Spent three years in the Army, one of which was a summer vacation in beautiful Viet Nam as an Infantry Platoon Leader. Scott, our number 1 son, came along while Nancy and I were bouncing around the country, compliments of the Army. I distinguished myself as an infantry platoon leader that could actually read a map and navigate in the jungle. This was largely due to the Geography degree and was probably the last time I ever directly used my university training.

I was hired by Litton Ind. after "retiring" from the Army in 69 and we headed for California. We spent 8 golden years living and working in the LA area. I managed the research and development program for the Data Systems Division of Litton and Nancy managed another kid. Kimberly was born a "California Girl" and was quickly integrated into the soccer, dirt bikes, swimming, skiing, desert trips, and all the other extra curricular stuff that made LA so great.

In 1998 we moved to Bartlesville OK to go to work for TRW. Major culture shock. I again worked R&D for the REDA Pump Division of TRW and Nancy and the kids participated in all sorts of stuff. Nancy worked for a picture framing shop with a friend of hers. Scott and Kim spent a lot of time in the woods since we had a house on 10 wooded acres. Nancy ran a taxi service to the "city" so that the kids would get exposed to something besides critters.

We moved to Houston in 83 to work for FMC. Biggest mistake I ever made. I tolerated the mistake for three years and then, in a fit of idiocy, started my own company. Nancy went back to work and provided food and moral support during the lean years when money was going out but not coming back. Both kids worked during high school and college. The business finally made the turnaround to self sustaining operations in 1989. The new year will mark the 20th year of being in business as Invocon, Inc. The company has built over 25 different wireless data acquisition systems for Shuttle and the International Space Station. IVC has delivered a system for the JEM (Japan) module of the ISS. When the Shuttle returns to flight it will have 10 different IVC systems aboard.

We just flew a “smart target” for the Navy anti-missile development program where the target had to tell the ground where the initial point of contact took place with the “killer” missile within +/-one centimeter. Currently we are hard at work producing several systems that will be required for the Shuttle “return to flight”. I have never grown tired of hearing astronauts saying "we are powering up your equipment now".

The Invocon web site www.invocon.com says “if its been done before, we don’t do it. This paradigm provides a never ending source of new business and technical challenges. We are now under contract to develop a Star Trek Phaser set on stun that must be able to work through walls. We are working with Washington University in St. Louis as well representatives of the experimental medical community here in Houston.

I should be thinking about retirement, but work is simply too much fun.

I am the new “chair” of the Industry Advisory Council for the EE department at SIU. I have served on that board for the past three years and am a constant source of good natured kidding since I am a geographer on a EE panel. My only defense is that there was not an engineering school when I attended SIU.

Nancy is retired and doing the grandchildren thing and has just returned from a trip to Italy.

Most important, the family has enjoyed good health and many happy times to offset the harder times.