Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology

For Immediate Release 04-26

Contact: Caroline Chetelat, (410) 956-1050, x22

Westlawn Star Student Surfaces After 74 years!

Thomas C. Windsor, one of Westlawn’s first students,

makes contact in time for 75^th Anniversary of Westlawn

November 4, 2004, Edgewater, MD: Thomas C. (Tim) Windsor, 92 years old, enrolled in the Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology in 1930, during the first year of the school’s operation. He graduated in 1939, and went on to have a distinguished career in New Zealand. Remarkably, through Westlawn.org, Windsor reconnected with the school and established himself as the most “senior” alum. “It is obvious that Westlawn has a legacy beyond what we imagined,” states Dave Gerr, Director of Westlawn, “Westlawn.org makes it easier than ever for us to keep up with our many alumni – just in time for our 75^th anniversary!”

In an email to Dave Gerr, Tim recounts:

“It has been interesting for me to look at your [Westlawn’s] Web Site and to know that after over 70 years, the Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology, as it is now named, is still operating. In 1930, I enrolled as a student with the Westlawn School of Yacht Design and gained my Diploma in Advanced Yacht Design on 15th June 1939, signed by Gerald Taylor White [co-founder of Westlawn]. It was the start of the Second World War, and I was seconded into essential industry where I was the Draughtsman Designer with Shipbuilders Ltd. This firm was engaged in the building of Minesweepers and Fairmile Patrol Boats for the N.Z. Navy. Then, when the U.S. entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbour, we were building 114 foot Powered Lighters for the U.S. Army and the Navy. At the age of 92, I would probably be the oldest living past student of Westlawn.

Fairmiles that were built here in Auckland, NZ were 112 feet in length and I think had about an 18 foot beam. There were twelve built for the NZ Navy and they were designed in Britain. The frames were laminated and they were shipped to us from India .We built the boats with Kauri timber, a very good native timber often used here for boat building. The boats were powered with three 600 H.P. triple screw Hall Scott gas engines each.”

After the war, Tim continued his design career with his first commission of a 27 foot patrol launch for the New Zealand Coast Guard, and then with may sailing and power boats.

Founded in 1930, the Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology is the only nationally accredited and state certified distance-learning school of small-craft design in the United States. As the not-for-profit educational affiliate of the American Boat and Yacht Council, Westlawn’s primary function is to assure a continual source of highly skilled designers to the marine industry.