Minnesota Highways, May 1956

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MAY 1 6 1956
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EOL. 5, No.  7
David Rose
Retire
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David  Rose
■ Last of the original district
■aintenance engineers re-
■aining with the Highway
department, David Rose of
Bemidji, will retire at the end
of this month. He has been
^district engineer of Maintenance District 3 since 1921,
the year the present Highway
■partment was organized
»d the maintenance district
■stem established. He en-
Ired the department and his
pent post at the same time.
Th his long service to the department, Rose has piled up a notable
Kord of accomplishment, not only
I maintenance, but in construction,
Jin the earlier years, when
Jteahlo highway construction .....
■ndled by maintenance personnel,
le was in charge of building such
■utes as T. H. 71 from Kelliher to
W Unadian border and T. H. 1 in
f district. Much of the road build-
P was over muskeg and through
■av.ly wooded areas.
* recalls that when he entered
e department, Maintenance Dis-
P d had 60 teams of horses, two
Wlete trucks and no plowing
ulPment.   During the first win-
(Continued on page 7)
con-
was
1246  University Ave.,  St.  Paul 4, Minn.
Glenn Weakly Recovering
From Explosion Injuries
Despite the seriousness of injuries he received in an explosion
April 7 in St. Cloud, Glenn Weakly of Minneapolis, project engineer,
has been making a satisfactory
recovery in St. Cloud hospital.
He is in excellent spirits and
gaining steadily, visitors report.
Weakly narrowly escaped death
when a 5,000-gallon testing tank
in use for construction of the new
Mississippi river bridge at St.
Cloud blew up just as he stepped
on to it from a boom. He was
blown a considerable distance
through the air, landing on the
boom. Had he not lodged there,
he would have fallen some 30 feet
to the timber scaffolding at the
base of the tank.
As a result of injuries received
in the accident, Weakly's left leg
had to be amputated a few hours
later. His right leg was shattered,
he was burned, and his hearing
was affected. Though doctors feared they would have to remove
his right leg, also, a later opinion
was that it probably could be
saved, though it might be necessary to amputate the foot. He re
ceived four blood transfusions after the accident.
A St. Cloud Fire department
rescue squad, ambulance crews,
and civil defense workers joined
forces to rescue Weakly from his
precarious position on the boom.
The tank was resting on piling
being used for the west pier of
the new bridge, over which will
pass T. H. 23. Weight of water
poured   into   the   tank  through   a
(Continued on page 6)
May,   1956
Lee Leaves
License Post
Force of the mysterious tank blast which seriously injured Glenn Weakly, project
engineer, at St. Cloud can be seen in the extent to which it blew off the tank's
roof. Weakly was stepping from the boom to the tank when the explosion occurred.
E. P. Lee
E. P. Lee, who organized and
headed the Drivers License division for 18 years, retired from the
post April 30 to become vice president and safety counselor for the
Arrow Insurance Co. of St. Paul.
He will direct the company's new
program to improve the driving of
those persons insured by the company who are classified as substandard risks. His successor in the
Highway department has not been
named.
Lee became associated with the
Highway department in 1933 when
he was appointed an assistant attorney general and assigned to the
department. Five years later he set
up the original organization of the
Drivers License division. He has
been an active member of the
Drivers License and Safety Responsibility committee of the
American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.
Fellow employees and other
friends of Lee attended a farewell
stag dinner in his honor April 26
at the St. Paul Athletic club. For
a remembrance, they presented
him with a high fidelity record
player and a collection of records,
together with an inscribed scroll
bearing a tribute message and their
names.