|
|
For the last 5 years I've been in Tucson, where I attended graduate school in the 60's. I've mainly been collaborating with a former physics professor, trying to get papers published in a hot research area related to my dissertation (high temperature superconductivity). Backing up, being a mediocre physics major at Pomona, my plans for after graduation were not well defined. However my senior year was good enough that Dr. Fowler (dept. chairman) encouraged me to apply to graduate schools, and I got in at Northwestern. After two years there, I went to work with an MS, but like many others saw the need for a PhD and went back to school, this time to a desert climate at the University of Arizona. With renewed confidence I gradually switched back into physics.
Family news: my wife Dianne
teaches family and consumer sciences at a Tucson high school.
This past year our three adult children began their own careers.
Our older son Bruce finished at Cornell last summer with a PhD
in electrical engineering and is now with Motorola in Chandler
(AZ). Our younger son Keith graduated in May, here at UA in chemical
engineering, and is with Intel in Albuquerque. Our daughter Brenda,
also a UA alum, is a pharmaceutical sales representative in Phoenix.
Since leaving Pomona a highlight for me was coming to Arizona
and becoming acquainted with ranch life through Dianne's pioneer
ranching family. Back then her father had three large cattle ranches
(even by Arizona standards) plus a quarterhorse ranch where they
lived. It was refreshing to go for visits, hang out with her younger
brothers, and enjoy a break from the graduate school grind.
An intangible from the Pomona experience, I believe, is a work ethic and high expectations picked up from our fellow classmates. (This is probably a common sentiment among alumni). For me another was the encouragement and a sense of vision communicated by the physics faculty, which then carried into the advanced work.