The Trails Task Force, Open Space Committee and Medway Trail Club will dedicate the Dave Hoag Boardwalk over Chicken Brook on Saturday, November 18th at noon at the boardwalk that links trails between Adams Street and The Millstone Neighborhood, and will continue on to Lovering Street. This linkage represents significant progress toward the goal of creating a 3.5 mile long ecological and recreation corridor running from the Upper Charles Trail in Holliston to Choate Park. The boardwalk is being dedicated to Dave Hoag, a Medway conservationist, environmentalist, and scientist.
Dave was born on October 11, 1925 in Boston, to Alden B. Hoag and Helen Garratt Hoag and died on January 19, 2015. Dave had a life-long interest in natural resources and the environment. He was a charter member of the Medway Open Space Committee for which he compiled the original catalog of open spaces. He was also a board member of the Upper Charles Conservation Land Trust Inc. Many Medway residents will remember his guided walks for third-graders and their families who were working on "the leaf project." He loved to relate interesting lore about the plants and animals that lived on his property, much of which will be conserved in perpetuity. Dave and his wife Grace donated 15.9 acres of their land to the Upper Charles Conservation Land Trust.
Dave served in the US Navy, beginning when he was a student at MIT. From MIT he received an SB degree in Electrical Communications and a SM degree in Aeronautical Engineering Instrumentation. Dave spent his entire career at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory which later became the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory. The highlight of his career was his pioneering leadership on the development of the guidance, navigation and control systems for the Apollo command module and the lunar landing spacecrafts. One of his important memories was witnessing the first lunar landing from the VIP room of NASA's control center. In 1951 he served as Technical Director of the Navy Polaris Missile Guidance System and then in 1961 as Technical Director and Program Manager of the Apollo Manned Lunar Landing Primary On Board Guidance System. In 1972 he became the Department Head of the NASA/Army Programs Department, then of the Advanced Systems Department. He was named a Senior Draper Fellow in 1977. In 1980 he became a technical advisor to the President of the C. S. Draper Laboratory and worked as a consultant for many years after his retirement. Other professional associations included President of the Institute of Navigation 1978-1979, the Defense Science Board, Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Chairman of the New England section of the AIAA 1980-1981, Chairman of the Navy Trident Flight Test Analysis Review Group 1981, the Naval Studies Board Panel on Advanced Navigation Technology, and many national task groups involving navigation. Dave received the NASA Public Service Award in 1969, the Thurlow Award of the Institute of Navigation in 1969, "Laurels for 1969" recognition from Aviation Week, Navy Certificate of Merit in 1970, a Special Award of the British Royal Institute of Navigation in 1970, the AIAA Lewis W. Hill Space Transportation Award in 1972, and election to both the National Academy of Engineering and the International Academy of Astronautics.
Trail maps can be found here.