Walter H.G. Paul papers

Walter was born on September 27, 1935 in Vegesack, Germany, the eldest of four siblings.

Walter received his master’s degree in mechanical engineering/economics in 1961 from University of Darmstadt in Germany. In 1967, he received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Hannover in Germany.

Between the period of 1961-1974 Walter worked at fiber rope factories in Germany and the US as a plant, test, and field application engineer, and in research facilities specializing in the testing of fiber ropes and fishing net twines. Most notable among these was his work at Gleistein, a rope manufacturer and family business originally founded in 1824.

1974 to 1993 he was employed as a senior departmental staff engineer by Martin Marietta, Aero & Naval Systems Division, Ocean System Operation, the former Chesapeake Instrument Corporation and Gould, Inc. in Glen Burnie, MD. There he had design responsibility for all rope and hose strength members and tow cables used in towed array and towed antenna systems built at the company for the US Navy.

Walter began his career at WHOI in 1993 as a senior engineer in the AOP&E Department. He retired in 2004 but remained on casual status until 2015.

Walter worked on mooring technology at WHOI with a group that included Dan Frye, John Kemp, Mark Grosenbaugh, and Don Peters. Walter brought hose technology to mooring applications in projects such as the Surface Suspended Acoustic Receiver (SSAR), automated right whale detection moorings and most of the Ocean Observatories Initiative Coastal Moorings in the Pioneer and Endurance arrays. He was an expert on steel and synthetic tension members and played a significant part in WHOI engineering for several decades.

Walter was chair of the Marine Technology Society (MTS) Buoy Technology Committee and ran the Buoy Workshop for many years. He held this position from 1993 until 2014, where he helped organize his last workshop in San Diego, CA.

Walter was a member of the Cordage Institute, member of its Technical Committee; The Fiber Society; Organizer of Buoy Technology Workshops, sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and MTS. The workshops are held every two years since 1996.

Walter H. G. Paul died on December 8, 2018 in Falmouth, Mass. He was 82.