Page 89 - MY STORY

my team (as opposed to being liked). His advice was

very straightforward: “Each individual is different and
you’ll have to learn when to pat them on the butt and
when to hit them in the back of the head with a two by

four with a nail in it!!”

At that time in the company’s history, this little lecture

constituted the totality of Douglas’ management training
curriculum. There’s not enough room to write all I recall
about this aspect of Joe’s teaching and mentoring. He

truly shaped my professional life in many ways – this is
only one aspect of that journey.

LOW CYCLE FATIGUE TITANIUM PAPER PRESENTATION

I assailed you with my fear of public speaking, dating
way back to my college days. This story is the second
half. Douglas was very busy designing and building the

third stage (S-IVB) of the manned moon-bound
Saturn-Apollo launch vehicle stack. We had elected to
install 25” diameter titanium alloy high-pressure helium

spheres inside the liquid hydrogen tank that operated at
-423 degree F. This was done to conserve weight. The
strength of the selected titanium alloy doubles as the

temperature drops from room temperature to liquid