William Steele Shultz, 1954

William Shultz was born in Kingston, New York, and attended schools in New York and Connecticut. He moved to Woods Hole in 1943 and joined the Navy Seven Group at WHOI. In his early days at WHOI, Shultz primarily built and calibrated mechanics guages for measuring pressure waves in underwater explosions. In the 1950s he worked under Allyn Vine, developing instruments for the study of underwater acoustics. Shultz worked extensively on the Alvin project in the 1960s and 1970s, helping to design a hand for the submersible, and an emergency release mechanism for the sphere. He also operated WHOI's high pressure treatment facility. Shultz died in Falmouth in October 1994.