He Remembers Usher as a Decision Maker

Harry Usher was at his best during the times leading up to the 1984 Olympics. For those of us who worked at the LAOOC, Harry was a firm but fair leader. His untimely death has left us all shaken.

One of my most vivid memories of the LAOOC occurred about a month before the Games, when Harry asked me and several others to join him at the Coliseum for a demonstration by ABC. They were hoping to use a new “sky-camera” during the Games. The ABC executives introduced the engineer who had designed the gadget, and he explained how it was a computer-controlled and programmed to go anywhere in the space over the Coliseum’s playing field. It was hanging from four wires that were attached to the top of the Coliseum’s walls.

ABC had arranged for some USC track team members to work out at the Coliseum, and turned on the huge scoreboard video for us to see the view from overhead.

The picture showed (from directly above) a javelin thrower on his run-up, and then followed the flight of the javelin. Suddenly the picture spun violently, and we looked down on the field and saw that the sky camera had collided with one of the football goal posts and had knocked it over.

Harry quietly turned to the ABC executives and said, “I don’t think we’ll be using the sky camera this year.”

This was a piece of technology we didn’t need, and I was grateful for Harry’s quick decision.

DICK VAN KIRK

Vice President, Technology

L.A. Olympic Organizing

Committee, 1984