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MEMORIAL ARTICLE
Published Assembly May '93
William Herbert McMaster No.15308 Class of 1946
Died 21 December 1990 at Livermore, California, aged 64 years.
Interment: Mt. Vernon Memorial Park, Fair Oaks California. |
William Herbert (Bill) McMaster was born 16 April
1926 at Fort Lewis, Washington. His father, William R. McMaster,
was USMA Class of 1919. Bill's youth was spent moving with his
family to various assignments around the world. He attended grammar
school in the Philippines and in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Bill
graduated from Little Rock High School in Little Rock, Arkansas
and spent one year at Millards Preparatory School in Washington,
DC. His ambition was always to follow in his father's footsteps
and go to West Point. He was able to obtain a Presidential Appointment
and entered the Academy on 1 July 1943 with the Class of 1946.
Bill had no trouble with cadet life. His family
ties and the year at prep school prepared him well for whatever
he had to face. One of his roommates, Charles D. Daniel, Jr.,
remembered his days with Bill at West Point: "I joined Dick
Stone and Bill as their third roommate in yearling year. We were
a pretty compatible bunch and had among us a fairly broad array
of complementary talent. Fortunately for Dick and me, we had
someone like Bill with more than enough brains to go around.
Bill wore stars for the whole time we were at the Academy. Studying
and academics came easily to him, and I sometimes felt he was
a little non plussed at my shortcomings in that department. If
asked, he would patiently explain the method by which one arrived
at the correct solution. I am afraid what was 'intuitively obvious'
to Bill bordered on the occult to me... The foregoing suggests
that Bill was a studious drudge with little interest in anything
other than academics and keeping his stars. Nothing could be
farther from the truth.
While at the Academy, he displayed a broad array
of talents, which included participation in the Camera and Chess
Clubs and writing and drawing cartoons for the Pointer. It was
in this latter activity that Bill made a major contribution to
the mental health and welfare of the Corps. During football season,
our company barracks would be the focal point of most of the
Corps who would come by to admire Bill's handiwork in the form
of huge posters made from bed sheets and hung out the barracks
windows. On one occasion, Time magazine paid the ultimate compliment
by printing a photo of one of Bill's posters which, of course,
we, his roommates felt was only proper..." A picture of
one of Bill's football posters appears on page 460 of the 1946
Howitzer. Bill's father was stationed in Europe for most of Bill's
cadet days. With most of his letters to his father, Bill would
either draw cartoons or reproduce some of those that had been
printed in the Pointer. One of his Pointer cartoons redrawn for
his father brings back many memories for Bill's classmates. In
it, the "Water Corporal," with coffee obviously spilled
all over the table, asks, "Sir, does anyone care for more
coffee than is on the table?" When graduation arrived, Bill
was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the cavalry.
After basic schooling at Fort Knox, Kentucky, Bill
traveled to Germany for assignment as platoon leader and battalion
adjutant in the 6th Armored Cavalry Regiment. In 1950, he was
selected to attend the University of Virginia at Charlottesville,
Virginia. There he studied physics and received both his Masters
and Ph.D. His doctoral thesis received a Sigma Xi Research prize
and resulted in two articles being published in the Physics Review
and American Journal of Physics. Bill took time out from his
studies to marry Pauline (Polly) Kiracofe on 9 June 1951 at Walter
Reed Chapel, Washington, DC. From Virginia, Bill and Polly moved
to Sandia Base, New Mexico for three months before assignment
to the University of California Radiation Laboratory (later renamed
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, LLNL), Livermore, California.
Bill had transferred from Armor to the Signal Corps. It was at
LLNL that he really came into his own. He started off as a Physicist
in the Reaction History Group. He wrote the computer codes for
and directed the first LLNL diagnostic experiments utilizing
computer modeling. He developed the "NITWIT" experiments
to diagnose neutron energy distribution using time of flight
techniques. He invented the "GENIUS" experiment to
diagnose gamma spectrum by photo disintegration of beryllium
and deuterium. In 1958, Bill realized that his field was definitely
in the scientific side of things. So he resigned and became a
civilian scientist at LLNL.
In 1966, he became Scientific Director, Hupmobile
Event, responsible for direction and execution of a major diagnostic
experiment at the Nevada Test Site. He was responsible for the
LLNL airborne diagnostic work, flying frequently in the C- 131
aircraft used to monitor atmospheric tests. In 1971, Bill was
chairman of the review committee that monitored all aspects of
the CANNIKIN event executed on Amchitka Island. His colleagues
remember when Bill held the first "Olympic" surfing
contest in the Bering Sea. Bill and several others made a crude
surfboard and took it into the 36 degree waters. With an in water
survival time of approximately one minute, the event was over
rather quickly. Bill retired from LLNL in 1984 after 26 years.
He did not forsake his artistic endeavors during
all that time. He transferred his talents to wood carving and
sculpture and became well known and respected on the west coast
in both fields. He was a contributor to two magazines in the
field of wood carving. He wrote a column, "Focus on Carving"
for Popular Woodworking. He also contributed to The Log, publication
of the California Carvers Guild.
William H. McMaster died 21 December 1990 from
a sudden heart attack. He is survived by his wife, a son Mark
and his mother. His death was a shock to all who knew and loved
Bill. The respect with which he is held by fellow artists is
reflected in the following from Popular Woodcarving: "...Bill's
column 'Focus on Carving' has been a regular feature in PW since
issue #15, October/November 1983. He also produced an excellent
series of articles about carving in the round, relief carving,
and on carving the human head, an Arabian stallion and carousel
animals. Much of his best writing was about how to accomplish
realism or the 'illusion' of it particularly in relief carving
where reality's third dimension must be expressed in a form that
is more nearly two dimensional. In addition to his writing, Bill
taught classes and seminars through the California Carvers' Guild.
Bill, who was "Chief of Education" in the California
Wood Carvers' Guild, was also remembered in their publication,
The Log: "The passing of Bill McMaster was a great loss
to our organization. He was indeed a rare individual. Bill combined
the skills of a master carver with those of an engineer, and
he was a skilled writer. Bill had another quality that will be
missed. He got things done. Bill truly will be irreplaceable."
The remarks of Bill's fellow artists mirror the
remembrances of his classmates. He was everything a West Pointer
should be. He was the epitome of "Duty, Honor, Country."
Roommate Charles Daniel said, "It was a privilege to have
known him---he will be sorely missed and long remembered."
Another classmate, Tom Wagner, remembered, "In retrospect,
Bill was a consummate scholar, a real physicist." All who
knew Bill will long remember him and all he gave to them--friendship,
dependability, a sense of having known someone who mattered.
It is with strong feeling that the Class of 1946 declares "Well
Done, Bill; Be Thou At Peace!"
'46 Memorial Article Project and his wife, Polly
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