The history of food at Arthur D. Little began quite early.  Roger Griffin and Arthur Little frequently analyzed a variety of foods, including chickens, milk, and sugars in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Starting in the 1920s, Ernest Crocker started to determine a more objective way to classify odors.  From that time, ADL scientists continued to work on odor classification and ultimately a flavor profile. In 1958, Dr. Jean Caul, with Stan Cairncross and Loren Sjöström, documented the Flavor Profile Method, along with various modifications, in the journal Perfumery and Essential Oil Record. The Flavor Profile was and is used to design and/or improve a variety of products-food, wine, liquor, tobacco, cosmetics, perfumes, kitty litter, pharmaceuticals, and environmental odors.  In the 1950s, Food and Flavor was actually a part of the Life Sciences Section under then ADL Vice President Charlie Kensler.  The products that were worked on over the years by Arthur D. Little, Inc. are extensive, ranging from beer and cat food to mattresses and refrigerators. The work might have been to enhance something good or find something stinky.

The Flavor Profile method uses a trained panel of 4 to 6 members, who individually evaluate products and then discuss the product together to determine a consensus profile. The profile describes flavor as 5 major components: character notes or attributes, intensities of those attributes (on a numerical scale that ranges to 0 to 3 with half step increments), the order of appearance of the of those attributes, aftertaste, and amplitude (or overall impression). The character notes can be the basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter, or aromatics such as chocolate, vanilla, eggy, rubbery, cabbage-like, musty.

Ginny Ferguson, Pat Keene, Mary Ann Flynn and Roy DesRochers Tasting Orange Juice

Some of ADL’s flavor scientists were infamous.  Ernest Crocker was nick named the man with the million dollar nose. Of note, is the fact that the tongue registers only four basic tastes, while the nose can differentiate thousands of odors and provides most flavor sensations. Ernest Crocker claimed that there are 10,000 distinguishable odors. (This was a ball park number that has little basis in reality. But it is a number that is widely referenced.)

David Kendall and Loren (Johnny) Sjöström actually helped to diagnose a comatose child who had a rare metabolic disorder.   A call came into ADL from Massachusetts General Hospital.  Staff at MGH knew that ADL was doing work on odors and hoped that if the odor could be identified so they could treat the child. David and Johnny recognized and named the odor. David, as a chemist, was able to provide the correct chemical nomenclature. The doctors were ultimately able to understand that the odor was due to a missing amino acid resulting in improper metabolism of certain foods. (The child recovered and was put on a restricted diet.)

Memorial Drive and Acorn Park Buildings and Facilities

The Memorial Drive facilities ultimately encompassed three different buildings, including the original building that Arthur Little built in 1930 at 30 Memorial Drive. Another building was next door at 38 Memorial Drive, while the third faced Kendall Square on Main Street. The three facilities had chemical laboratories, animal facilities, offices, and all the infrastructure required to support those facilities.

30 Memorial Drive.  Photo courtesy of MIT Archives

ADL opened a forty acre site for their Acorn Park laboratories and offices in November 1953. It was a rambling complex, with 6 buildings, numbered 15, 25, 35, 20, and 32 and one more simply called the Pilot Plant. The facilities included many laboratories and offices. There was also a library, conference rooms,  a printing center, a credit union, travel department, mail room, medical center. Acorn Park had some first class shops for carpentry, machinery, plumbing, electricity, and photography. It was complex, and located on filled marsh land, and filled with sometimes cranky consultants, scientists, and engineers.

Acorn Park. Photo courtesy of MIT Archives

Stories from Bob and Ginny Ferguson

Bob and Ginny met at ADL. They were active participants in the infamous Silk Purse Players. Ginny was a chorus line dancer,  while Bob wore a tutu with grapefruits (use your imagination). The last 2 years of the Silk Purse Players were based on a cabaret theme, before that time there were real plays.  The Silk Purse Players provided their audience with a “romantic” and musical look at the world in the 60s and 70s. There was always a party after the plays and that’s where Ginny thought Bob looked good in a tutu. They met in late 1973 and married in 1975; they are likely the longest lasting ADL couple still alive today. Bob recalled that he met Ginny before 1973—an encounter with a very angry Ginny. Apparently, a pipe broke in Building 15 and the resulting stream of water landed on Ginny’s desk and destroyed photos of her nephews.  Bob recalled telling his colleagues that he pitied the poor guy getting that gal (it was actually a different word). Ha! Never think that an ADL consultant (particularly a woman) doesn’t have many sides.

Ginny and Bob are looking at their 38^th wedding anniversary. Together they have faced Bob’s lung cancer and Ginny’s breast cancer—and together they retired from ADL and continue a solid partnership and very happy marriage.

Ginny started her ADL career in the Food and Flavor Section in 1966. Most of the thirty years was spent training people in the Flavor Profile Method.  She retired in 1996, but continued with ADL as a consultant. Currently her nose and tongue are on call to Jeff Worthington, another former ADLer. Jeff started a company named Synopsis (the name is derived from “sensory optimization systems”. Jeff’s company works on developing palatable pharmaceuticals.)

Dunkin Donuts was one of ADL’s clients. At one point the company considered adding pies to their donut selections. That required a trip to California. On her first business trip, Ginny and two male colleagues went from pie shop to pie shop tasting the product, deciding that Marie Callender’s had the best pies. To learn more about the ingredients, there was a requirement to go dumpster diving. Ginny’s colleagues won that particular prize.  Dunkin Donuts didn’t add pies to their donut offerings.

The ‘70s saw a recession—and that recession hit ADLers as hard as anyone else. Billability was always the key to survival at ADL, so Ginny went to Life Sciences on Memorial Drive. There she had the opportunity to work with Sam Battista, a particularly colorful ADLer.  At the Life Sciences section, research into tobacco was one of the Drive’s project areas. Research included studies into the effects of smoking cigarettes,  alternatives to tobacco, flavor enhancement, and metabolic studies. One of the ways effects were studied was “smoking chickens”. The method used a cylinder that delivered puffs of cigarette smoke to hooded chickens. A rather bizarre looking set up, but an established method of study.  Part of the study included counting cilia in the chickens’ trachea. (Cilia look like fine hairs lining the trachea (or throat) that sweep away small particulates, like dust or pollen.) Ginny got to count those cilia and thus maintained her billability. Back at the food and flavor section, Ginny worked on a project for an English cigarette company. The project was to develop a cigarette that was humectified (or cured) and flavored per U.S. tastes, rather than U.K. tastes. Ginny was and is a non-smoker; so her challenge when tasting cigarettes was learning how to exhale cigarette smoke through the nose.

Bob started his career at ADL at Memorial Drive in 1965. He started with cleaning the animal cages in the Life Sciences section and moved on to Maintenance, Plumbing and ultimately was the Supervisor in charge of the myriad of shops at Acorn Park. He retired in 1998.

Bob recalled one time when the ADL “higher ups” were having a meeting at the Drive, however, the barking dogs were a distraction. So the powers that be demanded that the dogs be silenced. So Bob was faced with the unenviable job of debarking the dogs (the dogs recovered and started barking again after the meeting).  Another Life Sciences project was the study of a spray foam as a contraceptive—sheep were used for that study. The foam didn’t work and many little lambs resulted.

Monkeys were housed at the Drive. The monkeys were always a tad difficult to handle. So picture Bob and cohorts racing after an escaped monkey through Kendall Square. They didn’t catch him. Instead the monkey joined a business meeting at Carter’s Ink, probably looking to help ADL with marketing and sales. The monkey was returned to Memorial Drive, however, his tail had mysteriously disappeared. I’m not sure that Carter’s Ink ever became one of ADL’s clients.

In an Acorn Park incident, the drains behind the green door (a laboratory for ultra-confidential work) were blown up. It was always suspected that Sid Meyers was the culprit—but Bob was the cure.

Bob had a major job during the building of the Levins Laboratory-a lab established to study chemical warfare agents, but used for pesticides when the public decided such a facility was unwanted in Cambridge. The laboratory was totally sealed off from the environment.

During the snow storm of ’78, the boiler at Acorn Park failed. Bob was called in the fix it. He still remembers the strangeness of being the only vehicle on Route 2. As a result of the storm, all the roads were closed to non-essential personnel.

Ginny and Bob shared many adventures, one in Italy in 1989. Ginny and her ADL colleague, Mary Ann Flynn, had been working at Barilla Pasta. After completing their field work; Bob joined them for a bit of an Italian holiday.  There is a luxurious and exclusive hotel—Hotel Cipriani –in Venice. So exclusive that the entrance to the hotel is blocked by a locked gate. Only hotel guests may enter on private hotel boats. But Ginny was not to be deterred and she found the back way into the hotel, using a service entrance and a public ferry boat. Armed with Gucci bags, they sauntered into the bar and enjoyed some very expensive drinks.  Getting out was an equal challenge; first where was that back entrance located? According to their map, there was a church in the back of the hotel. At the hotel front desk, they requested directions to the church and made their escape, none to the wiser.

In yet another adventure, they volunteered for an experiment in the Building 20 high bay, where a tank the size of a telephone booth, as well as a full sized swimming pool was installed and filled with water in the late 60s/early 70s. (Ginny and Bob had not really met at this time. ) Dr. Thomas Davis[1] was a Medical Research consultant in the Life Sciences section. He was conducting pool experiments to develop a better life jacket, specifically one that would prevent a person’s head from entering the water when they are unconscious (prevent drowning). Bob and Ginny were lowered into a tank about the size of a telephone booth; that experiment was conducted to determine body fat. For the next step, they were fit with a prototype of a life preserver, attached to a rope harness, and submerged in water. Bob didn’t last very long, but Ginny did last. Bob was hauled out of the tank when researchers were convinced that he was drowning.

The Fergusons regularly catch up with former ADLers, including going on cruises to the Caribbean, the Panama Canal, Alaska, Europe, and Canada. The have traveled with ADLers-Connie Martin, Gus Skamarycz, Ken Howington and their wives.  Their last big cruise was in 2007, they sailed to the Mediterranean with the Howingtons and Martins. Proof positive that ADLers simply live to travel.

 

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[1] Dr. Thomas Davis became Sir Thomas Davis in 1981. Sir Davis, born in Rarotonga (the most populated of the Cook Islands), was a chief medical officer in 1949. He reorganized the Cooks’ Island health service to deliver better care to the widely scattered islands. He received a fellowship to Harvard School of Public Health in Boston in 1952. To get there, he decided to get there by boat with his wife and two sons. The trip took months and storms were a constant companion. Between school and a return to Rarotonga; he conducted research at Arthur D. Little from 1963 to 1971. He had a lifelong interest in improving safety in the water, which was the project that the Fergusons participated in. Sir Davis’s other research at ADL included the NASA space program and nutritional requirements in various climates. In a contentious 1978 election, Sir Davis became the Prime Minister of Cook Islands and held that position until 1987. He died in 2007 at the age of 90.

Bob and Ginny Ferguson

[1] Dr. Thomas Davis became Sir Thomas Davis in 1981. Sir Davis, born in Rarotonga (the most populated of the Cook Islands), was a chief medical officer in 1949. He reorganized the Cooks’ Island health service to deliver better care to the widely scattered islands. He received a fellowship to Harvard School of Public Health in Boston in 1952. To get there, he decided to get there by boat with his wife and two sons. The trip took months and storms were a constant companion. Between school and a return to Rarotonga; he conducted research at Arthur D. Little from 1963 to 1971. He had a lifelong interest in improving safety in the water, which was the project that the Fergusons participated in. Sir Davis’s other research at ADL included the NASA space program and nutritional requirements in various climates. In a contentious 1978 election, Sir Davis became the Prime Minister of Cook Islands and held that position until 1987. He died in 2007 at the age of 90.

Arthur D. Little Management Education Institute

Arthur D. Little, Inc. did many unusual things, including starting a school. Likely that school was the first started and run by a for-profit corporation. ADL had a contract with the Department of State’s Agency for International Development (aka. USAID). The contract was to organize and operate the Nigerian Industrial Development Managerial Training Program. Initially the program was run in Nigeria, but moved to Acorn Park for what appears to be a combination of reasons. One reason was that students were distracted in Nigeria. The other was affected by General Gavin’s concern for the developing world. Thus, during the period of 1963 to 1964, General Gavin with Harland Riker and Joseph Voci started the Management Education Institute (MEI). Joe’s was only slightly involved in the Nigerian program, but very involved in MEI. The purpose of the MEI was to prepare people from the developing world to run government agencies and private industries. MEI was officially accredited by the New England Association of Schools and College in 1976 and became the Hult International Business School in 2003.

Joseph John Voci (1924 to 2009)

In May of 1979, Ilse Goesman Voci married the very handsome Joe Voci in Gloucester, MA. They had 30 very happy years together. She met Joe in Dar es Salaam and often traveled with him. Joe died peacefully on February 14^th, 2009 in Sarasota, Florida, where Ilse and Joe spent his last years. He is buried at the Sarasota National Cemetery, where Ilse will someday join him. Joe left behind Ilse, as well as 5 children, and 11 grandchildren from a previous marriage. All of his children are doing very well. Ilse has had an interesting and full career of her own. She had worked in the German Foreign Service and at 47 became a freshman at Brandeis to get her masters’ and bachelors’ degrees in German Literature. Today, one of her favorite pass times in Florida is croquet–but her voice also told a story of how much she misses Joe. To my mind, Ilse’s and Joe’s story is an ADL love story.

In May 2009, Ilse, with help from Vern Hendersen, Nancy Hendrigane, and Martha White, had a “life celebration” at Hult International School. About 60 people (mostly ADLers) attended party. Joe had often talked about such events and Ilse made sure that the celebration happened.Joe Voci joined the Navy right out of high school in 1942. He served in the South Pacific with the Command Service Squadron. He received his BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University in 1949. Joe worked at ADL from 1951 to 1983. He was one of MEI’s best teachers and its president for 11 years. Much of his time was spent abroad, including Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. Travel took him away from his family a lot, but travel was a frequent event for all ADLers and something we all hated/loved. Ilse described him as fiercely dedicated to ADL and quite vocal about that dedication. He helped many ADLers and got help from many others. In 1968, Joe established an ADL subsidiary in Brazil: Arthur D. Little, LDA. Soon after, General Gavin thought that an ADL Business Training Program for African students could become a full management school. Joe was key to the success of that school (MEI); he and his colleagues worked tirelessly for years to achieve accreditation to grant a Master of Science degree in Management from ADL MEI. In 1980, while teaching at MEI and presiding over it, he was asked to help starting a consulting venture in Riyadh with the Saudi government. That trip turned out to be somewhat adventurous (see story below). Ilse noted that the Brazil and Saudi creations were his “crown jewels”, but his love was MEI. During the Summer of 2008, he was at the Hult School with many students sitting around him and listening to Joe tell them about the first years of MEI. Hult now is quite different from the MEI of the past. Joe flourished in the admiration of a good audience.

One of Joe’s colleagues, Jim Staikos, sent us the following remembrance:

“Joe Voci was a personality — an irrepressible personality who could always be counted on for his sense of garrulous humor, a wisecrack remark or two, and an infectious laugh.

Over the years Joe and I had found ourselves working simultaneously, though not together, on projects in a variety of unlikely places — in Nigeria, in Saudi Arabia, in Brazil, to name just a few. But the one assignment we worked on together took place in Tripoli, Libya. We were there for about three weeks. It was the pre-Gaddafi era, and more specifically we were there during the final year of King Idris’ reign. Shortly thereafter, in 1969, the king was deposed, and Muammar Gaddafi took over.

After business hours we typically explored the various corners of Tripoli. One day, walking casually along a busy main street, Joe suddenly turns to me, and with a sense of awe in his voice loudly announces “Jim, do you realize, with the size of your nose and the size of mine, nobody’s noticing us. They think we’re one of them!”

Our various explorations extended eastward to the ruins of that marvelous old Roman town of Leptis Magna. Located on the Mediterranean coast about 65 miles from Tripoli, Leptis Magna was an important commercial center during the latter years of the Roman Empire. It was focused on the substantial agricultural activity of then fertile North Africa. Today we can view some of the world’s finest remains of Roman architecture.

Following completion of the assignment in Tripoli and just before our departure, we submitted our project invoice to the Ministry of Finance. It was graciously received and immediately paid — in Libyan dinars, the only currency available. But we really didn’t want payment in dinars — not too useful an international currency at the time. Joe and I conferred, generated a brilliant idea, took the funds being offered and headed for the local TWA office. This was still the period during which airline customers could readily reschedule their trips with minimum cost or bother. Joe and I prepared a list of colleagues who, like us, were actively engaged internationally and who traveled abroad frequently. Using the local cash just earned, we purchased a round-the-world airline ticket for each of our ADL colleagues – about ten or twelve of them, as I recall – to the total sum of our Libyan earnings. On return to Cambridge we distributed the tickets to the surprised recipients and — and after explanations and some shaking of heads — negotiated a credit arrangement to our project’s financial account.

In more recent years we would meet at annual ADL Florida reunions. It was always reassuring to hear Joe’s irresistible laughter in the room, and to trade war stories and adventures. His intelligence, quick wit and larger than life character made Joe one of the brightest sparks to light up the years at ADL. “

Yet another of Joe’s colleagues, Kamal Saad, writes:

“Joe was so special in so many ways! Where to start? I first met Joe in Tripoli, Libya in 1966. It was my first week with Arthur D. Little and I had been asked to join him and Jim Staikos on a business development visit to the then Kingdom. I remember saying to myself that I was indeed lucky to join a firm with such extraordinarily positive personalities.

A few years later I met him for the second time by chance, in the corridor at Acorn Park, Cambridge where Harland Riker and I were discussing how I was to cope with a major problem on our Saudi project. When Joe discovered I was in trouble, he immediately offered to help and proceeded to spend three days and three nights helping me — literally out of the goodness of his heart. The result was an outstandingly positive project outcome.

I have two pictures to offer, both of which reflect his wonderfully outgoing personality and irrepressible smile. Both were taken at the Florida Alumni Reunion in 2008.

Joe Vocia and Kamal Saad

 

Florida Reunion, 2008

Ilse sent us a story written by Joe for Ivars Avots’ book “The Legacy of a Sow’s Ear, The Rise and Fall of Arthur D. Little, Inc.”, 2004. Joseph’s story exemplifies an ADLer’s traveling woes and wins.

 

One Never Knows! How it Ends…..A story from Joseph J. Voci (1925 to 2009)

A popular ADL executive and I met by chance at Logan Airport heading for London on the same flight. He was off to our London office while I was reconnecting the next morning to Riyadh on Saudia Airways. I suspect that the airline was amply alerted of the executive’s travel plans, because at the check-in counter he was identified and instantly moved up to the top deck of our 747. When he pointed out that he was with a member of his staff traveling in economy class and would like to use the airtime for business talks with him; I was directed straight up to the pleasures of upper class travel.

At some two hours out on our flight, we got word from the captain that a mechanical problem had developed which required our return to Logan. The crew passed the word that we had to be especially prepared for a rough landing: no drinks, pens out of pockets, heads to the knees, life preservers at the ready, straps secured, etc.. This scene caused a great deal of fright and confusion to the person seated next to our executive. She happened to be a Saudi woman anxious to return to her family in Jeddah. Our ADL executive calmed her fears and helped her through the landing ordeal, which, luckily ended without mishap. She was now stressed out over the train of difficulties she might have to face alone in the event that her travel schedule was interrupted: lodgings, baggage, communicating with her husband, plane reservations and such, all of which had to be attended to. Our kindly executive pledged his full assistance and that of his associate (that was me, seated several rows to the rear). I was also on her Saudia flight to Ryadh. By the time we took off from Logan again, we were running very late. We were certain we would miss the Saudia flight, which piled up a whole new set of worries for our Saudi traveler to cope with.

This also meant that the courteous offer of guardianship by our executive would now fall smack onto the lap of a moi! At Heathrow our executive wished us Au Revoir, with fair well wishes for our Saudi lady’s comfort and her safe return home. Now, me –alone –with a Saudi woman –stranded in London, I conjured up fearful thoughts of my own fate, not the least the image of “Chopping Block Square”.

My first act was to get a booking on the next earliest carrier to anywhere in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The only flight available the next day was with Mideast Airways, a direct flight to Beirut with a connection to Jeddah and Riyadh. Our baggage was checked from Boston through to our final destinations and, hopefully, we would find them waiting for us at Saudia’s terminal. We had only carry-ons to deal with for the rest of the journey. Mideast Air booked rooms for us at a large airport hotel where I prepared a fax for her Saudi husband giving the new arrival schedule and the cause for the long delay. At our dinner in the hotel we reviewed the routine for the next day, especially getting our flight on time. Mideast Air left punctually for Beirut the next morning.

Over Beirut, however, the plane circled – at it seemed -forever until we got the word that all planes were being diverted to other airports because of stubborn weather conditions. Cairo was chosen as our alternative landing stop. The captain turned South-West, and prayed that there was still enough fuel for the ride. It now was late at night and somewhere over the Mediterranean. It was then that we got word that-for a third time during our journey – we had a delay problem of some sort. The Cairo landing was out of the question due to violent sand storms.

About that time I could have used some help from our executive friend as my Saudi charge was again off the roof. After much commotion we learned that there was enough thrust left in the engine to make Abu Dhabi, and we were assured that all was well for landing. We were finally on the ground at Abu Dhabi at 2 am on the second day of our venture. The airport services were down at that early morning hour and we were unable to book passages to Saudi ports until later that day. There was little space at the airport to accommodate the gang off the Mideast flight. So, our lady rested on a bench and I on the floor until we were able to book our flights with Saudia and send a fax to her Saudi husband with the arrival time.

About noon I boarded the Saudia flight with a woman in full Saudi dress and who now was showing a very happy face. I parted the flight in Riyadh with many blessings and much gratitude for my assistance to her and with best wishes to our executive.

The next episode, a few months later, takes place at a leading Ministry where we find a team of ADLers busy with a proposal of considerable scope and duration. On the Minister’s side was a visitor, a Prince of the Royal family. During the session the prince asked some ADLers if they knew (he named) me and our executive (always a risky question at this crucial stage of the negotiation!). They courteously admitted knowing the characters. The prince went on to tell of his wife’s recent travel experience and of our escorting her safely home from Boston. He remarked that he was pleased to have our company’s assistance at the Ministry. There was little else needed by the Governor to strengthen our relation with the Ministry and pave the way for a prosperous business relationship.

 

Joseph Voci with Saudi clients.

ARTHUR D. LITTLE AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Roger Burrill Griffin partnered with Arthur D. Little in 1886 to form Griffin & Little, Chemical Engineers. Griffin was the Analytical Chemist working hard in the laboratory.

Arthur Little was described –at times– as the salesman, but others (including me) see him more as a philosopher, looking to the future and combining a zeal for research and development with a concern for the environment. (Although Roger Griffin had to be a bit of a dreamer too. Look at his choice of a legendary creature that was part eagle, part lion, part serpent or scorpion, as a logo.

I have often wondered about the story behind the choice of that logo. Although, I understand that it was the Griffin Family Coat of Arms. But then again the flying part of the acorn was a tad whimsical and subtle.)

There was a sense of fun that they applied to their writing, that must have permeated their work. Just think about making silk purses:

“ Undoubtedly sows’ ears lose somewhat of their individuality when handled in one-hundred pound lots, —more so, for instance, than persons,—but we like to think that the particular portion of glue which constitutes silk from which we made the purse was derived from the ear of a particularly estimable sow called “Sukie” back on the farm.”

Little and Griffin made chemistry and chemical engineering fun. And I do not know a better way to promote innovative product and process development. I believe a key ingredient to the success of Arthur D. Little, Inc. developing products and processes is –fun……

 

Hank Buccigross’ Memories of ADL

Hank, a chemical engineer, joined Arthur D. Little in 1960. He stayed for 36+ years as a full time employee and an additional 6 years–until “the end!”–as a consultant. His ADL home was Technology and Product Development. Those 36 years add up to 22,075,200.00 minutes–that is a lot of minutes, but Hank says damn few of those minutes were boring. He prefers not to dwell on assignments but rather to recall memories of the people, and the fun he had especially during the first 20 years or so.

Hank’s best memories of his early days at ADL are focused on the camaraderie among the employees. The office desks were in the laboratories, the billable work week was 37 1/2 hours. (General Gavin actually eliminated the 37 1/2 hour work week.) Vacation allotment was two weeks after the first full year of employment. Lunches were one hour long and coffee breaks were where friends were made while work was being discussed. In preparation for an open house in the R&D Division, everyone pitched in for a lab cleanup ending with pizza and beer. There were Christmas (and many other) parties, company picnics, a real softball team, and broom hockey games. [One memorable party named the GASP [Grasshoppers and Ants Survival Party (I think by John Rafferty)] was a Spring event.]

Every year the employees would plan something fun for the Christmas party-a skit or playette! Jim Birkett, of course, was a key player in these skits, as was Hank Survilas., the photographer. (I recall some of the remnants of those skits–particularly the one where John Magee gifted the ADL “limousine” to Jim Birkett. The illustrious limo was two-tone gray Checker Marathon, that was fairly ugly. Jim kept it with its ADL-1 Maine plates until it fell apart. But more about that in a later article.)

The skit (made into a movie) that Hank particularly recalled was about the “Ghost of ADL”. It concerned the return of the ADL Acorn to the campus. According to Jim Birkett, the star was a cute little secretary who was all but invisible in her giant acorn costume. All you could really see of her were her skinny little arms and legs poking out. Lots of cameo appearances by staff and administration. The ghost finally died by eating a tainted peanut in Food & Flavor. Very dramatic death scene, convulsions, quite operatic. We’ve been unable to find the movies–does anyone have any ideas?

The company picnics could be rancorous–Hank told me one story about a picnic in southern New Hampshire, where Fred Iannazzi, Sr. tackled him as he walked into the picnic area.

Ray Stevens, the company President through most of 1960, held an indoctrination program once a month at the Homestead Restaurant. Hank quoted Ray Stevens saying (in effect), “Each one of you must give our clients the best possible work for the least amount of money. Let me worry about the company bottom line.” ADL’s best years were the ones where the client was our only boss and central to our day to day activities.

Hank worked at Acorn Park in Building 15, which was first occupied in 1953. The complex was proud of its Yankee origins where being prudent was the ultimate virtue. Many of the building partitions were constructed from cinder blocks–that were easily disassembled to provide different types of space depending on a particular project’s needs. [Later steel studs and dry wall replaced the block construction.] The original entrance to Acorn Park was at the corner of Building 15. Huge snapping turtles resided in the nearby Alewife Brook. Flooding was not uncommon; the first flood or floods occurred in the 50s but Hank remembers one in 1962; many documents were lost–but a carp was found in a lift. In keeping with the flooding, Acorn Park had a fire brigade for several years led by Walther Colburn.

Hank got to know a number of memorable people. One of the smartest men Hank ever met was Bernie Vonnegut, an atmospheric scientist and chemical engineer (and brother of Kurt Vonnegut). Bernie Vonnegut could explain complex physical phenomena in a few simple sentences. Dr. Vonnegut worked at Arthur D. Little from 1952 to 1967, where he studied, among other things, the suspension of a water droplet. Dr. Vonnegut discovered that silver iodide could be used to seed clouds and in 1997 he was awarded the Nobel Prize, for his paper “Chicken Plucking as A Measure of Tornado Wind Speed”.

Hank also knew three of the Koch brothers (Charlie, Dave, Billy), among the wealthiest men in the U.S.A. After graduating from MIT the three brothers worked at ADL to gain work experience. For several years Hank shared an office with Dave before he joined the family business, Koch Industries, in 1970. He noted that Dave (an MIT chemical engineer) was a good engineer, a good man and a fine human being. David Koch is a low-key philanthropist who has done much good in the world through his patronization of the sciences, cancer research, food allergies, the Smithsonian and the Museum of Natural History. Hank also crossed paths with General Gavin–Hank always wanted to salute him (likely resulting from his time in the military). He felt that saying “Good Morning Sir” just wasn’t adequate.

Another wise ADLer was Ray Hainer, a Chemist. Ray Hainer was a friend and colleague of ADLer-Don Schon (a Harvard philosopher), who wrote “Displacement of Concepts”. This book interprets the history of the ideas of all time. Ray influenced that seminal work with his ideas focused on R&D as rationale, pragmatic, multicultural, and existentialist. Hank said that Ray just made you think–for example Hank recalls having a conversation with Ray (that began in the men’s room) about the philosophy of a safer cigarette and how do you make a safer cigarette? (It is no wonder that the talk over lunch or coffee was hours long.) Hank also worked with Roger Doggett and Laurence Hervey. Neither of these men had the benefit of up-to-date chemical/engineering training. But they had a superb understanding of fundamentals and were excellent PHENOMONOLIGISTS. [aka. Detectives?] That is, they saw more than most from the results of an experiment and instinctively knew what the next experiment should be. They were a great help to the young engineers. [Ray Hainer’s booklet- “Rationalism, Pragmatism and Existentialism” -explains “phenomenology” as it pertains to R&D, but we have been unable to find that booklet.]

Hank saw repeated reorganizations during his ADL years. In the early 60s, there were 6 divisions: Research and Development, Engineering, Life Sciences, Energy and Materials, Advanced Materials, and Management Services. In the early 70s-the technical divisions were reduced to three: Engineering, Life Sciences, and Research and Development; while, management consulting expanded to three: Management Services, Management Counseling, and Industrial and Regional Economics. Also, an International Division was added. The layers of organization grew through the 70s and 80s with the addition of unit managers, directors, and practice managers. By 1980, there were thirty operating sections with an ever increasing number of vice presidents. Then seven directorates were grouped into three major businesses. This continued through the 80s and 90s and into the new millennium. There was also the going public and going private fiasco. Hank noted that it looked as though the thinking was that a change in structure would increase revenue or, more cynically, a way to retain corporate power in the hands of a few. One piece of the organization that Hank greatly respected was the Report Center and Editor Lou Visco. Reports were ADL’s final product-respect for Lou’s efforts makes a great deal of sense.

For the most part Hank’s projects concerned materials. He was an expert witness for numerous litigation cases for a variety of products. Although he was not involved in it, Hank recalls one memorable assignment at ADL was the “weed assignment”, led by Phil Levins. The weed was marijuana. (I still remember emptying an old Bldg 15 refrigerator of deuterated THC.)

One of Hank’s associates at ADL told him that working at ADL was a trial by fire—if you survived you were meant to be there. I suspect Hank lasted 22,075,200.00 minutes at ADL, because of the fun, camaraderie and the never ending stimulation of very smart people.

 

25 year club inductees – 1986 (entering class of 1960)

In 1911, Carl F. Woods, was the Chemical Engineer in charge of the Arthur D. Little, Inc. Electric Railway Department that provided inspection, chemical analyses and physical tests of all material and supplies-specifications-timber preservation-electrolysis surveys. Woods was also noted as a Director and Secretary of Arthur D. Little, Inc., keeping with the ADL philosophy that all staff wore many hats in the company. He worked with Harry S. Mork, Harvey J. Skinner, Arthur D. Little, and Frederic A. Olmstead in the early 1900s.

In 1913, he presented a paper at a meeting of the New England Street Railway. In that paper, he argued how a Chemist’s expertise benefits the practical street railway men. His examples focused on cost savings through the analysis of materials including:

• coal to ensure an efficient burn,
• feed water to prevent scale and corrosion,
• cable insulation to maintain electrical strength and protect the conductor.

Over the years, Arthur D. Little’s work in the transportation sector was diverse:

• 1910-Variations in Car Painting Practice by Carl Woods
• 1911-General Motors first research and development laboratory
• 1916-Study of natural resources for the Canadian Pacific Railway
• 1927- Study of the freight-ton-mileage costs of transport by rail, concluding that decentralization was needed
• 1950s-SABRE for American Airlines with IBM
• 1960-Comparative Economics of Propane and Diesel Buses for the Chicago Transit Authority.
• 1968 to 1969-Design and development of the five key experiments for the Apollo Lunar landing
• 1969-A Feasibility Study of San Francisco Marin Ferry System by Dr. Claude Gruen, et al.
• 1995-Electric cars powered by fuel cells
• 1995-Privatization of the British Rail

Through the decades, Arthur D. Little, Inc. went through numerous reorganizations—some for the better and some for the worse. A Transportation Group under Management Consulting was established in the 1970s, led by Dr. P. Ranganath Nayak. In 1995, this group was disbanded during a reorganization. It reemerged briefly in 1998 to be dismantled again in 1999.

In 1979, Dr. Boghani joined the Transportation Group at Arthur D. Little as an engineer, eager to work with Dr. Nayak. Over 21 years at ADL, he worked on 623 projects and proposals, leaving ADL as a Vice President and a management consultant in 2000. In Transportation, he was initially involved in evaluating the dynamics of rail cars and freight trains. His expertise evolved to analyzing transportation risks during the transport of hazardous materials on rail and in trucks. Next, he worked with railroads, helping them in the area of process re-engineering and also in the area of intelligent vehicle highway transportation. Later, Dr. Boghani joined another group at ADL, Technology and Innovation Management (TIM) led by Ron Jonash. In some ways, Dr. Boghani saw this as a blessing in disguise because he had a much broader platform to develop the next phase of his career, management consulting. Besides, Ashok noted “railroads were not terribly exciting clients”.

Ashok provided a write up of a number of his favorite projects. All were great; I’ve selected just a few that I particularly enjoyed.

Perturbed Track Test (PTT). Railroad locomotives and cars ride on tracks that are not perfect. Anomalies in these tracks can cause the vehicles to move in every which way and sometimes such motion can cause derailment. How to prevent such derailments was a big thing in the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), a part of US Department of Transportation (DOT). This Perturbed Track was so named not because it was perpetually upset, but because it had well designed kinks over which rail vehicles were made to run and their motion recorded. We had a ton of data and were trying to figure out what was going on. We worked closely with DOT engineers located in their Cambridge R&D center called Transportation Systems Center (TSC). In the end, we came out with some resonance mechanisms as being responsible for unsavory motion of the vehicles (they usually are) and everyone was happy. I then worked with Russ Brantman and Ray Ehrlichman of TSC, to expand the PTT to a Safety Assessment Facility for Equipment (SAFE). The railroads watched us with fear and amusement and expanded the SAFE acronym to “Screwing Around For Ever”, reflecting on the length of time for the design.

SAFE died by a likely combination of bureaucracy, cost, and organizational pressure, but vehicle track tests continued. I, worked with a cast of characters from TSC; Dr. Herb Weinstock, an elderly German guy who knew everything, Dave Reed, the head of the group who was a techie, and Michael Coltman, a young fellow who was our project manager. I played the role of dynamicist.

Here comes the train

Grumman Bus Study. This was one of the more fascinating studies I did with Russ Brantman. Grumman (a separate company before it joined Northrop) was a well-respected aerospace and defense company. In addition to military jets (F-14 Tomcat), it had built Apollo Lunar Module. A well respected company indeed. However, in the late 70s and early 80s they decided to diversify into making metro buses, called Flxible. These buses, designed using the latest aerospace techniques, including what is called a semi-monocoque structure, were unfortunately no match for the New York City potholes and soon they started falling apart. In one scary instance, the fuel tank was punctured and there was a fire. Alarmed, US DOT’s Urban Mass Transit Administration, UMTA, retained TSC to find out what was the problem and if the proposed fixes by Grumman would work. I developed a dynamic simulation model of the bus so it could be virtually operated on any specific road. We also quantified typical loading of a bus during a typical operation cycle. In order to do that, one of my colleagues, Todd Burger, rode an MBTA bus through a rough area of Boston and counted the number of passengers as the bus went around its business. We had requested and got a police escort, as we did not want harm to come to Todd. The presence of policeman changed the rider profile—many folks entered the bus and upon seeing him departed. The cash box collected so much money, as no one dared ride for free, that it jammed. Oh well. Finally, using these test results and my simulation program, we were able to estimate the forces on various key parts first under as-is condition and then with the fixes Grumman was proposing. Alas, we said, the fixes would not work. The buses were soon taken out of the service and Grumman left the business soon afterword to focus on what they knew best—building airplanes.

On Friday evening, after we were done for the week, they took us out to a rodeo contest (chuck wagon race, riding the bucking horses, roping the steer, etc.) and then for dinner and dance, where my dancing ability was put to the test. On Monday, Lisa Bendixen (my colleague) and I were put on a flight to Edmonton. We flew by helicopter over the prairies of Alberta and then landed in an absolute desolate place in Saskatchewan.

Why? Because they had an oil pumping operation that they wanted to include in our risk analysis work. On our way back, we were struck by a hailstorm. Never had I flown in a helicopter through a hailstorm, nor do I desire to do that again. At the end, we gave them a complete picture of where did the risks lurked in their operation, which areas they should focus on, and how to mitigate the risks.

Railroad Toilet Technology. A US government official was fishing under a railroad bridge when an Amtrak train thundered by. He was hit by an unidentified flying object and was not too pleased. He decided to do something and provided funding to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to see what would be the options available to fix the problem of open toilet in the Amtrak trains. We got the assignment and quickly set about everything we could about the marvelous hidden world of toilet technology. Todd Burger and I looked at railroads that deployed closed circulation toilets already and airplanes, where an open toilet was not an option. We met people who maintained them (talk about “shitty work”) and developed a business case. I did not follow up whether our study hastened the deployment of advanced toilets, but this remains one of my favorite stories on how I put my doctoral education to good use 😉

Bus Fare Collection-2. A French company hired us to look at the market for automatic bus fare collection. During the course of the assignment, the client approached one of my team members and convinced her to leave ADL and join them. Another team member, a senior electrical engineer I had worked with many times, including the landmark assignment for NY MTA, decided to change his sex during the course of the assignment. So, at the final presentation, he told the French client that the next time they see him; he would be Denise, instead of Dennis. It took a few moments for the news to sink in, given the language barrier, but it did, causing a great deal of discomfort.

Transportation improvement for a Venezuelan Company. Our office in Caracas sold a project to their national telephone company on how to reduce cost and improve service related to transportation. This was a part of a bigger effort that our firm had undertaken for the client. I managed the overall effort, working with Todd Burger and Julie Chapman. Julie and I went to Caracas to kick off the project. We were told that we should not take a cab from the airport and the office will arrange transportation. That was good because even then (1995), Caracas was a dangerous city. We reached our office and had a meeting with the staff. While we were waiting for our taxi to arrive to pick us up and take us to our hotels, a powerful storm struck the city, creating havoc. After waiting for over an hour downstairs, we called up our office, and managed to get a ride from one of our colleagues. The kick-off meeting with the client went well; however, it was clear that they were not expecting a young blonde woman, Julie, to be a member of the team. I could not make it to the next trip. Todd and Julie went back and evaluated their transportation fleet and practices. As a part of their evaluation, they had to travel to a remote place and stay in, what appeared to be a really sketchy hotel. Julie was quite distraught and I, as project manager, felt bad that I had put her in that situation. The report they produced was quite damning in terms of how the transportation function was misused, abused, and mismanaged. We made sure that Todd and Julie were safely back in the US before releasing the report. One does not know what could happen in that dangerous place when you blame senior and influential folks of all types of shenanigans.

During the last year of my time at ADL it was clear that I was not working for the consulting firm I had joined. My decision to depart ADL was based on the fact that it had started floundering toward the end of the 1990s. Charlie Lamantia, the CEO, was let go and a new guy, Lorenzo Lamadrid, was appointed as the new head. Lorenzo had very little interest in what we did—he was in it to make a quick buck. Meanwhile I had become deeply involved in a new organization, The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), and had become enamored with the exploding Internet industry. I joined an Internet start-up called IntellectExchange. The next three years were turbulent as we went through several business model modifications. We hired a few people, but never exceeded 10 or so, which was a wise thing to do because we could stretch our relatively small capital base. Finally, we did hit upon a business model that could succeed, but we were not able to scale up rapidly enough before the funding dried up. I ended up back with a consulting firm, the Monitor Group.

But consulting can be a thankless job. In the end, working on a project that involved flying to and from Chicago during winter made me realize that perhaps there was more to life than to help an ungrateful client sell more of useless (in my opinion) products. A few weeks after the end of the project, I requested to go part time, get myself off from consulting work, and focus primarily on running the External Expert Service, which was my other responsibility at Monitor. My boss agreed and I set myself on the pathway to slowing down toward retirement.”

Product and Process Development

Little and Griffin saw their 1886 laboratory as much more than an operation for chemical analysis. Both men were interested in “investigations for the improvement of processes and the perfection of products”. In the early 1900s, Arthur D. Little provided an unusual array of laboratory-based services:

These were services focused on the overall development of products and processes. The ADL departments included Fuel Engineering, Gas Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electric Railways, Paper and Pulp, and Textiles, with a foundation provided by a Research Department and a General Laboratory Department. The Research Department provided reports on new processes and products, as well as studies of special problems. The General Laboratory Department provided analyses of all materials and specified iron, steel, alloys, lubricants, paints, cement, water, foods, mill supplies and factory wastes. Until the 1990s, the development of products and processes was the focal point of the company. It dwindled in importance (and investment) until ADL’s bankruptcy in 2002.

One note of interest – read the last line of the above-“Contract Service, as desired in all Departments.” I am a product of numerous short courses about selling. I have watched and participated in many efforts about “branding” and “marketing ” strategies. When I read those words- …”service, as desired”….. , I was in awe of both their audacity and simplicity.

STORIES FROM MR. TILL

Mr. Derek E. Till started at Arthur D. Little, Inc. in 1951 as a bench chemist in the basement of 30 Memorial Drive. He retired in 1985 as Vice President in charge of the Product Development Laboratories. Mr. Till is a gifted story teller; he provided us with some colorful insights into ADL cases (later known as projects) and people.

Q. What was your introduction to ADL?

I arrived here from the U.K. in 1951. Shortly after arriving, by chance I met the retired Research Director of Rumford Baking, also an English emigrant. He told me about ADL and gave me an introduction to Earl Stevenson, then President.

I hadn’t heard of ADL, but I followed up. Several days after being interviewed by various senior ADL professionals, I phoned the Personnel Office. I was told “Sorry, we’re not hiring any aliens at this time”! But I persisted, and reminded them that my introduction was to the President of ADL. I added that perhaps he might have some advice for how I should proceed.

I was invited back and spent over an hour with Earl Stevenson and Howard Billings, ADL Treasurer. During that time, they seemed to be far more interested in my WWII activities in the Royal Air Force (RAF), than in my qualifications as a Chemist. Finally, Earl asked Howard to take me to Laurence Hervey’s basement office; Laurence was the leader of the Product Development Labs. Howard, in his laconic manner, said to Laurence, “This is Derek Till — you should hire him — he has no business being alive”. This was on a Friday, and Laurence asked me to start on Monday!

Notes. Earl Stevenson joined ADL after World War I; he was a practicing chemist. Under Dr. Little, he became research director and subsequently the president of ADL in 1935.

Q. What are some of your most memorable client assignments?

There are several of particular note:

For Oliver Machinery, who made equipment for producing labels, we improvised a small unit for coating hot-melt adhesive on label stock. We then demonstrated its capabilities to a top executive from the client. We proudly turned our machine on, and to our horror it promptly went into reverse and dumped a large tray of hot liquid adhesive onto the floor! Fortunately, the client knew us well and eased our embarrassment by recounting an analogous experience he’d had with a big customer – he cut his finger while demonstrating that the unit he was selling– had no sharp edges!

In a project for Nabisco, were asked to confirm that they were the low cost producer of cookies, particularly for their most important product, the Oreo. Our final team presentation to the top management included a detailed analysis of the manufacturing process and manpower needs of the production line for the product that competed with the Oreo. They were amazed – how could we get this information without a plant visit, which they knew we would not do?

Well, one of our team, who happened to be visiting the city where the competitors’ plant was located, chanced on a local program on his hotel-room TV which showed a tour of the competitor’s plant, including the production line that made the product! We obtained a copy of the tape and were able (at our leisure) to extract a lot of useful information. How lucky can you be!

For several years, I led a working committee for the Toy Manufacturers of America (TMA) to develop voluntary safety standards for toys, under the aegis of ASTM. This was prompted by a national TV show demonstrating the “New Season’s ten most dangerous toys”. Members of the Committee included technical people from manufacturers and retailers, the National Bureau of Standards, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, a pediatrician and a lawyer. The ASTM Standard that we drafted was issued in 1972, and headed off government regulation. It is still in use in updated form, and still contains some of my old diagrams.

In a project for Samson Cordage, we designed a braided nylon cord to replace the long steel wire attached to a towed target for airborne firing practice by U.S. Air Force jets. Occasionally a fighter would hit the tow wire and sustain minor (but expensive!) damage. To get real data on the forces involved in the airstream, I flew in a two-passenger jet and took photos of the other plane towing several thousand feet of the special braid.
A case for Rubberset, a paint-brush company then owned by Bristol-Myers, proved very challenging. Chinese hog bristles were preferred in the best paint brushes because of the properties of the natural keratin polymer. However, they were in short supply, and expensive. We developed a bristle using keratin extracted from fresh (i.e. smelly!) chicken feathers that had comparable properties. For several months I ran a pilot operation in the Maryland chicken country, and developed a manufacturing process to make enough “bristle” for field tests. However, before he tests began, Rubberset was sold to a paint company, who shut down all research, much to my regret.
(I’m reminded that at a promotional luncheon in Montreal, I had to throw a live chicken at Larry Bass, who was speaking on the wonders of Product Development!)
I ran a $1 million Food and Drug Administration (FDA) program for the Bureau of Foods to improve the methods used to qualify plastic packaging for food contact. We were successful, primarily because of our lab-based competence in both polymers and food technology, acting as a team, which the government agencies could not match, although they tried. New test methods and solvent systems were developed, and adopted by the Bureau, Several scientific papers were published.

Q. What were some of the oddest things that occurred during your tenure at ADL?

There were two “Basement” incidents :

We arrived one morning to find that everything in one our labs was coated with a layer of black powder, ruining many experiments. The cause was carbon black, which had been blown through our windows during an outdoor experiment by the Cabot Labs next door!

On another occasion, the elevator door in the basement crashed open and two chemists raced out, pushing a trolley with a garbage can on top. They ran past our lab and out into the parking lot, just as a fire truck pulled up. Pandemonium! It turned out that they were trying to duplicate, on a small scale, what might have been the cause of the Texas City disaster, where a ship loaded with fertilizer exploded. Their experiment went out of control! Resulting in—pandemonium! Fortunately, it was on a small-scale.

Finally, my earlier mention of the laconic Howard Billings reminded me of an odd occurrence. Howard was the ADL Treasurer and also a chemist (all executives at that time wore both hats). He was crossing the parking area behind 30 Memorial Drive, when he saw a man doing some repairs on his car. Howard asked “Do you work at Arthur D. Little?” “Yes”, said the guy. “No you don’t” said Howard — surely the shortest termination interview on record ! Today–that action likely couldn’t happen. But a true Yankee would never tolerate a lost moment of work for the company!

Q. What are your interests and activities today?

Patricia and I are enjoying life at Carlton-Willard Homes, a “continuing care” community on 75 wooded acres in Bedford. There’s a lot going on, both on- and off-campus, and we have made many interesting friends. There are a number of ex-ADL’ers here — Allan Sloane , Ed Cox, Fred Bird. Caleb Warner etc.
Patricia heads up the local thespian activities, and I’m active in helping to videotape the WWII experiences of the older residents, both military and civilian. Ken Burns, of PBS, came and gave us a talk about recording the past a couple of weeks ago.

Between us we have six children and seven grandchildren to keep track of — in places like Alaska and France! No such thing as a peaceful retirement!

It could be said (and has been said) that the Environmental Health and Safety Practice at ADL started with Dr. Little in the early 1900s. During the opening of MIT’s applied chemistry laboratory in 1909, Dr. Little said “Every waste that is prevented, or turned to profit, every problem solved, and every more effective process which is developed makes for better living in the material sense and for cleaner and more wholesome living in the higher sense”. Dr. Little’s 1910 “The Paper-Maker’s Trouble Book” is an amusing tome that provided a practical view of his words. Among other issues, his Trouble Book touched on efficient burns of coal-“ He let no dividends go up the chimney.” and wastewater effluents-“There are charges of nuisance from the wastewaters of the mill. You know yourself that these waste waters carry away fiber, filler and color which cost good money and which ought to be in the sheet.”!

Yes, Arthur D. Little conceived of and practiced waste minimization long before it was popularized and finally written into law in the 1980s and 90s. From the early 1900s to the new millennium, an environmental business was a consistent theme at ADL.

In the next newsletter, two of our colleagues from the 1990s share their experiences at ADL with environmental auditing, due diligence, and remediation. Our company was an early entrant into Environmental Remediation, we worked on the Hooker Chemical sites prior to the Superfund Law in 1979. And we were instrumental in the beginnings of applying auditing skills to environmental issues; Ladd Greeno, Gib Hedstrom and Maryanne DiBerto documented the principals and practices of environmental auditing in the early 1980s.
See Fall 2012 newsletter.

See Spring 2012 newsletter.

• Arthur D. Little, Inc., Safety and Risk, 1987-2002 and Energy Practice, 2002 -2008
• Penspen Limited, Oil and Gas Pipelines, 1975-1987

See Spring 2012 newsletter.

See Spring 2012 newsletter.