| “Although I was assigned as assistant to Dr. Thiel, I was not too eager to settle down into a plush office job. I am forever grateful to Dr. von Braun and Dr. Thiel that I did not have to. They gave me first the opportunity to work on the test stand with a monkey wrench, and in this manner I was able to acquaint myself with the hardware on hand before theorizing on how to improve it. That is the way they both started, so the benefits of such work were well illustrated,” said Ehricke, lamenting that today’s engineers start “right off as experts” without first getting “their hands dirty on lowly hardware … they are deprived of a wonderful opportunity which will never return after they have grown in status and responsibility.” |