report. The task group initially assigned to work on the project was headed by Kenneth P. 

 Peel, whom Eaton recruited from the Corps of Engineers' South Pacific Division to come 

 temporarily to the BEB for this purpose, and Kenneth Kaplan of the Board's staff. Other 

 BEB personnel who participated in the task group were R. H. AUen, C. T. Fray, R. L. Harris, 

 W. J. Herron, Jr., T. Saville, Jr., W. H. Vesper, and L. L. Watkins. Although virtually all 

 members of the technical staff worked on tlie project, the basic responsibiUty for producing 

 the document was assigned to the Board's Engineering Division under the direct supervision 

 of Jay V. HaU, Jr., and the general supervision of Col. Earl Gesler and Richard Eaton. 



The first fruits of this extensive undertaldng were published in March 1953 as Special 

 Issue No. 2 of the BEB Bulletin. This draft report was distributed to all coastal District and 

 Division offices of the Corps of Engineers, and to select universities and engineers for review 

 and criticism. Robert A. Jachowski and George M. Watts of the BEB staff then made 

 revisions based upon the comments and suggestions which were received; Albert C. Rayner 

 and Ralph L. Rector edited the report for publication. The final draft was reviewed 

 and approved by the seven-member Board, the members of which, at that time, were: 

 Col. Leland H. Hewitt, President; Col. Wendell P. Trower; Col. Herman W. SchuU, Jr.; 

 Col. John U. Allen, Resident Member; Thorndike Saville; Morrough P. O'Brien; and Lorenz 

 G. Straub^^^ (Fig. 50). The document, entitled "Shore Protection Planning and Design," 

 was issued in June 1954 as Beach Erosion Board Technical Report No. 4 (TR-4). 



This 390-page publication of the BEB represented a major step forward for the field of 

 coastal engineering. For the first time, it presented in one report "techniques currently used 

 in the solution of shore protection problems."^ ^"^ The term shore protection (as used in 

 TR-4) was to apply "primarily to works designed to stabilize seacoasts and shores of large 

 bodies of water where wave action is the principal cause of erosion." The report was 

 divided into two parts— Functional Planning and Structural Design— and included six 

 appendixes.^ ^^ One of these was a 39-page glossary of terms, whUe another contained an 

 example of a beach erosion control study, with a detailed presentation of the functional and 

 structural features of the plan of improvement. TR-4 which, by 1956 had been translated 

 into French and Spanish, was destined to receive worldwide distribution. This global 

 interest in tlie BEB's work helped to further establish the BEB as the Federal Government's 

 leading agency in the now international field of coastal engineering. 



In terms of the agency itself, TR-4 was more than a pubhcation. The needs which had 

 created the report in the first place were continually changing as new advances in knowledge 

 were made. Thus, work on updating became a major, ongoing responsibility of the staff of 

 the BEB. The first revision was issued in August 1957, and incorporated into the report new 

 material on hurricane waves, along with a section on wind setup and storm surge. Then 

 in May 1961, a second edition was issued.* 



*The BEB's successor agency. Coastal Engineering Research Center, has continued this work. A third edition was 

 issued in June 1966. TR-4 has been replaced by the "Shore Protection Manual." 



74 



