I nominate George H. Rock, a 1884 graduate of Hastings High School, to to the Alumni Association's "WALL OF FAME". George was born in Hastings in 1868 to the Adam Rocks. After graduating from high school he took a competative examination for cadetship in the Naval Academy with more then 12 other men in which he stood highest. He attended the Naval Academy from which he graduated as an Ensign in June of 1889 as the second highest in his class. Following a tour of duty at sea he was sent to the University of Glasgow, Scotland for a graduate course in Naval Architecture after which he was transferred to the Construction Corp. He served in various positions in the Corp including Chief of Construction at the Brooklyn Naval Yards during world war 1 where he had 10,00 employees under him. In refitting of a captured German submarine he is credited with being the first naval person to use electric welding. He was made Chief Constructor of the Construction Corp. in 1929, a position he held until he retired as a Rear Admiral in 1932.
In 1929 Admiral Rock was named as a delegate to the Internaional Conference of Safety of Life at Sea which met in London.
He was awarded a Diploma of Honorary Fellowship in the North East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England on June 28, 1938, an award he greatly appreciated.
He was President of the Society of Naval Architects aod Marine Engineers for the years 1934 to 1936.
In 1932 he was made Administrator of Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, the nation's premiere college of Naval Architecture, a school of about 65 students, all with scholarships.
Admiral Rock graduated from high school with M. L. Cook who was later editor of the Banner and they remained life long friends. He expressed to the Cooks of his wish to have a graduate from Hastings High School attend Webb while he was still Administrator In the spring of 1942, after returning home from college at U of M, I got a call from the Cooks saying that the Admiral was in town would like to meet me the next moring if I had any interest in attending Webb which I did do. He was 73 years old, over 6 feet tall and ramrod straight, a handsome man with white hair and a white bushy mustache and very charming who won me over and a result I entered Webb as a freshman that fall.


Robert B. Reed
Class of 1940