Engineering Company

Local

Mr. Thompson's areas of expertise are in engineering education and ranch management.

Civil Engineering and Public Works

The Wall Street Journal

Golfing, Playing Chess, Playing Bridge

Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology (1949)

Who's Who in California; Former President, Board of Directors, South Lyon Hospital District

New Munich

Civil Engineering

MN/USA

Linda, Kerry, Nancy, Cindy

6/17/2008

Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities; Distinguished Flying Cross, United States Air Force; Medal of Honor with Four Oak Leaf Clusters, United States Air Force

While on the board of the Parks and Recreation Commission to finance our master plan for a rapidly growing city, I devised a plan to bond our twenty five cent tax rate to get a present worth over a twenty five year period. This enabled us to proceed with the construction of the first regional park with the swimming pool and ball fields next to the high school. It ended up as a model for most California cities. I acted as the advisor to most committees in Roseville California and figured out how to finance those projects. Roseville was named the 'All American City' for citizen participation. In Vacaville, California, I substituted 8" of lime-treated base for the State standard of 36" rock base for roads because of the clay nature of the native material, and proved it to be superior. I used a different technique in teaching statics at Butte College. In South Harney County, I introduced 'The Saler' for use on heifers to produce good quality calves. In the Yerington Hospital, we were set up for financial viability, but after I resigned for health reasons, the remaining board did not follow through. I feel a sense of accomplishment in all of these except the latter, but would not put one above the other. Quite frankly I enjoyed every job I had except for some of the politics involved. I graduated from Polytechnic high school June 1939 and attended Armour College of Engineering. I took courses in mechanical engineering in September of 1940, working weekends and summers. I enlisted in the Air Corps reserves and was called to duty on January 15, 1942. I became a fighter pilot in P-47's, flew 96 missions and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Medal of Honor with four Oak Leaf Clusters. I returned to Armour College (now Illinois Institute of Technology) in September of 1945. While flying over the coast on the Mediterranean, I noticed that for about three to five miles of the Mediterranean was brown from sewage, from Barcelona to lower Naples. In our own country, the Chicago River was heavily polluted and I decided if I got back I would change my major to civil engineering and see if I could do something about it, which I did. After the war, I reentered college and took full advantage of the four years of college the G.I. Bill afforded me and graduated in 1949 in civil engineering management. My first job was with the Bureau of reclamation. Roy Steward told me of a problem they were having with bridges. Every concrete bridge they had built had a sag in it. I solved this problem by computing the deflection a fluid concrete would cause and its effect on the reverse camber strip set in the forms. I then worked in the hydrogen bomb plant near Aiken, South Carolina on the electrical sub stations as I was the only civil engineer at that time who could read an electrical blueprint. After passing my professional engineering test I became the first full time city engineer and electrical superintendent for the City of Roseville, California who needed a civil engineer and someone who knew how to run an electrical system. They had there own distribution system. The city was quite frankly in a financial mess. They were selling electricity to many businesses at less then cost, the sewer system spilled over onto the streets every time it rained and every house on the West side of the railroad yards had low voltage, causing numerous complaints about poor reception on the television sets. There was no storm drainage and half the streets in town were unpaved. On top of everything else, one of the main transformers blew and the city had no money to replace it. I arranged for credit with General Electric through a fraternity brother, converted the 4000 volt system to a 12000 volt system and revamped the billing system. I was appointed adviser to several citizen's committees including electrical, the sewage treatment plant, the sewer collection system, the water system, garbage collection and storm drainage to assess the needs of the city. When I compiled a list of costs to bring these facilities up to snuff the city manager then said 'fine, how do you pay for it?' When I asked 'what do you do around here?' his reply was to direct other people to solve problems. The citizens were unwilling to approve general obligation bonds for expansion and the League of California Cities offered no solutions. Revenue Bonds were unheard of in those days, so we had to work with the State Assembly to obtain enabling legislation to allow for revenue bonds for sewers and sewage treatment plant expansion and the ability to levy fees on sub-dividers for the retirement of the bonds. In this respect, I guess I could be called the 'Father of the Impact Fee.' I also used aerial photography for construction plans for a trunk line sewer and wrote an article on that and ran a coordinate system around town to redraw the city maps. Most of this work was done by myself and a chainman-draftsman of an engineering department, although it was later expanded to five men. I also testified before the Chudoff Congressional Committee in a successful bid to get Federal power for the city's electrical system. The City was named an 'All American City' for citizen participation and we did expand the sewage treatment plant, trunk line sewer system and storm drainage system. The City of Roseville is still a model city and in good financial shape. I did ruffle a few feathers along the way but my motto then and still is 'Behold the turtle, he makes progress only with his neck out.' I worked in another city as the Director of Public Works and another as a City Administrator before getting disgusted with the politics involved. I quit twice and was canned once, refusing to involve myself in unethical or illegal behavior. I always enjoyed the work and the accomplishments I made, improving the operations of the departments and the sewage treatment plants. In Pacifica California, when I was first employed, the unit cost of contractors working for the city were the highest in San Mateo County, four years later they were the lowest. The efficiency of the public works department crews were also greatly improved, more than doubling the units of work performed per man hour. We cleaned up the sewage treatment plants and eliminated the odors which had been a problem. Also by recirculating the gases from the sewage digesters, the amount of methane created was tripled. It was enough gas fuel a generator for powering the street lighting. I left however before doing this. My next job was with the Sacramento Redevelopment Agency. I was given the job of getting the Chinatown portion of the redevelopment movement off the ground. It had been stalled by internal bickering amongst the participants. I set a date and informed all participants when the work would begin, which sent everybody scurrying to be included. The problem was solved. I then took a job teaching the first two years of the engineering program at Butte College in Northern California. I retired after 14 years at the age of 62. In teaching statics, a subject involving stresses on stationary objects, I did not use calculus, which the students were also taking at the same time because I thought they would better understand the subject if only algebra, trigonometry and arithmetic were used. These were subjects which they were more familiar with. Many of my students were failed former students of Chico State, a four year university in nearby Chico. My teaching method proved effective because they all passed my class and moved on. The professors at Chico objected, however, and I compromised with them by showing them my teaching method, then showing the students how the problem could have been solved by using calculus. I had one student come back telling me he was sick and tired of showing Chico State students, who had taken statics there and who had received A's, on how to do their dynamics problems (stresses in moving objects) when he only got a B from me. I also did commercials for Butte College promoting our engineering program. After retiring from teaching, my wife and I sold the walnut orchard which we ran while teaching at Butte College and bought some sage brush land in Eastern Oregon, which started at 640 acres and grew rapidly to a little over 5000 acres. We started with 25 white face heifers. All the neighbors recommended we use a longhorn bull for mating because they were easy on calving. I didn't want that because longhorns have a skinny rump and don't bring a good per-pound price at auctions. After some study, I decided on Salers, a large French bull that had long skinny calves. We ended up getting top price at the Vale auction three years in a row and convinced several of our neighbors to use Saler or our Saler mixes for the first calves. After ten years, we planted about 400 acres of crested wheat and 40 acres of dry land alfalfa and sold off the ranch, leased the cattle and retired to Yerington, Nevada. There, I served four years on the board of the senior center, three as president, four years on the hospital board and one as president of the hospital board before retiring for health reasons.

Helen

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He attributes his success to his education and wife of 57 years.

Mr. Thompson also taught engineering at Butte College for 14 years and worked as a city engineer in Roseville and Pacifica. He was a fighter pilot during World War II and was a self-employed rancher for a 5000-acre cattle ranch.

Flying Cross Medal; Five-Time Recipient, Air Medal with Four Oak Leaf Clusters