Downloaded by 109.201.154.141 on April 12, 2016 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): November 22, 2013 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2013-1155.pr002
Chester Grelecki 1927–2007
Chester (Chet) was born to Polish immigrants in Newton Township, Pennsylvania in 1927, learning English when he went to school. In 1945, he left high school and joined the Navy. He was discharged in 1946 and his older sister pushed him to finish high school, after which he obtained a B.S. in chemistry from Kings College (1950), an M.S. in biochemistry from Duquesne University, and his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from F.O. Rice at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. (1956), whereupon he started working for Thiokol Chem. Corp. in the Reaction Motors division. In 1959, he became a manager directing work on propellant technology, specifically mixed hydrazine fuel systems. This phase of Chet’s career concluded with the successful landing of Surveyor 1 on the moon in 1966, which employed the hydrazine fuel. Since the Surveyor briefly bounced on the surface during the landing, Chet liked to claim that the fuel was also responsible for the first successful launch of a vehicle from the moon’s surface. While at Thiokol, Chet began testing propellants, commercial explosives, and industrial chemicals to determine their thermal stability, detonation velocity, critical diameter, ignition mechanisms, and shock sensitivity. In 1963, he founded the Fire and Explosion Hazards Evaluation Service, a service to the chemical process industries directed to the reduction of processing accidents. In 1968, Chet was appointed Manager of Research Operation at Reaction Motors, directing work in propellant and explosives research, combustion engineering, and pilot plant process studies. In 1970, Chet, with William Cruice, co-founded Hazards Research Corporation (HRC) to continue safety studies for the chemical industry. From that date until his death, Chet directed several thousand studies to access the safety of chemicals and chemical processes in a multitude of industries. Work xi Guggenheim; Chemistry, Process Design, and Safety for the Nitration Industry ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2013.
Downloaded by 109.201.154.141 on April 12, 2016 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): November 22, 2013 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2013-1155.pr002
was performed for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Atomic Energy Commission, Department of Transportation, the EPA, OSHA, and the chemical industry at large. HRC determined the root cause of countless failures at chemical facilities, leading to safe redesign efforts. In several cases, opposing parties hired Chet to evaluate the circumstances of the failure in question, and based on his findings settled the dispute, speaking to the high regard others placed in Chet. Chet married the chemical nature of materials with the engineering used to handle them. When interacting with him for the first time, it was not possible to discern whether he was a chemical engineer or a chemist, or a physicist for that matter. In the early 1970s Chet developed a course in Fire and Explosion Hazards Evaluation for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. This proved to be an effective course, and was given hundreds of times at professional meetings and companies around the world. Chet was a masterful educator, and special person and tutor to authors Odle and Guggenheim. One can only ponder how many industrial incidents and personnel injuries were averted because of the efforts of Chet and all his associates at HRC. It is expertise and experience like Chet’s that is required when designing and operating complex chemical operations. Chet was a warm individual. He was once contracted to investigate a pump explosion and he interviewed the people in the plant at the time of the event. He asked how their ears were feeling. The question was part compassion and part science: knowing the distance and orientation of the witness from the explosion, whether the ear drum was intact or not, the metallurgy, and whether the pump impellor housing failed in a brittle or ductile manner, quickly gave Chet an estimate of the amount of material that had led to the explosion and if the event was a detonation or a deflagration. To see Chet’s photograph in color in the printed book, please see the color insert.
xii Guggenheim; Chemistry, Process Design, and Safety for the Nitration Industry ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2013.
