Charles Bates Papers, 1943-2010 (bulk 1943-1982) (SMC 123)

OFF-SITE STORAGE: COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. ALLOW ONE WEEK FOR RETRIEVAL OF MATERIALS.

Extent: 0.25 Linear feet (1 archives box)

The collection consists of papers documenting Charles Bates's career, including courses taken at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) in 1943, and subsequent government service and consulting work.

Charles Carpenter Bates was born in Illinois in 1918. He earned a B.S. in geology at DePauw University (1939) and worked briefly for the Carter Oil Company before being drafted into the Army. As an officer, he continued his education and participated in the first courses in military meteorology and oceanography taught by Harald Sverdrup at SIO in 1943. Captain Bates earned his M.A. in physics and meteorology from UCLA in 1944 and, shortly thereafter, provided meteorological and surf condition forecasts for amphibious operations in Europe and the Pacific. He received the first Ph.D. awarded in oceanography by Texas A & M University in 1953. Bates was a civilian scientist and administrator for various offices and programs of the U.S. Navy from 1946-1968, and science advisor to the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard from 1968-1979. His consulting firm, A.H Glenn & Associates (est. 1947), provides meteorological forecasting services for offshore drilling companies.

Bates is the author of many articles and books, including Geophysics in the Affairs of Man (1982), America's Weather Warriors (1986), and Hydro to Navoceano: 175 Years of Ocean Survey and Prediction (2005).

The collection consists of papers documenting Charles Bates's career, beginning with his studies in military meteorology and oceanography under Harald Sverdrup at SIO in 1943. It contains material documenting Bates's subsequent service with the U.S. Army Air Force, the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Coast Guard, and one folder on the founding of his consulting firm, A.H. Glenn & Associates.

SIO Biographical Files, SAC 5. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.

Container List

PAPERS

Box 1 Folder 1
Oceanography and meteorology courses with Harald Sverdrup, 1943-1947

Includes class worksheet with sample data points for wave forecasting with Sverdrup-Munk method; the final examination for SIO's first Oceanography course.

Box 1 Folder 2
Operation Crossroads, 1946

Includes index to Bates's working library at Far East Air Forces Weather Central.

Box 1 Folder 3
A. H. Glenn & Associates, 1947-1981

Materials on the founding of the firm, and meteorological consulting for the offshore oil industry, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico.

Box 1 Folder 4
Vela Uniform correspondence, 1964
Box 1 Folder 5
U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office correspondence, 1965
Box 1 Folder 6
Lecture, "The ocean, its data, and the U.S. Coast Guard", 1969
Box 1 Folder 7
Summary, 1st Meeting of the Joint Marine Facilities Panel (Tokyo, Japan), 1970
Box 1 Folder 8
Partial manuscript, Geophysics in the Affairs of Mankind (Bates, Gaskell and Rice), ca. 1982
Box 1 Folder 9
Unpublished manuscript, Sea, Swell and Surf Forecasting for D-Day and Beyond: The Anglo-American Effort, 1943-1945, 2010
Box 1 Folder 10
Photographic portrait, 1965, 1975