Herman is one of our newest members who has spent the last 12 years in West Bay Shore, NY. This year, for the first time, he is spending the cooler months in Florida where one of his 4 children live. He also has many friends from his days in Orlando between '57 and '72 with Martin. Herman's new home is at the Village on the Green in Longwood where Craig Cheng '40 met him and introduced him to our club.
In 1967, while he was the Pershing Program Director, he accepted a last
minute opportunity to attend MIT as a Sloan Fellow. At the time he did not
know the program existed. He was given a weekend to decide and a month to
gather up his family, and get them re-located in Newton, MA before classes
started.
Just 30 days before completing the one year long program, Herman hosted his sponsor at a dinner meeting, lecture and question and answer session with his fifty Sloan Fellow colleagues from around the world. It was traditional for a fellow to hear from his "Big Boss", during this visit, what the next assignment would be (hopefully a promotion). The evening wore on without the subject ever coming up. While taking his sponsor back to his hotel at the evening's end, Herman casually mentioned that the program was coming to an end, graduation would occur within 3 weeks, after which he would be returning to the company. To Herman's surprise his sponsor responded, "That's great Herman, what are you going to do?". The following day, Herman called his immediate Boss, who headed Orlando Operations at that time, and reported a very successful visit with one small exception. This telephone call ended without any enlightenment also. A few weeks later, on Herman's return from a trip to Europe and Moscow with his fellow Sloans, he found a new organization chart had been issued creating a new position for him, VP-Operations, and a new management committee called the Orlando Executive Committee (OEC).
The OEC contained 3 Vice President positions -- the only positions reporting directly to the President. Those positions were Advanced Programs, Engineering and Operations. Once again the image of an MIT graduate held true - they can do anything and everything. As Operations VP Herman would be responsible for; Finance, Procurement, Manufacturing, Quality Assurance, Human Resources and Contracts.
One day in 1973 Herman received a call from Washington DC requesting he
meet with the Secretary of the Army and Secretary of Defense. Once there he
was asked to become the new Under Secretary of the Army under Howard
Callaway. He returned to Orlando to discuss this with his wife and
children. One of his daughters was a junior in Winter Park High School, the
others were away at college. After much thought and discussion he composed
a polite letter declining the offer. Not too long afterward he received a
call from Germany from the Secretary of the Army. The Secretary made it
clear that the request by the President and the Secretary of Defense was
not one that a patriotic American could refuse. Herman returned to
Washington for another meeting after which, in response to his request,
he was provided with a detailed description of the duties and
responsibilities of the Secretary's office and how they would be split
between the Secretary and himself, with the understanding that each would
need to know what the other was doing. Based on that information, which was
distributed to the Army General Staff and the Civilian Secretariat, he
accepted the offer.
The move was most difficult for his daughter, Linda, who had to start her senior year in a new school shortly after the official beginning of the school year. After she graduated in 1975 she asked her parents if she could go back to Orlando for a 2 week vacation. They let her go on what Herman says is the longest 2 week vacation in history. She never returned to Washington. She went on to, and completed college, got married, had two children and to this day has never again left Florida.
Herman is an Orlando Science Center volunteer. He and Craig Cheng have both attended a 4 hour course to become 'Explainers' in science subjects. They plan to donate a minimum of 8 hours per month of their time to answering questions from Science Center Visitors. Herman has indicated that there is a continuing need for additional volunteers.
Herman developed an annual Sloan Fellows Letter which has continued uninterrupted for 28 years to date and he has participated in organizing two successful class reunions in Chicago and Las Vegas.
He is currently active with RAMM (The Lockheed Martin Retirees Club) in promoting a 40th year reunion of the many who worked at or with Orlando during the decade after it opened in 1957. Martin employees, Army, Navy, Air Force military and civilians and subcontractors & vendors are all invited. He hopes to attract "out-of -towners" as well as those living in Central Florida to a 3-day weekend in April 1998, at a local motel/hotel, with time to exchange "war stories of those good old days", visit old friends, a round of golf or fishing, a plant tour, and visit to some of the Disney World type attractions. He is interested in hearing from anyone who can provide names, addresses and phone numbers of those who should be invited (please contact Jim Adams at 407-352-8496 or 356-2074 who will get the information to Herman here in Florida or in NY).
Born in 1926, he grew up in Yonkers, NY. In his High School junior year he took and passed the NY Regents exams for two required courses offered only in the senior year. This had been suggested by his geometry teacher as a means of starting college before he got into the service. One month after starting his HS senior year he received a scholarship to NYU and was able to leave HS and enter the university in the war time accelerated program of 10 terms each 12 weeks long. While there he joined the Psi Upsilon fraternity. The following year, he returned in June (as a college sophomore) to graduate with his class from High School.
In 1946, with all but one course in civil engineering completed, he went into the Army, had 8 weeks in basic training, completed a course to become an Army Counter Intelligence Corps Agent, and was asked to remain at the C.I.C. school on the faculty. By the end of the next year he had completed the one course needed to graduate, received his BSEE from NYU, was discharged from the Army, got hired as a junior engineer at a new company, Electronics Associates in NJ, and married Virginia King. Over the following years they had 2 boys and 2 girls.
In 1948 Herman became a civil servant at Ft Momouth radar branch of the Evans Signal Labs with the intention of taking advantage of a one year on site MSEE program. Because of many business trips to the Glen L. Martin Co. it took 5 years to get his MSEE from Rutgers University. As Radar Systems Section Project Engineer, he worked on the 414A program (pre-runner to Missile Master).
Herman joined Martin Company in 1954 in Baltimore and worked on Matador, Missile Master, B57D, Ferret, and Titan ground instrumentation Programs. In 1957 he transferred to Orlando where he was the Lacross Missile Program Director. Later, on the Pershing program, he was deputy to Sid Stark, the program director, and headed the Industrial group before becoming Program Director till he left for MIT. When he returned, he was VP of Operations till becoming Under Secretary of the Army in 1972.
In 1975 he joined the Bunker Ramo Corporation (a Martin Co. Investment) where he was VP to George Trimble as well as President, CEO, and board member of, subsidiary, Borg Textile Corp. Later Herman went from Chicago to Los Angeles (Thousand Oaks) to take over an ailing, highly classified, electronics division. Around 1982 Bunker Ramo Corporation was acquired by Allied Signal.
A year or so later the California division was acquired by Eaton Corp. and Herman moved to Long Island to run their Government Systems Operation's five divisions. Herman was enticed into Eaton because of the then CEO/Chairman's vision and strategy to acquire (with a $1 billion available resource) and build a new defense division to balance the automotive division's operations, then viewed as having little growth potential.
Within five years this CEO had retired and his successor convinced the board to reverse the corporation strategy. The Board of Directors decided to get out of the defense business and Herman got the task of selling all of the company's defense divisions. After retirement Eaton retained him as a consultant.
During the 60's Herman was active in the PM Investment Club, Rio Pinar Country Club, Boy Scouts, Maitland Civic Center, Florida Hospital Board, Stetson University Business School Advisory Committee (for which he was awarded the President's Medal) and the St. John's Church Council of Winter Park. Over the years he has also been active in the Thousand Oaks Westlake Church Council, various technical and professional societies, board member of the California Lutheran University and Long Island Health Services Agency.
A few years ago Herman retired from the Admiralty Homeowner's Association Board of Directors after 7 years as Director, Treasurer and Chairman.
Herman's interests include his two grandchildren, travel, whittling, oil painting, photos, fishing, golf, the symphony, the pops, and the theater.
Our thanks go to Craig Cheng for introducing Herman to our club and to Herman for becoming a member and taking part in our activities.