June 17, 2005

Loren List graduated in Mechanical Engineering from Southern Methodist University. He went to work in San Francisco for Bentley Engineering and then worked for Sansome Engineers for five years. At that time, there were about twenty-five architects in Monterey, but no mechanical engineering design firms. Mechanical engineers from San Francisco would drive down every week or two to call on these architects.

Loren was encouraged go out on his own and open up a Monterey office. He started List Engineering Company in 1962. His competition was charging a flat 4% fee of the mechanical construction costs. This was a problem because he initially could get only small jobs and on small jobs the design fee will often cost more than 4% of the construction costs. He started out by requesting a $10/hr charge for design time. This got a lot of complaints from the architects.

Architects often look for one firm to handle the electrical and mechanical design tasks. Loren solved this by getting Dale Fehr to move in to an adjacent office and share to same receptionist. Clients often considered Fehr/List one firm for the 35 years that they were in the same building.

In the early years of List Engineering Company, he found that marketing his company in the community was an important part of the job. He helped found Monterey Bank in part to have a bank that could help out if needed. He also helped start the Monterey Jazz Festival which is the longest standing jazz festival today. From a photo, he designed the initial seating layout at the Monterey Fairgrounds. The same layout is still being used.

Loren was aware of the founding of the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula (CHOMP) from the initial stages. He did not get the design, but List Engineering Company has done most of changes and updates from that time. The Fountain Court Expansion at CHOMP was a job that was quite challenging. There is a Koi pond under a glass dome with a large solar heat gain and little space for equipment and ductwork. Loren was also responsible to size the pumps for the correct amount of flow. The difficult part of that task is too much flow could be too loud, not enough flow could be bad for the fish and the fountain has to look right too. The fish came from Japan before the fountain was ready, but that is a different story that does not involve List Engineering Company.

Some of the other interesting design projects include Kresge College at UCSC with architect Charles Moore, the School of Architecture at Cal Poly, the Monterey Museum of Art and Galaxy Theater (AKA Cinema 70). There was a big premier for the opening of the theater. Loren was there to watch the film. After the movie started, he noticed a smell that got stronger and stronger. It smelled like smoke. He wondered if the 30,000 cfm 100% outside air unit had caught fire. Upon investigation, he relieved to find a barbeque was set up under the intake louver.

Loren has been retired from List Engineering Company for more than twenty years. This has given him time to pursue long time interests in photography, cars and travel. He still uses the darkroom that he converted from a wine cellar while at List Engineering Company. He specializes in medium format black and white portraits and photo mosaics like David Hockney.

His interest in auto mechanics is one reason that he pursued mechanical engineering. The first company car was a Triumph TR4 that he still has today. He also has a Morgan.

As for traveling, he enjoys returning to France and has stayed in an apartment in Bayuex for a couple of months. He first went to Normandy in 1952. The beach houses were still burned from the Second World War and the pill boxes were still there.

March 17, 2003

Bob Okamoto was born a third generation Japanese-American in Sacramento, California, not long after the Gold Rush. At the age of 10, he and his family were uprooted from Sacramento by the Federal Government and moved to Tulelake, California, an internment camp for Japanese Americans during World War II. After the war his family returned to the Stockton area for a short period of time before moving to the Bay Area. He graduated from Santa Clara High School and went on to Santa Clara University where he earned his Mechanical Engineering degree and ROTC commission in 1953; all the while, he worked with his family on a farm to make ends meet.

After graduation, in the waning days of the Korean War, he served his military obligation, which landed him in Germany where he first learned of adult beverages – more below. Upon his return home, he began his career as a draftsman with Hector Aiken, a well-known Mechanical Engineer in the rising Silicon Valley. On a part-time basis, he utilized the GI bill to continue his education at Stanford University, working towards a Masters Degree.

In 1957, Bob changed gears and started working in the facilities group at Lockheed. In 1960, he returned to the consulting business with Gurries & Todd Associates. In 1970, the business refocused on just the mechanical side and Gurries and Okamoto was formed. Business thrived for nearly twenty years as the Valley boomed. During his years associated with Richard Gurries, Bob worked with the likes of Tom Liston, John Allen, Saul Villanueva, Dante Aclan, Javad Hadi and Bob Thompson, just to name a few.

In 1990, Bob joined Bouillon, Christofferson & Schairer’s Sunnyvale office and was active when B.C. & S. merged with Alfa Tech in 1993. He spent the better part of a year traveling back and forth each week to Idaho and Utah for the now infamous Micron project. He mentioned this as one of the most interesting projects he had worked on. There were as many as five mechanical engineering firms working on this project in different phases, with cranes everywhere; it’s hard to believe the building is vacant now. National Semiconductor’s 1,000,000-gallon chilled water storage plant and the LMSC Space Telescope Building were other unique and interesting projects.

In 1996, Vernon, Allen & Okamoto was born and provided the final home for his long career. Retired after 44 years, Bob now spends time with his wife, his four children, his grand children and his golf game – usually twice a week (golf that is).

Bob remembers ASHRAE meetings at Lou’s Village on San Carlos Avenue. He and several others, best left unnamed, would stop off at the Saddle Rack after the meeting for an attitude re-adjustment. He has made many friends over the years and truly believes in the educational and social benefits associated with ASHRAE. “It is a place where people can discuss common problems and how to deal with them effectively and safely. ASHRAE is a great source of knowledge and social activity.”

Please join us again, Bob, at one of the monthly meetings. We promise not to assign any chapter duties!

April 10, 2001

Joe Schauf has been active in the field of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration since he graduated from California State Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo in 1958. He decided to go into what he calls a “very dynamic industry” due to a career counselor from the university that was visiting his high school and talking to him about the field of HVAC. In Joe’s opinion Cal Poly was the best university to attend in order to study this field. Upon graduating from Cal Poly – Joe was confident in his skills as an engineer and also in his ability to sell and got a job in San Francisco with Robert B. Holland Company, the Baltimore Air Coil Representative – the first B.A.C. Representative west of the Mississippi. After working as a sales engineer in the Bay Area for one year, Joe transferred to the Seattle area in 1959, where he would remain off and on for an extended amount of time. Upon transferring to the Seattle area he was very successful. Sales volumes tripled in a short amount of time due to him exerting a tremendous effort. When he started in Seattle he would work six days a week for eleven to thirteen hours a day which was difficult but proved to be worth while.

After working in the Seattle area and realizing comparatively great success, Joe decided to move him and his family back to California since they were native Californians and they missed the area even though things had changed a lot while they were gone. The year was 1976, the same year he established the Joseph H. Schauf Company. This proved to be one of the busiest and most difficult times in his career because he essentially had to start over. Once again, Joe faced adversity and arose successfully by doubling the previous year’s sales totals. He achieved this by putting forth an effort much like he had previously – working constantly. As Joe said, “If you need something done – ask a busy person to do it,” and “The Joseph Schauf Company has not been impacted by economic recession – there must be no excuses to fail.” Since 1976 the Joseph H. Schauf Company has grown to four offices – San Jose, Los Angeles, Fresno and Sacramento, where he also headquarters the Schauf Cooling Tower Repair Company.

Joe’s best year in business was last year and the highlight of his career – when he retired. He sold his business to Steve Schauf and Mike Gainer and enjoyed a retirement party organized by his family and friends at Spanish Bay. Since retiring, Joe still calls on customers at a limited amount due to a recent hip surgery that he is still recovering from.

Throughout his career, Joe has been an active ASHRAE member and locally held every chair and position including secretary, treasurer, vice president and president. In addition, he was on the refrigeration committee for seven years and, in 1992, he was a member of the society technology council. Being on the technology council was one of the most challenging tasks he had while participating in ASHRAE. “There was a lot of work to do and the work that has to be done has very rigid constraints and is very protocol oriented due to the fact that there are financial decisions to be made.

The way Joe views ASHRAE is as follows: “What you put into ASHRAE, is what you get out.” It seems as though he has also applied this theory to life, based upon the amount of success he has had.

The benefits of ASHRAE were immediate and as follows: “You learn something in every meeting, technical information, there is a lot of camaraderie, you hear about new jobs and if you participate, you also gain leadership skills.” Some other things Joe said that he likes about ASHRAE is the mix of people there – between the engineers, contractors, and vendors and also the lifelong friends he has made by being involved with ASHRAE and going to meetings.

Over the years Joe’s favorite meeting place has been Mac’s Tea Room in Los Altos. After the meetings there were live bands playing and Society members would stay and socialize. In addition, they served very strong drinks. One of the funniest stories Joe could remember was when he was treasurer and they had a meeting at Mac’s. Between socializing and getting a ride home, Joe misplaced the briefcase that held all of the money he had collected from the meal that night. Initially, he was very worried about this and decided he would replace the money with his own. It turned out that he had left the money in the car he got a ride home in and the money was returned the next day. In his spare time Joe enjoys fishing and watching sports, especially the San Francisco Forty Niners, and will have plenty of time to do so while he enjoys his retirement. Joe is a devoted member of ASHRAE and a great example to follow in career and life. He and Sharon, his wife for 44 years, live in Saratoga and have four children and six grandchildren.