34/Plumbing Engineer June 2019
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n this, my last column for Plumbing Engineer, I wish to describe my journey as a fire protection engineer and give some recognition to several of those who lent a hand or gave some good direction along the way. In high school, though good in math and sciences, I was not quite sure what I could do with that knowledge. Regarding math, no one ever mentioned to me about the possibility of being an engineer. With science, there seemed to be many obvious career options, including medicine. I only applied to one college - the University of Maryland. Not so much because it was where I wanted to go but because everyone else applied to go there. It helped that the College Park campus was only 30 min- utes from my home in Suitland, Md. So when the time came to put some kind of major down, I put down pre-pharmacy. Through my first two years in school, my major morphed into pre-medicine and I began taking many courses in biology. From Pre-Med to Fire Protection Engineer My best friend since our family moved from south- east Washington to Suitland in 1962, Larry Nyers pretty much always knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to be a firefighter. As soon as Larry turned 16, he joined the Bradbury Heights Volunteer Fire Department (Company 17) in Prince Georges County Md. He often coaxed me to join but I never took his urgings seriously until my freshman year in college. Being in pre-med, I figured some experience riding the ambulance would help me when the time came to apply to medical school. At age 19, I joined the Silver Hill Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad (Company 29) to which Larry had since transferred. Larry is what I call a fireman's fireman. If you look up firefighter in the dictionary, you will see a picture of Larry. Among the many lives he saved in his still ongoing career, he revived a family's pet dog he had rescued from a house fire using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. In those days, volunteers had to train as both a fire- fighter and an ambulance technician. Turns out riding fire trucks was a lot cooler to me than riding the ambu- lance, so my interest began to shift. Meanwhile, back at college, I found the constant memorization required to pass exams in subjects such as comparative vertebrate morphology was no fun. One of the guys across the hall in our dorm was studying to be a civil engineer and had homework that involved problem-solving. That type of study seemed much more interesting than spending hours upon hours memorizing the names of all the muscles in some part of the human anatomy. I began to think maybe engineering was the thing for me. Now it just so happens that the University of Maryland's engineering college had a specialty engineering program - the Fire Protection Engineering Curriculum. It was not an ABET-accredited engineering program at the time (the program received accreditation during my senior year) but it seemed to be a good opportunity to combine my interest in firefighting and engineering. Near the end of my sophomore year, I set up an appointment to meet with the chairman of the program. Dr. John L. Bryan welcomed me into his office and we chatted for a while. He looked at my hastily handwritten "transcript" and told me that if I joined the program in the fall and did well, he would find me a scholarship starting in the spring. That did it for me. I left Dr. Bryan's office convinced to change to engineering. True to his word, after one semes-
Conclusion
FPE Corner
By Samuel S. Dannaway, PE, FSFPE
Bringing more than 40 years of learning from the best in this industry to an end.
SFPE Notes: SFPE volunteers make a big difference. People are buzzing about volunteering these days and with good reason. Studies show that volunteering strengthens the industry, is good for your health and can even help you land a new job! However, in our time-demanding profession, it can be challenging to find an opportunity allowing you to give back in a way that fits your busy schedule and makes the best use of your talents while giving you the opportunity to bolster your professional reputation and possibly learn new skills. How many types of volunteer opportunities really fit that bill? Well, depending on what type of experience you're looking for, the SFPE has plenty of options. It has five standing committees involved in a wide range of current activities. Check it out at www.sfpe.org.
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