A summons came to report to the corner office. The corner office was that of the Division Manager at Westinghouse Aviation Division. In addition to Dan Yorksie, Engineering Manager, Don Baker, Mark Rosswurm and I were among the guests. The gathering turned out to be an awards ceremony, during which Yorksie presented an Engineering Achievement Award to Baker, Rosswurm and Jessee. Yorksie said that the Awards Program had been established to offer a new dimension of recognition of deserving individuals throughout the Corporation. In his introduction of the three recipients he briefly described the nature of the achievements leading to each of the awards.

“Don’s important invention corrected irregularities in circuit performance, giving us better output, which meant less filtering, less cost and less weight,” Yorksie said of my contribution, “and in our industry, anything that saves weight is fantastic.

“His circuit, which is patented, protects our lead in the marketplace and gives us a competitive advantage. That certainly deserves special mention and a special award.”

He was talking about a system that he had early on in its development dubbed the “Jessee Circuit” for controlling the operation of an electric power converter that converted direct current to alternating current for use in airplanes. In its basic form the converter output voltage was subject to distortion by load changes and by variations in switching devices. My job had been to take into account these corrupting variations and eliminate their influence. The ”Jessee Circuit” did the job. I’ve always wondered if Yorksie named it after me so that he would remember whom to blame in case it didn’t work. Hmm. Nevertheless I heartily agree with the choices for the Engineering Achievement Awards. We deserved them.

During my career I received an award for submitting the most meritorious patent disclosure of the year at least four times. Along with others I received a George Westinghouse Signature Award of Excellence. Of all the awards received I regard the Engineering Achievement Award the most significant.

FOOTNOTE: Copies of newspaper clippings and an award certificate are included as part of this report.