On September 3, 1946, Captain T. J. Maher, Supervisor of our Portland District Office, retired from duty after 39 years service in the Coast and Geodetic Survey.

Captain Maher, who was born in New York City, and received his education there, entered the Service in 1907, and his early assignments from that year to 1911 were aboard vessels operating in Alaska. From 1913 to 1915, he operated at the other end of the Pacific, in the Sulu Sea in the Philippines as Commanding Officer of the FATHOMETER and PATHFINDER.

After a seasons' work on the East Coast, Captain Maher was again on duty in the Alaska area as Commanding Officer of the WENONAH, SURVEYOR, and GUIDE. During World War I, he served in the Navy as Commanding Officer of the EXPLORER, and Inspector of Navigational Material in San Francisco, California.

In 1924 he was Assistant Chief of the Coast Pilot Section; from 1928 to 1936 Inspector of the San Francisco Field Station; and from 1936 to 1938 Director of Coast Surveys in Manila. From 1938 to 1944 he was Supervisor at the New York office, and from 1944 to his retirement Supervisor in the Portland Office.

Captain Maher has always been a loyal booster for the Survey, and his many letters in the files testify to his eagerness that the Bureau should "do the right thing." He was also noted for illegible handwriting, and many a time he couldn't even read his own scrawl. Captain Heck, now retired, was another whose handwriting required the use of a magnifying glass and the patience of Job, and it is said that when those two corresponded in long hand, neither knew what the other was writing about, with sometimes disastrous results.

Captain Maher is planning to remain in Portland for about a year, and his duties are being temporarily assumed by Lieutenant Commander R. A. Earle.

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THE BUZZARD, 10/17/1946