In July 2008 I posted this at DZ.com...hmm. maybe I should have stayed focused on Tektronix!
The interesting/bizarre thing: Melvin Jack Murdock's body was never found. And he was flying with this woman Naomi Hamblin?? Murdock was 53 then. I remember thinking it was an example of how a body could be lost in the Columbia and not found.
Specifically: Jack Murdock drowned at age 53 after a floatplane accident on the Columbia River on a Sunday afternoon in Klickitat County, Washington. Jack's body was never recovered. He had been flying a 1970 Piper PA-18-150 "Super Cub," #N8745Y
He was taxiing for takeoff in rough water on a Sunday afternoon when his Piper "Super Cub" floatplane nosed over in the water.
Less than 2 weeks after that, the other co-founder of Tektronix, Vollum had a heart attack (but recovered).
from my DZ.com post:
I got into looking at this because I was wondering about an engineer in the Portland area, rather than Seattle. Intel didn't have fabs there yet in '71. Tektronix was a big employer. They had their first hard time in '71..from company history:
"Earnings fell for the first time in fiscal 1971, by a devastating 34.7 percent. Early in the year employees took unpaid time off to avoid layoffs, but it did not help. That autumn, Tektronix announced the first layoffs in its fast-paced history. Adding to the pain that year was the death of Murdock, who drowned when his seaplane flipped during takeoff on the Columbia River. Murdock had not been active in daily management of the company for many years, but he had stayed on as chairman of the board and was generally regarded as the person who gave Tektronix its strategic vision.
Less than two weeks after Murdock's death, Vollum suffered a heart attack. Vollum recovered, but he resigned as president in 1972."
Murdock was quite a guy. details of the accident:
from Google News (article snippet)
May 18, 1971 - State Patrol officers said Murdock, 54, and a passenger, Naomi Hamblin of Portland, swam for shore after staying with the overturned plane for two hours. Police said Murdock apparently did not make it to shore. Mrs. Hamblin said the two floated downstream with the plane until it was caught in ...
So, even though a lot of drowned bodies are found today, eventually (some not till 6 months later?)...this is an existence proof for a drowning victim in the Columbia never being found in '71.
There's also the peripheral idea of a laid off Tektronix worker being Cooper? They cancelled layoffs in the spring, but I think? they had them in the fall as it notes above.