Comments:
Take some time to read my "Book"! :-) This will show what you CAN do in this section of your profile!
Have lived in many places: Olivehurst, Marysville, Linda, Claremont, San Dimas, Montclair, Paramount, San Jose, Cupertino, Alta Loma (now part of Rancho Cucamonga), Hesperia, Lucerne Valley, and now Yucca Valley, all in California; Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Washington; and Baumholder in West Germany, near Luxembourg.
After graduating from High School, I attended Yuba College for a year, and then started working for the Post Office in Yuba City. Was first married in 1961 while working there. I transferred to the Post Office in Claremont in 1962. While working there I applied for a job with the Division of Highways in Marysville, which I got, and we returned to the Marysville area in 1963. I first worked for them in the Soils Lab. My favorite memory there was working as a flagman near Donner Summit when they were building the new I-80.
In order to get a promotion, I transferred in 1964 to the State's Department of Water Resources at the Oroville Dam. I transferred to their Sylmar Branch Office in Los Angeles in 1965, living in Montclair in the Pomona Valley. When they decided to move their office out to Sylmar, I moved to Paramount so I could drive "against" the traffic. In 1966, I left the State and moved to the San Jose area, where I took a position as Chief Public Works Inspector for the City of Cupertino.
Was in the Army from 1967-69, being stationed first at Fort Lewis, Washington, where I took both Basic and Advanced Infantry training, and then at Baumholder, Germany from January 1968 to March 1969. My first assignment in Germany was as a Battalion Public Information Officer. After that I was Assistant NCOIC of the Battalion's Repair & Utility Unit. My final assignment in Germany was Assistant Director of the Post Teen Club; the teen members there gave me a great 25th Birthday party shortly before I was to leave for Fort Dix, New Jersey to be discharged. My best memory was arriving at Travis AFB in California at the same time as my brother who was returning home from his tour in Viet Nam. You can imagine the look on our mother's face when we arrived home in Olivehurst together from different parts of the world!
While in Germany, we were participating in training maneavurs near the Czech border when the Russians invaded Prague. Naturally we went on full alert, but they wouldn't tell us why other than that the Russians were moving!
After being discharged from active duty in March 1969, I returned to the San Jose area where I resumed working for the City of Cupertino until 1972, the first 3 years (1966-69) as Chief Public Works Inspector and the last 3 years (1969-72) as Engineering Technician III running the plancheck section in the Engineering Department and also serving as Annexation Officer.
While working for the City, an Army buddy from Germany and I formed a custom photo lab business in San Jose. At my invitation, he came to our 10th Reunion in Marysville and took the class photo for us.
My final year at the City of Cupertino I was also President of the Employees Association. That is where I met Marsha (she worked for the City too, in the City Clerk's Office, and did the typing of the Association Newsletter for me). We were married in May of 1972 and remained in the San Jose area where I worked as a Project Manager for VTN Engineers in San Jose and then for Mackay & Somps in Santa Clara, as owner of my own firm (Search'n'Survey) specializing in Environmental Impact Reports throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, and then as Office Manager for Whaley and Associates in Santa Clara. After leaving MacKay & Somps, I also spent about two years as Membership Director for the newly-formed statewide Association of Environmental Professionals.
Marsha worked as Attendance Clerk at Homestead Continuation High School in Sunnyvale after we were married in 1972 until July 1978 when we moved to Alta Loma in San Bernardino County, where I worked for Lewis Homes in Upland as Assistant Director of Engineering for 6 months. After leaving Lewis Homes, we moved up to Hesperia in the High Desert where my brother David and I formed a partnership as Roof Brothers, doing general house framing for various home builders in the area. In my "spare time", I designed houses (my father, a cabinet maker and homebuilder, taught me the basics of that when I was still in grade school) for individuals who wanted to escape to the desert from the urbanized areas of Los Angeles.
While in Hesperia, Marsha and I were heavily involved in the Free Methodit Church in Victorville; Marsha as Church Treasurer and me as head of the Building Committee. I also taught the Sunday School class for the young marrieds.
A year later we moved 12 miles east to Lucerne Valley where we remained for 12 years. While there I served one year in 1981 as Honorary Mayor of the community followed by a year in 1982 as Honorary Mayor Pro-tem (runner-up). (Our youngest daughter Angie was the community's Little Miss Firecracker at age 6 in 1980 and again in 1981!). In 1981 I was appointed by our County area's District Supervisor to a 4 year term on the Municipal Advisory Council, serving as Vice Chairman and also Chairman of the TV Translator Committee. I also served 2 years as Governor of our Moose Lodge from 1983-85 and again in 1991, and 2 continuous years as District President for the Moose (6 lodges in our area) from 1985-87, and served on numerous State committees for the Moose. I also served a one year term as President of our local Horse Club in 1983 (both of my daughters had their own horses and rode in the monthly Gymkhanas) and a one year term as President of the Honorary Mayors Association.
The thing that was most memorable to me in 1983 was that as MAC Board member, Moose Lodge Governor and Horse Club President at least 2 of their meetings were on the same Wednesday evening and I would pass myself coming home while I was leaving for another meeting. :-)
In 1991 we moved 50 miles Southeast to Yucca Valley, where I had been working since 1979 for Warner Engineering, a Civil Engineering, Architectural Design and Surveying firm, first as Survey Mapper followed by Engineering Supervisor and then became a Vice President in 1987. The firm was acquired by Nolte Associates in August 2007 from which I retired in February 2008 as Senior Surveyor.
Marsha was employed by the Hi-Desert Medical Center (our local hospital) as Director of Medical Staff Services since we moved here in 1991, and had her national certification as a Medical Staff Coordinator. Before that she was employed by the Victorville Hospital in the Engineering Department, first as Engineering Secretary and then as Project Manager for their major expansion project. She left there as Assistant Medical Staff Coordinator when we moved to Yucca Valley.
Although retired, I manage to stay quite busy working on my family history research and book writing, keeping up with family and friends, serving as Installation Officer of the Lucerne Valley Moose Lodge (since 1991), working part-time as a mapping consultant for my former employer, and planning for our 50th High School Reunion in September 2010.
Evelyn Smith and I just discovered in the Spring of 2009 that we lived within a couple of miles of each other in the San Jose/Cupertino area from 1966-1971 and didn't even know it.
We lost Marsha on October 8th, 2011. After 39 years together, she is sorely missed by all of us.
I was elected again by the Lucerne Valley Moose Lodge to be their Governor [for the 4th time now] for the 2012-2013 year. Have also been elected by our local Genealogical Society to be their Treasurer for the 2012-2013 year. Was beginning to wonder what I was goingto do with my spare time.
