Delbert Schmand, navigation system designer, dies

<br>(Little Rock-AP) -- Delbert Schmand, chief designer of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, died Tuesday of a heart attack at his home in Little Rock. He was 88. <br><br>Schmand, joined

Thursday, September 11th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Little Rock-AP) -- Delbert Schmand, chief designer of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, died Tuesday of a heart attack at his home in Little Rock. He was 88.

Schmand, joined the Little Rock District of the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1930s. He served as the lead designer of the 445-mile system of locks and dams from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to the confluence of the Arkansas and White rivers in southeast Arkansas.

Schmand was also an avid swimmer, a passion ignited when the corps in the 1970s required swimming lessons.

Schmand set a series of goals for himself in the pool. Once he retired, Schmand wanted to swim a distance equivalent in length to the navigation system he designed. He logged 28,800 laps in the pool to meet the goal by 1988.

He logged the distance again by February 2000.