User:WilliamLaFond/Drafts/Eugene C. La Fond

Eugene C. La Fond (December 4, 1909 - December 1, 2002) was an American physical oceanographer. He began his career in 1933 at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, under the directors T. Wayland Vaughan, and later Harald Sverdrup. During WW II, he worked in the University of California Department of War Research (UCDWR), Ocenographic Studies Group, creating sonar range charts of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. After the war, he led the Navy's new Oceanographic Section at the Naval Electronics Laboratory (NEL) in San Diego, California. During his 26-year tenure, the Oceanographic Section innovated new tools for research, including small manned submersibles, an instrumented off-shore tower, and towed thermister chain, which described the structure of internal ocean waves. In 1959, he was Principal Scientist on the nuclear submarine USS Skate, which traveled under the ice pack to the North Pole.

In the 1950s, with grants from the Fulbright Program, La Fond organized the first comprehensive oceanographic research program in India, at Andhra University, Waltair, Visakhapatnam. Interest in oceanography of the Indian Ocean grew, and the Indian National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) was established in 1966, under the direction of N.K. Panikkar, who had worked with Dr. La Fond. In 1963 La Fond was Deputy Director of the Office of Oceanography at UNESCO. In 1964 he was lead scientist for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's first cruise in the International Indian Ocean Expedition on the Anton Bruun.

As Secretary General of the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans (IAPSO)), La Fond convened international General Assembly meetings, and created the promoted the study of marine sciences in developing countries.

Early years
La Fond began his career at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1933, where he studied under senior oceanographers, including the directors T. Wayland Vaughan, Harald Sverdrup, and future director Roger Revelle. His historic photographs of the campus and personnel at Scripps in the 1930's remain in the UCSD Archives.

After WW II, La Fond headed the oceanographic Structures Section of the newly organized Navy Electronics Laboratory (NEL) in San Diego. The Structures Section did basic research in marine sciences, and provided oceanographic support to Navy sonar programs. La Fond was the lead scientist on 4 expeditions to the arctic and one to the Antarctic - the last with the nuclear submarine Skate, which surfaced at the North Pole in 1959. His group pioneered the oceanographic use of small submarines, including the Trieste.

In 1952-53 and 1955-56, under grants from the Fulbright Program, La Fond organized the first comprehensive oceanographic research program in India, at Andhra University, Waltair.

In 1970, La Fond was elected Secretary of the International Association of Physical Sciences of the Oceans (IAPSO), a position he held for 17 years, until his final retirement at age 77.

Scripps
La Fond began at Scripps in 1933 as a volunteer, because there were no funds to hire him. He learned photography, and his photographs of Scripps campus and staff at the time of Vaughn's retirement document early life at the Institution 

La Fond measured the movement of sand along the Scripps beach and in 1938 published, the first of over 232? papers and reports published in his 55-year career. He studied near-shore currents, waves, surface temperature, and designed and operated a wave recording machine.

He drafted illustrations for the seminal book The Oceans Their Physics, Chemistry, and General Biology, by Sverdrup, Johnson, and Fleming.

War years
University of California Division of War Research, BT work

NEL
 other names Oceanography Branch, Environmental Studies Branch Dr. Robert Dietz, geologist Dr. Bill Menard, Ed Hamilton, geologists 1950-1951 Internal waves (La Fond), sea floor spreading (Bob Dietz), deep scattering layer (Gordon Tucker), sediments (Ed Hamilton), aqua lung SCUBA (Bob Dill). The NEL oceanographic group was the third most productive facility (in terms of published papers) after Scripps and Woods Hole.

Bikini
July 1946... La Fond participated in Operation Crossroads, the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in the central Pacific in 1946. He collected temperature and salinity data for computing geostrophic currents. Before the blasts, he measured currents around the Atoll to determine how radioactive water would be distributed. After the blasts he was the first to enter the atol to collect water samples.

Arctic and Antaric Cruises
One to the antarctic and 4 to the arctic 1946-1951. physical and geological oceanography ranging  from sampling  the Arctic Chukchi Sea to the Antarctic  Convergence and in  the  tropical Indian Ocean. The last to the Arctic was in July 1958, on the nuclear submarine SSN Skate, to the North Pole under ice cap. Entered and exited from the Atlantic side

Manned Submersibles
The Bathyscaphe Trieste, Soucoup Marine, and Deep Star 4000 manned submersible vehicles were used by La Fond at NEL as platforms to study benthic zones.

Research tower
La Fond developed and operated an oceanographic tower off the coast of Mission Beach in San Diego. From 1959 to 1988, it provided a stable research platform for physical, biological and chemical studies over extended time periods and was used by National and International scientists. The tower included an instrument house with living quarters.

Thermistor chain and Internal Waves
To study the thermal structure of  the oceans La Fond designed and developed a towable thermistor chain,  the first of its kind, to generate  continuous temperature structure of the oceans.

Oceanography in India
In 1952, La Fond took leave from NEL to establish oceanographic research programs at Andhra University, Waltair, India, under grants from the Fulbright Program. He led multiple oceanographic training cruises in the Bay of Bengal on the Indian Navy ship Rohilkhand, which ultimately provided data for 12 PhD theses.

Mine Detection
1954-1955. Panama City, Florida, Norfolk Virginia, and San Diego, Ca. Documenting oceanographic conditions that affected mine-detection sonar. Need for stable platform led to construction of Mission Beach oceanographic tower in 1959.

NAGA Expedition
In latter 1960, Dr. La Fond worked in Bangkok, Thailand as Scientific Director of the NAGA Expedition to the South China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, following the illness of Dr. Anton Bruun. The Expedition was administered by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and sought to understand the fisheries potential for Thailand and South Vietnam. (refs: 3-4)

International Indian Ocean Expedition
In 1963, Dr. La Fond led 28 scientists on the Woods Hole research ship Anton Bruun to study the Bay of Bengal, as part of the International Indian Ocean Expedition. He recruited scientists from India, and lectured extensively about the Expedition, at Indian universities and laboratories. (ref: IIOE report)

IAPSO
In 1970?, the Navy ended oceanographic research in San Diego, and La Fond retired from Navy Civil Service. He continued as Secretary General of IAPSO until 1985?

Biography
Eugene La Fond was born on a wheat farm close to Bridgeport, Washington. His father, William Noel La Fond, was adopted by French-Canadian fishermen, and his mother, Bessie Imes, descended from successful farmer and merchant in Imes, Kansas. At 12 years he contracted poliomyelitis, which affected his right arm. In Imperial Beach California, his parents had a chicken ranch; later changed to a trailer park, and a fruit stand. La Fond was an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts. He attended the South Bay Union School (traveling on his horse), Sweetwater High School, and graduated from San Diego State College in 1932 with a degree in chemistry.

Graduating in the depression, La Fond struggled to find employment. His college friend, Katherine Gehring, was working at Scripps Institution  and arranged for an interview. He met with the sub-director Carl Moberg, and was offered a job, but without pay. He accepted, and began to process data for Director Vaughan. At Scripps, and throughout his career, La Fond sought out new research opportunities. In 1935, La Fond secretly married Katherine Gehring. Because of nepotism employment rules, the marriage was not announced until 1936, when Katherine resigned and accompanied Eugene to Berkeley. At the University of California, La Fond studied biology for one year. Back at Scripps, Eugene and Katherine lived in a cottage on campus, and had two sons, William and Robert.

La Fond was a life-member of the Mission Bay Yacht Club, where he sailed his small sailboat. He died in his Ocean Beach home, which overlooks Mission Bay, and the sea where his tower once stood. He was survived by his wife of 67 years, and two sons.