Childhood: Los Angeles, California, family reminiscences; early scientific and mechanical interests; machinist Douglas Aircraft, 1942; U. S. Navy, 1942-1946: chief machinist, landing ship docks, South Pacific tours-of-duty; associate’s degree Compton Junior College, 1946-1948; marriage, 1946; B.S. chemical engineering New Mexico A& M, 1948-1950, contracted navy lab work White Sands Proving Grounds ; graduate studies chemical oceanography Scripps Institution of Oceanography [Scripps]: Southern California coast water sampling, research cruises, coursework, Atomic Energy Commission [AEC] Pacific nuclear testing; Eniwetok test site, 1953-1954; Marshall Islands nuclear fallout test, 1956; Scripps senior engineer; Office of Naval Research position, 1958-1970, Ten-Year Plan for Naval Support of Oceanography; National Academy of Sciences Committee for research funding member; Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory impressions [LDEO], LDEO funding; National Science Foundation International Decade of Ocean Exploration director, 1970-1978, project funding selections; Texas A&M Sea Grant College director, 1978- .