Chronister honored for service to country

Chronister honored for service to country

BY ARIE WILSON
Rice News staff

In 1961, Dick Chronister left the University of Houston before completing his engineering degree. Forty-five years later, UH’s loss is certainly Rice’s gain, as Chronister continues to be an extensive source of engineering knowledge.

JEFF FITLOW

At its annual Veterans Day ceremony Nov. 10, Rice honored veteran Dick Chronister, department/research technician in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Chronister, who served in the Navy in the 1960s, was presented the ceremonial flag, being folded above by Hanszen College freshman and ROTC member Josh Kirlin as Rice Police Chief Bill Taylor looks on from the podium.

Chronister, who had an interest in aircraft from his earliest years, had planned on working with aircraft after getting his mechanical engineering degree. A stint in the U.S. Navy, however, changed his plans.

”Without a deferment, I knew a draft notice was coming,” he said. ”Three days before I left to go into the Navy, I got the notice.”

The Navy sent Chronister to electronics school in Memphis, Tenn., where he learned to put

”30 pounds of electronics in a two-pound box.”

He then went to California to work on a program to develop a carrier-based early warning aircraft, the predecessor of today’s AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft. Chronister’s squadron was responsible for a six-engine airborne surveillance jet, an RB-47, with 27 receivers to detect and jam electronic signals. In addition, he flew onto and off of every carrier in the Navy fleet as he trained officers in electronic jamming techniques.

His career in the Navy was cut short in 1965 after an airplane accident, the details of which remain classified. He returned to Houston to work in the oil industry with Schlumberger and then joined the Rice staff for the first time in 1968. He worked in the Space Science Center and Materials Science Department, adding his expertise to programs like the Owl Satellite Project and the Nike-Tomahawk Project.

Chronister left Rice in 1975 to pursue other career opportunities but returned in 1987, joining the Chemical and Biomechanical Engineering Department. As a department/research technician, he continues to design and build new equipment to support various activities for the department, where he earned the nickname ”Mr. Wizard.”

”I’m just building and designing equipment for engineering,” he said. ”It’s magnificent. It’s a job I look forward to every day.”