Autobiography of Douglas Hallgren

 I was born of Swedish immigrants in New York  City in 1930. I attended school in NYC through part of the fifth grade until we moved to Mount Vernon in 1941. In January 1949 I graduated from A.B.Davis high school.

 A word about our schools in Mount Vernon is appropriate as background.  In hindsight, after many years observing other systems and hearing about secondary education in general I feel that we had a rather uniquely good educational  experience in Mount Vernon. The standards  and the expectations for performance were high, all without pressure. Poor performance simply was not acceptable.

 After high school I attended what is now Westchester Community College, as a student in the Mechanical Technology Department. Ours was  the second graduating class in the Community College system.  We carried 22-24 credit hours per quarter, and had 26-28  contact hours per week. The fourth quarter was a work experience. My experiences were with Anaconda Wire & Cable a manufacturing firm and with a research and development group for Schlumberger Oil Well Surveying Company.

 Upon graduating, I went to work for the General Electric Co. in Schenectady as a draftsman in the Small and Medium Motor Division. After a short time I was offered a position as a laboratory assistant at the General Electric Research Laboratory in the metallurgy department. The group I worked with used X-ray diffraction analysis to understand the structure  and behavior of materials. In those days almost everybody attended night school to advance his education. I took courses at R.P.I. looking toward completing a bachelors degree.

 In the course of  my  work I had frequent need to use a microscope. Not having had any training in microscopy, I resorted to what was then the standard research laboratory approach  to a lack of technical expertise. One simply walked down the hall and found an “expert”. There was always someone there who could help you. The man who became my resource for microscopy was Ernest Fullam, one of the founding fathers in the field of electron microscopy. Just being in the research laboratory was an education in itself. Monthly “Information Meetings” provided snapshot views of all the latest topics under study in the various departments.

  After a time Mr. Fullam left G.E. and established his own consulting firm in microscopy. Shortly thereafter, I left G.E. and went to work at the Fullam laboratory. Part of the arrangement was that I would also work full time on my bachelor’s degree at R.P.I. At this time I was already married and  had two children. During my college years I worked at least half time with Mr. Fullam applying microscopy techniques to problems for manufacturing companies around the country. I completed my degree at Union College in 1960. By that time I was handling clients on my own. The work at the Fullam laboratory brought us in contact with new technology at a different level. We provided analysis of material for such products as boron fibers used for high strength low weight applications, iron oxide powders for magnetic recording tape, and analysis of uranium fuel rods for atomic energy power plants. I had the opportunity to analyze the electrical connector that caused the power failure on Gus Grissom’s Mercury flight. It turned out that the plating on the connector was cadmium, a forbidden material for space use because of its high vapor pressure.         

 Through a very complicated set of circumstances the Fullam Laboratory became involved with Dudley Observatory. I was a part of that interactive effort and in 1963 went to work at the Observatory to set up a laboratory for electron microscopic analysis of micrometeorites. Over the next fifteen years we carried out a collection program utilizing high altitude balloons, launched from the NCAR(National Center for Atmospheric Research) site, in Palestine Texas. An unusual balloon flight was launched from Australia and went around the world one and one half times. Sounding rockets were launched from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and the ESRO (European Space Research Organization) range above the arctic circle in Kiruna, Sweden. Probably the most interesting program was the manned space program involving the original Mercury astronauts and the second generation group brought on for the Gemini flights. A Dudley experiment package was the first object launched into space and left behind to be recovered during a later mission. It was an exciting experience.

 As students you may ask “how does one educate himself for an off-the-track career?” The answer is, that it is not by a single educational pursuit, but rather through a collection of  educational encounters which alone and at the time have little meaning but allow you to solve your current problem from a much broader perspective, when the need arises.

- Doug Hallgren, 2007