Radio broadcast .. (1922-30)

Commander Stanford C. Hooper, L. S. N. Bureau of Engineering, which has charge of the Navy's radio research, construction, and material (whereas the Naval Communications Service, whose radio section was formerly under Engineering, handles the radio and oiher communication traffic). Except for one short interval, through the eventful years when it may be said Navy radio and all radio with it was coming of age, he has held this office. That interval, in the year of 1917 to 1918, saw him do what any Commander yearns to do in an emergency— it saw him bolt for the bridge of the destroyer Fairfax, doing convoy duty across the Atlantic. But the Navy called him ashore again: it may be presumed that he was needed. He has the insignia of the French Legion of Honor, and more such, home in his trunk. He served on the Advisory Committee of the Arms Conference, had a consulting part in the recent Radio Conference, and has had other incidental honors and functions. But the thing that the Navy will remember him for will be his skill as an executive, and his technical skill. As the Navy puts it, " He is a practical radio man." And that, in the Navy, means a lot. In this instance at least it means that Commander Hooper started very young, stuck at it. and has been able to put to good ends the understanding of men and the skill he began to pile up when a boy messenger and telegrapher in San Bernardino, California. As a result of his practical, direct, alert, and canny make-up, it is understandable that he was the initiating force in seeking the Conference between himself and Admiral Bullard on the one hand, and the officers and directors of the General Electric Company on the other hand. This latter conference was described in detail in the June issue of RADIO BROADCAST— that conference, on April 7. 1920, which was the birthplace of the Radio Corporation of America and of America's world-wide radio chain. For the sake of finding out who really made the first recommendations for this allimportant conference, 1 have turned to the authorities — to various Naval officials then high in office, to letters from officials of the General Electric Company, and in direct touch with the subject. 1 have had letters and verdicts by officers in interviews that establish the fact that it was Commander Hooper who saw thedrift of the American chain into the hands of the Marconi Companies, saw the opportunity for the General Electric to refrain from giving over their patents or patent rights to anyone other than Americans, and accordingly, in the nick of time, took the initiative. One of the officers with whom I conferred and with whom I correspond is Commander George C. Sweet, now a consulting radio engineer in New York City, who was present at the meeting at which Commander Hooper put the situation up to his ranking officer in Naval Communications, Admiral Bullard, has stated that " Hooper was responsible for the scheme to confer with the General Electric Company." We now know the important results that have come from his initiative. One can trace, too, his effective work as an executive in dozens of spots in the history of radio development in the Navy, all of which would constitute too long a tale here. For there is hardly a phase of development of radio in which the Navy has not had a part, and the records show that many of the Navy's supreme achievements in radio came while Hooper was head of the Radio Division, and are still coming. To many of us, after all, the most interesting fact is that he started as a boy-of-all-work in a telegraph office of the Southern Pacific, tried out the Postal Company as well, then, after having started out, as we have seen, from San Bernardino, California, progressed successfully all the way to the post he now occupies.