Harry W. Gobler
1938-2020
On Becoming an Engineer
A friend tried to get me a summer job as a draftsman at an engineering company while I was attending UCLA. I showed up for the interview but my drafting skills were so mediocre that the interviewer said to me "Stay in school and become an engineer because you'll never make it as a draftsman!" I did, and have since found that mediocre drafting ability is perfectly acceptable for an engineer.
On Why He Hated to Travel
Early in his career, Harry worked for a company that designed and built structures across North America. A new Vice President of Marketing joined the firm and decided that they should double the size of their best selling products to capture new market share. Over the objections of its engineering department, the company decided to do just that - double the size of the structures, but without incurring the expense of engineering redesign. After about a year, the folly of that decision began to show up in structural failures. The company fired the entire Engineering Department, except Harry who had kept meticulous records of his correspondence with senior leadership about the risks of this ill-advised approach. His reward was that he wasn't fired - but he was assigned the task of inspecting all of the failing structures. For an entire year, upon return from one inspection he would find airline tickets on his doorstep to conduct another inspection in another state or Canada. Since that time, travel held no pleasure. So other than flying to Hawaii for his wedding and the occasional trip to Las Vegas to meet up with Laurie's parents, Harry resisted leisure travel.
On Middle Names
Daddy told me that his parents did not give him or his siblings middle names but in the U.S., it seemed middle names (or at least, middle initials) are considered necessary so they all made up either middle names or middle initials.
Laurie does not have a middle name and is always running into difficulties when completing federal forms. The instructions often require that if you don't have a middle name, you should insert "NMI" (No Middle Initial); but that tends to create its own confusions.
When I was in the Army, one of the enlisted men had only initials - "J" and "B" - instead of first and middle names. The Army had him fill out his forms with “J (only)” and “B (only)”. In its infinite wisdom, the Army clerical system renamed the guy to "Jonly Bonly" and that's who he became for the rest of his military career. (This really is a true story - it later made the Army Times (ca. 1962-1964).
About Hypotheses
When I was in graduate school, I had a professor who said "You never prove a hypothesis to be correct - you simply don't know enough to provide it incorrect!" Over the years, I have found this statement to be amazingly profound and have many times witnessed its impacts. However, I never thought it could affect Einstein's Theories of Relativity and the speed of light concepts. Nevertheless, even Einstein has now been impacted by our increasing knowledge - is nothing sacred??
On Charlotte'sWeb
I really like that the three key characters are a pig, a spider, and a rat - all despicable and generally disliked in our society, but heroes in this story!
The Craven
When I was in high school, I read a long poem called "The Craven" in which a coward on the fringe of a raging battle rationalized that if he had a fine sword like the King's son, he wouldn't be afraid. He then threw down his sword and left the battle. Meanwhile, the King's son, having lost his sword in battle, came upon the discarded blade and used it to eventually become victorious. That example has guided my thinking throughout my career.
On Being an Engineer
I was flying back from Cincinnati to San Francisco, when our flight ran into what’s called “clear air turbulence”, and our plane began being buffeted around like a ping-pong ball on a rough ocean. We experienced some major free falls, where people whose seat belts weren’t buckled, floated right to the top of the fuselage, only to come crashing down when the plane bottomed, and not exactly back in their seats. I was seated in a window seat right over the wing, and looking out I could see the wing flapping up and down over what seemed to be like a 5-10 foot range. I thought that the wing could surely not stand much of that exaggerated movement and would soon break off, and I was mesmerized watching that wing, while knowing that I would surely die if it did actually break off.
Of course, the wing did not break off, the plane made a safe emergency landing in Kansas City (on a foamed runway lined with fire trucks and ambulances), many injured people were removed from the plane, and I did not die. But I was always amazed at myself being more interested in how and when the plane was going to come apart than in the fact that I would probably die. I guess that was just the “engineer” in me!!!
"DMU"
We cooked prime rib for Thanksgiving lunch and it was delicious! However, having it only a few weeks after the one we made when Ken and Marcia visited may have diminished the enjoyment somewhat. Laurie calls it the "Theory of Diminishing Marginal Utility", a concept she learned in one of her graduate school classes. Her example is that the 2nd hot fudge sundae just doesn't taste as good as the 1st. By the 3rd, 4th and 5th, she would be seeking something altogether different than a hot fudge sundae dessert - it becomes that ordinary. We have found the Theory of Diminishing Marginal Utility to ring true in many aspects of our lives so have given it the acronym "DMU" for quick reference. If one of us says "DMU has set in ...", we know exactly what that means!
8-8-88
Back in the early 1980s someone gave me a money-clip with a race track mutual ticket face that was engraved with No. 8 to win in the eighth race at Bay Meadows on August 8, 1988 (i.e. 8-8-88). I could not resist the temptation that this future prediction had offered so went out to Bay Meadows on August 8, 1988 and bet on No. 8 to win in the 8th race and by golly, the horse actually won and paid me about $27 for my faith!
Eleven years and one month later (9-9-99), I decided to return to the race track to see if this magic could repeat. However, in the 2nd race there was a bad spill and a jockey was killed, prompting the track to cancel the remainder of the races, so I will never know.
I resisted the temptation to go to the track on October 10, 2010 (10-10-10), November 11, 2011 (11-11-11) and December 12, 2012 (12-12-12) - not because I wouldn’t have been curious, but there were no 10th, 11th or 12th races on any race card on those days, and very, very few races nowadays have as many as 10 horses. And, just for the record, dates like 1-1-01, 2-2-02, etc. do not qualify in my mindset. I guess that 1-1-11 would have qualified, but I missed that day completely. My next chance will be 2-2-22, if I survive that long, and I’m sure there is no chance for me being around for 3-3-33.
Lunch with Red Skelton
The cafeteria was named Crown Cafeteria and was situated on Colorado Blvd. near Lake Ave. They had excellent food (especially short ribs that I have always loved), and since they opened at 11:00AM, I could stop there for lunch on my way to Santa Anita Race Track, which I did quite often. There was always a line, and one day I was standing in line when I noticed this man with grey hair but he looked very much like Red Skelton. I asked him if he was Red Skelton, and he acknowledged. I then told him how much my father had enjoyed his shows (both on the radio and TV), and how we would all gather around the radio and later the TV to laugh at his many characters and their humor.
By that time we were at the cafeteria counter and I ordered my short ribs and other accompaniments (i.e. French fries, drink, dessert, etc.) and headed to a table. To my surprise, Red came over and asked if he could join me. We talked mostly about how our family (especially Daddy) loved his comedy, but I also mentioned my love for horse racing and how I was headed for Santa Anita after lunch. He smiled, but didn’t offer any commentary (good or bad) regarding my love for racing.
And that was about the extent of my lunch with Red Skelton. No, I didn’t learn anything about his life (current or past), but I did appreciate that he was gentlemanly enough to have joined me for that very short time. It sort of showed that he remembered his humble beginnings.
Did you know that his real name was Richard? Neither did I until I saw it on Google.
excerpt from email to Harry's niece, Debbie