Bill and Bob, Where Did You Come From (LaFond, Gehring, Imes ...

ature and water samples, were taken weekly at several
stations along the California coast, sent to the Institute
and temporal plot com pi led. Since I worked in Dr.
McEwen's outer office, I became closely associated
with him. He was somewhat shy and bashful, but
kind and helpful. He introduced me to the drafting
equipment containing a complete set of Wrico lettering
guides which improved the quality of my drawings.
Dr. McEwen was well versed in physical oceanography.
He also did a· little theoretical work and made a
statistical study of rainfall, for which the San Diego
Gas and Electric Company gave him a little money,
some of which later helped continue my employment,
i.e., computing Fourier analyses from series of previous
rainfalls. However, at that time predicting rainfall
a year in advance was a long way from being 100%
successful.
Ruth McKitrick was the only secretary in Ritter
Hall. Half her time was spent for Dr. Moberg and
half her time with Dr. McEwen. She was attractive
and efficient. She lived in La Jolla and commuted
with Tillie Genter in the Institute's touring car which
served as a bus and called at the La Jolla post office
for the mail in the morning and evening. There was no
mail delivery.
Dr. McEwe.n had an assistant, Stan Chambers, who
worked himself into a routine job of determining salinity
of the water samples received from coastal stations,
by the use of a clever arrangement of a hydrometer
attached to one arm of an analytical balance.
He was also responsible for maintaining records from
a pyroheliometer, tide gauge and seismograph.
Dr. Francis Sumner, one of the earliest, 1913, members
of the staff, was investigating protective coloration
changes developed by fish in adapting to their
immediate environment. I was sympathetic to the
poor halibut, which, when placed on a black and white
checkerboard background, tried to change its body
colors to match the one-inch squares. Previously,
Dr. Sumner had worked on the genetic traits of mice,
carrying on his work in a then vacant "mouse house"
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