Across the bar

摘要

Maurice John "Morrie" Rhude, 91, January 26, 2016, Marinette, Wisconsin. Mr. Rhude was the president and owner of Sentinel Structures, Inc., of Peshtigo, a manufacturer of structural laminated timber with a project list that included many restorations and constructions of large wooden ships. He grew up on a family farm in Elk Mound and started his education in a one-room school-house. After a year at Eau Claire State Teacher's College, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1943 and served aboard USS DENVER during World War Ⅱ. After the war, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering at University of Wisconsin, Madison. He worked as an engineering teacher there and as a researcher at the USDA Forest Products Laboratory until 1951, when he joined Unit Structures, Inc. (later part of Koppers Inc.) in Peshtigo. He was named chief engineer in 1954 and vice president in 1961. In the early 1950s, the company made laminated white oak and Douglas-fir timbers for U.S. Navy minesweepers, but its output also involved yacht timbers, notably for the Sparkman & Stephens-designed NINA of 1955. In 1972, Mr. Rhude established Sentinel Structures in the same facility that had been occupied by Unit Structures and continued laminating timbers for Navy minesweepers but also for the restoration of such historic ships as USS CONSTITUTION, USS CONSTELLATION, and C.A. THAYER and for reconstructions of the brig NIAGARA, SPIRIT OF SOUTH CAROLINA, Great Lakes schooner DENIS SULLIVAN, ENDEAVOUR, LYNX, and VIRGINIA.