BIOGRAPHY http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=2harris
Sandy Spidell: kewpie-gal@hotmail.com
His father owned a family bakery and candy store where he worked as a chil d. After his brother Dwayne was born, the family moved to Henderson Iow a. It was there that his sister Estaline was born. Dale's father worked f or Leonard Triplett, who was his father's Father-in-law. Orlo took over t he family business of plumbing and heating from the hardware store. Both D ale and Dwayne had to work for their father from grade school through coll ege. Sorting and loading tools and parts, eventually doing the plumbing,
heating, and electrical installation and repair work, including erecting a nd repairing windmills, digging wells by hand, then lining the wells wi th brick or stone. During the depression, under the REA, they wired most f armhouses and the houses in town as well. Dale graduated from Henderson Co nsolidated High School in 1933. After working for his dad another six mont hs to earn money for tuition, he entered Iowa State University at Ame s, in the fall of 1934. He thereafter worked and attended college at the s ame time, earning the necessary $300 for tuition, and studying for a degr ee in engineering. He lived in the basement of a rooming house where he a nd his roommate were allowed the use of a camper stove for cooking their m eals. You can imagine what those meals were. They ate scrambled eggs, cann ed fruit, salted cod, popcorn and other home canned foods, all carried fr om home. Dale also worked as a projectionist at the local theater in Ame s, Iowa to earn extra money. He left Iowa State in his third year and we nt to work for his grandfather Triplett who owned the local telephone comp any. He installed phones, maintained telephone lines and erected telepho ne poles. It was a one man job, if he needed help, he had to hire a man o ut of his own pay, which was $25 a month. Dale married Phyllis Owens in 19 40. He took a Civil Service Exam that year, at his mother's suggestio n. He was hired by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (under the Commer ce Dept.) as a cartographer, making costal maps of the U. S. Dale and Phyl lis took off for Washington D. C. with $100 in their savings account. Will iam (Bill) David was born in 1944. Phyllis was homesick and unhappy in Was hington, so she and Bill went home to Henderson where she and Dale own ed a house. They were divorced in 1945. Dale married Georgene Smith (Gen e) in July, 1946. Dale's career in the Coast Survey advanced rapidly wh en he was put into the newly formed Photogrammetry Division, a brand new s cience which was the process of mapping by using aerial photography. He w as very excited about this new way of making maps, working long hours, oft en bringing work home. The new division made aeronautical charts for t he A &G.S. He received the Silver Medal in 1953 for "meritorious servic e" presented by Secretary of Commerce, Weeks. He also became a member of t he Society of Photographic Scientist and Engineers. His home town paper pr inted the headline, "Camera Work of Iowa Cited", reporting: "Three year 's work on a camera having nine lenses brings a Meritorious Service Awa rd to Henderson, IA. Native." In February 1966, Dale was awarded the covet ed Commerce Department's Gold Medal, their highest honor recognizing "outs tanding contribution to the Coast Survey's photogrammetric and satellite t riangulation program." Resulting in the first accurate measurement of t he earth -surface. They used satellite and stars to get this precise measu rement. He received many letters of congratulations, including one from t he Secretary of Commerce, and John Hanson of the House of Representative s. By that time, Dale was Chief of Photogrammetric Research. He wrote ma ny papers and articles, which were published, but he hated to give speeche s. Dale retired in 1973 to Florida after 32 years of Government Service. D ale h as two children besides Bill. :Judith, (Judi) born in 1948, and Kenn eth Da le (Ken) born in 1950. Notes From Sandy- I don't remember Dale ve ry well. He lived in Florida when I was a kid. The only thing I knew of h im was that he sent money for my brother and I when we were living at ho me as children. Mom and Dad would buy us gifts with the money, but we coul dn't open them at Pete and Phyllis' house with the rest of our presents. M om was afraid it would upset Pete. We used to open them the next day at Gr andma Boelling's. I remember when I was in grade school he and Ge ne ca me to see us in Nebraska. They had brought with them a 22 year old p oodle. He was blind and had no teeth. They only stayed the day. He ma de it back one other time about 1986. We met them in Red Oak at the Good S am Center where grandpa Orlo lived. We took 5 generation pictures and h ad a nice day together. If I remember right Dwayne was there with his fami ly and I think Ken's family was there too. As Dale got older he had proble ms with his memory. Gene would write to let us know how he was. He h ad to give up driving for the last several years. Gene said he would lo ok to the left to check traffic, then to the right, then back to the lef t, and then to the right, in the time it took to look the other way he h ad forgotten what he had seen from the first way. He said one day he new t hat that thing on the wall was for telling time, but he couldn't rememb er how to use it. Even after using a camera for a living all his lif e, he soon forgot how to use that too. Gene wrote that he would stand fr om the couch and when she asked him where he was going, he would just s it down and remark that he didn't know. He needed to ask where the bathro om was in his own home because he couldn't remember. Bless Gene for taki ng care of him those last several years. When I heard he had passed aw ay I felt an overwhelming need to go to Florida for the funeral. I'm forev er glad I did. I got to know Grandpa as a person as I never would have a ny other way. His friends spoke at the funeral of a man that was thoughtf ul of others, and very considerate, and kind. They made me very sad th at I didn't know him the way they did. They told stories the times they h ad spent with a very brilliant and witty man. We stayed for a few days aft er the funeral and got to know him better from his family. They didn 't so much talk about him, but you could tell by the kind of people they w ere, that they must have been a reflection of him.

• Married: 1940

1. Living Harris

• Married: 3 JUL 1946 in District of Columbia

1. Living Harris
2. Living Harris