6 Research and National Purpose 



by the precursors of what are today respectively the Office of 

 Aerospace Research, the Army Research Office, and finally 

 the National Science Foundation. 



During the five years after the war a considerable evolution 

 took place. Academic institutions learned that Federal aid to 

 research was possible without Federal control. Agencies with 

 practical missions found that even basic research done by 

 academic professors could prove useful to them. In the physi- 

 cal sciences the vehicle of support was still the research contract, 

 the only instrument available to the ONR and the other 

 military establishments. In its adaptation to basic research the 

 contract document underwent considerable alteration. Com- 

 petitive bidding on announced problems was not necessary; 

 nevertheless, selection among submitted proposals provided 

 competition of another kind. Also, as in OSRD, on selected 

 critical problems the staff sought out especially qualified 

 scientists and engineers to do the research. However, inevitably 

 the results were more general and less predictable. The contract 

 form was simplified and a flexible system of accounting was 

 worked out. Much credit for the solution of these and other 

 administrative problems went to W. W. (Kip) Edwards, for 

 years a civilian administrator in ONR, and to the aforemen- 

 tioned John T. (Jack) Connor, then ONR's General Counsel. 

 It is a pleasure still to find on the ONR staff Edward Mc- 

 Crensky, whose services on personnel matters have proved so 

 valuable over the years. In like manner, difficulties were en- 

 countered and resolved in reconciling research patents with the 

 existing system for industrial development and production 

 contracts. In this area great credit must be given to Captain 

 George N. Robillard for quietly developing a comprehensive 

 patent policy for the entire Navy and thereby reconciling long- 

 standing Bureau difficulties as well. 



A senior partner in the new office was of course the Naval 

 Research Laboratory, with a distinguished record going back 

 before World War I and including many illustrious directors 

 — two, Harold Bowen and Fritz Furth, who were later to be 

 Chiefs of Naval Research. Perhaps not many now recall that 



