Frederick Briggs Mccarty

Frederick Briggs McCarty, 87, born on August 11, 1926, in Dilley, Texas, passed away June 29, 2014. He resided in San Pedro, California at the time of his passing. Arrangements are under the direction of Forest Lawn, Long Beach, California.

Frederick Briggs McCarty
b. Dilley Texas, August 11, 1926
d. San Pedro California, June 29, 2014, age 87.

Son of John Frederick Briggs and Olive Ruth (Snell) Briggs McCarty

Married Doris Mary Cox May 3 1950, divorced 1970.
Sons: Mark Frederick, David Lambuth, Jackson Clare.

Married Nina Lucile Butman Lethers August 17, 1973.
Stepsons: Edward Alan Lethers, Paul Jeffrey Lethers.

Served in the United States Navel Reserve, 1944-1946, PTO.
Enlisted at age 17 on April 22, 1944.
Honorably Discharged on June 8, 1946.
Served in American and Pacific Theatres as Electronic Technician aboard the U.S.S. John R. Craig, DD-885.

Electrical Engineer
B.S.E.E. University of Texas 1949
Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu.

Registered Professional Engineer, California
Senior Life Member IEEE

Design Engineer, General Electric Company, Schenectady New York, 1949-1951.
Senior Design Engineer, Convair, Fort Worth, Texas, 1951-1955.
Senior Engineer, Aerojet General, Azusa, California. 1955-1961.
Senior Engineer Specialist, Garrett Corporation, Torrance California, 1961-1991.

Vice President and Founder, Patio Pacific Inc. Torrance California, 1973-1984.
Owner & Operator, TextTiger Co., Torrance California, 1980-1991.
Author computer software, TextTiger word processor, TigerTools, Big Mag and Roundrot generator synthesizers.
Designer superconducting acrylic motors for the U.S. Navy and various high speed electrical machines for aerospace and transportation. Patentee in field.

Frederick Briggs McCarty – a Reminiscence

Fred McCarty was born on August 11, 1926 in Dilley, Texas. On that very day, to commemorate his arrival, Fred's mother wrote a little poem which he dearly loved. To the end of his days, it delighted him. He relished the fact that the poem was written just for him, and that his birthday brought such great joy that his mother recorded it in a very special way! This is her poem:

One Night A Baby Came

By Ruth Snell Briggs McCarty.
One night on August 11th,
Just before the break of day,
The telephone went jingling
With a call for Dr. Fay

"Hello", a voice was saying,
"Dr. Fay, will you come down,
And bring along a husky boy,
The finest one in town?"

"All right, I'll be right over,"
And he soon came rushing in.
And when he opened up his case
My Dad began to grin.

For there among the medicines
As happy as could be,
Just kicking hard and laughing big
Was little red-faced me.

"I'll keep him, sure", my daddy said.
"He's just the very boy."
And he and mother jumped around,
And laughed and danced with joy.

So that is how it happened
That I'm living here this day;
Because I asked my mother,
And she told it just this way.

Fred's mother Ruth was a talented homemaker and the eleventh of her family's fifteen children. She could pick and chop cotton; ride a horse; and bake, cook, butcher, or preserve just about anything. At the age of 17, she taught at Solemn Thought School (later Beech Springs School) a one-room Louisiana schoolhouse near Quitman Louisiana. Her most apt pupil was Jimmy Davis who later wrote "You Are My Sunshine" and became the governor of Louisiana.

In later years, she achieved some celebrity in Texas as an artist with her handmade hooked rugs. Many people came to see her beautiful rugs including Ladybird Johnson and two aunts of William F. Buckley.

Fred's father, John Frederick Briggs II, was a cotton farmer, the eldest of six children., who at the age of 25 had to manage the family's farm following the untimely death of his father in 1923. The farm did not survive the Great Depression, but Fred's father remained in Dilley to operate a Magnolia gas station on Interstate Highway 35. When Fred was seven, he loved pumping gas, patching inner tubes, and everything about the gas station and the wonderful automobiles that stopped by for service – like the Willys Knight, the Pierce Arrow, the Franklin, the Packard. He even liked chewing tobacco which was available because smoking was not allowed at the station. His father bought a "Model A" Ford when Fred was nine, and he taught him how to drive it. No driver's license was required at that time; but later, it was and he got one for his 14th birthday.

Eventually Fred's father started a small business in San Antonio, "The Best Tamale Company", where he employed Mexican folks (who had worked on his farm in Dilley) to make frozen tamales for grocery markets. His business included catering Mexican food to Air Force bases and clubs, and food was sometimes flown to Washington, D.C, on Air Force planes for officer's parties there. The business provided his livelihood until he died from an accident caused by lightning.

Fred moved to Kilgore, Texas, the "Oil Capital of the World" in 1935 and was graduated from Kilgore High School in May, 1943. On his 17th birthday in August, he took the train to Dallas to join the US Army Air Force. He passed the written test, but failed the eye examination for 20/20 vision. He enrolled in the University of Texas to study Mechanical Engineering, and had completed his freshman courses when he volunteered to join the U.S. Navy in April, 1944.

In May, he completed Boot Camp at the U.S. Naval Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois, and was selected for the Eddy Electronics Training Program to learn radio, radar, and sonar fundamentals. He trained at Hugh Manley School, Chicago, Illinois; Texas A&M College, College Station, Texas; and The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. where he was graduated in April, 1945, as an Electronic Technician and assigned to the U.S.S. John R. Craig, DD-885, a new destroyer under construction at Orange, Texas.

Fred was the first crewman to report for duty on the Craig. The ship was commissioned August 20, 1945; the first ship commissioned after VJ day and it immediately sailed for a shakedown cruise near Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Craig proceeded through the Panama Canal to Pearl Harbor; Guam; Tsingtao, China; Formosa; and Shanghai where Fred's duty was completed, and he was discharged at Camp Wallace, Texas, in June, 1946. He was 19 years old, and returned to Austin to continue his education at the University of Texas, but with a different major influenced by his Navy training in electronics. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in May, 1949, with much gratitude for the wonderful GI Bill which not only paid his tuition and living expenses, but even paid for flight training so that he could solo before graduation.

After graduating, he accepted employment by General Electric Company and began a series of three month work assignments with jet engines, locomotive motors, power transformers, wiring devices, toasters, and washing machines. This included training in the GE Creative Engineering Program on seven different jobs in six cities, in five states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey.

Fred visited Texas in May, 1950, to marry Doris Mary Cox. She, too, was a graduate of the University of Texas and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa honorary fraternity. She was the mother of Fred's three sons, Mark Frederick, David Lambuth, and Jackson Clare. Each boy was valedictorian of his high school class, and they each received scholarships. Mark earned a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry from the University of California, San Diego; David earned a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Long Beach State University, and a Master of Arts in piano performance from the University of Oregon, Eugene; and Jackson earned a Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of California, Irvine and a Master of Science from the University of California, Davis.

In 1951, Fred left the General Electric Company to accept an offer from Convair in Fort Worth, Texas. There he developed and flight-tested improvements for power generating equipment for the famous B-36 PEACEMAKER Bomber, wrote and conducted the qualification tests for the experimental YB-60 Bomber alternator equipment, and wrote performance and test specifications for the first brushless, oil-cooled alternator system with an integrated constant speed drive, a development by the Westinghouse and Sundstrand Corporations for the B-58 Hustler Bomber. He invented an automatic synchronizing system for aircraft alternators he described in an AIEE Transactions paper.

In 1955, his growing family moved to California, where he joined the Aerojet-General Corporation in Azusa, to develop precision controls, monitors, and safety devices for high-speed Power Generating Units for missiles and rockets. He conceived and designed a unique disc alternator which had no rotating windings for the Navy's original Mark-46 Torpedo power supply.

In 1961 he joined Garrett AiResearch Corporation to design alternators, electromagnetic devices and controls for aerospace, military, and transportation applications. He stayed with the company for 30 productive years, retiring in 1991.

In 1973, Fred married Lucile Butman Lethers. She became the sparkle of his life and a true soul mate. It was a great loss when she passed away on New Year's Eve in 2004.

Now Fred is united with her once again, in the same resting spot. This was together their wish, and may it forever be a joy and comfort to their souls.