Message-Id: <4.2.0.58.20010525094231.009e9ee0@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov> Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 10:08:00 -0400 To: ivs.@gsfc.nasa.gov, igsmail@igscb.jpl.nasa.gov, ilrs@cddisa.gsfc.nasa.gov, mcgarry@cddis.gsfc.nasa.gov (Jan McGarry), tac@clark.net, Thomas.A.Clark.1@gsfc.nasa.gov, pdabney@quercus.gsfc.nasa.gov (Phil Dabney), tzagwodz@pop900.gsfc.nasa.gov, jjd@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov, barry@cornfed.gsfc.nasa.gov, Richard.Chabot@Honeywell-TSI.com, cheek@cddis.gsfc.nasa.gov (Jack Cheek), mv3@cddis.gsfc.nasa.gov (Chuck Kodak), steve@cornfed.gsfc.nasa.gov, santana@icesat3.gsfc.nasa.gov, ohring@icesat2.gsfc.nasa.gov, jmb@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov (John Bosworth), Alan_Murdoch@mail.northgrum.com, WMDecker@aol.com, Howard.Donovan@Honeywell-TSI.com, hldonovan@home.com, peter_j_dunn@raytheon.com, BetsyM@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov (Betsy Middleton), jasmith@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov, dlcarter@pop900.gsfc.nasa.gov (Dave Carter), Henry.Crooks@Honeywell-TSI.com (Henry Crooks), Van.Husson@Honeywell-TSI.com, epavlis@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov (Erricos Pavlis), epavlis@helmert.gsfc.nasa.gov, Jimr962045@aol.com (Jim Ryan), noll@cddis.gsfc.nasa.gov (Carey Noll), caporale@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov (Tony Caporale), Daniel.Nugent@Honeywell-TSI.com, Scott.Wetzel@Honeywell-TSI.com, William.Wildes@gsfc.nasa.gov, William.Boyer@gsfc.nasa.gov, mickie@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov (Mickie Cooper), lstuart@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov (Locke Stuart), linder@fastol.com (Henry and Nancy Linder), rjcoates@erols.com, jjd@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov, suzette@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov (Suzette Kempler), rappler2@juno.com From: John Degnan Subject: [IGSMAIL-3348]: Tom Clark's Retirement Bash Sender: owner-igsmail Precedence: bulk ****************************************************************************** IGS Electronic Mail 25 May 10:42:41 PDT 2001 Message Number 3348 ****************************************************************************** Author: John Degnan I am using three email exploders which may have overlapping entries so please forgive me if you receive more than one copy of this announcement. As many of you may have already heard, Dr. Thomas Arvid Clark , our VLBI guru (and resident curmudgeon), will be retiring from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on 1 June 2001 after almost 40 years of government service. He plans to pursue his other technical interests over the coming years. Tom received his B.S. in Engineering Physics and his Ph.D. in Astro-Geophysics from the University of Colorado in 1961 and 1967 respectively. From 1966 to 1968, he served as Chief of the Astronomy Branch at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and as Project Scientist on the Spacelab Coronagraph. Since arriving at GSFC in 1968, Tom has received numerous NASA awards for his pioneering work on Radio Astronomy Explorer 1 and 2 and several generations of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) systems. Since the beginning of the NASA Crustal Dynamics Project in 1979, a global network of approximately 30 VLBI stations have been used to define the Celestial reference Frame and to measure global plate tectonics, Earth orientation parameters, and Universal Time. In recent years, he developed the Totally Accurate Clock (TAC), an inexpensive GPS timing receiver that has found widespread use in a number of global networks. Tom was named a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in 1991 and a Fellow of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) in 1999. Tom was also a pioneer in amateur and digital radio; he designed and flew several low cost satellites for relaying amateur radio messages around the globe and is a past president of AMSAT. Earlier this month, he was one of only 50 initial inductees into the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame, a list which included such engineering luminaries and inventors as Guglielmo Marconi (radio), Samuel Morse (telegraph), Nikola Tesla (HF generators and radio), and John Bardeen and William Schockley (transistor). There will be a retirement party for Tom at the GSFC Recreation Center on the evening of Sunday , June 17 at 6pm (flyer attached). The announcement can also be accessed as a GIF file via the Web at: http://cddisa.gsfc.nasa.gov/tacpty.gif If you happen to be in the Washington DC metropolitan area and would like to attend Tom's party, please call one of the numbers on the flyer to reserve your place. Please indicate when you call whether you wish to say a few words concerning Tom's career and contributions (or just to harass him in reparation for past sins he may have committed against you). If you cannot attend (because of schedule, geography, or whatever) but would like to have a few words said on your behalf at the retirement dinner (in any of the above categories), please send them to me at this email address. Please be brief. A paragraph is sufficient. Tom has been an inspiring leader at NASA in pushing VLBI technology and its use in many geophysical and astrophysical applications and has educated many of those who will carry on the work in his absence. (On the other hand, Tom has applied for and received GSFC Emeritus status, so we may have to put up with him a while longer - at least on a part-time basis.) In all seriousness though, we wish him well in his second career. John I am using three email exploders which may have overlapping entries so please forgive me if you receive more than one copy of this announcement.

As many of you may have already heard, Dr. Thomas Arvid Clark , our VLBI guru (and resident curmudgeon), will be retiring from the NASA  Goddard Space Flight Center on 1 June 2001 after almost 40 years of government service. He plans to pursue his other technical interests over the coming years.

Tom received his B.S. in Engineering Physics and his Ph.D. in Astro-Geophysics from the University of Colorado in 1961 and 1967 respectively. From 1966 to 1968, he served as Chief of the Astronomy Branch at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and as Project Scientist on the Spacelab Coronagraph. Since arriving at GSFC in 1968, Tom has received numerous NASA awards for his pioneering work on Radio Astronomy Explorer 1 and 2 and several generations of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) systems. Since the beginning of the NASA Crustal Dynamics Project in 1979, a global network of approximately 30 VLBI stations have been used to define the Celestial reference Frame and to measure global plate tectonics, Earth orientation parameters, and Universal Time. In recent years, he developed the Totally Accurate Clock (TAC), an inexpensive GPS timing receiver that has found widespread use in a number of global networks. Tom was named a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in 1991 and a Fellow of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) in 1999. Tom was also a pioneer in amateur and digital radio; he designed and flew several low cost satellites for relaying amateur radio messages around the globe and is a past president of AMSAT. Earlier this month, he was one of only 50 initial inductees into the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame, a list which included such engineering luminaries and inventors as Guglielmo Marconi (radio), Samuel Morse (telegraph), Nikola Tesla (HF generators and radio), and John Bardeen and William Schockley (transistor).

There will be a retirement party for Tom at the GSFC Recreation Center on the evening of Sunday , June 17 at 6pm (flyer attached). The announcement can also be accessed as a GIF file via the Web at:

http://cddisa.gsfc.nasa.gov/tacpty.gif


If you happen to be in the Washington DC metropolitan area and would like to attend Tom's party, please call one of the numbers on the flyer to reserve your place. Please indicate when you call whether you wish to say a few words concerning Tom's  career and contributions (or just to harass him in reparation for past sins he may have committed against you). If you cannot attend (because of schedule, geography, or whatever) but would like to have a  few words said on your behalf at the retirement dinner (in any of the above categories), please send them to me at this email address. Please be brief. A paragraph is sufficient.

Tom has been an inspiring leader at NASA in pushing VLBI technology and its use in many geophysical and astrophysical applications and has educated many of those who will carry on the work in his absence. (On the other hand, Tom has applied for and received GSFC Emeritus status, so  we may have to put up with him a while longer - at least on a part-time basis.) In all seriousness though, we wish him well in his second career.

John

Dr. John J. Degnan Head, Geoscience Technology Office, Code 920.3 Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA Phone: 1-301-614-5860 Fax: 1-301-614-5970 Email: jjd@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov Thought for the Day: It is well documented that for every mile that you jog, you add one minute to your life. This enables you, at age 85, to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $5,000 per month.