at all, and as of the present time (late 1991) I would be quite out of touch with current methods, status of computer programs etc. As the years have passed my interest in engineering in a specific way has gradually disappeared, although I suppose you could say I still have a general interest.

For awhile I continued subscriptions to a few technical magazines. The last of these was the general organ of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, entitled Chemical Engineering Progress, which I have decided to discontinue in 1992. I will still receive a monthly newsletter, with its news of obituaries etc. but here too the names of persons described or listed seldom contain any names that I have known so it is of swindling interest.

I have also dispensed with the periodical information on technical meetings. I doubt I’ll ever attend another, the technical sessions would mean nothing to me, the chance of encountering old-time acquaintances small, and the plenary sessions of at most marginal interest. I shall probably continue my membership contributions in the society the rest of my life; actually because of the years I belonged I am listed as an emeritus member and do not have to pay any further dues.

Here in Oregon there are two local sections of the AIChE, one in the Portland area and the other taking in the rest of the state, from Salem south through the Willamette Valley and including a few stray individuals like me farther south. I belong to this southern group and have attended occasional meetings when it could be included with some other trips. The section is rather small so it doesn’t have a very active program but it is interesting to experience occasionally again the flavor of a local meeting of the institute.

A Career at Shell

The work I did at Shell from the time I transferred to San Francisco until the mid 1960s was certainly enjoyable and I suppose it some respects it was what a chemical engineering graduate would sort of dream about doing as a career goal. One was always on the forefront of what was going on in the development of equipment; indeed a fair amount of time was always devoted to keeping up with the current literature. This involved scanning the summary of contents of periodicals circulated by the library, perusing the half dozen or so periodicals that were regularly sent to me and doing the same with company reports that Technical Files sent around.

The work was not entirely research however as there were always operating or design problems that were referred to the department that required handling. Shell used the chemical engineering department as sort of a lure for engineering graduated they wanted to hire. As I indicated the work was sort of a novice graduate’s dream and they played on prospective employees’ desired in the regard to get them to accept employment.

Gradually this presents a problem as it required moving people out of chemical engineering into other parts of the organization. After new engineers would work for a couple of years and then sending that there were better opportunities for career advancement elsewhere would take transfers to other parts of Shell. This partly solved the problem but there came to be the feeling on the part of management that it would be helpful if members of the department who had been in research for a considerable legth of time would also transfer out.

So I was approached in this regard and a year’s assignment to Licensing and Design engineering was arranged. This department handled the evaluations and actual designs of the process that Shell licensed to outside companies, as well as some of the designs for applications within the Shell organization itself. This occurred in the mid 1960s, essentially after nearly two decades in research.

I found the work, essentially process engineering, to be stimulating and interesting and at the conclusion of the year decided to transfer permanently into this new phase of chemical engineering. It was in this kind of work that I spent the remainder of my career at Shell, including the work I did for the company after I retired (mostly in 1975, but also briefly in 1976).

In retrospect I think that it would have been more favorable to my career at Shell had I made the change earlier. In a way I feel that my career potential at Shell was not achieved — I attribute this in part by the lack of background and sophistication in my childhood and adolescence (i.e., when I went to work at Shell I really had no feel for how a large industrial organization operates) and secondly by the absence of some experienced person who would have offered advice to me at some crucial points in my career.

Had these factors been in effect it still might not have affected the course of my career significantly. I have a certain diffidence, lack of aggressiveness and unwillingness to have the single-minded commitment to career goals that would have kept my career to about what it was.

Shortly after transferring to process engineering, my department head approached me about the possibility of becoming a supervisor, with responsibility in the area of separations (distillation etc.). However he said to achieve this I would need some plant start-up experience and this would have involved a fairly lengthy absence away from family and the familiar scene. After considering the matter I decided I wasn’t interested in the effort and disruption involved, at least at that point in my career.

When Shell decided to move its research establishment, along with the associated engineering functions, to Houston I first decided not to go, but later changed my mind and the family made the move. It it still a question in my mind if we made the right move, economically or for the effect of the move on our daughters.

Economically I suspect there would have been little difference in the family fortunes. The appreciation in the value of 411 Bonnie Drive would have well offset the income from two years of employment, the increase in the Provident Fund savings and what I received “consulting” in 1975–76.

After we moved to Ashland I considered getting a degree in accounting and doing income tax work but there wasn’t any incentive income-wise to do so and other diversions such as gardening and drawing and water-coloring intervened. It is also, at this point, a question in my mind once we went in Houston to have stuck it out for longer than the two years we were there.

I suspect that had I been working downtown in Houston, instead of out at the International Trade Center there would have been a good deal less impetus to leave Houston on my part. Had I been working downtown I could have commuted easily on the bus that ran along Memorial Drive to downtown. Such a commute would have been much more to my liking that the drive in an un-air-conditioned [car] to ITC.

As it turned out Shell moved its engineering functions from ITS to a downtown location within less than a year after we departed Houston. We left in June 1974 and by March 1975 when I started the work I did for Shell that year they have moved downtown to the Milam building. I think that had we stayed in Houston it would have been much easier on Laurel. She was just getting established I think with a group of friends in Houston and she never did really “click” in Ashland.

For Jean and me the early retirement to Ashland turned out very well. We have been happy and occupied here and life here has been satisfying and rewarding. Income-wise there was no problem at all, and we were easily capable of meeting the 2-1/2 college educations that we still had to provide for. Muriel was halfway through her first four years, but Palma was just starting college when we arrived in Ashland. Laurel of course still had three years of high school still before her college career would begin.

Fractionation and Distillation

From the time I was transferred north from the LA area, except for the initial training period in San Francisco, I was engaged in chemical engineering research. This was true as long as I was nominally attached to the SF office, even though I was spending time either at the experimental tray test column at Emeryville or at the laboratory in south Berkeley.

At SF there wasn’t a chemical engineering department as such — it wasn’t until the transfer to Emeryville was made that this was formalized. However both at SF and Emeryville this research was under the direction of Matt Saunders, who was one of the more notable individuals I knew at Shell, or for that matter in the field of chemical engineering. He was a paraplegic, having been injured by a shotgun blast to his lower spinal area as a young person, probably in his early teens.

Despite this handicap of spending the rest of his days in a wheelchair, he entered the engineering field and his doctoral work was the pioneering work in the development of a truly scientific basis for assessing the capacity of distillation equipment. He had first worked for Shell at Wilmington where I started but he had transferred to SF by the time I arrived on the scene.

He was a man of rather slight statute, I’d guess he never weighed more than 100 pounds. Personality-wise he was a very considerate, even kindly person, and I was fortunate in having him over me in management. Between him (as department head in chemical engineering) and me there was Robert Olney as supervisor. Olney was actually also a graduate of Iowa and he was in the master’s degree program there during my senior year.

A preponderant part of the chemical engineering research I was associated with related to the design of distillation equipment (from the standpoint of capacity or throughput, associated characteristics such as pressure drop, and tray efficiency — thus it was different from “paper” research on computer programs for theoretical tray calculations) but it also included the design of extraction equipment and liquid/solid contacting.

The work, particularly that in the field of distillation equipment, led, perhaps inevitably, to my becoming an expert in the field. As a result I formulated, in conjunction with others, the design manuals for various types of distillation equipment and for extraction equipment that were used in Shell USA. During this period Shell also belonged to an inter-industry research group called Fractionation Research Inc. which was on the premises of the C.F. Braun company (one of the premier chemical construction firms at the time — thought it lost its position in subsequent years). This group had meetings several times a year to discuss its program and results and over the years I attended a good fraction of them — they were held in various places in the Midwest and wester USA such as LA, Dallas, Tulsa, Houston, etc.).

The research at Emeryville was coordinated with work at Shell Oil’s Houston refinery and this results in trips to Houston and New York in relation the work at the different locations. The trip to Holland thatI made in 1954 was also in the area of relating the experimental work which was being done at Emeryville with the work being done at the Delft laboratory (near the Hague) by the Dutch part of Royal Dutch/Shell. 

This trip which lasted about 2-1/2 months came at a less-than-propitious time for Jean and me. Jean was pregnant with Muriel, indeed in the last trimester, and Shell felt that it would be unwise for her to accompany me on the trip. Had it not been for this she would likely have come along, and I daresay the time in Holland would have been extended. Actually in retrospect I think that she could well have made the trip even though she was pregnant and Muriel might have been born in Holland rather than at Alta Bates in Berkeley.