Ralph Vogel, featured in this photograph,  is the manufacturer of Secchi disks for the ML&SA.  Mr. Vogel was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio.  After graduating from St.Charles High School in East Columbus, Ohio, Ralph spent two years in the United States Navy.  His Navy experience included a six months stay at the Naval Officer Training Corp.  He was then transferred to Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio.  He continued his Navy training at Illinois Institute of  Technology in south Chicago. Mr. Vogel then returned to Ohio State University to continue work toward a degree in Engineering, which he finished in the fall of 1949.

Mr. Vogel's  work experience includes ten years with Essex Wire in Lancaster, Ohio.  He served as chief engineer while in Lancaster.  He moved to the Fort Wayne offices of Essex Wire where he was assigned specialty engineering projects for the Company.  He designed high speed wire drawing machinery and developed specialized machinery for coating magnet wire.

Mr. Vogel was later transferred to Three Rivers, Michigan to design and supervise the construction of a copper rolling mill.  He engineered the manufacture of copper rod by melting copper cathodes and continuous casting with downstream hot rolling into 5/16 inch copper rod, a basic raw material needed throughout the many Essex Wire producing plants.

The Essex Company hired a number of engineers that were housed at Richelieu Lodge on Corey Lake.  Mr. Vogel stayed on with Essex Wire after the rolling mill was constructed, but needed a home for his family.  He found a residence on Corey Lake which he remodeled into a year round home.  His knowledge of engineering well suited him to take on the job of collecting water samples and measuring water transparency, which he has done continuously since 1974.

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