| Notes |
- Note 11 Charles Raymond Otto, the youngest child of Louis A. and Belle DeGraff Otto was born in their home at 79 Greeley Avenue in Sayville on October 15, 1914. He had an active childhood, with many playmates in the area. In his late grammar school days he took over from his brother as bicycle delivery boy on Pat Mullens milk route, working for about two hours each morning before school. Later he became a clerk in the Bohack grocery store at the foot of Greeley Avenue, an activity which he continued until he left Sayville to goto college. During his high school years he played saxophone and clarinet in the high school orchestra and in a high-school dance band. Charles graduated from Sayville High School in 1932 as class president, returned there for a year of post-graduate work, and then went to Cornell University in 1933 as a student in Mechanical Engineering. During college his room mate James Buxton hung on Charles the nickname of "Duke", when Charles happened to mention that his grandmother claimed she was a descendant of William, the Duke of Orange of the Netherlands. The nickname stuck. After graduation from Cornell in 1937 with the degree of M.E. Charles went to work almost immediately for the Solray Process plant in Hopwell, Va., in their Engineering Development Department. By the summer of 1942 he had developed an allergy to some within-plant fumes which he regularly encountered, so he left Hopewell and returned to Cornell University as an instructor in the Experimental Engineering Department. Since the two brothers, Charles R. Otto and Louis L. Otto were both instructors in the same department, the students differentiated between them by calling one Cold-Rolled (CR)(a condition of Steel), and the other Log-Log, from the LLO scale on all students slide rules. In the spring of 43 Charles succumbed to the offers of a New York city firm of engineering consultants, and left Cornell at the end of the school year to set up his family in Freeport and commute to New York. By the middle of August the attraction of the new job had disappeared. He did not get the job assignment he had been promised, all promotion opportunities were hotly contested, the company was riddled with internal politics, and commuting was a chore. A call to Cornell revealed his former teaching position was still open to him. He and the family came back to Ithaca. This time he began work towards a masters degree in Engineering and over the course of several years he earned an MME, an Assistant Professor rating in 1946, a professional engineers license in New York State, and developed an outstanding course in Instrumentation for Process Control. By 1951 the Dupont Corporation production people recognized the value of this system, and hired Charles as a Design Engineer in its Engineering Department. In 1956 he became Senior Development Engineer in the Consultant and Development Section of the Engineering Department, and continued in this capacity until forced by illness to retire in 1960. The rapid development of Hodgkin’s disease cost him his career, and then his life (5-01-60). Charles was a long time member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a member of the Delaware Section of the Society of Professional Engineers and a member of the Newark Chamber of Commerce. He was active in community affairs, especially the Soapbox Derby and Junior Achievement. Charles was a tall man (6'-2"), slender, with brown eyes. He enjoyed rebuilding the homes in which he and his family lived, and often made major changes in their interiors.
Note 11
Charles R~ymond Otto, the youngest child of Louis A. and Belle DeGraff Otto was born in their home at 79 Greeley Avenue in Sayville on October 15, 1914. He had an active childhood, with many pls~mates in the area. In his late grammar school days he took over from his brother as bicycle delivery boy on Pat ~llens milk route, working for about two hours each morning before school. Later he became a clerk in the Bohack grocery store at the foot of Greeley Avenue, an activity which he continued until he left Sa~ville to go
to college. During his high school years he played saxaphone and clarinet in the high school orchestra and in a high-school dance band.
Charles graduated from Sa~ville High School in 1932 as class president, returned there for a year of post-graduate work, and then went to Cornell University in 1933 as a student in Mechanical Engineering. During college his room mate James Buxton hung on Charles the nicknmae of "Duke", when Charles happened to mention that his grandmother claimed she was a descendant of William, the Duke of Orange of the Netherlands. The nickname stuck.
After graduation from Cornell in 1937 with the degree of M.E. Charles went to work almost immediately for the Solvay Process plant in Hope~ell, Va., in their Engineering Development Department. By the summer of 1942 he had developed an allergy to some within-plant fumes which he regularly encountered, so he left Hopewell and returned to Cornell University as an instructor in the Experimental Engineering Department. Since the two brothers, Charles R. Otto and Louis L. Otto were both instructors in the same department, the students differentiated between them by calling one Cold-Rolled (CR)(a condition of Steel), and the other Log-Log, from the LLO scale on all students slide rules.
In the spring of 43 Charles succumbed to the offers of a New York city firm of engineering consultants, and left Cornell at the end of the school year to set up his family in Freeport and c~,ate to New York. By the middle of August the attraction of the new job had disappeared. He did not get the job assignment he had been promised, all promotion opportunities were hotly contested, the company was riddled with internal politics, and cu~,~ating was a chore. A call to Cornell revealed his former teaching position was still open to him. He and the family came back to Ithaca. This time he began work towards a masters degree in Engineering and over the course of several years he earned an MME, an Assistant Professor rating in 1946, a professional engineers license in New York State, and developed an outstanding course in Instrumentation for Process Control.
By 1951 the duPont Corporation production people recognized the value of this system, and hired Charles as a Design Engineer in its Engineering Department. In 1956 he became Senior Development Engineer in the Consultant and Development Section of the Engineering Department, and continued in this capacity until forced by illness to retire in 1960. The rapid development of Hodgkins disease cost him his career, and then his life (5-01-60).
Charles was a long time member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a member of the Delaware Section of the Society of Professional Engineers and a member of the Newark Chamber of Commerce. He was active in community aff~s, especially the SoapBox Derby and Junior Achievement.
Charles was a tall man (6'-2"), slender, with brown eyes. He enjoyed rebuilding the homes in which he and his family lived, and often made major changes in their interiors.
Johanna Gertrude Huson was born in Holland on May 23, 1916,
the daughter of Jan and Caroline DeJonge Huson. She and her younger brother Jan were brought to America by their parents, first to New jersey, and then by 1930 to West Sayville, Long Island, where they lived at the SW corner of Brook Street and Division Avenue. She attended Sayville High School and graduated from it in 1934. She then trained as a secretary at a school in Brooklyn, and as a
Dental Assistant in the office of John Freeman, a dentist in Sayville.
Johanna snd Charles Otto were married on June 25, 1937 in the Dutch Reformed Church on Cherry Avenue in West Sa~ville, attended by Belle Otto, Josephine Saunders, Lucille DeMeusy, James Buxton, Louis Otto, and Jan H uson. They went immediately to Charles new job in
Hopewell, Va., living first in Petersburg and then in a new house in Hopewell. Jan and Joann (Jody) were born here. Of their other children, Jason, Nail, and Kristin were born in Ithaca, N.Y., and Eric was born in Wilmington, Delaware. While they lived in ~%haca Johanna completed courses in child development at Cornell as time allowed, and operated a nursery school at their home on College Ave. When Charles moved to duPont, the family first lived in Wilmington and then moved to Newark to a large house on the edge of the campus of the University of Delaware. Johanna operated a nSrsery school in this house, and completed more courses in child development at the ~University of Delaware, untill~rreceived her RS degree in this field in 1957. Several yearsAshe completed the requirements for an MS degree at this same school. ChQrles' death in 1960 upset plans for a larger nursery school, and Johanna moved with her younger children to a farm in Darlington, Maryland. She was teaching school in Dublin, M~ryland, at the time of her death in an automobile accident on February 22, 1963.
In 1946 at the end of WW II Jobanna started the "Adopt-AFamily" movement (assist a family in war-torn Europe), which soon spread across this country. The birth of Kristin prevented her from becoming active in this movement, but others jumped on the bandwagon and expande~ its activities.
Johanna was active in the local American Association of University Women, and she and Charles were active in the formation of a Unitarian Church in Newark.
Note 12
Leonard DeGraff was born (5-4-1878) as the fourth child and s~cond son of Matthew and Belle Verspoor DeGraff. Like all in his family, he was tall, witha lot of dark wavy hair which turned white as he grew older. He was a very quiet and retiring man. He trained as a young man to be a sailmaker, but when the ~emand for sails died out he became a carpenter. For a time he operat~e~ a tire repair and vulcanizing shop in Sayville, and would take niece Belle Otto along in his red Maxwell roadster when making pickup trips to neighboring co~a~nities. Len married Sarah E. Newton, the daughter of Henry and Delia Hulse Newton. She was as shy and retiring as her husband. They lived for a time in Fresh Pond, Long Island, then returned to Sa~ville and finally moved to Union Avenue, Islip. They became interested in the possible profits from renting beach cottages (like Aunt Dinah aad great uncle Case DeGraff), and Len built first one and then a second and a third cottage in the beach colony of Fair Harbor, just east of Saltsire. There was ample work for carpenters willing to stay on the beach, so Len and Sarah moved to the beach, living in one of their cottages and renting the other two in the summers. Len built new cottages for others during the winter, and made major and minor repairs winter and ~er.
After many years of solitary winters on the beach they wished
to get back to civilization, and returned to their home in Isllp. Len worked u a ship carpenter at Roy Arnett's boatyard in Islip, but did not like it (nothing was ever square or plumb), and the next fall Sarah sta~ed ashore in their Islip home while Len spent the weekends in Islip and the week days in Fair Harbor, co, minting in his own power boat as long as the bay was free of ice. This activity led to an incident which he remembered the rest of his life.
The southern coast of Long Island is exposed to the open Atlantic Ocean, and the laws of probability say that ocassionally the tropical hurrio~nes which work their way up the east coast each fall should cross Long Island. In September 1938 one of these storms was proceeding up the coast following a very erratic course. It was
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1914 - 1960 (45 years)
