In Memoriam of Dr. John B. Hraba

by Alden Winn

ECE alumni who graduated between 1949 and the late 60s may recall Professor John Hraba who passed away this spring after a long battle with cancer. John started at UNH as an electrical engineering undergraduate in the army’s WW II training program. Released from the Signal Corps in 1946, he continued as a regular student, graduating in 1948. Professor Hitchcock arranged for his entry into a Master’s program in Electrical Engineering at Yale. On completion of the MSEE in September 1949 he was hired by Hitch as an assistant professor of electrical engineering, replacing Dr. Jim Mace who left UNH to teach at the University of Virginia.

 Electrical engineering had just begun to enter the age of electronics, with classes of 40 to 50 undergraduates and 4 to 6 graduate students, most of whom were GI Bill war veterans. For the four required undergraduate courses and two graduate courses (all of which involved laboratories) there were just two very young (in experience if not in age) Assistant Professors, Winn and Hraba. They were joined by one instructor fresh out of WPI’s BS program and two graduate assistants to handle a teaching load which in modern terms would require twice the staff. Not only that, but 1949 was the first year we moved into Kingsbury Hall, which required design and construction of all laboratory benches, machinery foundations, switchboards, conduits, and wiring.

John Hraba not only served as a mainstay in helping to organize a reasonable program out of all of this chaos, but he met the very demanding requirement of assisting Bill Nulsen in the installation and teaching of all of the machinery courses. He taught many sections of the electronics courses as well.

As I think of our present efforts to rebuild the electrical engineering program at UNH I remember many discussions with John in which he would suggest ways of coping with anticipated demands. Very often he would find ways to use the skills and maturity of a number of the veterans among our undergraduates by pairing them with less experienced undergraduates and so reduce the dependence on instructors’ time. We were also able to hire veterans in the laboratory construction. For example Craig Crowell and Franklin Bean, (Juniors, I believe) during the summer of 1949 designed and constructed all of the electronics laboratory benches which have been used continuously from 1949 through 1993, the last remodeling of these laboratories.

Our period of being just two senior staff members was notable (to us, at least) but fortunately was brief. In 1952 we were joined by Assistant Professor Fletcher Blanchard and later instructor Joe Murdoch, and in 1956 by Associate Professor Dr. Albert Frost and assistant professors Ronald Clark and Donald Melvin. A number of other instructors were present for a year or two.

From 1952 through 1954, John started spending summers at the University of Illinois in the doctoral program. John took leave from UNH for the year 1954-5 completing his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering.

Returning to UNH as an associate professor, John was appointed assistant to the Dean of the Graduate School. Following this he became Professor and then Associate Dean of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, serving under Dean Robert N. Faiman. Although no longer in the ECE Department, he made important contributions to ECE as well as to the ME Department with his design and management of both undergraduate and masters degree accelerated programs for the Air Force Institute of Technology. This program assisted many Air Force veterans in qualifying for officer status or for promotion.

When Dean Faiman was appointed vice president for research, John Hraba served as acting Dean of the College for a one-year interim period until the arrival of Dean Richard Davis in 1968. At this time Dr.Hraba became Dean of Academic Planning, first for UNH and lastly for the University System Office.

After his retirement from UNH in 1987 he served as president of Mid State College in Auburn/Augusta, Maine. He was also active in state and local government. He served as state legislator for several years, representing Wakefield NH, and served as Wakefield’s town auditor.

I hope those of you who were fortunate enough to know Dr. Hraba will, with this account of his career, recognize the impact of John on the early growth of our Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.