My
time in the U.S. Navy was very useful to me as I went through the pre-radio and
advance radio schools and then completely through the radar training program
graduating as a first class radar technician.
While
being processed through the U.S. Navy discharge activities in the summer of
1946, I applied for admission to MIT and was accepted. I chose electrical engineering as my major and
my studies went well with high grades. While
I was there MIT started the new Tech Flying Club. With my Commercial Pilot’s license I
became an active member. I did as much
flying as time and studies allowed, including a couple of flights from Boston
to Toledo and St. Louis in the club’s 1946 Cessna 120. By the end of my junior year the “GI Bill”,
which paid my college tuition, had run out, and my flying activities were
beginning to interfere with my studies.
During
my years at MIT I received regular letters from my loving aunt in Toledo. As my freshman year was coming to an end my
aunt invited me to go with her to her cabin in Colorado for the summer. Her husband, who was a research engineer and
inventor working on Sperry bomb sights during World War II, had passed away. She wanted to return to the cabin that they
had built in the Colorado Mountains but didn't want to make the trip alone. I accepted and we drove to Colorado in her
car. During the summer my Aunt
introduced me to her good friend, Professor Klint Duval, who was the head of the
Electrical Engineering Department at the University Of Colorado. I wrote to Professor Duval as I was
finishing my junior year. I told him
about my situation and he responded very quickly and asked me to come to CU in
Boulder to finish my engineering education. I went to Colorado and worked for the Public
Service Company of Colorado as a draftsman for a year to build a saving account. Then I went to Boulder and finished my
Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. Shortly thereafter I enrolled in the CU
Graduate School to work on a Master’s degree.
After enrolling I was offered a position as an Instructor in the Applied
Mathematics Department which I accepted.
This helped me handle my expenses while in the graduate school but it
also slowed down my graduate work as I was required to teach two night classes in the Denver Extension Center. After
three plus years of mixing graduate engineering classes and teaching I finally
earned my Master of Science in Electrical Engineering.
While
still teaching Applied Mathematics I considered continuing my education working
toward a doctor’s degree and I began to realize that I was less oriented toward
theoretical research work and more interested in applications. That led me to an interview with IBM in New
York. My new wife made the trip with
me. While teaching at Boulder I became
involved with an analogue computer that the department had. During a fascinating interview trip to
Poughkeepsie and Endicott I was introduced to the great progress that IBM was
making with early digital computers.
After returning to Boulder I received an offer from the IBM Data Systems
Division and we moved to Poughkeepsie in 1956.
