Dracup Lifetime Achievement Award
In 2010 the AAGS Fellows Committee proposed that an award be created to recognize those Fellows that had made large contributions to the membership and the profession. It was decided to name the award after
Joe Dracup, who was one of our earliest members and a mentor to many in the Control Surveys Division and in AAGS.
Who Was Joe Dracup?
This is Joe Dracup’s obituary, published in SaLIS vol. 60, No. 3, 2000, p. 161.
Joseph F. Dracup. 1920 – 2000
Joseph F. (Joe) Dracup, a champion of the U.S. surveying and mapping community for almost 60 years, died on January 16, 2000, in Sun City, Arizona. He was 79. His lifework was dedicated to improving the Nation’s geodetic control network and providing information to users of geodetic control at the federal, state, and local levels using tools such as workshops, seminars, and technical publications. Joe Dracup was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 14, 1920, and attended grade schools in nearby Bucks County. A 1939 graduate of Germantown High School in Philadelphia, he attended the College of the City of New York and
Brooklyn College, where he majored in mathematics. In 1940, Joe began his federal service as a Geodetic Computer at the Coast and Geodetic Survey’s (C&GS) Philadelphia Computing Office. He transferred to C&GS’ New York Computing Office in 1943, where he worked for the next 20 years, attaining the position of Geodesist-in-Charge in 1962. In 1964, he transferred to C&GS’ new headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, as Assistant
Chief, Triangulation Branch. He had several assignments during 1964 – 1979, including Chief, Triangulation Branch, and Chief, Control Networks Division, National Geodetic Survey – as the NGS Chief Geodesist position was called at the time.
During his federal career, Joe received a large number of awards, but he was especially proud of his U.S. Department of Commerce Silver Medal Award for Meritorious Federal Service, in 1971, the second highest award presented by the Department. He also treasured the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Public Service Award he received in 1974.
Joe Dracup was active in the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM), where he was Chairman, Control Surveys Division, in 1970. He served on ACSM’s Board of Direction in 1970 and during 1976 – 1979 and was an ACSM Fellow since 1971. In addition to several ACSM
Presidential awards, Joe received, in 1976, the Earle J. Fennell Award for developing the Surveying Instrumentation and Coordinate Computation (SICC) workshop. The fist SICC workshop was presented in a 3-day format in Madison, Wisconsin, in February 1971 and was a “sold out” with 72 registrants attending. The National Geodetic Survey and ACSM carries on the Dracup tradition by continuing to present workshops and seminars on topics ranging from geodetic accuracy standards to the Global Positioning System (GPS). Twenty-seven such workshops and seminars were presented throughout the United Stations in 1999.
In 1979, Joe retired from federal service and, with his wife Nettie, moved to Sun City West, Arizona. He continued to be active in the surveying and mapping area. In 1983, he was elected an Honorary member of ACSM, and was honored further in 1988 when ACSM’s American Association for Geodetic Surveying began awarding an annual scholarship in his name. Joe established another scholarship at ACSM as a memorial in honor of his Nettie who passed away in 1997.
Joe Dracup was the author or co-author of more than 55 papers and publications prior to his retirement and had several papers published since then, including a series of articles titled A Brief History of Geodetic Surveying in the United States that appeared in several issues of the ACSM Bulletin.
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Joe was a friend and mentor to many at CG&S, NGS, ACSM, and the geodetic, surveying, and mapping communities at large. He will be sorely missed. One week before his death, he completed a 356-page manuscript titled A Brief History of Geodetic Surveys in the United States 1807-2000, which he wrote during his last 5 years. It is a more detailed, comprehensive version of the ACSM articles and contains a great deal of information that is not available anywhere else. His legacy continues.
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Gary Young, National Geodetic Survey, Silver Spring, Maryland