Several experiences along the way heightened my interest in science. One was a visitor to my 4th-grade class who explained the inner workings of combustion engines. His short dissertation on how a 4-cycle gasoline engine worked prompted me to read everything I could on automobile engines. My interest expanded to steam engines, steam ships, and other mechanical systems. Ultimately my interest focused on electricity and electronics after discovering how a flashlight works (I connected a flashlight battery to a bulb using short pieces of wire). Shortly after this, an advertisement in Post Magazine for plans to construct an electric buzzer attracted my interest. The plans were very simple requiring only some basic materials that I was able to find around the house. My buzzer was successful, but attempts to learn the Morse code using the buzzer were not successful. The breakthrough event that really sparked my interest was a book that I found in the school library, Understanding Radio, by Yates. This book introduced me to schematic symbols and basic radio theory. I was soon building crystal sets and built my first short-wave radio from a kit.

My fascination with radio convinced me that I should become an amateur radio operator. The big obstacle to becoming a ‘ham’ was learning the Morse code. Fortunately, a friend loaned me a set of records that helped me learn the code. I was licensed shortly before entering high school and still hold an amateur radio license today. I pursued my ham radio hobby in high school, building several pieces of radio equipment and modifying war surplus radio equipment that could be purchased at bargain prices in the 1950s. I started repairing radios and televisions from my self-acquired knowledge of radio.

Shortly before receiving my amateur radio license, I decided that I wanted to become an engineer. Fortunately, the University of Arkansas Amateur Radio Club was near my home. This proximity provided opportunities for mentoring and exposure to other youth like myself who were aspiring EEs. Since I had limited funds for pursuing a college education, I had to work my way through school. My lucky day was when I got a job at a local electronics manufacturing firm, Baldwin Piano and Organ Company, as a production technician. The general manager at Baldwin was a former high-school teacher who valued education. He encouraged me to pursue my college education, even providing part-time work while I was a student. My time at Baldwin was a great experience because I worked for electronics engineers. Most of my experience was in designing specialized test equipment for testing the electronics components and circuits used in Baldwin’s line of electronic musical instruments. I also did some ‘moonlighting’ as a broadcast engineer for a local AM radio station.

I joined a joint IRE/AIEE (Institute of Radio Engineers and American Institute of Electrical Engineers) student branch during my first week of college. I remember attending several interesting meetings where practicing engineers regaled my classmates and me with stories about the exciting work being done by engineers in the local area. Our branch undertook a project to assist the EE department in updating its laboratory. We constructed several Heathkit oscilloscopes for use in the undergraduate labs.

After graduation, I was commissioned as a U.S. Navy Officer, and assigned to the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Intrepid. I reported to the Intrepid, now a museum ship in New York City, just as she was entering Brooklyn Navy Yard for an extensive overhaul. I lobbied successfully to become Assistant Electronics Officer, a job normally held by experienced Navy Officers. I was given collateral duties as Ship’s Television Officer and was responsible for the ship’s television station and a distribution system. My main job was to supervise 65 electronic technicians, many of them aspiring to pursue a college degree in electrical engineering. I volunteered for as many jobs as I thought I could handle. One of these was to stand bridge watches. I ultimately qualified as Underway Officer-of-the-Deck, the officer responsible directly to the Captain for underway operation of the ship.

My shipboard experiences caused me to entertain the thoughts of a possible Navy career. I negotiated with the Navy to try an engineering duty assignment at one of the Navy’s research labs. I was assigned to Navy Electronics Laboratory (NEL) in San Diego. My first assignment was to take a ten-week computer-programming course — my first exposure to computers. When I was offered an assignment at the Lab, I asked for work on a communications project. I worked with a group of civilian engineers on a communications quality monitoring system to be used on Navy ships.

During my Navy tour at NEL, I met a mutual friend who introduced me to my future wife, Lorraine. We have been married for almost 38 years and have raised a son and a daughter. Our daughter has given us two lovely granddaughters. Lorraine has been very supportive and patient of my work and volunteer activities over the years.

Lorraine and I were married shortly after I completed my Navy tour. We moved to Idaho Falls where I was operations supervisor on the S5G Navy Submarine Propulsion Plant prototype. I was a General Electric employee and completed a fast-track qualification in the Navy’s Nuclear Program. I was responsible for operation of the plant and training of Navy personnel. I learned a great deal about nuclear engineering, steam, nuts and bolts, and a host of other topics involved with operating a nuclear plant. I enjoyed working with the very bright, capable and dedicated Navy personnel during this phase of my career.

The S5G experience was rewarding but required very long hours, punctuated by difficult regulatory issues that were a hallmark of the Navy’s nuclear program. This prompted me to consider an opportunity to interview for an integrated circuit design engineer position. Although I had no semiconductor background, the department manager encouraged me to interview for one of the open positions. I was told that they had a training program for new hires but they expected prospective employees to pass a technical interview. My penchant for keeping current paid off. When I was ‘grilled’ by the department manager and his colleague, I was able to hold my own. I was later told that I was hired because the interview team was impressed that I could handle Laplace transform circuit analysis after being out of college for seven years.

My work as an integrated circuit design engineer was exciting. I completed nine designs during the two and a half years on this job. Tools were crude in those days. Desktop computer terminals were not the norm. My first simulations were run by inputting parameters to a custom FORTRAN program on a Teletype terminal that was connected through a 100-baud modem to a computer in Dallas. Layouts were drawn on Mylar by layout draftsmen supervised by the design engineer. Masks were generated from rubylith created by digitizing the artwork layers from the Mylar layout drawing.

My semiconductor experience broadened as I moved on to Honeywell. I gained experience in linear bipolar designs. Honeywell’s operation was a captive facility with ICs being supplied for other Honeywell divisions. I worked closely with a division on Hall-effect chips being developed for automotive applications. Later I was assigned to a development team involved with development of Honeywell’s automatic focus chip. Following a successful proof of concept phase, I was given responsibility for transfer of the third-generation chip to production. After a successful ramp to production, I worked in the device physics area. While at Honeywell, I started a Masters program in EE at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS). Shortly after starting my graduate studies, I found an opportunity to join Hewlett-Packard (HP).

My work at HP initially focused on bringing a set of high-performance bipolar chips into production. Much of my work was related to tweaking designs and correcting yield problems relating to our processes. My interest in device physics grew as I commenced work on my Master’s thesis in this area. I completed my MSEE about a year after joining HP. I was given the opportunity to teach EE courses at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs as an adjunct. I taught a number of courses over the years and hope to do more teaching after retirement.

As HP’s demand for IC’s grew, I was given responsibility for expanding the facility. Shortly after expansion was completed, I was given responsibility for managing an engineering group. HP ultimately closed their IC shop in Colorado Springs. After that, I was promoted to quality manager, with an assignment to start a Total Quality Management Program. This was a rewarding experience with opportunity for innovation. Our program was successful, but cost cutting drove the organization to operate with fewer resources. I developed a plan to integrate quality into all job functions, after which the Quality Department world be dismantled. I eliminated my own job!

After orchestrating changes to launch our division into a more competitive stance, I went back into engineering work. Initially I worked on microelectronics packaging using design tools to eradicate a number of production issues. My work broadened to design. Our division explored a wireless business venture. I was a member of a team that developed first and second-generation millimeter wave wireless transceivers for the home local multipoint distribution services (LMDS) market. Shortly after this experience, I helped start up an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) business unit. I have been involved with a number of high-performance chip designs with HP and now the HP spin-off Agilent Technologies. I am still involved with this activity.

Although my IEEE career spans many years, my work as an active volunteer did not start until I left the Navy Nuclear program. I was active as an officer in several capacities in the Idaho Section. After moving to Minneapolis, I became inactive until moving to Colorado. I then became active as a Section volunteer ultimately serving as the Section chair and PACE chair. I commenced my long tenure on the Region 5 Committee after completing my work as Section chair. I held several posts in the Region; however, most of my time was spent as Educational Activities chair. I led efforts to organize the Industry 2000 workshop on continuing education. This workshop, that has driven many IEEE EAB strategic initiatives over the years, was held in Denver in 1994.

Most of my work in the IEEE has been in Educational Activities. I became an EAC of ABET program evaluator in 1992, and was appointed to IEEE’s Committee on Accreditation Activities in 1997. I served as chair of that committee and shortly after served as an IEEE representative to the Engineering Accreditation Commission. I served as Region 5 Director during 2004 and 2005.

The recent report Rising Above the Gathering Storm, commissioned by the National Academies, is an excellent blueprint for competitiveness. This report must be acted on by federal and state governments, as well as by industry and educational institutions (K-12, community colleges and universities). Professional societies also have a part in encouraging action on the Gathering Storm report; indeed IEEE-USA will be involved with activities to encourage passage of laws and policies to encourage competitiveness.

IEEE-USA 2006-2007 goals are focused on competitiveness. For example, launch of the IEEE-USA Innovation Institute. My key goal is to have a successful launch of this initiative. The Institute will provide an opportunity for aspiring innovators to learn about innovation. The curriculum will be based on case studies that help the students become innovators as they continue in professional practice. Innovation is an important part of becoming competitive. Indeed, fostering innovation is one of the key recommendations made in the Gathering Storm report.

Other goals include supporting continuing education of working engineers and encouraging of young people to study math and science in their pre-university years. IEEE-USA will focus on EAB programs already in place or being developed. The annual IEEE-USA meeting, to be held during the Labor Day weekend, will provide tutorials for working engineers. Pre-university programs are important too. It is important to ensure a supply of highly qualified technology workers for industry. But youth are rejecting engineering and science as a potential career. We must do our part to turn this trend around.

I will also emphasize membership recruitment and retention. My hope is that we have a 5 percent increase in membership in all U.S. IEEE Regions during 2007. Lee Stogner will head the ad hoc committee to address this critical issue. A new IEEE staff position headed by Peter Sobel, IEEE Corporate Development manager, will work to develop partnerships with key industry companies. I believe these relationships will promote membership among industry engineers in the IEEE. Additionally, I want to seek innovative solutions to the retention problem that we are seeing with our young engineers.

Another aspect of happiness that counts for me is being with family and friends or traveling. A stroll in the park with my wife, visiting family, and meeting friends and making new friends at IEEE meetings are a source of enjoyment for me. My wife and I also enjoy automobile trips.

In investing, I like to read business magazines such as Barrons and Business Week. I enjoy trying to understand why companies are or are not successful. I believe an important part of investing is buying stocks in companies that have a successful and ethical executive team and a board of directors who are truly empowering their work force to achieve results.

One of my pastimes is reading. I like non-fiction and typically read history and business books. Another pastime that I have taken up is Suduko. Chris Brantley, IEEE-USA Staff Director, introduced me to Sudoko. I typically take along a Suduko puzzle book when I am traveling. This is a good way to pass time when I have completed my ‘just in time’ reading file that I take with me on IEEE trips.