JPL RETIREES VOLUNTEER FOR MEDICAL-TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS.

Byline: Usha Sutliff Staff Writer

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE - The aging Space Cowboys from the recent Clint Eastwood flick could learn a thing or two from this bunch.

Retired Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers and scientists who helped make history at the dawn of the Space Age have turned their talents to the medical world.

Volunteer Professionals for Medical Advancement - which has about 15 members, ranging in age from 65 to 85 - work with doctors to develop new medical technologies.

``We may look like seniors, but our professional skills are still in high gear and our creativity never dies,'' said Herman Bank, a sprightly 84- year-old who founded the group about 10 years ago.

Over the past decade, members of VPMA have volunteered for more than 28 projects in hospitals including City of Hope Cancer Center, Huntington Hospital, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente and Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.

Their accomplishments include the preliminary design of an automated oxygen sensor for premature babies and a heart device that prevents blood clots in coronary arteries. The group is developing a computer database that will enable pediatricians nationwide to access information about children's illnesses.

Bank worked at JPL in Pasadena as a mechanical systems engineer, from 1947 to 1984, but he always wanted to turn his skills from space to more earthbound problems.

As a young man, he wanted to go to medical school but couldn't afford it, so he went into engineering.

``Here I have a chance to go back and pick up an old interest. It gives me a lot of satisfaction. It's very worthwhile . . . and (I have) a bunch of the buddies to be around with,'' Bank said.

Fellow volunteer Bob Nathan added good-naturedly: ``He's on the phone with us all the time.''

Nathan, known as the ``father of image processing'' for the space program, said his involvement in VPMA has kept him busier in retirement than when he was working in his career.

``I have to complain about that,'' the 73-year-old joked. ``I mean, I thought I would have time to sit and think about what to do next, but working with this group and other things just like it, my schedule has been far heavier than it was when I was just working on a normal week.''

But, he added, the activity has kept the group's members mentally sharp.

``I think our growth is continuing instead of remaining static,'' he said.

Ken Tang, 73, who started working at JPL in 1975, said his VPMA work exposed him to a more diverse environment than the one he found at the lab.

``When you're working in an engineering place like this, you see the same type of people that work here, all technical. When you get outside of the lab, into the medical field for example, you see different groups of people . . . it's kind of humanizing,'' the mechanical engineer said.

Lon Isenberg, 75, said he revels in the opportunity to apply a range of scientific disciplines to problems in the medical field.

``In a sense, like Herman (Bank), I was a frustrated M.D. I put myself through the first three years of graduate school doing medical research . . . (but) couldn't make a living at it so I went into engineering,'' Isenberg said. ``A lot of the people at JPL, and certainly this group here, we're kind of renaissance because we're versed in a lot of different disciplines. One of the best places to apply this kind of multidiscipline approach is in medical engineering.''

The unique work experience the JPL retirees collectively bring to the table is what made them especially attractive to Dr. Michael Glovsky, the director of the Huntington Hospital Asthma and Allergy Center, who worked with the group about eight years ago.

They designed an isolation chamber at Huntington Hospital that tested the asthma and allergy sensitivity of patients.

``It was really a wonderful experience and they're terrific people. It worked out perfectly,'' Glovsky said. ``They have unique talents . . . There aren't too many people with the capabilities of the JPL people in building instruments and chambers like the ones we were interested in.''

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From left, JPL retirees Ken Tang, Lon Isenberg, Robert Nathan, Herman Bank and Al Hibbs get together Thursday at JPL's von Karman auditorium.

Mike Mullen/Staff Photographer