BSME Purdue, MSME RPI
Registered Professional Engineer in California and New York

Upon graduation from Purdue in January 1963 (it's a long story but in essence I crammed 4 years of work into 4-½) I started with General Electric's Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Schenectady, NY. I was with it for 19 years when, in 1982, I left GE for a small family owned business in Anaheim, CA. Then in 1987 I went to another small family owned business in Irvine, CA. From there I went to yet another small family owned business in Santa Ana, CA in 1991. In 1992 this company was bought by and became a wholly owned subsidiary of a company headquartered in Baltimore, MD. In mid 2004 headquarters decided to move manufacturing operations from southern California to Mississippi. On May 27, 2005 I turned out the lights in the California facility and retired.

Since retiring I've taken up sailing and racing radio controlled model sail boats. I currently have four boats which are shown in some of the photos below.

A transition; North Junior High to SHS.

We moved to Springfield from Pittsfield, MA during the summer of 1955 between my freshman and sophomore years. In Latin and English SHS was far superior. For the first couple of months I had stomach aches thinking I’d never catch up. My fondest memory was realizing sometime in November that I had.

Upon graduating with a BSME from the University of Nebraska in 1939 my father accepted a position with General Electric in Pittsfield, MA. In 1954 after three stints in Pittsfield, two in Schenectady, NY, one in Bridgeport, CT and one in Louisville, KY he left GE for Jones and Lamson. He had been recruited by HL Andrews, president of J&L, with/for whom he worked as a welding engineer when both were with GE in Bridgeport. He commuted from Pittsfield to Springfield where he lived in a rented room at 33 Common Street during the week. He did this from late '54 until the end of the '54/'55 school year. The entire family moved to Springfield in late June 1955. We rented the bottom floor of 31 Orchard Street. Without telling me, in the fall of '58 they bought the house built by Bob Labonte at 22 Mark Street and moved into it before Christmas. Didn't work. I still found them when I came home from Purdue for that first vacation.

Hard to believe that it’s been more than ten years but I retired in May 2005. In addition to getting older I puttered around the house, started and maintained the Class of ’58 website and continued to serve as Secretary for the Orange County Model Sailing Club.

Carol and I have also taken several long distance road trips. At this point the only states we haven’t been in together are Rhode Island, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas and Hawaii.
• Lake St Louis, Missouri; Ralston, Nebraska; Estes Park, Colorado; Evanston, Wyoming; Sandy, Utah; Bryce National Park, Utah and Zion National Park, Utah in 2007.
• Lake St Louis, Missouri; Louisville, Kentucky; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Springfield; Niagara Falls, New York, Purdue in West Lafayette, Indiana,; Badlands National Park, South Dakota; Mount Rushmore National Monument, South Dakota; Sturgis, South Dakota; Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming; Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming; Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming and Sandy, Utah in June and July 2008.
• Tucson, Arizona in March 2010 to visit the widow of my best friend from Purdue.
• Lake St Louis, Missouri; Springfield; and Bismarck, North Dakota in June 2010.
• Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California, Monterey, California; Vancouver, British Columbia; Crater Lake National Park, Oregon; Roseville, California; Yosemite National Park, California; Sequoia National Park, California; Giant Sequoia National Monument, California and Kings Canyon National Park, California in September 2010.
• Grand Canyon Skywalk, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada in April 2011 with visitors from Springfield.
• Dodge City, Kansas; Lake St Louis, Missouri; Alton, Illinois; Corning, New York; Trumbull, Connecticut; Marlborough, Connecticut; East Longmeadow, Massachusetts; Springfield; Shenandoah National Park, Virginia and Loudon, Tennessee in June 2011.

We didn’t drive but in 2009 we went to Alaska with Carol’s sister and brother-in-law. Went to the state fair in Palmer and took the Alaska Railroad from Anchorage to Fairbanks with stopovers in Talkeetna and Denali National Park with a side trip to North Pole, Alaska while in Fairbanks.

In early September 2011 we were returning home and as we turned into our condo complex I noticed a guy up the street who appeared to be walking a leash, a popular novelty item in the 70s. As we got closer we saw that he had a tiny black animal that blended in with the macadam. Carol insisted that we stop. We did and she went into the “how cute” routine and had to pick it up. “What is it?” she enquired. “A maltipoo.” was the response. “A what?” “A maltipoo, a cross between a Maltese and a toy poodle.” I think I hid it fairly well but I too was quite taken with the little pup. Even though I’d been saying no fins, no fur, no feathers ever since we got married, without telling her, I started nosing around on the internet. A couple days later I found an 8 week old black male and may have mentioned it to her. Within 15 minutes she’d made an appointment for us to see him the next day. On the way there I asked for naming rights. She said, “What do you have in mind?” I said, “Ponce, after Ponce deLeón. He’ll be our fountain of youth.” A couple hours later Carol and I along with Ponce, a 1.3 pound, 8 week old, black, male maltipoo were on our way home.

Within the past five years I’ve become the administrator for the SHS Class of ’57 site, our condo community’s site and the site for the model sailing club. In addition to being the website admin and Secretary I’m now also the Treasurer for the sailing club.

In late summer 2013 a new 24 Hour Fitness Gym opened in a shopping mall about 3 miles from home. A guy in the neighborhood told Carol that he had been up to take a look at it, thought it was really good and suggested to her that we check it out too. A couple weeks later we were up that way so we stopped in. I’m still not sure what possessed us (having Silver Sneakers that pays for gym memberships as part of our Medicare Advantage Program eased the pain) but we joined. Up to that point I had enjoyed a totally sedentary life style. In fact the last gym I’d ever been in was at Park Street in 1958. Realizing I hadn’t a clue as to either what or how to do anything we signed me up for sessions with a personal trainer. Carol enthused that if I had those sessions at noon she could take part in the group seniors exercise program that was held at the same time. Until day two I thought that day 1 had gone ok. However, I had to put my glasses on by holding them in my hands at a little over chest height and dipping my head down. My arms were so sore that I couldn’t lift them any higher. I went back to the gym that afternoon to tell them that I probably wouldn’t be able to continue. I was assured that the discomfort was only temporary and that I’d be fine. So two days after session 1 back we went. Then Carol announced that her job here was done and that she wouldn’t be returning. Call me naïve but I never saw that coming. Since I’d already paid for the sessions she knew that frugal as I was I wouldn’t quit now. She was right and I’ve continued going quite regularly ever since.

1. Under promise and over deliver.
2. You can't just sink the other guy's end of the boat.
3. and for Monday morning quarterbacks, "Where were you when the page was blank?"