Ralph Krause was influential in establishing the character of Stanford Research Institute even before it was formally created. During WWII, he was a young Navy officer serving as Scientific Adviser to the Secretary of the Navy. He helped create a Naval Office of Research and Invention, later to be called the Office of Naval Research (ONR). After the war, while Krause was Commander of the San Francisco branch office of ONR, Drs. Terman and Tressider invited him to Stanford to consult on the possible character of a new organization they were planning, Stanford Research Institute. Krause informed them that ONR would “look favorably” on the creation of an applied research facility, thus tipping the decision in the direction favored by Terman.
At Jesse Hobson’s invitation, Krause joined SRI as Director of Research in June 1948, a position he held through three Director/Presidents. From this position, he would again have influence on the character and development of SRI. He was a part of Hobson’s five-person long range planning team and thus helped write the first Five-Year Plan for SRI. He brought in Tom Morrin from ONR to head the new Engineering Department. Together, Morrin and Krause brought in many of the staff from the Radio Research Lab at Harvard, one of the big laboratories built up for the war effort. Krause also brought in Raymond Ewell from Shell Development to head Chemistry and Chem Engineering, Larry Richards as head of Chemistry, and Jack Gordon as head of Chemical Engineering. He also hired Paul Cook, who initiated the Radiation Engineering Lab.
Krause not only brought key people to SRI, he also used his contacts from years in ONR to open doors to projects in many parts of SRI. For Engineering, he brought in projects on Single Sideband Generation from the US Army Signal Corps, on Electronics Miniaturization from ONR, and Antenna Studies from the Air Material Command. For Chemistry, he brought in a project on Aqueous Bubbles and Project “Rabbit” from ONR as well as a project on Chlorella from the Carnegie Institute. For Economics, he brought in Aircraft Engine Studies from the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics. His travels opened up research possibilities in Europe, Indonesia, Pakistan, and India.
Ralph Krause left SRI a legacy of strong leaders and a broad client base.