Allen Gates

AA Industrial Technology, Cerritoes College, Norwalk, California; BA Business Administration, California State University, Long Beach; MS & PhD Logistics, Stafford University, London; FAA: Commercial Pilot – Single & Multi Engine Land, Glider, Instrument; Ground Instructor – Basic, Advanced, Instrument, & Flight Simulator; Flight Engineer – Lockheed l-177, Boeing 727; Flight Instructor – Instrument & Glider; FCC: Second Class Radio Telephone, Radio Amateur – Technician; USCG: License to Operate or Navigate Passenger Carrying Vessels; Master Under Sail – Vessels to 200 tons up to 200 miles offshore; Certification – Junior Engineer – Steam Power; Certification – Refrigeration Engineer & Marine Machinist; California State Life Adult Education Teaching Credential; Australia: Commercial Pilot, Flight Navigator; United Kingdom: Pilot – Sailplane; Republic of South Africa: Persona non Grata – 1961
Employers: Farrell Lines, SS African Rainbow, New York; Anaconda American Brass, Ansonia, CT & Paramount, CA; Western Airlines, LAXDO, Los Angeles; United States Navy, Civil Engineering Aid, Seabee, Vietnam; The Pennsylvania State University; Chrysler Defense, Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant; Martin Marietta, Middle River, MD & Coventry, United Kingdom; United States Department of Defense, US and worldwide

Family: Ann Meghan Gates – I could never compile an adequate profile of a best friend and lover like Ann. The greatest mistake of my life would have been to not stop in my tracks and pursue this gracious lady. And it just keeps getting better. Heidi Ann – My best friend. She is the single person who knows me best. One whom I can not BS. At times the only person who understood. In my darkest hours, the only person who seemed to care… my greatest love, my daughter.

A son goes off and starts his family, a daughter, like Heidi, is a joy for ever.

[From 50th Reunion Yearbook]

I have learned enough to know… that I know very little. Therefore, the most important member of my team is a good research librarian.
Words that have special meaning to me:
Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide, in the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side…
New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth, they must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth (James Russell Lowell)

If I slept through my Mount Hermon experience, the following words of William Blake would still have meaning as they continue to echo through my mind 50 years later.

I will not cease from mental strife, nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, till we have built Jerusalem in every green and pleasant Land.
But my personal mantra is straight from of Peter, Paul and Mary.

Deep in my heart, I do believe, we will live in peace one day. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was: man is but an ass, if he goes about to expound this dream. (Bottom – A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Once one meets my wife Ann, and experiences her warmth, they can begin to understand why, for the last eleven years, love’s been very good to me.

I have been a rover, I have walked alone. Hiked a hundred highways, never found a home. Still in all I'm happy the reason is, you see, once in a while along the way…(Thanks to Rod McKuen)
As I approach the final curtain . . .
For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught.
To say the things, he truly feels,
and not the words, of one who kneels.
The record shows, I took the blows ---
And did it my way! (Thanks to Paul Anka)
Real Teachers:

Carl Stenberg - I can not begin to guess how badly this might have been written if “The Bug” had not worked to make me understand the importance of being able to express myself in the English Language. He made me define many of my lasting values. I thank you sir.
Frederick McVeigh – I never took a class of his, and I did not live in his dorm, but “Fred the Fox” took time to try to straighten out a very rebellious young man. A true Christian man.
Dr Kenneth Rhodes, Cal State – Three of the most rigorous courses I ever attempted were conducted by Dr. Rhodes. His demand for attention to the smallest detail, and his ability to challenge you to produce at 110%, or more, of what you thought you could do, has formed my basic appreciation for contract law. He forced me to think on my feet. A great teacher.
Dr Allen, UCLA – I really did not want to take another Economics course, after the first semester with Dr. Allen I stayed for two more. Years later the vivid examples in his classes would come to mind as I validated economic analysis for military construction projects.
It has been 50 years since I did not graduate from high school and 40 years since I completed my Bachelors degree. Former classmates are asking this fugitive alumnus what he has been doing. With apologies to Paul Anka, they may not be ready for this!

Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention.
I did, what I had to do, and saw it through, without exemption.
I planned, each charted course, each careful step, along the byway,
and more, much more than this, I did it my way.
And that was not always the way you would have done it. (Big Smile)

An Autobiography is a great place to blow your own horn, but it is also something to be questioned. The reader should know that when I was a kid rainy days were spent with National Geographic Magazines marveling at the world it showed. It created a need to see it all myself.

While my classmates were planning how to get into the right college, land the right job, marry the right mate and live in the right community, I was planning how to somehow get to Marrakech, Kilimanjaro, Ayres Rock, Zanzibar, the Antarctic, Kobenhavn, Sydney, Inverness, Marston Moor, Johannesburg, Edinburgh, Alaska, Victoria Falls, and many more.
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Quod erat faciendum!

Destinations remaining: Great Barrier Reef, Galapagos Islands, Saint Petersburg
Weirdest job: Dressed in shoulder pads and football helmet, I caught hail stones in a butterfly net. Or care and feeding of a cheetah cub aboard a ship returning from East Africa. Or care and feeding of 18 penguins aboard a ship returning from the Antarctic.

My celebrity encounter: I was privileged to meet John Paul II at a private military audience after the fall of the wall. This man of peace was quietly the greatest single personal force for liberty and freedom. His charge to renounce our warrior status and become peacekeepers is very meaningful to me.

People I have met who influenced my life: Albert Einstein – A man whose hairstyle and mode of dress I have tried to emulate for years. His comments on the order of the universe bridge science and faith for me. Fred Torrey – A teacher, not of just geometry, but of humanity. A man I am glad I knew. He established the standard I have always tried to uphold in my own teaching. Admiral Lawrence – Superintendent, U S Naval Academy – “When a midshipman knocks on your door and asks if he is interrupting, you must remember that he is not an interruption, but the reason you are here.” A university should run that way!

Strangest travel experience: Driving back from the Serengeti to Arusha, a native spotted my medical emergency kit, and declared I was a "Doctori". It was a most terrifying but rewarding experience, delivering a child for the first time. If you do not believe in miracles you never held a newborn in your hands.

Vacation fantasy fulfilled: I drove from Germany through Austria into Italy. Fell in love with the view of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo at sunset. I met a Dutch friend and spent an idyllic evening with her on Capri. We drove back together through Switzerland. Again, love has been very good to me.

Dream prom date or crushes: Eileen Carroll – My grade school introduction to a real pixie, a magical charm and personality. Doris Goebel – My favorite fairy in a student production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Iolanthe. Carol Lynley – model, cover girl and fairy in a failed production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Best date: I attended John Kennedy's Inaugural Ball with, Miss Susan Ryan, my favorite dance partner from Miss Comer's class in Stratford. A memorable event with an intelligent, attractive, and gracious date whose company I always enjoy. JFK had the next most impressive companion.

Worst date: Any event at Mount Hermon School I attended without the magic of Eileen Carroll or the charm of Sue Ryan, who were both at home in Stratford, Connecticut.

Close: Remembering Puck’s closing comment in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Puck invites the audience to believe that, if they didn't like the play, they just dreamed it.
Having detected that Puck is my roll model and hero… You may choose to think you have dreamed what I have written.
"And those things do best please me / that befall preposterously!"
Allen Gates as defined by Will Shakespeare