From The Seattle Star - October 9, 1924
Here is the giant dirigible, Shenandoah, as she looked when tied to the mooring staff at Lakehurst, N. J., just before she started on her trip to the Northwest. The inset is Lieut. Roland G. Mayer, Seattle youth, who helped build the big ship, and who is a member of the crew. His wife and mother are in Seattle. TWO women and a little girl are more anxious to see the huge naval dirigible Shenandoah drop down and tie onto the mooring mast at Camp Lewis the latter part of this week than any other three persons in Seattle. They are Mrs. Roland G. Mayer and Mrs. Kate B. Mayer, wife and mother respectively, and the baby daughter of Lieut. Roland G. Mayer, one of the few engineering officers ever permitted to be a member of the crew of a navy airship,
Mayer is a former Seattle boy. Roland Mayer, who as project engineer, assisted in designing the cigar-shaped craft at Lakehurst, N.J., was born In Seattle and graduated from the college of mechanical engineering at the University of Washington. Prior to that he was a basketball star at Broadway high school. Mayer went into the navy during the world war and served in the bureau of construction, aeronautic division, at Washington and at Philadelphia, where he was acting chief engineer. When the government started work on the dirigible, the Seattle boy became project engineer during construction, and is now flying with the Shenandoah on her coast-to.coast
trip as inspection officer.