Memories of Tony McEwan

from Mac Simpson, Carl Feldbaum and Nelson Hendler


Bill Johnson, Tony and Nelson at Florida mini reunion, 2007? 2008?
From Nelson Hendler, March 16, 2017

Dear Mac and Carl:

Many thanks for your collective thoughts about Tony. I am sure all of the roommates remember Tony's pronouncement our senior year that he was going to retire Dec. 31, 1999. True to his word, he did. And while all of us were scrambling to earn more and more income, stock options, and credits, Tony had a refreshing outlook on work and life in general. 

He often said "no-one ever put 'I wish I had spent more time at the office' on his gravestone." As a further insight into our friend, when we would ask Tony how things were at Northrop, and expected to hear reports of promotions and stock option, and seven figure salaries, Tony very sanguinely responded with assessments which gave great insight into his personality..."I had a great year. I skied 59 days last year." Tony interjected a new parameter into measuring corporate success. 

I always took great satisfaction in knowing that I was instrumental in helping Tony complete his thesis in aeronautical engineering. Now you might wonder how a guy who got 6's in calculus, physics and chemistry freshman year, (and left engineering under the advice of Dr. Clemmens who told me "Hendler, do you want to graduate from Princeton or do you want to be an engineer, because you can't do both")  could help Tony, let me share with you how this happened. 

Tony's thesis was studying harmonic vibrations. He chose to measure these effects by filling a fish tank with red water, and marking the side of the tank with a grid. My job, under Tony's direction was to hold the water-filled fish tank in the window well of Princeton Junction and Back Shuttle, as he filmed the wave motion in the tank. He quickly discovered that if the PJ&B exceeded 32 miles per hour, the harmonic vibrations would make it jump off of the track. The fact that we all put our lives at risk every time we rode in that living relic gave me great pause. 

Periodically, I spoke with Tony about the various projects he headed at Northrop. One I remember was the design of the parachutes for the returning capsules of space launches. Apparently, the re-entry speed were so great that he had to add springs and other shock absorbing devices to stop the parachutes from tearing off the space capsules. 

The other project of which he was very proud was discovering the source of error in a combined project between Northrup and Boeing. Apparently, Boeing made fuselage parts which were shipped from Seattle to the Northrup plant to be joined to a Northrup manufactured part. However, the screw holes didn't match up, so instead of a two hour joining job, it took 3 days to redrill the holes to allow the union of parts. Tony looked at all aspects of the potential source of error. After days of investigation, he went to Boeing to look at the drill jig, which was used to drill the holes, so they would match the form Northrup. Everything was in place. So Tony went even deeper. Just like the Hubble space telescope, where the engineers used a metric system take measurements for grinding a reflective mirror, while the drawing called for grinding the mirror using the English inches, Tony found that everything was done according the manufacturing drawings, except the drilling jig was fabricated measuring from the outside of each hole on the drawing, instead of measuring center to center of the hole, as the drawing specified. Once Tony figured out the error, the jig was reconfigured, and everything went as planned, with savings of millions of dollars a week for Northrop. Uncharacteristically, on one of my visits to Malibu, about 15 years ago, Tony made me watch the entire hour tape which Northrop made about the incident, and in which Tony received an award from Northrop. Tony was a big fan of Deming**, and was proud of the fact he applied some of Deming's principles when solving this problem. 

So let's all raise a glass to our old friend Tony, and cherish his memory. And let us smile, with secret pleasure, every time a drone wipes out one of our enemies, without putting our servicemen at risk. Thank you Tony. 

Best wishes, 

Nelson 

Footnote:
**William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an American engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant. Educated initially as an electrical engineer and later specializing in mathematical physics, he helped develop the sampling techniques still used by the U.S. Department of the Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In his book The New Economics for Industry, Government, and Education,[1] Deming championed the work of Walter Shewhart, including statistical process control, operational definitions, and what Deming called the "Shewhart Cycle"[2] which had evolved into PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act). This was in response to the growing popularity of PDSA, which Deming viewed as tampering with the meaning of Shewhart's original work.[3] Deming is best known for his work in Japan after WWII, particularly his work with the leaders of Japanese industry. That work began in August 1950 at the Hakone Convention Center in Tokyo when Deming delivered a speech on what he called "Statistical Product Quality Administration". Many in Japan credit Deming as one of the inspirations for what has become known as the Japanese post-war economic miracle of 1950 to 1960, when Japan rose from the ashes of war on the road to becoming the second largest economy in the world through processes partially influenced by the ideas Deming taught:[4]
1. Better design of products to improve service
2. Higher level of uniform product quality
3. Improvement of product testing in the workplace and in research centers
4. Greater sales through side [global] markets
Deming is best known in the United States for his 14 Points (Out of the Crisis, by W. Edwards Deming, preface) and his system of thought he called the "System of Profound Knowledge". The system includes four components or "lenses" through which to view the world simultaneously:
1. Appreciating a system
2. Understanding variation
3. Psychology
4. Epistemology, the theory of knowledge[5]
Deming made a significant contribution to Japan's reputation for innovative, high-quality products, and for its economic power. He is regarded as having had more impact on Japanese manufacturing and business than any other individual not of Japanese heritage. Despite being honored in Japan in 1951 with the establishment of the Deming Prize, he was only just beginning to win widespread recognition in the U.S. at the time of his death in 1993.[6] President Ronald Reagan awarded him the National Medal of Technology in 1987. The following year, the National Academy of Sciences gave Deming the Distinguished Career in Science award.

From Carl Feldbaum, March 16, 2017

Tony was a dear friend, a roommate, plus he got us out to Idaho as he skied a crazy number of days here each winter/spring.

Among other things, Tony was a pioneer, an early adopter/developer of stealth technology at Northrup.This goes back decades. Once visiting Washington, circa 1979, where I lived at the time, he took me to the then-Naval Research Center where he was testing various stealthy models in both their wind tunnel and near mile-long water basin. I recall we may have abused a few security clearances at the moment, but hell, we'd been roommates-and maybe no more leak-proof security system exists.

Where and as I write, one of Tony's aeronautical lessons and gifts hangs on the wall of my study-one of his aboriginal boomerangs, which he taught me how to throw, fly, and (occasionally) catch.

My Best to All,

Carl 
Aloha all,

From Mac Simpson, March 16, 2017

Watched a documentary the other night on the capture of Osama bin Laden and remembered that Tony, an engineer for Northrup his entire career, emailed me right after the bin Laden raid. He noted that the last project he had worked on before retirement had been a drone that was one of the three methods under consideration to attack the compound—smart bomb, Tony’s drone, and Seal Team Six. While a far riskier option, Obama had decided to use the Seals for two reasons—first, they could prove they got him and second, to collect computers and hard drives.

Tony was one of my ushers in 1970 and we touched base whenever he visited here or i was in Southern CA and I thought I’d share this memory with clubmates and lacrosse teammates.

Mac