[IGSMAIL-3348]: Tom Clark's Retirement Bash

Fri May 25 07:08:00 PDT 2001

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IGS Electronic Mail      25 May 10:42:41 PDT 2001      Message Number 3348
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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

<html>
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: 
 
<a href=3D"http://cddisa.gsfc.nasa.gov/tacpty.gif"=
 eudora=3D"autourl">http</a>://cddisa.gsfc.nasa.gov/tacpty.<a=
 href=3D"http://cddisa.gsfc.nasa.gov/tacpty.gif" eudora=3D"autourl">gif 
 
 
</a>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 
 
</html>

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 at 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.