Why I Picked the EM Profession

Engineering Management Journal, Sep 2009 by Babcock, Daniel L

The first question asked in guidelines for this submission was "Why did you pick the EM profession?" All I can answer is "It happened that way!"

Growing up in Philadelphia, I was fortunate to attend Central High School, where the excellent faculty in math and science made me think of engineering. Financial constraints helped me choose Penn State, where I majored in chemical engineering. By the end of my sophomore year (May 1950) I had also completed the two years of ROTC then required at land grant colleges, but declined to continue. The next month the beginning of the Korean War caused me to reconsider! I enrolled in advanced Air Force ROTC, and on graduation was offered a first assignment further studying thermodynamics at MIT

A year later I had my Master's degree in Chemical Engineering, and reported to Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, where I worked on delivery systems for thermonuclear weapons (which seemed a necessary activity at the time). After three years of this the USAF seemed unable to suggest an appropriate next assignment for a chemical engineer, so I interviewed seven possible employers and joined Dow Corning Corporation in Michigan, where I did laboratory research and then technical writing on silicone chemicals. To prepare for advancement I took three MBA courses in finance and marketing, but in 1957 Sputnik appeared in the sky and I began to rethink my goals.

Johns Hopkins University had formed a Solid Propellant Information Agency, and hired me to work on a military contract to abstract ongoing development effort in missile solid propulsion. Part of this job was serving as secretary to the JANAF (Joint- Army-Navy- Air Force) Solid Propellant Rocket Test Panel. During this period President Kennedy proposed putting men on the moon, North American Aviation in California got the contract for the Apollo Command and Service Modules which would take them there, and CW Bellamy, a leader in my JANAF Panel, was hired to head development of the propulsion systems in these modules.

A minor part of Bellamy's responsibility was the Launch Escape System that was on top of the Apollo Command Module. It consisted of one solid rocket motor to pull the astronauts out of danger if the Saturn booster failed during launch, and a second to pull the first one when it wasn't needed. Bellamy offered me the responsibility of working with the subcontractors for these motors and integrating the system. I began this job at the start of 1963, and as supervisor of six engineers and a secretary achieved the highest executive level (as far as direct reports) of my career! To prepare for possible aerospace program management responsibilities I began further graduate study at UCLA, thaking courses in engineering organization, economic analysis, and spacecraft attitude control.

By early 1969 my Apollo system had completed qualification, and I was working on a project to apply aerospace methods to urban development. Hoping that this initiative would continue, I took a ten-month leave to do a dissertation on the analysis of an urban dynamics model, earning the PhD in Engineering. Returning to what was now North American Rockwell, I found them downsizing after completing Apollo development testing. Although I made inquires to about forty companies, 1970 was a recession year for engineers. I was invited to visit only two companies: a "think tank" (in Ontario) and one university department (Engineering Management at Drexel Institute in Philadelphia). Then, out of the blue, came a phone call from one Bernard Sarchet, who said he didn't have any interview travel funds, but if I could stop in St. Louis enroute back from Philadelphia, he could manage car rental for the 200-mile round trip to Rolla, Missouri and one night in a local motel! After hearing Sarchet's vision for engineering management education, I was glad to join.

In response to the 19th-century Land Grant Act to foster "agriculture and the mechanic arts," Missouri had located its agricultural education in Columbia, and its "mechanic arts" 90 miles south of Rolla, which latter became the Missouri School of Mines. In the college expansion after WWII, MSM added extensive engineering and science programs. In the 1960s the University of Missouri became a multi-campus school, with the major campus (UMC) in Columbia, a co-equal UMR (University of Missouri -Rolla, now Missouri University of Science and Technology) in Rolla, and finally UMSL and UMKC in St. Louis and Kansas City. UMR's first chancellor wanted a business program consistent wit UMR's technical emphasis, and brought in Bernard Sarchet, an engineer-turned-industry-executive, to create it in 1967.

UMR's Economics Department had produced two MS theses under a fledgling "Engineering Administration" emphasis, but Sarchet quickly moved the program into the School of Engineering and established an undergraduate degree he named Engineering Management. Its courses gained ready acceptance, and demand of engineers in St. Louis led to a part-time Master's program there, which within two years had hundreds of students. To meet these demands Sarchet needed qualified faculty, but most of what he could find were MBAs with no engineering background. In mid- 1970, however, he hired Dr. G. Raymond Cuthbertson (who was retiring from a vice-presidency at Uniroyal Corporation), Dr. John Amos, and myself (perhaps because of the "Systems Engineering Management" title I had given my PhD engineering major).