Willard harrison bennett biography for kids

Willard John Smith (May 14, 1910 – April 1, 2000) served as the thirteenth Commandant of the United States Coast Guard from 1966 to 1970.He was born in Suttons Bay, Michigan, and was the son of Oscar Smith, a retired commissioned warrant officer in the U.S. Coast Guard and his wife, Emma Bequist. Upon graduation from high school in Charlevoix, Michigan, he entered the University of Michigan, but later transferred to the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.Upon graduation from the academy in 1933, he was assigned to a Galveston, Texas-based Coast Guard cutter and later served as an aide to Commandant Russell R. Waesche from 1936 to 1939. During World War II, he was assigned to the Coast Guard's aviation branch and was responsible for the construction and commissioning of Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco, California, where he was assigned to duty until 1946. From 1946 to 1948, he served as commander of Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City, Michigan before his assignment as assistant chief of the Coast Guard's Aviation Division from 1948 to 1950. From 1950 to 1951, he attended the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia. From 1962 to 1965, he served as superintendent of the United States Coast Guard Academy.From 1965, until his appointment as commandant, he served as commander of the Cleveland, Ohio-based 9th Coast Guard District. As commandant in 1967, he oversaw the transfer of the Coast Guard from the United States Department of the Treasury to the United States Department of Transportation.Upon completion of his service as Coast Guard Commandant in June 1970, he moved to Traverse City, Michigan. The following October, he was appointed as Assistant Secretary for Safety and Consumer Affairs at the United States Department of Transportation, serving under then-Secretary of Transportation John A. Volpe until July 1971, when he returned to Traverse City. In 1973 he became admiral of the Great Lakes Maritime Academy in Traverse C

Findlay has a number of celebrities in its past who have made major contributions to the worlds of sports, entertainment, and industry. Special thanks to Doug Berger’soriginal article, from which we compiled a list of some you are most likely to have heard of. 

James B. Hill (b. 1856 – d. 1945: inventor)

Invented the Buckeye Traction Ditcher in 1894 that helped quickly drain the Great Black Swamp in Northwest Ohio and large parts of Florida, Louisiana, as well as many wet areas in the rest of the world. One improvement Hill made in his ditcher machine, in 1907, when having problems with mud in Louisiana, was developing a continuous track (aka ‘tank’ tread) one sees on various construction vehicles today. Hill also invented a variety of corn that could grow in wet places like Louisiana. The Buckeye Traction Ditcher was produced in Findlay until 1970. Hill lived in Findlay for many years. He is buried in Maple Grove Cemetery.

Marie Dressler (b. 1868 – d. 1934)

An actress during the golden age of Hollywood, Dressler also appeared on Broadway and in vaudeville. She won a Best Actress Oscar in 1931 for the movie “Min and Bill.” She lived in Findlay as a child and teenager.

Howard Taylor Ricketts (b. 1871 – d. 1910: pathologist)

He discovered the bacterium that causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever and was one of the researchers who found out that the same bacterium led to epidemic typhus. He died from typhus during his research in Mexico. The science community named a taxonomic family (Rickettsiaceae) and an order (Rickettsiales) after him.  Ricketts was born in Findlay.

Ralph Dayton Cole (b. 1873 – d. 1932: politician)

U.S. Representative from Ohio (1905-1911). One of the founders of the American Legion at Paris February 16, 1919. Cole lived and worked in Findlay.

Grant “Homerun” Jo

Willard Harrison Bennett pioneered the field of plasma physics and invented the radio frequency mass spectrometer. Born in Findlay, Ohio, Bennett attended Carnegie Institute of Technology and Ohio State University. He received his master's from the University of Wisconsin in 1926 and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1928. In 1930 he joined the Physics faculty at Ohio State.

Following service in World War II, Bennett worked at the National Bureau of Standards, the University of Arkansas, and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. In 1961, he was appointed Burlington Professor of Physics at North Carolina State University (emeritus in 1976). Bennett made scientific history in the 1930s pioneering studies in plasma physics. These studies have been used throughout the world in controlled thermonuclear fusion research.

In the 1950s, Bennett's experimental tube called the Stormertron predicted and modeled the Van Allen radiation belts surrounding the earth six years before they were discovered by satellite. It also reproduced intricate impact patterns found on the earth's surface which explained many features of the polar aurora. The radio frequency mass spectrometer was developed in 1950. It was first launched into space on the Sputnik III to measure the masses of atoms. It was the only space instrument used by the Russians and credited to an American inventor in their own Russian-language publications.