Dr. Ray McAllister
Professor Emeritus, Ocean Engineering
FAU, Department of Ocean Engineering, Boca Raton, FL 33431
Born; Ithaca, N.Y. 6/26/23
4850 NorthEast 28th Avenue, Lighthouse Point, FL 33064

Education

• College of the City of New York, New York City, 1940-41
• Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 1946-50, B.S. Agriculture Major: Agronomy (Soils) Minor: Geology
• University of Illinois. Urbana, Illinois, 1950-51, M.S. Geology Major: Sedimentary Geology
• Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, 1951-54 Major: Marine Geology
• Texas A.& M. College, College Station, TX, 1954-58, Ph.D., Oceanography Major: Geological Oceanography

Experience (Teaching)

• Univ. of Illinois, 1950-51, Teaching Assistant, Ag Geology
• California Western Univ., 1952-53, Intro to Physical Science
• Texas A & M College, Geology Dept., 1955-56, Sedimentation; Mineralogy; Historical Geology
• Dept. Oceanography & Meteorology, 1954-56, Grad.courses, Gen'l
• Oceanography: Marine Geology of Gulf of Mexico; Sea Lab Techniques
• Dept. Oceanography and Meteorology, Chief Diver, Instructor in SCUBA
• Texas A & M College, Short Course Division, 1956-58, SCUBA Diving
• Florida Atlantic Univ., Dept. Ocean Engineering, Visiting Prof., Intro to Oceanography, 1964-65
• Florida Atlantic Univ., Dept. Ocean Engineering, Prof. (Emeritus) Ocean Engineering.

Experience (Field)

• Cornell Univ, 1948, Field Party Chief, Beach Intelligence Survey, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, for ONR.
• Office of Naval Research, 1948, Participated in Hrdlicka archaeological dig at Nikolski, Adak Island, Aleutians.
• University of Illinois. 1950, Field Party Chief. Investigation of the "Pleistocene Chronology of the Great Lakes". Study of varved clays in Ontario, Canada bush for ONR.
• University of Illinois, 1951. Field Assistant during Lake Michigan bathymetric survey and bottom coring program.
• Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 1951-54. Marine instrument design and demonstration for Division of Submarine Geology, under contract to the American Petroleum Institute.
• Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 1953. Expedition Marine Geologist, Tokyo to San Diego Leg, TransPac Expedition, Nov., Dec., 1953.
• Texas A & M College, Dept. of Oceanography and Meteorology, 1954-55. Chief Scientist, marine geological portion of a classified U S Navy.
• Texas A & M College, 1955-56. Marine Geological Consultant for the Dow Chemical Company, studies for a marine gas pipeline across Matagorda Bay, Texas.
• Texas A & M College, Dept.of Oceanography and Meteorology, 1956-57. Chief Scientist and Cruise Leader on several Atomic Energy Commission surveys of the bottom sediments and topography of the Mississippi Delta area.
• Columbia University, Geophysical Field Station (Navy SOFAR Station), Bermuda, 1958-63. Senior Oceanographer. Current measurements in deep water, marine bottom surveys, and marine coring surveys. Aleutian Island beach and seafloor survey, Artemis coordinator, low frequency acoustic studies. Cable laying & repair.
• Columbia University, CUGFS, assisted Edmund Downing and Rex Heird with part of excavation of "Sea Venture" off Ft. St. Catherine, St. Georges, Bermuda. Sea Venture was first immigrant ship to land, accidentally, on Bermuda! in 1509.
• Hudson Laboratories, 1963. Research Scientist. Civilian Assistant to the ONR Resident Representative, Field assistance with installation of Project Artemis (ONR).
• North American Aviation, Oceanology Group (Miami), 1964. Assistant Director. Installation and repair of large low frequency acoustic projector, 75' underwater off Fowey Rock, Miami. Proposal writing for NAA. Editor of "Handbook of Ocean and Underwater Engineering, for McGraw Hill Book Co & North American Rockwell. Company name later changed to North American Rockwell, then Rockwell International.
• Florida Ocean Sciences Institute, 1967-69. Principal Investigator and Project Director, FWPCA Grant, "Demonstration of the Limitations and Effects of Waste Disposal on an Ocean Shelf". A three year study.
• Westinghouse Ocean Research Laboratory, 1969. Assistant Party Chief, "Operation Stellaroid Control". Crown of Thorns starfish investigation, Micronesia.
• Santa Maria Foundation, 1970 to dissolution. Technical Advisor then SMF Board member. Marine archaeological research, seeking Columbus flagship "Santa Maria" on the N. Haitian coast. Involving considerable field search off the north shore of Haiti in the 1970's.
• Deerfield Beach, 1973 - 1990. Technical Advisor. Beach renourishment program, magnetometer survey for archaeological sites, pier inspections and repair.
• Treasure Salvors, Inc., 1976. Consultant to Duncan Mathewson, Search for and salvage of "Nuestra Senora de Atocha" & for preservation of a section of the "Santa Margarita" hull.
• National Enquirer, 1973 and 1977. Drift Bottle Studies of the Gulf Stream.
• U.S. Navy Undersea Systems Center, 1977 to 1980. Design, install and operate a neutral density test range for towed acoustic arrays. Other miscellaneous surveys and tests.
• Dr. David Zinc, 1977-78. Underwater rock coring, photographic documentation and side scan search of "Atlantis Road", Bimini, Bahamas. Introduced Dr. Harold Edgerton to the site which is apparently beach rock from a lower sea level stand.
• Boca Raton. Florida, 1988. Repair of reef damaged by a tug boat tow cable, with students from Ocean Engineering, 3 months in 1988.
• Project Santa Maria, 1992. Attempt to organize an expedition to find the Santa Maria during 1992, the quincentennial year of the "discovery" of America & of the year the Santa Maria was wrecked in Haiti!
• Columbus Caravel Archaeological Project, 1993. Attempts to locate two Columbus caravels beached and abandoned on his last voyage in St. Annes Bay, Jamaica, using Chirp sonar. Several targets discovered.
• Florida Department of Environmental Protection, 2001-2002, Consultant. Locating the gaps in the drowned barrier reef off SE Florida through which cables and pipelines can be laid without damage to our live reef. Participate in rule making requiring use of gaps.
• FDEP, 2001, educate DEP about dangers to our reef from the Calypso gas pipeline into Lloyd State Park. Show the lies and half truths of the pipeline company re dangers to the reef and to the population of South Florida.
• FDEP, 2002-2004, Continue the questioning re engineering, biological and human danger aspects of the AES, El Paso and Tractebel/Calypso pipelines across our highly endangered Reefs.
• Bahama Environmental Science Trust, Nassau, 2004. Meet Keod Smith, Ambassador, Bahamas Environmental Science Trust, first in Fort Lauderdale then in Nassau with Sierra Club, to discuss dangers to Bahamian reefs and personnel from the Tractebel and AES pipelines.

Experience (Laboratory)

• Texas A & M College, Dept. of Oceanography and Meteorology, 1954-55. Director. Marine Sediments Laboratory, Galveston Marine Laboratory.

Miscellaneous Experience

• Commercial diving for abalone off Southern California, 1954.
• Professional Lecturer, 1951 to present. Popularized scientific and particularly ocean subjects. San Diego-Los Angeles area, 1951-54. Houston - Galveston - Bryan/College Station area, 1954-58. Bermuda, 1958-63. Miami and vicinity, 1963-64. South Florida, 1964/present
• Producer and host, science television program, "Oceanography", on KGUL-TV, Galveston-Houston, Texas. 1955-56.
• Chairman, Scientific Advisory Group for a Gulf Coast Oceanarium and Marine Research Laboratory, 1955-56.
• Gulf Consultants, Inc. Associate in Marine Geology. 1955-57. Geological research for English Channel tunnel Chunnel).
• Producer and Host, Science TV program, ZBM-TV, Hamilton, Bermuda, 1959-60.
• Bermuda Government, and Bermuda civic organizations, oceanographic consultant, 1958-63.
• Mt. St. Agnes Academy, Bermuda, 1958-63. Science Consultant.
• National Academy of Engineering, Man in the Sea Panel, 1968 until dissolved. Member.(Served with Ed Link, et al.)
• Consultant to various land developers & engineers in St. Croix, Virgin Islands; California; Central east coastal Florida, Crooked Island, Bahamas and S Florida. Environmental studies, 1969 to present.
• Broward County Historical Association, Marine Archaeological Advisory Committee, 1977 to 1986. Technical Director.
• Search for and salvage of the Spanish merchant vessel "Gil Blas", wrecked in Hillsboro Beach, Florida.
• Broward County Artificial Reef Committee, non-profit, built several artificial reefs off Broward County from about 1970 to 1988. Founder and member until dissolved.
• Palm Beach County, Artificial Reef Committee, 1988 to 1990. Advises PB County how to proceed with artificial reef development & supervises artificial reef installation.
• Palm Beach County, Waterways Regulation Committee, 1988 to 1990. Advisory to county on wake, speed, noise regulations in/on county waterways.
• Honorary Member, U S Coast Guard Auxiliary, Flotilla 3-6, Boca Raton, approx 1980 to present.
• Marine Archaeology, Research and Conservation, Reporting (MARC), 2001 to present. Board member, organization devoted to marine history and archaeology of Florida, with emphasis on submerged historic wrecks, the Copenhagen Lofthus and Vamar (nee Eleanor Bolling).
• Boca Raton Museum of Natural History, 2004, Selected to the Board of the Museum which will include the collection of the Graves Museum of Dania and be located in Mizner Park.

Professional Papers

1. "Unusual Debris Covered Ice Cones,Umnak Island", Journal of Glaciology, V. 2, 1956.
2. "Photography of Submerged Vertical Structures", American Geophysical Union, Transactions, V. 39, July 1957.
3. "A Rapid Method of Removing Marine Salts for Sediment Analysis", Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, V. 28, June 1958.
4. "Deep Current Measurements Near Bermuda", in Marine Sciences Instrumentation , V. 1, Plenum Press, N.Y., 1962, pp. 210 - 222.
5. "Clay Minerals From West Mississippi Delta Marine Sediments", in Papers in Marine Geology-Shepard Memorial Volume , MacMillan, N.Y., 1964, pp. 457 - 473.
6. "Geological Oceanography", in Handbook of Ocean and Underwater Engineering, McGraw-Hill Pub. Co., N.Y., 1969, pp. 1-24 to 1-42.
7. "Chemical Oceanography", with E. Corcoran, in Handbook of Ocean & Underwater Engineering, McGraw-Hill Pub. Co., N.Y., 1969, pp. 1-16/1-24
8. "Engineering Considerations for Artificial Reefs", in Artificial Reef Conference Proceedings, Feb., 1981. Editor, Don Aska. Fla. Sea Grant Rept. # 41.
9. "Teaching Oceanography in an Ocean Engineering Program", in Proceedings of the 1986 Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education, July (1986). pp.1640-1642. Editors; L.P. Grayson and J.M. Biedenbach.
10. "Hillsboro Inlet and the Lighthouse; One Hundred Years of Change," Butler, D.F. and McAllister, R. F.

Reports & Unpublished Manuscripts

• M.S. Thesis: "Varved Clays of the Goulais River Valley, Ontario, Canada", University of Illinois, 1951.
• Ph.D. Dissertation: "Clay Minerals of Recent Marine Sediments West of the Mississippi River Delta", Texas A and M College, 1958.

Technical Reports & Proposals

1. "Continental Shelf Survey, East Texas Gulf Coast, Physical Oceanography", 1957. Classified.
2. "Continental Shelf Survey, East Texas Gulf Coast, Geological Oceanography", 1957. Classified.
3. "Continental Shelf Survey, East Texas Gulf Coast, Final Report", 1957. Classified.
4. "Continental Shelf Survey. East Texas Gulf Coast, Progress Report", 1956.
5. "Engineering Considerations for a 16" Marine Pipeline Across Matagorda Bay, Texas, for Dow Chemical Company, 1956.
6. "Preliminary Feasibility Study of Trenching a Tunnel Across the Straits of Dover", Gulf Consultants, primarily geology and geophysics of the tunnel route!
7. "Clay Mineralogy, Final Report" Part IV, Atomic Energy Commission Project 142, 1957.
8. "The Long Term Recorder", with Gordon Hamilton, Columbia University Geophysical Field Station Report. 1959.
9. Various other CUGFS reports, some classified.
10. North American Aviation Company, proposals for
    1. Underway ASWEPS
    2. Colossus
    3. Vertical Array
    4. Telemetering Wave Buoy
    5. Deep Submergence Systems
11. "Demonstration of the Limitations and Effects of Waste Disposal on an Ocean Shelf", First Annual Report, 1965.
12. "Demonstration of the Limitations and Effects of Waste Disposal on an Ocean Shelf", Second Annual Report, 1966.
13. Consulting reports to various firms, 1969 to present, on beach erosion, ocean outfalls, pollutants/water chemistry in inland waters, etc.

Popular Articles, Columns & Reports

• The Houston Chronicle, weekly, approx. 1955-57.
• The Royal Gazette, Bermuda, weekly, approx. 1959-60
• The Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, "Neptune's Gardens" 70's, weekly.
• The Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, "Locating a Good Spot to Fish or Dive", 70's, weekly.
• "Making Waves", in the Boca Raton News, weekly Sept.,'79 to Nov.,'83.
• "Making Waves", in the Deerfield Observer, weekly 1983/1985.
• "Making Waves", in the Southern Star (Boating Magazine), monthly from Nov., 1984 to 1988.
• "Stirring the Waters", in the New River Times/Biscayne Bay Times, now called "The Waterway Times", a boating magazine, monthly column. 1987 to 1999.
• Articles in Skin Diver Magazine, FishEye View, Florida SCUBA News, plus many newspaper articles, guest editorials, Perspectives, and Opinions (Boca Raton News, etc.).
• "Fifteen Years of Training Ocean Engineers" as told to Michael Mulcahey, June, 1982, pp 24-27.
• "Trends in Ocean Engineering", Review and Forecast Section, in January, 1985, pp 41-42.
• "Ocean Engineering has Arrived", in Soapbox Section, 1983.
• "Combatting Beach Erosion", in May, 1985, pp. 29-31.
• "Educating the Ocean Engineer: Looking at Programs", with Stanley Dunn. June 1987, pp. 37-38.
• "Ocean Engineering: The First 25 Years", in July, 1990, pp. 37-41.
• "Ocean Engineering, The Future", in Review and Forecast, Jan., 1991, pp. 23-25.

Academic & Professional Honors

• Sigma Xi, Science Honorary, Cornell University, 1950.
• Alpha Zeta, Agricultural Honorary, Cornell University, 1948.
• Sigma Gamma Epsilon, Earth Science Honorary, Cornell University, 1949.
• Phi Kappa Phi, Scholastic Honorary, Cornell University, 1949.
• Graduated "Cum Laude", Cornell University, 1950.
• Letter of Commendation for work on PROJECT ARTEMIS, from Oceanographer of the Navy, R. Adm. Denys Kroll, 1964.
• Named Environmental Champion of 2005 by NatureScaping, John J. MacArthur Beach State Park, Earth Day.

Military Service

• U.S.Army, Infantry, 45th Division, WW II, Apr. 1943-Aug. 1945. Pvt. Platoon Medic.

Security Clearances:

• National Academy of Science Secret Clearance, (DOD) 1968.

Instrument Development

• Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 1952-53.
• Scripps 2" Piston Corer, modified for Texas A & M College, and for CUGFS.
• American Petroleum Institute "Bident Corer". Scripps, 1952.
• Multi-barrel deep sea gravity corer. Scripps, 1952.
• Scripps magnetic orientation piston corer, 1952.
• Scripps "C & D piston corer", 1952.
• Underwater stereo photography rig for photographing vertical canyon walls, Scripps, 1951-52.

Present Position

• Professor of Ocean Engineering (Oceanography)(Emeritus).
  Department of Ocean Engineering, Florida Atlantic University,
  Boca Raton Florida, 33431.

FAU, Department of Ocean Engineering
777 Glades Road
Boca Raton, Florida 33431
Tel: (561) 297-3430
Fax: (561) 297-3885

(c) Florida Atlantic University All rights reserved.
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Last Updated: 8 September 2005