[To be of use (by Marge Piercy)]

The people I love the best

jump into work head first

without dallying in the shallows

and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.

They seem to become natives of that element,

the black sleek heads of seals

bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,

who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,

who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,

who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge

in the task, who go into the fields to harvest 

and work in a row and pass the bags along,

who stand in the line and haul in their places,

who are not parlor generals and field deserters

but move in a common rhythm

when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.

Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.

But the thing worth doing well done

has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.

Greek amphoras for wine or oil,

Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums

but you know they were made to be used.

The pitcher cries for water to carry

and a person for work that is real.

For me, this poem is Jules.

I first worked with him in 1993 on his 1994 conference, Plastic Deformation of Ceramics at Snowbird, Utah. After that conference he became a volunteer on the Conferences Committee of Engineering Conferences International (then known as the Engineering Foundation). I knew he was a kindred spirit when he said that any future conferences he did needed to be in places where the wine or beer were good because good wine and beer facilitated the best technical interaction – and technical interaction was one of the purposes of our conferences.

Over the years we became good friends – noting that we each have a son Mark and a grandson Gabriel. The similarities ended there as our dog was Milli, not Amadeus. The Amadeus he described in an email in October 2008 when Amadeus died as having “spent almost every day of his life running or walking in the forest. He never growled, or even got angry. When one of the grandkids tried to ride him, he simply walked away. He slept on our bed for his entire life and boy do we miss him.”

And Jules, boy do we miss you already.

I was fortunate to work with Jules as he recruited chairs for a variety of topics that needed to bring together researchers from throughout the world. These topics included

· Aerodynamics of Heavy Vehicles

· Radioactive Waste Stabilization

· Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics

· Nonstoichiometric Compounds

· Novel and Emerging Ceramics and Composites

· Magnetic Nanostructures

· Nanofluids

· Microplasmas

· Boundary Lubricating Films

· Thermal Barrier and Environmental Coatings

· Structural Ceramics

· Innovative Materials Immune to Radiation

28 conferences since 2001! The 29^th would have been in May.

Jules was the technical expert – I was the intermediary that took care of organizing the non-technical details of conferences. Jules was incredibly organized – doing his research, being a Senior Associate Editor of Applied Physics Letters, and being an extraordinary volunteer for ECI. Chair of the Conferences Committee, Vice Chair of our Board of Trustees.

In the course of our collaboration we had fun –

While doing a conference in Madrid, most of the group went to upscale restaurants – while we ate at the Museum of Ham – amidst the hundreds of hams hanging down from the ceiling. We also visited the department store, El Corte Ingles, where Jules purchased saffron for Anya and studied their selection of Cuban cigars – not buying any because he promised Anya he wouldn’t even have an occasional one. In Seville – and how he loved Seville – the conference participants went, of course, to flamenco, but arrangements were made for a private tour of the Alcazar. And then there were the tapas bars. And more tapas bars!

One of his favorite conference sites was Irsee, Germany where the wonderful beer flowed long into the night right along with the technical discussions among the participants. One time my rental car was upgraded to a brand new, sleek, little Mercedes and, of course, Jules needed to check out its aerodynamics and handling. It passed muster – and I am grateful that the autobahn didn’t have a speed limit.

In Italy, ECI had conferences in the Tuscan mountains above the walled town of Lucca. One Sunday morning we were lucky enough to have the town to ourselves as it was pouring rain. We decided that getting soaked is well worth the fact that we did not run into crowds in high tourist season. After the conference we joined Linn Hobbs, a friend of his for almost 40 years who teaches a very popular elective wine course at MIT. We went to find an elusive little winery whose wines Linn talks about in his course. When we finally it, we had to wait for the winery to open as it was closed for a leisurely Italian lunch. The winemaker must have been quite surprised to find visitors from America patiently waiting as he returned. A US winery would never close for lunch. And for good wine, one needs to be patient.

Jules described the trips to California and the wines that he and Anya purchased that would take a few years to come into their own – but he was patient and was looking forward to enjoying them.

Jules was also a courier. Each time he came to New York for a Conferences Committee or Board meeting, he would come into my office and empty his backpack which was filled with copies of Der Spiegel that Anya had finished and which now were to go to my son in Boston.

We remember Jules for his irrepressible personality, his irreverent wit, and his sharp political commentary. Jules described the reactions he got by wearing an Obama T-shirt in Alabama prior to the 2008 election. Needless to say, the T-shirt did not go over too big but both he and the T-shirt managed to make it back to Illinois. He noted that the Chicago Tribune had endorsed Obama and that “the Tribune hasn’t endorsed a Democrat since Noah built his boat for the great flood.” He laughingly told of his mother’s blue language in response to the nursing home attendant who asked how she voted.

He sent You Tube videos of Amadeus den Zweiter von Gellenbeck playing in water with the other puppies.

During the February 2011 snowstorms he sent “greetings from the frozen tundra (of Willowbrook). Snowing like crazy, expect up to 20 inches, zero degrees (Fahrenheit, of course) with winds up to 60 mph, electricity has been flickering all night. Fortunately our wine cellar is good for the duration.”

He wrote that he will be happy when the market improves and he can “retire and devote more time to APL and ECI”.

Unfortunately, that time will not come. However, Jules, we cherish your outstanding contributions to our program, your enthusiasms, your knowledge, and your love for your family.