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31

MY GE WORK

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Bill Hamilton of our New York Office, who had been handling the New York Central, left the Company January 1st to join the New York Central as assistant to H.A.Currie, the electrical engineer. Concurrently Jay F. Walker, known to most as "Johnnie," went from TED to the New York Office to take over Bill's job and I took Johnnie's job in TED. The New York Central was the biggest railroad customer the Company had had up to that time and it required the services of one man in TED most of the time to take care of the work under normal circumstances, and although we were heading into abnormal circumstances rapidly early in 1931, there was still considerable to occupy me. There is nothing in my records indicating what I did the first quarter of 1931 but I think I spent most of my time mopping up my old job with Rudy Krape (who'd taken over from Sam Dodd I think) and learning all about my new assignment handling the New York Central work. Also, it is my belief that I ceased to report to Rudy and worked directly for Maurice Guynes.

On p.19 of the 1930 section, I've sketched in Maurice as I viewed him. I was to get to know him much better over the following few years and to get to like him very much although he and I tangled occasionally and he was capable of saying some extremely annoying things. I'll never forget one time after I'd told him quite forcefully what I thought of a certain matter of an engineering nature, he said, "I don't give a God damn what [[underlined]]you[[/underlined]] think. This is the way it's going to be." But he was a good boss and no matter how much of a battle he might have had with you over anything, and it might have been very acrimonious, Maurice would never hold a grudge about it. He was very profane and a heavy drinker but at the same time, he was kind and much broader than most people thought. Also he was a good husband and father. One day he took me to lunch at the Bar—B-Q sandwich joint on the Harbor Creek road, driving out in "the old Buick" and relating how "Gin" his youngest daughter, was a potential golfer of no mean ability. He was very proud of her and I reflected that Bab was a potential most anything in the athletic line because I'd never seen such energy. As the year went on, Maurice seemed to gain confidence in me, called on me more and gave me more to do. That summer he went to the Cleveland Clinic for a thorough medical exam because he was exhausted and very thin. He was a very hard worker and never took a vacation. But Maurice was proof that it took more than hard work to be successful. I've always believed that Maurice's great weakness was faulty judgment and an inability sometimes to look at things realistically. But he was a great character and a lot of fun to work with and my next few years were to be filled with interest thanks largely to Maurice and the assignments he gave me. I have nothing but regret that Maurice fell on bad times as things developed.