Edwin J. Chamberlain
1938 – 2017

• Edwin J. Chamberlain (1938-2017), Oughtred Society Board member, long scale slide rule collector, OS Newsletter Editor and author of numerous Journal articles, passed away unexpectedly on Wed., Oct 18, 2017, in Hanover, NH. Many of us know Ed well from his attendance at both our East and West Coast Meetings, as well as from International Meetings in Europe and the US. Ed was the authority on long scale slide rules, and wrote many thoroughly researched articles on this subject. His OS and IM presentations were always entertaining and of expert quality and he motivated many other members to continue research into this area. Those who knew him from our meetings were always impressed with his passion in discussing topics from a wide variety of areas in engineering, solar power, farming, and of course, slide rules. His regularly published Newsletter has become a favorite of many members, both for its timely communication throughout our organization as well as for the special wit and candor that Ed added with special topics, cartoons and generally entertaining knowledge. A full obituary will be published in the near future, but for now, needless to say, we have lost a highly respected colleague and very dear friend. He will be very sorely missed. Robert De Cesaris, President, Oughtred Society

David D. McFarland
1941 – 2017

David D. McFarland, Professor Emeritus at UCLA passed away on April 20, 2017. David had three main interests in his work, 1) social inequality and social mobility, 2) Mathematical models of social phenomena including graphical and statistical tools for analyzing data, and 3) Computers as tools, toys and as social phenomena to be studied. We of course knew David as an intrepid slide rule collector and participant at Oughtred Society meetings. We often marveled at David’s spirit, when confined to a wheel chair, he continued to attend meetings with his wife helping him get around. One of is his notable quotes: "A slide rule might work, but there are two potential problems to consider. Both the prospective users and the slide rule itself are short on relevant experience." We all will certainly miss David!

Colin Barnes
1940 – 2016

Colin Barnes was a collector and founding member of the United Kingdom Slide Rule Circle (UKSRC). He was the inspiration and original editor of Skid Stick, the thrice yearly UKSRC newsletter as well as the annual UKSRC Slide Rule Gazette and someone who has been a part of the international slide rule collecting fraternity for over three decades. In recognition of his contribution to the slide rule collecting world, Colin was a very worthy Fellow of the Oughtred Society and Oughtred Society Award winner in 1996.
Colin suffered with various health problems for a number of years culminating in his loss of a leg some years ago, which left him wheel-chair bound. This did not daunt him and he and Peter Hopp became a familiar sight at many antique and collector's fairs for many years, both here and abroad. Their adventures as they attended such events were great fun, and his incredible spirit and good humour was an inspiration to all who came into contact with him. He passed away after a relatively short illness.
Prior to retiring, Colin was the owner of Barnes Models, a company which produced architectural and other display models for the business world including various Government Departments and large international companies. He had formed this company on his return in 1974 with his young family from the British Virgin Islands where he had gone in 1962/3 as 'Chief Engineer' on a retired Trawler; the tale of the Atlantic crossing on this ship being the subject of his short book Kilros.
Like so many of the slide rule collecting fraternity, Colin thought that his early interest in slide rules was unique and it was via other early collectors such as the late John Knott and Richard Knight that he started getting together with other collectors here and abroad. It was in the early 1990s that he and some of these collectors formed the UKSRC and created links with other slide rule collecting organisations in Holland, Germany as well as the Oughtred Society in the USA. Colin had many friends in the other slide rule collecting organisations. As he became more involved with computers he started writing about slide rules and the idea of Skid Stick and Gazette were born. He was a prolific contributor of slide rule articles on an extraordinarily large range of topics both in the Gazette and in the early issues of the Oughtred Society Journal. He also produced the definitive volume on Otis King slide rules with Tedford K White in the USA.
Contributed by Peter Hopp

Derek Slater
19?? – 2015

Derek Slater of Kettering, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom passed away on March 29, 2015. Derek was an active collector and member of UKSRC and the Oughtred Society, Derek died on Sunday, peacefully here with all of his family and he knew that they were there. He had been in failing health for a long time (fibrosis of the lungs) but the final stage of being confined to bed lasted less than a fortnight. A funeral was held on Tuesday April 7 at Warriston Crematorium, 36 Warriston Road, Edinburgh EH7 4HW at 9.30 am. There will be a cheerful celebration of his life in Northamptonshire

Bennie Wayne Tschoerner
June 18, 1941 - November 2, 2014

Bennie W. Tschoerner, member of the Ougthred Society, passed away November 2, 2014 at home with his family and his two dogs, Roxie and Izzy, beside him.
He was born in Taylor, Texas to Ben and Marie Tschoerner on June 18, 1941.
Bennie was a 1959 graduate of Temple High School and received his B.S. and M.S. with honors in Physics and Math degrees from West Texas State University. He received his certification in Engineering Technology from the University of Illinois and did post graduate work at the University of Wyoming, Bucknell University, Trinity University, and East Texas State University.
Bennie was a member of Phi Delta Kappa and Sigma Pi Sigma and recipient of the EPDA Grant Award for the State of Texas and Summit Award for Outstanding Commitment to Excellence in Videoconferencing. For those of you old enough to know what a slide rule is, Bennie was also World Slide Rule Champion for many years.
He won the Slide Rule Competition at the 2010 Winter Meeting of the Oughtred Society in Las Vegas. He also won several times the World championship Slide Rule Competition in Dallas, Texas. He was an Oughtred Society member from 2009 to 2014.

Bennie's profession in life was a teacher. He taught physics, math, and electronics to those wanting to learn or those having to take his class to graduate. He was also a Product Engineer for Texas Instruments, Senior Electronics System Engineer for E-Systems, and Technology Director for PISD in Paris. He was self-titled Chief Geek for Conconnect.Net and very active in the Texas Distance Learning Association.

Bennie married Ann Deiterman of Temple on January 26.1962. Together they had two children.

Bennie loved to ride dirt bikes with his son David at Beavers Bend State Park. In his later years, Bennie enjoyed spending time with his grandchildren and giving them ice cream anytime they requested. He learned to play the fiddle and made summer trips with his grandkids to Nebraska for fiddle camp; taking them to Port Aransas to eat at Snoopys and Scoopys; taking them to Branson, Mo to see the shows; taking them tubing on Broken Bow Lake. Bennie also loved gardening, making salsa- each batch hotter than the last, spending time in his fiddle shop with his cat Calico, and listening to bluegrass music.

Bennie is survived by his wife, Ann; his daughter Carol and husband Tim; his son David and wife Julie; his five grandchildren Caroline, Abbie, Camille, Alex, and Ben; his brother Kenneth James Tschoerner and niece Chelsea; Ginny Brown (who he thought of as a daughter).

Tom Wyman
1928 – March 17, 2014

Tom Wyman, who served as our first Oughtred Society president from 1997 to 2007, passed away in Palo Alto, CA on March 17, at the age of 86. Tom became suddenly ill on the morning of March 10 from a brain aneurysm and passed away after a short hospital stay. Tom is survived by his wife, Ellen, daughter Susan, son Tom, and four grandchildren.

We all have known Tom as an expert and mentor in many areas of slide rules research and collecting but he was also very actively involved in many local civic issues and was a very special champion and benefactor of the Palo Alto Libraries. His accomplishments include Oughtred Society past president and author of numerous articles on the subject of slide rules, Palo Also Historical Association, past president, Palo Alto History Museum board member, member Friends of the Palo Alto Library, Palo Alto Plan Advisory Committee, Associate of the School of Earth Sciences, Stanford University, past president and many others too numerous to list here. In 2001, Tom and Ellen were awarded the City of Palo Alto Community Star Award. Shortly after, in 2005, both were also honored with the Avenidas Lifetime Achievement Award for their outstanding community service. Several articles have recently appeared in the Palo Alto newspapers after Tom�s death, honoring Tom and Ellen for all of the drive and effort that they successfully put towards fighting against high rise urbanization of Palo Alto in order to protect its small town environment. One story noted that Tom, the engineer, built a scale model of a proposed 19-story hospital building along with the surrounding 1- and 2- story buildings to highlight the contrast and lack of visual appeal, ..and was successful in getting the proposal overturned. Yes, that certainly sounds like the Tom we all know!

Tom moved to Palo Alto from a mining community in Tennessee in 1936. He grew up in Palo Alto attending the local elementary and middle schools and Palo Alto High School. After studying at San Jose State for two years, Tom joined the US Navy, touring the Pacific on the Lexington. Upon his return he completed his education at Stanford University where he studied mining engineering and geology. After spending some time in mining, Tom went on to work in the oil fields in Texas, solidly learning that business and eventually became an oil executive for Chevron, where he worked for 42 years. He and Ellen married in 1955, and in 1960 was transferred to the Alaskan oil fields, then to San Francisco, and finally back to Palo Alto in 1964 where they raised their son and daughter. Both Tom and Ellen share a love of California 'Arts and Craft' ceramic tile made from 1910 through 1935 and many examples can be found displayed throughout their home.

Tom loved writing articles about rules and collecting examples especially from two of his favorite areas: early boxwood slide rules and rules that were used in the textile industry. His presence and influence at our Board Meetings, our regular collector meetings, and at the International Meetings will be very greatly missed. One of the newspaper articles noted that Tom�s interest in slide rule collecting was spurred by finding a particularly elaborate set of rules in a bombed out shipping complex in Tokyo Bay during World War II, a new and interesting fact that was certainly not known to me. His expertise in research and publication is reflected in his over 80 entries into our Journal. We will miss him very keenly and we have certainly all lost a good friend and mentor. To end this tribute on a happy note as Tom would certainly want, we can take comfort in knowing that we can continue to enjoy his company even now, given the huge legacy that he has left with us by remembering his publications, generous friendship, and his sharing of research and knowledge.

Alex E.S. Green
1920 – March 12, 2014

Professor Emeritus Alex E. S. Green, a noted member of the University of Florida community, passed away on March 12, 2014. He was 94. Green became a graduate research professor at UF in 1963, where he headed the Interdisciplinary Center for Aeronomy and Atmospheric Sciences. However, after the oil crisis in 1973, his focus turned to energy alternatives; his last work at the university involved converting biomass and waste to energy using special processes.
But his contributions spanned a variety of topics throughout his career. Before joining the UF faculty, Green had been a gunnery evaluation specialist and an operations analyst for the Army Air Force during World War II. He had developed specialized slide rules to solve technical issues faced by B-29 bombing raids, leading to his participation in one of the most dangerous B-29 missions that found the missing Japanese fleet, including the battleship Yamato. He remained an enthusiast of slide rules, making numerous presentations to various audiences around the world, and was a long-time member of the Oughtred Society. He was recognized for his contributions as an OS Fellowship recipient from 1992-2005.

Aside from his contributions to the WWII effort, he participated in many other pursuits: He initiated the Physics PhD program at Florida State University, worked in industry, and served on the National Coal Council. More recently, in 1996, he patented an invention that provided on-site waste to energy, which would mean savings on waste transport costs.
Green's career encompassed 17 books, over 400 publications, and numerous patents and awards. His impact on the world around him will not be forgotten. He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Freda Green, of Gainesville, son Bruce Green of Micanopy, Deborah Green of Orlando, Marcia Green and Tammy Gordon of Gainesville. Alex is predeceased by his daughter Linda Green Proctor.
(Written by friend)

John Bakken Mosand
1935 – 2013

Trondheim, Norway. Fellow of the Oughtred Society. Advanced collector and researcher of Aristo slide rules, frequent contributor to the Journal of the Oughtred Society and the Bulletin. Proofread the ISRM's Slide Rule Terms and Encyclopedia. Retired architect. Education: Architecture, Art history, Graphic design. Played 12 years as a professional oboist with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. Appeared extensively in chamber music concerts. He writes: "My favorite slide rule? That might be the one I worked with in my High School and University days and in my profession until I bought my first calculator. It is a pocket version of the Faber-Castell Darmstadt."

IJzebrand Schuitema
May 31, 1929 – June 17, 2013

IJzebrand was born in Usquert, the Netherlands. He studied Civil Engineering at the Technical University of Delft. In his professional life he was involved in many building projects, among which the metro tunnel under the river Maas in Rotterdam. IJzebrand was one of the very first slide rule collectors in the late 1980's. Over many years he built a collection of over 3000 slide rules, which he donated in 2008 to the Arithmeum in Bonn: "die Sammlung Schuitema". IJzebrand researched his slide rules extensively in libraries, museums and patent offices, but his preferred method was by interviewing designers and makers of special slide rules, or their surviving family, so-called "oral history". He shared his knowledge with both fellow collectors and the general public via many publications (at least 15 slide rule articles in the Journal of the Oughtred Society). He also published four books on slide rules, of which "Calculating on Slide Rule and Disc (2000) and "The Slide Rule, Technical Cultural Heritage" (2001) contain a wealth of knowledge for slide rule collectors. IJzebrand was a Fellow of the Oughtred Society, holder of the Oughtred Society Award (1995), and recipient of the Wolfgang-Paul-Medaille of the University of Bonn (2008). IJzebrand will be remembered by his friends for his creativity, energy, persistence, enthusiasm and knowledge.

Dieter von Jezierski
1927 – June 17, 2013

Stein, Germany. Collector/Author. Fellow of the Oughtred Society. Honorary member of UKSRC. Oughtred Society Award 1997. Expert on Faber-Castell slide rules; retired long time employee of Faber-Castell; frequent attendee of the Society's west coast meeting. In 1977 wrote and published Slide Rules: Journey Through Three Centuries, the first modern book on the history of slide rules. Author of more than 30 articles in JOS, Gazette, Skid Stick and RST1997. recipient of the Oughtred Society Hall of Fame. Picture is from an IM 2001 meeting in Munich, Germany.

Donald Black
???? – 2012

Helped publish the Journal of the Oughtred Society from the founding of the OS until 2011.

Bernard Carter Boykin
1921 – May 12, 2011

Born in Ruxton, Maryland. He earned a BS degrees in Chemistry from Williams College in 1942/43 and another in Chemical Engineering from John Hopkins University in 1954. During World War II he was a radar officer in the United States Navy. Bernard manufactured the Boykin RotaRule from his home in Ruxton, Maryland. His design was started in 1957, with manufacturing commencing in the early 60's. Though based on the expired patent of Dempster's RotaRule, last built in 1948, Boykin improved the slide rule with better materials and scale arrangements. About 200 units were sold prior to 1973. He owned Boykin Electro Tech and in 1991 founded the Whitby/Brewer (Yacht) Association. As of 2009 he was active at age 85 and enjoyed sailing with his wife Carolyn. Bernard died of leukemia at age 89. In addition to his wife, Mr. Boykin is survived by three daughters, Carol Boykin of Ruxton, Betsy Boykin of Bolton Hill and Bobbie Boykin of Larchmont, N.Y.; and two grandsons.

Wayne E. Feely, PhD
May 24, 1931 - January 27, 2011

Of Rydal, Pennsylvania. Member of the Oughtred Society and contributor to the JOS. Wayne was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York where he graduated from high school. He was a graduate of the Polytechnic Institute of New York University in Brooklyn and received his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Rochester in 1957. He served in the United States Army, being honorably discharged in 1962 after reaching the rank of First Lieutenant in the Chemical Corps. Wayne worked for 36 years as a research chemist for Rohm and Haas, a multi-national chemicals manufacturing company in Pennsylvania, until his retirement in the early 1990's. He accumulated 21 U.S. Patents. Wayne is best known amongst slide rule collectors for his expertise on Fuller and Thacher cylindical slide rules. Wayne outlived his wife Jeanette, They had 3 children, Bennett, Susan and Janet and two step-sons Chuck and Chris, and at his death at age 79, eight grandchildren.

Harold (Dave) David Rueb
1939 - 2009

Dave was an avid slide rule collector and had one of the largest K&E collections. He worked as a structural engineer for 40 years, and for 37 years as the owner of H.D. Rueb Structural Engineer. Obtained his Architectural Engineering Degree at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo ('61). Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity. Upon graduation, he served our country as a Captain of the Civil Engineering Squadron in the U.S. Air Force ('62-'68). Dave was stationed at Duluth AFB in Minnesota and Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage, Alaska. Master's Degree in Structural Engineering at UC Berkeley ('69). Dave engineered over 5,000 buildings in 10 states, including churches, public schools, office buildings, retirement centers, country clubs, shopping centers, commercial buildings, medical buildings and private residences. A few examples of his projects included the Alhambra High School, Longs Drug Stores and the prison retrofit at Alcatraz Island. He is survived by his wife Leslie Marie (Olson) Rueb and three sons.

Osborne Ingle Price
September 30, 1930 – June 3, 2008

Osborne was one of the original founders of the Oughtred Society that first met together in 1991. As the publicity director, he helped to expand the membership in its early years. The list of American slide rule patents was one of his many contributions to the slide rule community. He studied mechanical engineering at the Stevens Institute in Hoboken, NJ, earning his degree in 1955. After a stint in the U.S. Navy he ran his father's business, Magnetic Devices, then relocated to Los Altos, CA. He is survived by his wife Elfried in San Jose, CA.

John Prince
November 13, 1941 – December 6, 2005

John specialized in collecting K&E rules, with a strong interest in Pickett as well. In 2002, John described how he started with slide rules in 1960: "I used a K&E 4181-3 ; we were mandated to use either a 4081-3 or 4181-3 in our freshman slide rule class. I chose the cheaper (very important to a married 18 year old) rule and never regretted it despite the dire predictions from some faculty about dimensional stability and durability. I never really needed a more complex rule while working in graduate school as an electrical engineer." [ISRG, message 15929]

Dick Schwartzer
March 5, 1933 – March 11, 2005

Dick operated The Slide Rule Emporium, the major source for new-in-box Pickett slide rules. Dick was a friend to many.

Joe Levine
December 19, 1948 – January 25, 2005

Joe was a regular contributor to the ISRG list from its beginnings, with the handle "JoeDentist," perhaps best known for his Schmendrolog April Fools' Day hoax.

Herman van Herwijnen
October 15, 1929 – August 8, 2004

Herman was a prominent member of the Dutch Circle of Slide Rule Collectors. His major work was a CD database with over 5000 slide rules cataloged (including images). In addition he co-authored the book Calculating on Slide Rule and Disc and published many times in the Journal of the Oughtred Society. He was also a seller of slide rules.

Click for larger picture

Michael O'Leary
November 27, 1951 – July 19, 2003

Michael's slide rule accomplishments ranged from development of the K&E and Pickett master XREF spreadsheets, to moderating the ISRG discussion list, to writing for the Journal of the Oughtred Society. Michael corresponded with many collectors around the world.