#163) This News Blog Is Now 9 Years Old!

2010 to 2019 - 163 Posts of Librascope Memories...

9 years ago this month this Librascope Memories - News Blog published its first post, announcing that, so far, there were over 100 reservations for the 2010 Reunion. The new Blog's purpose was to provide a free platform for communicating news of interest to Librascope's many retirees on a timely basis. A Blog format was chosen, because it's easier and quicker to publish the news, compared to a conventional website. BTW, our Librascope Memories website celebrated its 10 year anniversary earlier this year (See Post #160).

Since 2009 there have been over 96,500 pageviews of this Blog from all over the world, including Korea, Canada, Taiwan, Germany, Mexico, France, China, India, Australia, and a few others! During this time, we've covered many subjects, including Librascope Reunions, Librascope surplus equipment sought or for sale, "Has Beens" get togethers, announcements of new additions to the Librascope Memories website, and sadly the Passing of many Libravets. Recent examples of other interesting posts include #145) Moving a Canadian Oberon Class "O" Boat, #143) Stanford Destroys $300,000 Disk Memory, #137) Don Tubbs and His Team's Plan to Go 300+ MPH, #109) My review of Disney's new book about a Libravet, and many, many other posts.

I'm planning to publish (post) a list of all 163+ subjects, with an active ("clickable") link to each one. Meanwhile, stay tuned for a post of some photos from our 2019 Reunion held a couple weeks ago.

Enjoy,
Carl

#55) A Special Thanks to Roy Kramer, Don Tubbs, and a Couple of Others

Ray Hand and others recently documented this "sea story" about how 60+ years of Librascope memorabilia was literally saved from the dumpster, and eventually made available for others to enjoy. Click here to view the story on-line.

A Special Thanks to Roy Kramer, Don Tubbs, and a Couple of Others

The “Librascope Memories” websites and Libravets everywhere owe a great debt of gratitude to Roy Kramer, Don Tubbs, and others. To begin with, Roy’s initiative saved the original 1937 Librascope developed by Louis Imm in his garage, over 300 Librazettes, the Publications Department’s master photo file, and a lot of other Librascope memorabilia from total destruction.  

In 1999, Roy had completed eighteen years service at Librascope and was in charge of Publications Department operations. At that time, efforts were underway to close the Glendale Facility and move the remaining work to Lockheed Martin in Manassas, Virginia. The employees sent from Manassas to supervise the shutdown were interested in transferring the engineering and manufacturing drawing files, but had no interest in preserving any of Librascope’s rich history. If it had not been for Roy, with considerable support from Don Tubbs, most of Librascope’s storied history would have been condemned to the dumpster.

Yes, literally a dumpster. When Roy discovered that Librascope memorabilia was being thrown in a dumpster he quickly told Don Tubbs. Together, they decided to do something about it. Roy and Don were soon discovered digging through the dumpster and retrieving assorted memorabilia. When asked what they were doing, they said they were saving a part of Librascope’s history that should be preserved. They were then told to stop until “upper management” was informed, and were accused of planning to sell the material on eBay. The questioner clearly did not know anything about the integrity of the Librascope family. Reportedly, Ernie Pool soon vouched for Roy and Don who were then told they had management’s permission to collect Librascope items of memorabilia.

From that point on, Roy would inform Don whenever memorabilia items were to be destroyed. Instead of throwing them out though, they placed the items in the back of Don’s pickup truck and Don took them home to his garage. However, the large volume of memorabilia storage space required soon occupied the space needed for his “hot rods”, so Danny Sibley offered to store it in his Company’s stockroom. Then, a couple years later, Georgine Archer volunteered to move the everything to her garage, where it remains to this day. Now, just before each Libravet Reunion, Don and Danny visit the archive at Georgine’s, and select the most interesting items to be displayed at the upcoming event.

But that’s only part of this story. In April 2009, after starting the construction of a brand new “Librascope Memories” website dedicated to the Company’s history, Carl Sorensen called Roy Kramer to ask if he knew of any old Librazettes or other Librascope memorabilia that had been saved. Not knowing the extent of Roy’s previous preservation efforts, Carl was amazed to learn about the six decades worth of Librazettes, photographs. and other Librascope documents that Roy had saved and stored at his home for almost ten years. Carl, who could hardly contain his enthusiasm, then asked if he could borrow the collection for scanning and placing on the new website. Roy approved of the idea, because he recognized that putting Librascope’s historic documents on the Internet would make them accessible to everyone. After all, preservation of the Company’s history for the benefit of others was Roy’s and Don’s objective from the very beginning.

When Carl informed Ray Hand of the unbelievably good news, Ray volunteered to pickup the historic treasure from Roy and commence scanning it. Ray then bought a special flat bed scanner suitable for scanning the nearly 300 large size Librazettes, and periodically e-mailed the scanned files to Carl for addition to the growing Librascope Memories website (www.librascopememories.com). Working together, over 2,000 pages of Librazettes, plus numerous Librascope news items, brochures, photographs, and technical literature were processed.

The "Librascope Memories" website's Welcome page

 It soon became apparent, however, that a system was required to facilitate searching of the large and still growing Librascope memorabilia database. So. in late 2009, Carl set up a second web-site called “Librascope Search”, utilizing a new commercial application called Evernote. Evernote was the perfect solution, because it was relatively inexpensive and easily capable of accurately searching the large and complex database for key words such as people’s names, project titles, and various events.

Later, numerous other Librascope documents, that had also been saved, were added to the already large but living database. Today, there are over 60+ years of Librascope history on the two web-sites, including hundreds of historic documents and thousands of pages, that can easily be accessed on the Internet. New items of historic interest continue to be added as they become available.

Then, in time for the 2010 Librascope Reunion, Carl set up a third web-site called Librascope Memories - News Blog (www.librascopememories.blogspot.com). Its purpose was to communicate current events of interest to all Libravets, including any new information relating to the other two “living” web-sites Don and Roy made possible.

 

The "Librascope Memories - News Blog" Welcome page

And so ends another story about Librascope’s interesting history, and its many good people. Special thanks though to the foresight and personal initiative of Roy Kramer, Don Tubbs, and the others that followed for saving the Company’s past from the dumpster. Librascope’s rich 60+ years of history, including numerous technical contributions, have now been preserved for the benefit of not only thousands of Libravets, but future researchers and historians as well.

#46) In Memoriam - Carl Krohn

Carl and Ruby's 50th in 2007

Carl Robert Krohn passed away December 1, 2011 near his home in Boulder City, NV. He was 83 and worked at Librascope from 1956 until 1991 when he retired as Vice President of Quality and Product Support. Carl's family has published a very thoughtful obituary with several of his photos, which you may view by clicking here.

Last year, Carl attended the 2010 Libravet Reunion in Burbank, CA. In recognition of his long service at Librascope, Ray Hand and Georgine Archer searched the 300+ Librazettes that are on-line at www.librascopememories.com, and put together an interesting collage of clippings which you may view by clicking here.

#42) In Memoriam - Tom Kokinda

Tom Kokinda at the 2010 Reunion

Tom Kokinda passed away last Tuesday August 23rd at his home in Southern California. He was 74, and worked at Librascope from 1960 until 1992 when he retired as Field Service Manager. His wife, Donna, says that Librascope was a large part of his life. Per Tom's request, there will be no funeral service.

As a tribute to Tom's long service at Librascope, Ray Hand searched all the Librazettes on line for articles about Tom and put together a very nice collage of clippings. You may view this tribute by clicking here.

#36) e-Mail from Victor Riehl

Recently received the following update from Victor Riehl, former Librascope VP and Legal Counsel:

----- Original Message -----

From: Victor Riehl

To: Carl Sorensen

Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2011 4:44 PM

Subject: Re: Fw: Librascope Memories - News Blog #34

Hi Carl,

Thanks for the nice memories, brought back to life by your website and the photos from the 2010 get-together. It is good to see Jerry Deitz, Walt Picker and Hank Pinczower looking so well. Lorene Burrows, too--I saw her a couple of years ago at the Nixon Library.

Marie and I are living back in Pasadena now.  We restored a  big, old farmhouse in Provence, sold it in 2008 and now are back in California permanently. I retired from Ocean Systems (formerly Bendix, now L-3 Communications) in 2006, worked overseas as a consultant for a couple of years and now refuse to do anything more strenuous than clean the pool and play golf--and I excel at neither.

Keep up the good work!

Victor Riehl

#29) Major Update to the Librascope Memories Web-Site.

The companion web-site to this Blog has been updated to include over 100 new documents and photos. The last update was made seven months ago. Updates include additions to almost every section, including Sea Stories (2), Product Literature (32), Brochures (4), Advertisements (18), News Items (5), and Videos (1). Additional photos include the following: People (21), Places (6), Products (12), and two Photo Albums with 60 photos of the 2010 Reunion.

To view the updated Librascope Memories web-site, click here.

#15) 2010 Librascope Reunion Photos - Album 1 of 2

To view a full screen slideshow of this album, click here, and then select "Slideshow".

#14) 2010 Librascope Reunion Photos - Album 2 of 2

To view a full screen slideshow of this album, click here, and then select "Slideshow".

#12) 2010 Reunion's "Back to the Future" Time Machine Sold For $95,000 Plus!

A reproduction of the iconic DeLorean Time Machine from the movie "Back to the Future" sold at auction shortly after it was on display at Librascope's 2010 Reunion that was held at the Castaways in Burbank, CA. Note the L107MA casting in the rear section. Auction fees of $17,000.00, plus fees and sales tax were in addition to the $95,000 bid. A detailed description of the car can be found at: http://www.icollector.com/The-most-technically-accurate-reproduction-of-the-iconic-DeLorean-Time-Machine-from-Back-to-the-Futu_i9891584

#3) "Librascope Memories" Search Demonstration at the 2010 Reunion.

Ray Hand will have a laptop computer set up at this Saturday's Reunion to demonstrate the powerful search features provided on the Librascope Memories web-site. For example, provide Ray with any Libravet's name, and he will show you how to simultaneously search all 301 Librazettes for that name. In a few seconds, the computer will list every issue that that name occurs in. Next, the computer will find exactly where in each issue that that name appears. After this demonstration, you will be able to perform identical searches on your PC or Mac at home. Similarly, the same procedure can be used to search for other subjects, such as Polaris, or VECP.

#2) "Back to the Future" DeLorean Time Machine will be at the 2010 Reunion!

Three representatives of the Ontario (Canada) DeLorean Owners Club (ODOC), will be displaying a DeLorean "Back to the Future" Time Machine replica between 11am and 1pm Saturday at the 2010 Reunion. The original DeLorean Time Machine employed a Librascope L107MA memory housing, which was a machined aluminum casting. Unfortunately, the ODOC has been unable to locate any of these old castings for their cars, so their members have had to use molded plastic replicas. As a result, they are hoping that someone at our Reunion will be able to help them locate a source for these old castings. If anyone can offer a suggestion, please contact Ken Kapalowski at ken@odoc.ca.

An L107MA casting, like used in the movie, can be seen at the bottom of this Time Machine photograph:

#1) 2010 Reunion reservations exceed 100. Three days to go.

Georgine Archer reports that as of today (October 20th), over 100 people have signed up for the 2010 Libravet Reunion this coming Saturday (October 23rd). Most Libravets attending are from California, but a few are traveling from out of state, including Howard Humphrey (OR), Carl Krohn (NV), Ken & Sue Mandeville (OR), and Mary Styffe (NH). You may still view the invitation at http://tinyurl.com/Libravet-2010-Reunion, but time is very short to make a reservation.