he inspiration and support for this report came from the CSO Technical Manager, Dr. Richard Chamberlin,
but it could not have been accomplished without the support and invaluable input and reminiscences from the
CSO Director Dr. Thomas Phillips. We also received valuable input and assistance in gathering materials from
the following:
Ralph Leighton, son of Dr. Robert Leighton;
Susan McCurdy, Administrative Assistant, Division of Physics, Mathematics and
Astronomy, CIT;
Dr. Shelley Irwin, Associate Archivist, CIT;
Heidi Aspaturian, Public Relations, CIT;
Deborah Williams-Hedges, Caltech Media Relations.
And finally, thanks to Diana Bisel, CSO Administrative Aide for her assistance,
and to Allen Guyer, CSO Electro-Mechanical Specialist, who is the only current CSO staff
member who has been here since the construction days, for reading the manuscript and valuable input.
During the construction phase the cchief engineer of the project was XXXX. Walter Schaal and David Vail
were key players. Walt designed the massive hydraulic system that operated the huge shutters, and Dave did
much of the machine work for the telescope mount and the dome drive system. They were frequent visitors
to Mauna Kea during construction solving the inevitable problems.
Other early staff members include Richard "Rick" J. Howard who came to CSO on loan from JPL
to serve as the first Site Manager. He guided the ongoing construction and and became the liason between CSO
and the Hilo community, establishing many useful contacts. Rick served from February 1986
until 1987. In September 1987, Rick was replaced by Walter Steiger who had previously retired
from the University of Hawaii and was anxious to get some hands-on experience on Mauna Kea. In 1993,
Walter retired again and was replaced by Antony Schinkel with the designation now of Technical Manager.
One of the last things that Walter accomplished during his tenure was to oversee the development and
construction of the new base facility for CSO in the University of Hawaii at Hilo Research Park, now known as the
Georgina and William
Gimbel Building.
There are many individuals who have been involved with the development of this observatory
and I offer my apologies for omitting mention of all of them in this brief
review. One in particular who should be mentioned is David Woody who, along with
David Vail and Walter Schaal, published a paper on the Design, Construction, and Performance
of the Leighton 10.4 -m-Diameter Radio Telescopes (see Reference No. 5) Comments and additional
information from readers of this article will be very welcome!
WS January 2009
steiger@hawaii.edu
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