An Accidental Engineer:A Sixty-Year Trek Through Technology and Beyond
by Dean Z. Douthat
| Memoir
| Published 05-05-2022
After getting a bachelor’s degree with a triple major in Mathematics, Physics and Philosophy from St. Louis University, Dean Douthat planned a career in academia. He married Doris Helen Nigg, a fellow student. They had two children, and Dean continued his graduate work, until there was a change in plans. For the next 60 years, Dean found himself an accidental engineer.
Accidental because he never took an engineering course but worked as an engineer with trained engineers and even taught seminars. Accidental because of a Forrest Gump-like penchant for landing on projects of historic and technical interest or just plain funny. The following are stories of an accidental engineer’s encounters with real engineers and engineering.
After getting a bachelor’s degree with a triple major in Mathematics, Physics and Philosophy from St. Louis University, Dean Douthat planned a career in academia. He married Doris Helen Nigg, a fellow student. They had two children, and Dean continued his graduate work, until there was a change in plans. For the next 60 years, Dean found himself an accidental engineer.