Materials are arranged in the order created during the interview process with the first file containing earlier dated items used to prepare for the interview.
Accession Number PA.2000.0046: Howard O. Wessbecher, 2000 April
[identification of item], Howard O. Wessbecher Oral History, SPEC.PA.56.0060, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program, Ohio State University
Contains audiocassettes
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Processed by: Audrey Wimbiscus, 2020 March; Finding aid written by: Audrey Wimbiscus, Sam Devereaux, 2020 June
Howard Otto Wessbecher (1925-2017) served in the United States Military Police in the Pacific Theater during World War II. In 1947, Wessbecher was discharged from the Military Police. He then attended Montana State University through the Government Issue (GI) Bill and obtained a degree in forestry. Wessbecher spent a few years in private forestry, but in 1951 went to work for the United States Weather Bureau as a meteorological aide. Wessbecher applied for a job with the Bureau’s Arctic Operations Project and worked at Camp Resolute in Resolute Bay in Nunavut, Canada, as a storekeeper from 1952 to 1953. In addition to tracking supply inventory, Wessbecher and his team took readings for humidity, temperature, air pressure, and wind speed and direction in the upper atmosphere using weather balloons. They also measured sea ice thickness and analyzed the depth, gradations, and composition of snow layers. Wessbecher completed similar work in 1953 as the Executive Officer at Camp Alert, another base in Nunavut, and returned to Camp Resolute in 1954, where he continued weather readings, ice and snow analysis, and inventory organization.
In 1955, Wessbecher was recalled to Washington, D.C. by the Weather Bureau to advise on life in polar regions as a member of the Antarctic Planning Staff. Later that same year, he went to Antarctica as a civilian representative to the United States Navy prior to the International Geophysical Year (IGY), which occurred several years later in 1957-1958. Wessbecher organized and inventoried supplies in preparation for the completion of the South Pole base and took weather observations. He also helped plan future IGY experiments surrounding the aurora study, geomagnetism, seismology, meteorology, glaciology, and geomorphology. During that trip, Wessbecher was asked to create the first flagpole mounted to mark the South Pole. It was made out of bamboo, and remained in place for several years.
When Wessbecher returned from Antarctica in 1956, he moved to Oregon and worked for the National Forest Service until he retired. In 1961, Wessbecher Glacier in the Sentinel Range of Western Antarctica was named for him by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names.
The Howard O. Wessbecher Oral History, dated 1957 and 2000 to 2001, contains audio recordings, administrative information, and transcripts of the interview between Wessbecher and Brian Shoemaker of the American Polar Society conducted on April 20, 2000. This interview was a part of a series of polar oral histories sponsored by the American Polar Society and Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Major topics discussed include Wessbecher's almost four years of continuous duty in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, weather and ice observations in polar areas, and general relations between Navy and civilian personnel in the polar regions, especially related to the advance planning for the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958.)
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