5 October 2003
Pageneers
The Early Years
From Ron Croft:
Sometime between 1948 and 1953, E.C. Page
Consulting Engineers was transitioned to a
partnership named "Page, Creutz, Garrison,
and Waldschmitt". I don't know when this
partnership was started, but when I joined Page
in April 1953, my first few paychecks were
from the partnership. So, I guess it's fairly
safe to say "PCE, Inc." started in the spring of 1953.
From Herb Dawson:
I joined E.C. Page, Consulting Radio Engineers
in May of 1953 and went to Labrador on
NBS contract CST-1057, "Bitter Sweet"
which was the ionoscatter test link between Goose
Bay and Sondrestrom, Greenland. My starting
salary was $5200/yr plus $6/day per diem.
PCE's first brochure came out in 1955 when they
were still at 710 14th St. NW. They had
three companies in the
group: PCE, PCG&W and Rixon. They had field offices
in Seattle,
Juneau, Baltimore, Springfield, MA, and
Beaconsfield, England. I was in England installing
the ionoscatter site at the time.
1953
Company Roster for E.C. Page Consulting Engineers
from Herb Dawson
Executive
Personnel
Esterly C. Page
Joseph A. Waldschmitt
John Creutz
James L. Hollis
Charles J. Seeley
David L. Steel, Sr.
Laboratory Engineering Manager - Joseph C.
Myrick
(Co-founder of Rixon)
Engineers
William Barlow David
Brittle Monroe Carson
Bill Collins Henry Del
Bianco G. Porter Houston
John Jansen Robert
Lennard Kalevi Oittinen
Paul Rockwell Robert
Sublett John Wildermuth
Engineering
Assistants
Harold Austin James
Barrett Kenneth (Ray) Belford Amos Bernstein
Harry Brown Wallace
Buchberger Joseph Bunyan Baxter
Burris
Herbert Dawson Robert De
Santis Warren Dykes John Egbert
Peter Fetridge Arnold
Gilbo Louis Goldberg Charles Houser
Vaughn Havnen Ralph
Jensen Wesley Jones Nural Karim
Joseph Lewis Donald
Lilja J. William Miller Mark Moynahan
Robert Murack Franklin
McKellar Joan Olson Robert Powers
Clifford Smith Robert
Smith Robert Stewart Blois Trump
Stanley Tull Sheldon
Weyland Frank Woods
Administrative
Assistants
Wanda B. Cowardin Charles L.
Ill Richard Quinn
Allietta Sweet Bert J.
Sweet Helen Wilson
Project
Managers
Joseph Forno Clifton
Foss Glenn Pebbles
Site
Superintendents
Russell Boardman Harry
Braun John Kendrick
John La Motte Kirke
Schnoor Paul Wickre
From Joe Mitchell:
My employment with PCE, Inc. began in mid-1956
at 710 14th Street, NW. Frank McCutchen
was Project Engineer for the NORLANT ionoscatter
program to which I was assigned.
I
believe there were about 30 employees in Washington at that time and another 60
or so
working at field offices, many on USAF arctic
ionoscatter programs. Page, Creutz, Garrison
& Steel was one of the Page companies and
David L. Steel, Sr. was the
broadcast engineering consultant for the
partnership.
I
first heard of PCE, Inc. from David and that led me to interview at PCE
and then to become an employee there. David
unfortunately died in July
of 2001. He is survived by his children
and his brother Dudrey who
was also a long-time key employee of the Page
organizations.
Between 1953 and 1956, Ross Bateman, Gail Boggs and Jim McLeod joined
Page to become key employees. Dana Bailey of the National Bureau
of Standards also joined the group, I believe as a consultant.
In 1957 (or thereabout) Ross became the PCE Engineering Director, Gail became
R & D Director, and Jim Hollis became President of Rixon, Inc. The Rixon team
under Jim Hollis and Joe Myrick developed low-noise receivers, 40 kW transmitters,
the 16-channel TTY MUX, large antenna arrays and other state-of-the-art equipment
for use in ionoscatter and troposcatter communication systems. They were strongly
supported by advanced development efforts within the Page R & D Department which
included Gail, Jim Ahlgren, Norris Hekimian, Bill Collins, Walt Bain and many others.
In the early 60's, PCE, by then a Northrop subsidiary, moved into the new headquarters
building at 2001 Wisconsin Avenue, NW in Washington. During that period Jim McLeod
became Engineering Director, Bill Lightfoot transferred to PCE from Northrop, Jim
Green became Systems Engineering Director, PCE won the IWCS Program and a fairly
long period of rapid growth commenced (to be the subject of a future chapter).
In about 1963 or '64, Ross Bateman, Gail Boggs and Jim Ahlgren departed PCE to create
Telcom, Inc., and I became an employee there in 1967.
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