from Sharecropper's Son to Tracking Missiles in Bloomington, MN

Although born on a farm as a sharecropper's son, I became fascinated with radios and electronics before television existed. I dreamed of the possibilities of space travel because of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. Because of moving, I attended many different schools including three in the first grade and three my senior year. I met and married my wife within about three months after being in the Navy during the Korean War. I was one of the early people working downrange in the Bahamas Islands when we first began launching satellites from Cape Canaveral. For two-years my family lived a 3-room shack on Grand Bahama Island because the company did not support families. My wife had a major heart attack in 1989 that damaged her heart. The doctors said she would probably only live another 5-10 years. She lived almost 22 years after the heart attack, but it was a downhill trek. The last few years, I became her caregiver, which became 24/7 as her health declined.