Ray Powell is shown in 1985 with
Governor Bruce King at a testimonial dinner held
to honor Powell's community service. |
Ray Powell was a Sandia Vice President for 26 years.
He was first employed at Los Alamos in 1944 and transferred
to Sandia in 1947. Powell held many community and
government positions, including Director of the Greater
Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce (1964-1972) and Chairman
of Governor's Job Task Force in 1983. After retiring
in 1985, Powell was the Democratic gubernatorial candidate
in 1986, losing to Republican Garrey Carruthers. He
was Chairman of the Democratic Party of New Mexico
from 1988 to 1995.
The work of dedicated Sandians like
Dick Bice, Ray Powell, and Harry Kinney contributed
to the modernization of city administration and bringing
it up to national professional standards by applying
sound engineering and scientific methods to dealing
with Albuquerque's needs. Clyde Tingley had accomplished
a great deal for the city and the state in the 1920s
and 1930s, but in the postwar period he represented
the outmoded politics of a bygone era. And Bice's
efforts helped to enhance the city's cultural life
and historical awareness, contributing to the quality
of life that Albuquerqueans enjoy today.
STAFF NEWS
Research Historian Rebecca Ullrich was hired as a regular
Sandia employee in April, ending her life of contractor
servitude. She now splits her time between historical
and records management activities, serving 1/2-time
as the DP records analyst. In the part of her personality
that remains devoted to history, she has drafted a proposal
for a photographic history of Sandia to be considered
by Arcadia Publishing, attended the History of New Mexico
course at the New Mexico State Archives and Records
Center, and revised the historic building information
regarding structures in Tech Area I in support of DOE's
compliance with Sections 106 and 110 of the National
Historic Preservation Act. Ongoing responsibilities
include research and writing on various topics of Volume
II of Sandia's technical and administrative history,
answering reference questions from both inside and outside
of Sandia, and preparing materials for a new history
exhibit called "The Art of Science."
Michael Anne Sullivan, Research Assistant |
The History Program would like to introduce its new
research assistant---Michael Anne Sullivan. Michael
Anne is finishing her Ph.D. in U.S. History and Comparative
Women's History at the University of New Mexico. She
has been assisting Rebecca Ullrich and Carl Mora in
their work on the second volume of Sandia History.
She has been helping to research the activities in
city government of Sandians like Harry Kinney and
Dick Bice in the 1950s and 1960s. Michael Anne has
also been collecting information on Melvin Merritt
and Luke Vortman of the weapons effects division,
focusing on their work with chemical explosives for
Project Plowshare, a Cold War program to develop peaceful
uses for nuclear weapons.
Dorris Tendall worked as a physicist
at Sandia from 1952 to 1979, one of the first
women on the technical staff. She worked on problems
in radiation protection, drag of block forms,
crater scaling, and Plowshare projects. She was
project scientist for the Sandia Nevada Test Site
Seismic Net in 1964. |
Her favorite historical discovery is the 23-year career
of Dorris Tendall, a physicist, in the weapons effects
division. We would like to welcome Michael Anne to Sandia-we
are happy to have such a knowledgeable and energetic
research assistant.
Paper Presentation Corporate Historian Carl
Mora presented a paper titled, "Sandia and the Waste
Isolation Pilot Plant, 1974-99" at the Southwest Oral
History Association meeting in Long Beach, California
on April 28-30, 2000. He discussed the oral history
techniques employed in the writing of his history
of the project, Sandia and the Waste Isolation
Pilot Plant, 1974-1999 (SAND99-1482).
|
Sandia
History Program & Corporate Archives
![[Mail to:]](http://www.sandia.gov/images/mailout.gif){kind=small}