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Interview with Victor V. Veysey

Veysey, Victor (1994) Interview with Victor V. Veysey. [Oral History] https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Veysey_V

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Abstract

Interview in three sessions in 1993 and 1994 with Victor V. Veysey, director of Caltech's Industrial Relations Center and lecturer in business economics, 1977-1983, and Caltech alumnus (BS, 1936). He discusses his growing up in Los Angeles and Brawley (Imperial Valley), California; education at Caltech in civil engineering, then MBA at Harvard. Joins staff of Caltech's newly established Industrial Relations Center (IRC) in 1939. After outbreak of World War II he is assigned to management duties within Caltech's rocket project under leadership of Earnest Watson; involved in retrorocket, High Velocity Aircraft Rocket (HVAR), and barrage rocket programs for the navy. Concerned in later stages of the war with transfer of Caltech wartime personnel to Aerojet Corporation, the navy, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Involvement with Project Camel (atomic bomb housing) as assistant to Trevor Gardner. In postwar period Veysey returns to ranching in Brawley and enters local and state politics; eventually elected to California legislature (1962) and the US Congress (1970). Appointed assistant secretary of the army for civil works by President Ford in 1974. Returns to Caltech as director of the IRC, 1977; recalls IRC colleagues Robert Gray and Arthur Young, their innovative projects. Further comments on living and working in Sacramento and Washington, DC.


Item Type:Oral History
Keywords:Industrial relations; engineering; World War II
Record Number:CaltechOH:OH_Veysey_V
Persistent URL:https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Veysey_V
Official Citation:Veysey, Victor V. Interview by Shirley K. Cohen. Pasadena, California, July 14 & 21, 1993 and February 4, 1994. Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives. Retrieved [supply date of retrieval] from the World Wide Web: http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Veysey_V
Usage Policy:No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided.
Subjects:All Records
Subjects > Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Subjects > Engineering
Subjects > Administration
ID Code:105
Collection:CaltechOralHistories
Deposited By: Oral Histories Administrator
Deposited On:05 May 2005
Last Modified:04 Oct 2019 15:23

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