Howard Keylor Marks 1913 - 1998 An Engineer's Engineer

Howard Marks (NRHQ 1950 - 1972) was the 08J (Surface Ship Systems) Section Head possibly from its creation until his retirement in 1970.

By 1950, Howard Marks (MS Mechanical Engineering Stanford) had worked for nearly 10 years at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and had just moved to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard to work on new submarines. In 1950, he sent an application to Rickover to work at Naval Reactors. According to The Rickover Effect by Ted Rockwell, "After 3 days of interviewing hell,I was finally hired by the Captain and sent to the Oak Ridge 1950 Class, along with Harry Mandil, John Condon, Phil Finkelstein and Bernie Resnick" Marks worked for Panoff first (pumps and valves) and took over submarine systems when Panoff became project officer, and in 1958 picked up the corresponding responsibilities for surface ship systems.

Now for an aside on the author, Bill Lee.  Bill was a Newport News apprentice turned engineer.  He did a lot of work on Enterprise and Nimitz.  Around 2015, Jeff Steele (NRHQ 1978 - 2020) ran across an online copy of the monthly newsletter of the NNS Apprentice School Alumni association.  Each issue had an entertaining story by Bill Lee, and there was an online archive of these stories.  

About two years later, they all disappeared.  Jeff found Bill Lee, and he didn't know what happened to them.  They were lost, and he did not have a copy.  With the help of a young guy, Jeff found nearly all of them on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, copied them all, and sent copies to both Bill Lee, and the NNS Radcon Director, who promised to save them.  Bill Lee was estatic.

There are probably about 30 of Bill's stories that involve NR in some fashion. 

Bill Lee's Obituary:

"William Alexander Lee. age 85, of Monroe, NC, passed away peacefully on Tuesday July 19, 2022 while at his home surrounded by his loving family. Bill was born on Tuesday August 26, 1936 in Newport News, VA to Howard E Sr and Mildred Grace (Williams) Lee. He was married for 37 years to Janie Slack.

Bill Lee was born within site of the Newport News Shipyard and Dry-dock Company in Virginia. He entered in the firms apprentice school in 1954. After completing the apprenticeship he attended college on a shipyard scholarship & received a degree in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University. After returning to the shipyard he qualified as a nuclear test engineer and participated in the initial nuclear refueling of the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise. In 1966 he joined a hand-picked team of designers and engineers engaged in the engineering design of the nuclear Propulsion plant for the USS Nimitz and nine of its sister ships. He considers his participation in the project to be his greatest achievement in his almost 30 years of shipbuilding. In parallel with that effort he received an MBA from the college of William and Mary in 1973 and a professional engineers license in 1984. He joined J A Jones construction company in Charlotte North Carolina and launched a second career in engineering and construction management activities associated with commercial nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons facilities. Retired since 1998 and living in the Union County community of Wesley Chapel. Bill enjoyed researching and writing about ships shipbuilding and shipbuilders and has published hundreds of related articles about Ships, Builders and Sailors. It has been said he is one of most knowledgeable historian of the USS America.

Bill was predeceased by his mother and father and his brother Howard E Lee Jr. Left to cherish his memory are his loving wife Janie Lee, his nephews Howard Lee, David Lee and his wife Carol and Tim Lee, and a stepson Kevin Newman and his wife Nancy."