Parke Rohrer: DUSAF's On-Site Boss
E. Parke Rohrer
E. Parke Rohrer, Project Manager for DUSAF, has the distinction of managing what the Engineering News Record has said is "the engineering challenge of the century." There are not many men who have an opportunity to supervise the design and construction of the large and varied buildings and enclosures for a one-of-a-kind project such as the National Accelerator Laboratory.
Graduate of NYU
Parke was born in 1924 in Lime Valley, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He was brought up on a farm and his first taste of education came in a one-room red brick schoolhouse where the same teacher taught for over sixty years, spanning several generations of pupils in many families. After he graduated from high school, the Army Air Corps claimed him for three years where he supervised the maintenance of automatic pilots. In 1946 he entered New York University, College of Engineering, receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering. Upon graduation, he took a position with the Armstrong Cork Company of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he helped develop the manufacturing equipment to make acoustical tile and other products. Parke was responsible for the development of the first machine to make terrazzo floor covering, a most unusual and interesting project.
Joined DMJM 1961
Relocating in Reading, Pennsylvania, Parke established his own consulting firm of mechanical and electrical engineering services which he operated for three years until he became general supervisor of design and facility engineering for Rohr Aircraft Corporation located in the warmer climate of Riverside, California. In 1961 he joined the firm of Daniel, Mann, Johnson and Mendenhall (DMJM), domestic and international consultants in planning, architecture, engineering, systems and economics as their Far East Asia Operations Manager in Tokyo.
5 Years in Far East
The Rohrer family spent five years in Japan where Parke was responsible for approximately $270 million in major planning programs; $170 million in engineering design work and supervised $160 million in construction of 30 key defense projects for the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, all of which involved close coordination and surveillance of the architectural and engineering disciplines. He has also served on DMJM teams responsible for such major projects as the pump design for the California Aqueduct system which will lift water 2,000 feet over the Tehachapi Mountains and a research and development center for Communications Satellite Corporation in Maryland. But, he admits the NAL project is the most interesting he has ever worked on. "Two projects that I am looking forward to with great anticipation are the further development of the central laboratory building and the experimental areas", he stated.
Heads DUSAF Staff
Because of Parke's wide background, especially in design and engineering management, Irvan F. Mendenhall, President of DMJM, highly recommended him as Project Manager for DUSAF Having been interviewed and accepted by Dr. Wilson and Colonel William D. Alexander, partner in the firm of Seelye, Stevenson, Value Knecht, and also accepted by the top management of the joint venture firms, Parke assumed his duties as Project Manager in January 1968. As such, he is responsible for the day-to-day operation of DUSAF in the design and construction of the National Accelerator Laboratory conventional facilities. The DUSAF staff now numbers approximately 170 and is comprised of senior members of the firms involved, former employees who have worked on various projects all over the world and local engineers and architects. DUSAF is international in scope and employment with just about every nationality imaginable represented, and it strives to be an integrated well-functioning composite of all members of the joint venture.
Family Designers
Parke and his wife, the former Janette Valk, live in Wheaton, Illinois, with their five active children Roselind, 16; Jonathan, 14; David, 12; Daniel, 8 and Steven, 3 who boasts of being the only one in the family of Japanese citizenship, having been born in Tachikawa, Japan! Rosalind and her mother, a graduate of New York University, College of Education, display unusual talents in designing and making many of their own clothes. The entire family is enthusiastic about camping having camped from New York to California, concentrating on the Yellowstone Park area, upon their return from Japan in 1966. David must have inherited some engineering-architectural genes from his father - in a recent Wheaton-Glen Ellyn soap box derby he won first prize for the best-designed soap box racer which is now on display in the Rohrer family room! Naturally, it was called THE ACCELERATOR - 200 BEV!
Coordination Vital
A nine to ten hour workday is typical in the life of the Project Manager, starting in the morning with the logging in of the past day's events and laying out the activities for the day, which include checking on the latest problems and changes in the design division. Every other day Parke tours the construction site keeping up with that phase of the project. As one might expect, the coordination of such an undertaking depends a great deal on communication between many groups. Parke attends NAL meetings and holds his own division and staff meetings with the four divisions of DUSAF: engineering/architectural, administrative/finance, projects division construction and the Equal Employment Opportunity Department. The last item of the day consists of taking care of the mail and, long after most people have left the Village, Parke Rohrer is preparing for the next day's events.
V.P. of DMJM
A member of the Far East Society of Architects and Engineers, the National Society of Professional Engineers and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Parke was named Vice President of DMJM. When the Laboratory project is completed, he may be in the home office of DMJM in California or possibly manage one of the many regional offices in another part of the world. In this period of building for the future, the administrative and technical talents of E. Parke Rohrer will doubtlessly be in demand wherever he chooses to go.