1) My first job was as a newspaper delivery person - a paper boy. I was 11 when my friend Gordon McLennan and I got a route for the twice-weekly San Diego Independent newspaper. Our route was between 32nd Street and 34th Street, and Juniper Street to Laurel Street, in the North Park area of San Diego. We held this job for about six months, delivering papers on Thursday and Sunday mornings to subscribers, using bicycles and flexies (Flexible Flyers, like a sled, but with wheels and steering bar) to throw them on porches. The highlight each month was collecting the 35 cents subscription fees from the subscribers - we got stiffed a lot for what the customers considered a throw-away newspaper.
2) My second job was an extension of the first - my brother and I had a San Diego Independent newspaper route for about five years. This one was closer to home (28th Street to Fern Street, Date Street to Fir Street, 10 blocks, about 150 addresses). We got really good at doing this job through experience, got to know our customers, and made some pocket money. The customer that I remember best is old Mr. Stoddard (probably in his 70s), who lived on Dale Street. He had his buddies over to regularly play cards in the evening, and when we came to collect, he would ask us in to show off what we learned. He actually paid us 25 cents or 50 cents each month to learn something new - the State Capitals, the National Parks, the Star-Spangled Banner, say the alphabet backwards, etc. I can still say the alphabet backwards really fast.
3) My first “real” regular paying job in the summer of 1963 was with the San Diego Chargers at their training camp. I made about $50 a week plus room and board. This came about because my friend Randy L.'s father was a part-owner of the Chargers, and asked us if we wanted to go see the training camp at Rough Acres Ranch in the high desert east of San Diego near Jacumba. We went and signed up as "camp boys" - our job was to clean rooms, make beds, for the 70 or so players and coaches. I will post about this separately.
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4) After three years at San Diego State University studying aerospace engineering, I got my first real “professional” job with Wagner Aircraft in San Diego in the summer of 1964, taking the bus to Point Loma. I spent about three months there, and made about $400 a month. Fred Wagner was a German immigrant after World War II, and worked for Convair before forming this company in early 1964. He was trying to design and build a 25-seat commuter propeller-driven aircraft designed for small airfields. The innovative feature was a boundary layer control system that would permit takeoffs and landings at 60 miles/hour. I worked as an analyst doing aerodynamics analysis (aircraft performance, stability and control, etc.) with several veteran aerodynamicists, including Bob G., who would play a big role in my life a few years later. This was an excellent basic job education and networking experience.
5) I went back to college (San Diego State University) in September 1964, and Wagner Aircraft folded before the summer of 1965. However, Sunrise Aircraft was formed with new investors and Fred Wagner at the helm, but with few of the former Wagner Aircraft employees, and none of the aerodynamicists. The summer job was doing essentially the same things I had done at Wagner in 1964. I took the bus to the offices in La Mesa. Larry F. was the only aerodynamicist at the time and he was happy to have someone help out. I stayed on as a part-time employee in late 1965, and then was full-time in January 1966 after graduating from SDSU, making about $500 a month. In addition to the aerodynamics work, I picked up some of the Boundary Layer Control (BLC) work and traveled to Cambridge Mass. twice for model tests and technical discussions with DynaTech, a technical services company near MIT. In the end, I wrote a NASA Contractor’s Report with the DynaTech people. Unfortunately, Sunrise Aircraft couldn’t meet payroll in March 1967, and I kept working there for essentially promises (which never came about) until September. This was another excellent experience, with more responsibility, and some travel. Also - a lesson learned! Don’t work for promises!
6) Unemployed. This was the first real crisis in my life at age 23 - I had my own apartment, had a car, was living the good life, but now I had to move back in with my parents and borrow money from the bank. I applied for and received unemployment, started a job search, had several interviews, and finally accepted a job in Thousand Oaks Calif. with Northrop Ventura as an aerodynamicist. I was going to start on Monday, 24 October 1967. My plan was to live a month in a cheap motel, eat on my credit card, pay the bills with my first paychecks, and then get an apartment there.
My father had worked at Rohr Corporation in Chula Vista in the 1940’s, and still had some contacts there in management, and he sent them my resume. Bob G. was at Rohr then, and my resume passed his desk and he asked the employment folks to set up an interview. Gil B. (now one of my best friends) from Employment called on Friday morning, 21 October, and asked if I could come down the next week for an interview. I explained that I was starting at Northrop Ventura on Monday - could we do an interview on that Friday afternoon? The answer was yes - I put on my only suit and tie, drove down to Chula Vista (8 miles), interviewed, and was offered the job on the spot.
7) I worked at Rohr Corporation (later Rohr Industries, Rohr Inc., then Aerostructures Group of Goodrich in 1999, then a part of United Technologies in about 2010, and now part of another company) from October 1967 until I retired in August 2002. I started as an Aerodynamicist (1967), then a Senior Aerodynamicist (1974), an Aero/Thermo Group Engineer (1978), Chief of Aerodynamics (1984), Chief of Aerodynamics/Thermodynamics (1992) and finally as a Senior Staff Engineer (1997). The company, started in 1940 in Chula Vista, made the pods around jet engines for commercial aircraft - the inlets, cowls, thrust reversers, nozzles, pylons, etc. I became an expert in nacelle aerodynamics; turbofan engine performance; thrust reverser design, performance and testing; fluid dynamics; aircraft performance; boundary layers; and FORTRAN programming. I worked on most of the commercial aircraft built by Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Airbus, and traveled all over the USA and Europe. It was a great 35-year career in a good company.
8) After being retired for two years (doing genealogy), I went back to Goodrich Aerostructures in August 2004 for two years as a Contract Engineer, since they needed experienced engineers. I worked on the Boeing 787 nacelle design and analysis (shown above, the engine inlets, fan cowls, thrust reversers, nozzles, etc.). I helped design and analyze all of the nacelle components.
9) After my 2002 retirement, I joined the Board of Directors of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society. I have served as Treasurer, First Vice-President - Programs, President, Research Chairman and Newsletter Editor (the last two are my present positions). I started writing Genea-Musings (https://www.genea-musings.com) on 15 April 2006, mainly about my own research and family stories. This “job” included writing, making presentations, attending conferences, teaching classes, consulting with genealogy companies, meeting lots of other enthusiastic and committed researchers and bloggers, etc. I didn’t make much money with genealogy, but I was retired. I received some complimentary travel, lodging and registrations, and met a lot of notable genealogy and family history people. I’ve never had so much fun!
My father had worked at Rohr Corporation in Chula Vista in the 1940’s, and still had some contacts there in management, and he sent them my resume. Bob G. was at Rohr then, and my resume passed his desk and he asked the employment folks to set up an interview. Gil B. (now one of my best friends) from Employment called on Friday morning, 21 October, and asked if I could come down the next week for an interview. I explained that I was starting at Northrop Ventura on Monday - could we do an interview on that Friday afternoon? The answer was yes - I put on my only suit and tie, drove down to Chula Vista (8 miles), interviewed, and was offered the job on the spot.
7) I worked at Rohr Corporation (later Rohr Industries, Rohr Inc., then Aerostructures Group of Goodrich in 1999, then a part of United Technologies in about 2010, and now part of another company) from October 1967 until I retired in August 2002. I started as an Aerodynamicist (1967), then a Senior Aerodynamicist (1974), an Aero/Thermo Group Engineer (1978), Chief of Aerodynamics (1984), Chief of Aerodynamics/Thermodynamics (1992) and finally as a Senior Staff Engineer (1997). The company, started in 1940 in Chula Vista, made the pods around jet engines for commercial aircraft - the inlets, cowls, thrust reversers, nozzles, pylons, etc. I became an expert in nacelle aerodynamics; turbofan engine performance; thrust reverser design, performance and testing; fluid dynamics; aircraft performance; boundary layers; and FORTRAN programming. I worked on most of the commercial aircraft built by Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Airbus, and traveled all over the USA and Europe. It was a great 35-year career in a good company.
8) After being retired for two years (doing genealogy), I went back to Goodrich Aerostructures in August 2004 for two years as a Contract Engineer, since they needed experienced engineers. I worked on the Boeing 787 nacelle design and analysis (shown above, the engine inlets, fan cowls, thrust reversers, nozzles, etc.). I helped design and analyze all of the nacelle components.
9) After my 2002 retirement, I joined the Board of Directors of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society. I have served as Treasurer, First Vice-President - Programs, President, Research Chairman and Newsletter Editor (the last two are my present positions). I started writing Genea-Musings (https://www.genea-musings.com) on 15 April 2006, mainly about my own research and family stories. This “job” included writing, making presentations, attending conferences, teaching classes, consulting with genealogy companies, meeting lots of other enthusiastic and committed researchers and bloggers, etc. I didn’t make much money with genealogy, but I was retired. I received some complimentary travel, lodging and registrations, and met a lot of notable genealogy and family history people. I’ve never had so much fun!
10) My "unpaid" pastime since 1970 was being a husband to Linda, father to Lori and Tami, and a grandfather to five wonderful kids (now ages 10, 17, 19,20 and 21).
One of my favorite sayings is “There are things that happen in a second that take a lifetime to explain.” This is certainly true for me - with my job search in 1967 (keeping me in San Diego), meeting my wife in 1968 (bringing me love, happiness and children), reading the book Roots in 1987 (spurring me to start genealogy research), retiring in 2002, and again in 2006 (giving me more time to do research), and starting to blog in April 2006 (becoming well-known in genealogy circles).
One of my favorite sayings is “There are things that happen in a second that take a lifetime to explain.” This is certainly true for me - with my job search in 1967 (keeping me in San Diego), meeting my wife in 1968 (bringing me love, happiness and children), reading the book Roots in 1987 (spurring me to start genealogy research), retiring in 2002, and again in 2006 (giving me more time to do research), and starting to blog in April 2006 (becoming well-known in genealogy circles).
What would my life have been like if Rohr had not called me on Friday, 21 October 1967? I really don’t know. I would have worked in Thousand Oaks, perhaps met and married a woman near there, or perhaps moved on to Seattle, Long Beach, or some other aerospace center. Would my daughters and grandchildren be as smart, beautiful, loving and fun as mine are (I personally think that this is Linda’s fault!)? Would I still be in my home town enjoying my family and friends? Would I have become interested in genealogy in 1988 if my life course had been different? Who knows!
Unfortunately, I have very few photographs from my work life.
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