As I prepare this Personality Profile, I am
tempted to make a New Year’s resolution to select younger
candidates in the future. Why younger? So there will not be so
much material to cover. Especially if the candidate is as active
as Dick Ford, the Personality Profile for this issue.
Dick experienced a fractured childhood. He lived in twelve different
homes before his senior year in high school. Despite this instability,
he was the first in his extended family to attend and graduate
from college. He graduated from Northeastern University where
he participated in a five year Electrical Engineering co-op program.
During much of his co-op program, he worked full time (fifty weeks/year),
often working 2nd or 3rd shifts at the MIT Instrumentation Lab
then traveling the three miles to the Northeastern campus at 8:00AM
to take a full load of EE classes. He also attended the Northeast
School of Broadcasting, a one-year professional level curriculum
where he graduated in the top quarter specializing in TV broadcasting
and news journalism. In addition, he attended and graduated from
a one-year program at the Lee Institute in Real Estate Law, and
shortly thereafter passed the state exam to become a licensed
real estate broker. He also completed the Army ROTC flight qualification
program, a combination classroom and hands-on in-the-cockpit flight
program to pre-qualify for an aviation career in the Army.
His military time was spent at the Dugway, Utah Tri-Service Chemical,
Biological and Radiological Weapons Orientation Course (CBRWOC).
This was a Top Secret one-week orientation course reserved for
General Officers (one star and above). The facility was, at that
time, the most elaborate classroom in the world. Dick was the
head of the Classroom Support Division that ran this facility,
as well as an instructor. Some of the most lethal CBR materials
were demonstrated live, both in the classroom and in the field
by the men under Dick’s command. Dick’s electronics
and broadcasting credentials resulted in the Army classifying
him in a rare, hi-priority Military Occupational Specialty that
preempted his flight career.
 |
| Dick during EMI testing aboard aircraft
carrier USS Independence, June 1988. |
After mustering out of the Army, Dick went to work at the Naval
Weapons Lab (NWL), Dahlgren, VA, in the Hazards of Electromagnetic
Radiation to Ordnance (HERO) Division. In June 1967, he was finishing
up his training rotation in the air ordnance group when the Forrestal
event occurred. Frank Churchill, the NWL senior scientist in air
ordnance asked Dick to be his alternate for the two-week formal
accident investigation. Frank speculated that the incident was
probably a HERO event, and Dick, being from the HERO group, would
both benefit from and help assist in the investigation. Dick admits
that watching the Forrestal catastrophe from several different
camera angles for tens of hours over a two weeks period, cemented
his commitment to the EMC discipline. After returning to the HERO
group, he led efforts to broaden its technical approach (HERO
is not about electronics, it’s about explosives and EEDs),
first addressing the interaction between self-destruct ordnance
and its controlling electronics. Frustrated by the limited charter
for HERO activity, he left Dahlgren in 1968. Two years later,
Dick was contacted and invited to return to NWL (by which time
the value of the broader charter of EMC had firmly taken root
at NWL).
By 1973 he had progressed to journeymen level in the Navy’s
EMC field, specializing in Radar EMC issues. Among the Navy radar
systems he worked on were, Mk 23 TAS, Mk 86 GFCS, Mk 68 GFCS,
and CIWS. He was also lead engineer for radar issues on the FFG-7
Class and the DLGN (DD963 Class) ship programs. In March that
year, an engineer that Dick had befriended on the 963 Class program
took a high level position in Washington, DC at NAVSHIPS. Dick’s
call of congratulation led to meetings and an alliance with four
other engineers from three different Navy engineering centers.
This work very quickly resulted in the creation of the Navy Shipboard
EMC Improvement Program (called SEMCIP). By 1980, SEMCIP grew
to be a $20M/year program addressing EMC problems on as many as
100 ships per year. Still in existence, it is considered by many
to be one of the most successful Navy on-ship fix it programs.
For ten years Dick was the Radar team leader. During the high
point of SEMCIP activity, Dick was spending 150 to 160 days a
year on ships at sea, evaluating and correcting the Navy radar
related EMC problems. He also led efforts to establish the SEMCIP
EW team and the below decks Team and, as well, serving as the
Associate Program Head of SEMCIP at NAVSHIP (now called NAVSEA)
for two years.
In 1983, he was selected to be an OPM Legislative Fellow. This
OPM program places middle and senior level federal executives
on assignment with a member of Congress. He became Special Assistant
for military affairs and technology to US Senator Orrin Hatch
of Utah. His primary task was to work with the Heritage Foundation
on a study of the impact of long development times on the cost
and effectiveness of military systems.
After finishing his assignment as an OPM Fellow, he left federal
service and joined Don White Consultants (DWCI), which later became
Interference Control Technologies (ICT). I was an instructor for
DWCI at that time, and although Dick and I had met casually before,
it was during Dick’s employment at DWCI that we truly became
friends. Dick was one of Don’s instructors, and was technical
editor of Don’s new magazine, EMC Technology and Interference
Control News (abbreviated as EMCT). During Dick’s two years
as editor, circulation of EMCT rose from about 4,000 to over 70,000/issue
making it one of the world’s leading magazines on EMC. Dick
considers this success one of which he’s most proud. Dick
also did EMC consulting work for Atlantic Research, EDMAC/Rosepatch,
Singer, and several other companies.
In 1986, two changes occurred in Dick’s life. The Naval Research
Lab (NRL) formally invited him to return to government service.
He was offered a position in the Radar Division heading up what
he soon developed into the Navy’s most elite cadre of EMC
expertise. It was a tough career decision for him to make, especially
in the salary area. He had nearly decided to decline when Dr.
Haislmaier, who was, at the time, the Operational Navy’s
lead for EMC (as well as on the IEEE EMCS BoD) personally asked
Dick to take the job (giving, as well, some unofficial commitments
on future group funding). The primary mission of his group was
to provide interaction between the broad disciplines of EMC in
a small group process. It was hoped this would lead to some efficiencies
in technical approaches to combat the EMI problems plaguing the
Fleet (what Admiral Buckley had declared the Navy’s EMI Pandemic).
Over the next eighteen months Dick aggressively sought out, personally
interviewed and recruited experts in key areas of EMC. By the
end of 1988, he had assembled a group of nine senior level engineers
and one group facilitator providing coverage in all of the key
areas of EMC. The team had over 200 years experience in the fields
of EMC.
Over the next few years the group spearheaded several initiatives.
They had instrumental roles in what became the NARTE EMC certification
process and NIST NVLAP laboratory accreditation process. Four
of the team became NVLAP lab assessors. All the engineers became
NARTE Certified and most participated in a monthly NAVAIR meeting
process in what came to be called NAVAIR EMC Program for Excellence.
They actively participated in over thirty EMC committees, including
most of our IEEE EMC Society Technical Committees. They filled
key roles in both Tri service and Navy multi-platform at-sea testing
including the congressionally chartered JEMI test, and the NATO
sponsored WESTMED 92. They played a major role in introducing
the latest computer modeling tools for EM coupling into the Navy
system design approaches. By the time the team was officially
disbanded in 1994 (with only three folks remaining) it had produced
nearly 70 publications, averaging more than two per man-year.
These publications made progress in many aspects of EMC from textbooks
to improved specs and standards. Dick both led and played a key
role in the group. He developed a special course of instruction
for at-sea EMC/EMI corrective actions. He team taught this for
the Brazilian, Italian, and Greek Navies and also taught a special
course for NATO, hosted by the Dutch Navy.
In the fall of 1994, Dr. Skolnik, the Division SES superintendent,
offered Dick a job as Division Staff Consultant. Dick accepted
Dr. Skolnik’s offer and his main efforts over the next few
years were to support the Navy Advance Multifunction RF Concept
Demo. After leading the two-year study phase from 1995 to 1997,
Dick retired and is now supporting the program on a part time
basis.
In 1986, I approached Dick and asked him to consider running for
the IEEE EMC Society BoD. By 1986, Dick had been an IEEE member
nearly two decades, had joined and participated in the IEEE R&D
policy committee back in 1983 while he worked for Senator Hatch.
He was also active in our Society as part of his work supporting
the magazine EMCT. He agreed to run and was successful, beginning
what turned out to be sixteen years of service to the Society
as a BoD member (except for a one year lay-off required by our
By Laws term limits rules).
At his first BoD meeting in November 1986, Dick was elected Society
Treasurer. During his tenure as Treasurer the Society became one
of the first to participate in the IEEE Society Reserve Investment
program. He also developed and obtained Society BoD approval for
a strict budget guideline process. Between the two of these issues,
there was an approximate 100% growth in Society reserves, the
largest percentage (as well as dollar) growth in Society financial
reserves during the previous thirty years. During his sixteen
years on the BoD, he was Society Treasurer for seven years, the
Symposium Treasurer for the 2000 International Symposium, liaison
to the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society for six
years, head of our Society Survey and Analysis Committee for eight
years, and represented our Society on the (now) USAB R&D Policy
Committee for over ten years.
Dick has a passion for photography. Fred Nichols, the Society
Photographer until his death in 1990, kidded Dick that he was
taking more pictures at Society events then he (Fred) as early
as 1984. By 1991, Dick was considered the Society photographer
by current Newsletter Editor Bob Goldblum. In 2001, a BoD member
noted that there was no record of Dick ever being designated the
Society Photographer, hence at that meeting the BoD formally voted
him the Official Society Photographer a title he hopes that he
earned. Dick has since been elected to the Board of Directors
of NARTE. At his first meeting he was elected Treasurer.... deja
vu! He’s coined a term for this type event. He calls it the
newcomer ambush.
 |
| Dick with one of his grandchildren.
|
Dick married his childhood sweetheart Terry at the end of his
sophomore year and they had two children by graduation. Between
1975 and 1981, Dick personally built one of the most sophisticated
solar homes in the US. Dick, his wife and three children (spanning
ages 10 to 19) constructed a four level, all concrete (470 tons
with over five miles of imbedded re-bar), ground impounded solar
home. It was designed with resource assistance from NWL and Virginia
Polytechnic Institute utilizing a modeling program called EMALS.
The design incorporated solar panels, ground heating, heating
from mulch digestion, as well as passive solar (greenhouse). The
home had a calculated thermal time constant of 61 days. By the
time it was done, what Dick calls Carter’s folly was well
recognized, and Dick had to concede that he had one of the most
expensive heating/cooling bills in his State (up to 14% interest
on the $30,000+ 1978 dollars that it cost to include the solar
features). He considers the solar experience, along with his Army
boot camp and one or two other events as great learning experiences
that he appreciates having but he would just as soon skip them
the next time around. The good news is that he has been promised
commercial rates on concrete purchases for the rest of his life,
but the bad news is that his wife has threatened violence if she
ever has to stand in wet concrete up to her knees again. EMC
EMC
Personality Profile