To See Ourselves As Others See Us (Part 3)

This posting is based on a talk I gave to The Villages Philosophy Club on 19 July 2019. plus supporting stuff from my Blogs and other sources.

PART 3 - TOASTMASTERS AND MY EARLY CAREER AT IBM

MY IBM CAREER STARTS

IBM Federal Systems in Owego specialized in making digital computers that could stand the rigors of  use in military aircraft. At the time, virtually all airborne computers were of the analog type, so we were pioneers the new digital world. 

We were also responsible for integrating these digital computers into the Avionics ("aircraft electronics") Systems, connecting them and making them work seamlessly with the (mostly analog) sensors and controls and displays. 

After we won the Avionics integration contract for the Air Force/Navy A-7 D/E, I was the "cognizant engineer" responsible for the Head-Up Display (HUD) and the Moving Map. 

Our customer was Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV), the airframe manufacturer, located in the Irving/Arlington area of Texas, between Dallas and Ft. Worth. How did I, a brash Brooklyn engineer get along with those Texans? Well, as I'll explain, it was rocky at first, but ended well. 

To See Ourselves As Others See Us (Part 2)

This posting is based on a talk I gave to The Villages Philosophy Club on 19 July 2019. plus supporting stuff from my Blogs and other sources.

PART 2 - MY CAREER, MARRIAGE, FLYING, AND OUR "GREEN ACRES" DAYS.


MY PROFESSIONAL WORKING LIFE STARTS
January 1961 - I graduated from the City College of New York (CCNY) with a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering. My first job was with the Norden Division of United Aircraft in Norwalk, Connecticut, close enough to my parent's home in Brooklyn so I could spend weekends there and continue to pursue my social life.

Defense contractors are known for their "hire and layoff" policies. They hire engineers in anticipation of contracts or when they get a contract and lay them off when the contract ends or business falls off. I was never laid off, but as I watched others leave I saw "the message on the wall".  

In 1963 I quit my first job and immediately started my second, this time at Lockheed Electronics in Plainfield, New Jersey, also close enough to Brooklyn such that I continued spending weekends with my parents and pursuing my social life there. I met my wife-to-be, Violet Stark, who had recently completed her Bachelors Degree in Chemistry at Brooklyn College. She got her first job working in the Chemistry Lab at St. Luke's Hospital in Manhattan, where she tested blood and other bodily fluids.