Yes, this blog has become a wee bit long. So if it is too long for you, just read the first and last sections: Skip down to: "Our Life In Austin, Texas" and then drop down to "Summation" - those are the key thoughts which all the other paragraphs are elaborating upon. Don't worry, no hard feelings.
I began this blog a few weeks ago when a Christian sister and very dear hometown Friend, Patsy Congleton, told me, "Bill, you have had an interesting life." I had not really thought about it, but her comment jogged my inner deja vu memory bank - and this blog is the result. I thank you, Patsy - others may not.
It Is Amazing To View In Hindsight What God Has Done In My Life ~ And it is amazing how God has used people I have met along the way and circumstances to accomplish His plan for my life - even when I was not walking with Him.
In 1955 I graduated from Sheffield High School (Alabama) and with no prospect of college, I joined the Air Force with three classmates. In the Air Force we were given a series of tests to determine which Air Force job we were best suited for - and I was assigned to go into radar/electronics training.
I went to Lowry AFB, Denver, for Tech School on the F-86 AN/APG-30 Radar/Gunsight Control System and after 6 months of training, in 1956 I was sent to Osan AB (K55), Korea, and Tainan AB, Formosa (Taiwan), for a year.
Side note: According to those who should know, our AN/APG-30 Radar/Gunsight Control System in the F-86 was our secret ace-in-the-hole - making it possible for our F-86 pilots to have a kill ratio of 10 to 1 over the Russian MIG during the Korean War.
On the base at Osan, the Airframe & Engine (A&E) folks being the majority, ran the squadron. And the A&E guys had no love for those of us in the electronics field - Radar/Gunsight, Communications, etc., calling us the Whiz Kids. There was no real animosity, or at least I did not thinks so - but a red haired A&E Tech Sergeant proved me wrong.
When my year tour of duty was up, Lowry AFB, Denver, had sent out notices that any experienced AN/APG-30 Techs wanting to return to Lowry as instructors, only needs to ask. I asked, requesting to go back to Lowry AFB in Denver, a city I loved and where my wife's family lived, as an instructor.
But all theA&E Tech Sergeant, who was temporarily our acting NCOIC (top man in our squadron for all enlisted personnel) could see was a Whiz Kid getting special treatment. So my request to be allowed to return to Denver went into the trash can. And at that time, of all the places in America I did not want to be assigned, Texas was top of my list. He had me assigned to Bergstrom AFB in Austin, Texas.
Keep in mind that hindsight later showed that God was working in my life, even through that A&E Tech Sergeant - although he had me stationed in what I considered the worst place in America.
OUR LIFE IN AUSTIN, TEXAS:
At Bergstrom AFB I was assigned to a large F-86 squadron working on the flight line testing the Radar/Gunsight System when the planes came down from a mission. Interesting work, but not really challenging.
However, in my squadron we had a Technical Representative from RCA, Johnny Baldwin, whose job it was to keep us trained and up to date on the equipment, and to help in the Repair Lab when needed. For some reason Johnny was impressed with my knowledge and ability - and without me being aware it was happening, he went to my Commanding Officer and had me transferred into the Repair Lab.
Regressing a bit, when I returned home from Korea/Formosa in April 1957, I was able to take my new wife and three beautiful young daughters to Alabama to meet my family for the first time. After that, I went alone to Austin, Texas, to check in at Bergstrom AFB, and to start looking for an apartment for me and my young family.
I found a 2-bedroom apartment at 808 Baylor Street, in a row of converted older, private homes. The larger downstairs apartments were mostly older, larger families. But the upstairs apartments in the row of converted older homes were filled with mostly young couples like Betty and me - and we all had a lot in common - being either enlisted Airmen from Bergstrom AFB or students from the University of Texas, Austin.
Our new home on Baylor Street was about a mile west of downtown Austin and the University of Texas-Austin - and about 10 miles west of Bergstrom AFB.
One young couple, Rick & Jeri, lived upstairs in the converted home next to ours - and we became close friends. Rick was a student at the university, majoring in psychology and Jeri worked at the university as a secretary to help support them until Rick could graduate. The four of us spent many evenings sitting on our second floor patio, engrossed in conversation.
They were a brave couple, coming from San Jose, California, driving an old Woodie station wagon pulling a trailer which held all their worldly goods. Driving across Death Valley where the temps were usually 115 to 120 degrees - they literally had to stop almost hourly just to put water in the Woodie. But they made it to Austin so we have to give them credit for being very determined.
Betty made the absolute best tostadas you have ever eaten, making her own salsa from scratch. One evening she prepared two dozen for the four of us to eat while we sat on the patio talking. The girls probably had two each - and Rick and I devoured the other twenty. Hey, when you are deeply involved in good conversation and fellowship, time and food just seem to fly away. Later Rick asked, "What time is it?" And without looking at my watch, I told him, "It must be about 10 o'clock". When I looked at my watch - it was 2:00 am. As I said, with good conversation and good food, time flies.
Keep in mind that Betty and I, with three small children, were living on my A/2C pay, about $115 a month, plus her Air Force allotment. We did not have a lot of money issues, but our budget was still pretty tight. We paid $75 a month for the apartment. So with other expenses, we had $1 a week (one dollar a week) for discretionary use. It cost us 50 cents to take a taxi to church on Sunday mornings and we walked home, stopping in Duncan Neighborhood Park on W. 9th Street along the way for the kiddies to play.
When we reached home, we changed into our casual clothes and went for an afternoon walk to another park where our girls could play on the playground equipment. With 50 cents left in our discretionary funds, that was 10 cents for each of us. Each one could choose to have a popsicle or a cola as an afternoon treat. And that is how we spent our Sundays. They were happy days.
Put that on top of being in Austin, Texas, during the summer - where when temps reached 100+ degrees during the day (which was most days), it cooled down to maybe 98 at night. We only had one fan and that had to be used for our three young daughters to be able to sleep. Betty and I slept with our patio doors open to get whatever breeze we could.
Rick, being a psychology student, conversations between Betty and Jeri eventually got around to stress that Betty felt. Keep in mind that she was born and raised in Denver, had always been part of a large family in Denver - with her mom, step-dad, two siblings and their spouses, and many aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. - she was accustomed to a large and close family. Moving to Austin, Texas, was her first time to have no family around.
Add to that other stresses such as living a thousand miles from family, finances, weather, etc., and although we were very happy together, admittedly she did have some stress. And talking with a young college age wife whose husband was a psychology student - did not help matters.
We had lots of friends in the neighborhood - Rick & Jeri, Larry & Barbara (a young Air Force couple next door), and in the apartment next to us was Foud Tawfik and a young Egyptian university student. Foud, who was a professor at the University of Texas and was working on his doctorate, was from Alexandria, Egypt, and as I recall he worked for the government in Egypt.
When Foud and the student first moved in, they both had cars and I did not, so I was not using my garage. Foud asked if he could rent my garage since I was not using it. I told him, "No, I will not rent it to you - but you can have it." After that Foud could not do enough for us - taking us shopping, to dinner, to the lake. He was always ready to help us.
Interesting side point: Foud later returned to his position in Egypt and Betty and I moved to Los Angeles where I went to work in the computer industry. Fast forward a year or two, Foud was living in Alexandria, Egypt, and we were living in Alexandria, Virginia. So our Christmas card went from Alexandria to Alexandria - but on opposite sides of the world.
All that said, even with good friends in our Austin neighborhood - Betty was still far away from home and family for the first time, us living in very hot and humid Austin, and living on a budget - Betty obviously felt stresses which I was not aware of - but which she could talk about to Jeri. Jeri suggested she visit the Air Force psychologist just to talk. So Betty made an appointment and went to the Air Force psychologist at Lackland AFB hospital in San Antonio.
Another side note: At that time, 1957, the Air Force did not have any real psychologist or psychiatrist. They took doctors with an MD education, gave them a 6-week crash course in psychology - and then declared, "Now you are one! Here is your new shingle!" Duh, not really.
Betty visited the medical doctor turned instant psychologist at the Lackland AFB hospital and after their first meeting, he asked to see me also. The following week I went with Betty and talked to the doctor. I shared our situation with him, not really saying it was bad - only that it could be better. And he came up with the bright idea that, having a family and living on A/2C pay in Austin was putting a lot of stress on both Betty and me.
Which along with other issues was true. He suggested I take an early out from the Air Force and find work on the outside. Actually, although I did not realize it then, that was not really a good idea at the time. Upon leaving the Air Force, I discovered that America was on the tail end of a pretty major recession. In Denver where we initially went to visit her family, one could not get a job washing dishes.
It was July 1958 when I took the early out and we first went to visit Betty's mom and step-dad, whom I loved dearly, in Denver. They lived at 770 Hooker Street, about five miles southwest of downtown Denver. We stayed with them for several weeks while I did job interviews in Denver, to no avail. A national recession had begun in 1957 and was still causing major unemployment in July 1958.
I interviewed with several big companies, i.e., IBM, Burroughs - and I even went by train to Camden, New Jersey, to interview with RCA for a Technical Representative position so I could follow in Johnny Baldwin's footsteps. But having taken an early out, they felt the Air Force might hesitate to accept me back as a Technical Representative.
Being discharged in Colorado during the recession of 1958 was not the best of timing. Not a job to be found in Denver. But our visit with my in-laws, Lester and Grace, in Denver was a blessing.
The outcome of that visit changed our lives. My mother-in-law, Grace, had a beauty shop in her basement. One day as Grace was making a customer look nice, Betty and I visited with them. As we were discussing job possibilities, the customer told us, "My son went to Los Angeles and found a job in one week."
Betty's sister, Donna, her husband, Manuel, and their four children - Marilyn, Michael, Patricia, and Cheryl - lived in Los Angeles at that time, so I looked at Betty and asked, "California?" And the next day Betty, our three girls, and I were on the Union Pacific Streamliner train heading west. Well, sort of west. First we went northwest to Ogden, Utah, on the Union Pacific "City of Denver" Streamliner, where we switched to the Union Pacific "City of Los Angeles" Streamliner.
During our layover in Ogden, I remembered that a friend I had known in Denver, Jo Ulmer, was from Ogden. She had been in Denver getting her degree in nursing at the same time that I was in the Air Force Tech School at Lowry AFB. We called her parents' home and was told that Jo had moved to San Jose, California, and was working as an RN in a hospital. Then we were on board the "City of Los Angeles" heading southwest on the last half of our journey to the Wild West of Los Angeles.
We arrived in Los Angeles on my 21st birthday, July 23, 1958. And I began my search for a career in electronics. In the Air Force I had been an Electronic Technician working on the aircraft based Radar/Weapons Fire Control System (an analog computer) in the F-86F jet fighter. So, naturally my main thought was to extend that experience to working in the field of electronics in civilian life.
Well, let me say, I wanted a job in electronics. However I was applying for any job which would allow me to support my family. I borrowed my brother-in-law Manuel's old early-1950s Pontiac with no A/C (July in Los Angeles - smog city), and began making the rounds, applying wherever it might be possible to get a job.
I applied at the LAPD Academy and, on the first Saturday, managed to be one of only 20 out of about 300 applicants to make it through to the next step, which would be the medical and personal interview to be done on the following Saturday. During that week, I found the job I really wanted, in the computer industry and never looked back.
Just as my mother-in-law's customer said her son had done - exactly one week after arriving in Los Angeles, I had a job. Another funny aside: that Wednesday, as I was out and about seeking interviews, Betty's sister, Donna, told her, "I have a strong feeling that Bill will find a job today." So when I came home with a big smile, Donna looked at Betty and told her, "See, my intuition was right." Donna was a very positive, upbeat person - obviously with good intuition.
I began work as a Computer Test Technician for Burroughs Corporation's new commercial computer operation in Pasadena (previously Electrodata Corporation). For about a year, I worked as a System Test Technician on the recently introduced Burroughs B-220 Computer System, a vacuum tube based computer which functioned in milliseconds and cost about one to four million dollars. Obviously not a home computer.
Then I transferred into Field Engineering, went through months of additional training - and was assigned to work on the newly installed Burroughs B-220 computer system at the Norfolk Naval Supply Depot in Norfolk, Virginia. Thus began our odyssey across America by car. At the time, my family and I were living in Sun Valley, California. The company arranged for Bekins Van Lines movers to come, pack, and pick up all our belongings - except what we would take in our 1956 Buick Century station wagon.
The next step was to stop at Bank of America and close our bank account (no national networks then) until we were in Norfolk and could established a new account there. Back in our car ready to start our adventure, I looked at Betty and asked her, "Do you realize that this car is our only home until we get to Norfolk?" But that was part of the excitement.
Then we began our adventure across this beautiful land called America - on Route 66 to Albuquerque - north to Denver onUS 85 (now Interstate 25) to visit family - then east on US 40 (now Interstate 70) to visit Betty's brother at Fort Riley Army Base, Kansas - then south on a series of highways (now a series of Interstates and U.S. Routes, I49, US60, US63, I555, US77, I55, I240, US385, and finally US72) to Sheffield, Alabama, to visit my family.
Then on our final leg of this amazing journey, US72 to Huntsville, then a series of what is now Interstates - I75, I81, I85, to Norfolk, Virginia, where I would begin my career as an on-site Field Engineer on the Burroughs B-220 computer system at the Norfolk Naval Supply Depot. Yes, this had been a amazing journey covering almost two months (travel time plus accrued vacation) - from Southern California to Norfolk, Virginia.
How did God's hand play in all of this? Glad you asked.
The recession which had lasted about two years was finally coming to an end. And companies were just starting to hire again. In my initial interview with Burroughs, the man interviewing me was Chuck Hill, Test Department Manager. He ran me through some questions and electronics diagrams - and offered me a job. The lady in Personnel told me later, "Chuck must have really liked you. He gave you a starting salary of $2.15 an hour. He has not given anyone else that much."
That began my years of working for an amazing man, Chuck Hill, initially for over a year in the Test Department. Then later when I was a Field Engineer in the Burroughs Washington DC office, he moved east and became my district manager, my boss again.
Fast forward a few more years, I had just transferred back to Los Angeles with Burroughs, and Chuck was hired away from Burroughs with an opportunity to start a Test Department for the new Ramo Wooldridge AN/UYK-1 military computer in Canoga Park, California. Chuck called and asked me to work for him in this new venture. I did not hesitate, giving Chuck an immediate, definite, and positive, "YES!"
At Ramo Wooldridge, after helping start the Test Department, I became a Field Engineer, and also helped in the Training Department teaching AN/UYK-1 trouble shooting to engineers and technicians from client companies.
In 1963 I went to Philadelphia and installed an AN/UYK-1 on board the USNS Kingsport Satellite Tracking Ship. It controlled the antennae which tracked the Syncom 2 Satellite. In August 1963, President John Kennedy, from Washington DC, made the first two-way satellite telephone call between heads of government, to Nigerian Prime Minister Abubakar Balewa, aboard the USNS Kingsport docked in Lagos Harbor, Nigeria.
"Okay, Bill, so where was God's hand in all of this?" Once more, glad you asked. My time of discharge from the Air Force was supposed to be June 1959, but my early out freed me to find a job in July 1958. If I had stayed on active duty for another year - that window of opportunity in the computer industry may have been gone - and I would have lost out.
All of these factors: Psychology-leaning neighbor, Jeri, talking with Betty - Betty visiting the make-believe Air Force psychologist - my not finding any job opportunities in Denver - our visit with Betty's mom's customer on that fateful day. So many people, circumstances, and factors came into play for me to be interviewing with Burroughs Corporation on that day in July 1958. Even though I took an early out, officially I was not discharged from the Air Force until June 1959. But that one year head start made all the difference.
Only God knows for sure. But I believe that one year early head start in a career in the computer industry - was God working out His plan for my life.
I arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 23, 1958 - interviewed and was offered a job at Burroughs Corporation on Wednesday, July 30, 1958 - and began work at Burroughs Corporation Electrodata Division in Pasadena, California, on Monday, August 4, 1958. I started working on Burroughs' new vacuum tube main frame computer system, the B-220 - and from that beginning I have worked with and met many amazing people along the way - starting with Chuck Hill.
In the early 1960s, I installed a B-220 computer system as part of a highly classified Melpar Corporation designed system in the lower level "inner sanctum" of SAC Headquarters, Offut Air Force Base, Omaha - Headquarters of the Strategic Air Command. This, by the way, is where they flew President Bush when America was attacked on 9-11-2001.
While at Offut Air Base, I took a work break one afternoon and walked across the street to the Officers' Club where I had the privilege of meeting a Lt. Colonel who had been one of the bombardiers who dropped the atomic bombs on Japan. The day I met him, he and his wife were at the Officers' Club to celebrate their wedding anniversary - and at 5:00 pm in the afternoon, he was already drunk - the psychological effect of having dropped the bomb.
Who are some of the other people I have met as a result of a long career in the computer industry? Of course all the world knows Bill Gates and Paul Allen of Microsoft, but how about Ed Roberts whose company, MITS, was their launching pad? Ed Roberts hired me to be their California Sales Representative giving Microcomputer Seminars and managing a network of independent Sales Rep Organization.
One of those independent Sales Reps was Paul Terrell, who with his friend and partner, Floyd, created the first home computer store chain, the Byte Shop, and bought the first fifty Apple computers from Steve Jobs? I had worked with Paul and Floyd at my previous company, Control Logic, and talked them into representing MITS. From that the Byte Shop chain was born.
Another key person you have never heard of, but who was a key player in our space program was Beaman Brockway of Boeing in Seattle who led a team of Boeing engineers in building the NASA Flight Simulator which trained the first group of Astronauts for the critical step of atmospheric reentry. I installed an SDS-930 (Scientific Data Systems) computer which was the heart of that simulator system - and during the six months I spent at Boeing, I got to meet the first group of Astronauts..
Circa 1965, there was a very serious Italian gentleman named Frank at North American Rockwell, Downey, whose team built a NASA Reentry Capsule Simulator around a Scientific Data Systems SDS-9300 computer system. The computer had a recurring problem. I was a Field Engineer for Scientific Data Systems so my boss, Pat Lydon, sent me to see what I could do to solve that problem.
When I got there and Frank described his problem, he asked me in a very somber tone of voice, "What can you do?" I told him, "I can troubleshoot the problem - or I can design around it." Frank, "Which is the fastest way?" Me, "Probably designing a solution around the problem." Frank, "Do it!"
At about 3:00 am, I found a solution which solved the problem without causing any problems in other areas. Situation resolved! For the first time in about 18 hours, Frank smiled. Then we went to breakfast. Side note: Several years later when I was in sales, my local rep took me to see Frank in a sales situation. Of course I asked about the fix I had put in his computer long ago. It was still in the system. Hey, why fool with success?
Dr. George Haynem, Director of the Computer Science Department and Dr. Bill Baker, Director of the Biomedical Engineering Department at Vanderbilt University, along with a team of doctors at Meharry Medical College of Nashville - wanted a network of computers tying the two campuses together for medical research. I convinced them to spend one million dollars on Digital Equipment's (DEC) PDP-10 computers instead of the Scientific Data Systems computers they had planned to buy. And along the way, we all became friends.
Ed DeCastro, co-founder of Data General Corporation, was an engineer for Digital Equipment Corporation and had come to San Jose to do a survey among leading university technology leaders in the Bay Area. Basically his question to them was: "Which do you need, another 18-bit computer or a new 16-bit computer?" Virtually everyone told him, "Give us a faster 18-bit computer which is best for scientific work."
I drove Ed to the airport, and over cocktails at SFO, I asked, "What was the majority answer: 18-bit or 16-bit?" He told me, "Almost unanimous for 18-bit." Fast forward a few months and Ed had left Digital Equipment and co-founded Data General - to build a 16-bit computer, the Nova. So much for listening to what customers tell you.
Most of you do not remember; but, there was a time when the home PC and Apple computers did not exist. In the late 1960s/early 1970s, the microcomputer was used only by companies, i.e., engineering firms, government contractors, etc. - and only the most ardent hobbyist played with one at home. In earlier years, I had presented Logic/Computer Seminars to Digital Equipment Corporation clients and potential clients.
Then with the advent of the microcomputer chip by Intel, I began to give Microcomputer Logic Seminars, first for a company named Control Logic out of Boston, and then for MITS in Albuquerque. MITS is where I first met and worked with two young programmers named Bill Gates and Paul Allen (before Microsoft days).
Looking back over the fifty years I was active in the computer industry, there are literally thousands of faces whom I can see in my memory, many I can name, but some I cannot put a name to today - especially since I am trying to somewhat shorten this blog. But all those people made my journey through the world of computers so exciting - from early birth (from vacuum tube computers, to transistor computers, to VLSI computers), to early successes and failures, to the technology used today in computers.
Working on programs related to NASA - installing a computer at theUCLA Neurological Research Center - designing and building an animal research system for the Stanford Research Psychology Department - installing a computer for the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center - and so many more.
I worked with the Project Genie team headed by Professor Wayne Lichtenberger at the University of California Berkeley, given an ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) grant to develop a time sharing computer, and Melvin Pirtle (who later became Dr. Mel Pirtle, Director of NASA Ames Research Center). My task was to modify an SDS-930 computer by adding more memory hardware to the system to accommodate their timesharing software.
Point of interest: ARPAnet, developed by the Department of Defense in conjunction with several universities, was the precursor to the Internet we use today.
One of the most interesting people I met along the way, whenI installed a Scientific Data Systems SDS-930 computer system for him in Long Island and got to know the the man, was Harry D. Belock, who had started and put seven companies on the New York Stock Exchange. One evening over dinner, I asked him about his major in college. He told me he had majored in Chemistry - because, for him, that was the easiest major and he did not want to work too hard. Chemistry, really?
In the 1960s, when the Pentagon was trying to design and build a Ground to Air Missile and was wasting a lot of time and money, Harry went to the Pentagon leaders and volunteered to clean up their design. He did, saved the Pentagon time and money, and was awarded the U.S. Navy Distinguished Public Service Award.
In the mid-1960s, the Pentagon came to Harry, who was then retired, and asked him start a new Engineering Consulting company to help them. I installed the SDS-930 computer system which allowed him to do this at his new company in Long Island.
These are just a few of the people I met and worked with during my 50 years in the computer industry. If I tried to name and explain all such people, this blog would become a book. But it would be a book full of great memories - the people I met, the times I stumbled and got back up, the amazing programs I was privileged to, in one way or another, be involved in or work with - and all because God was in control, even when I did not know it.
And even with this rather long blog, there were so many fun, exciting, and often unexpected things which happened to us during our drive from Southern California to Norfolk, Virginia. But, again, had I tried to share all those memories - this would have been a book and not a blog.
SUMMATION:
What would I have done if I had waited until 1959 to leave the Air Force - and the window of opportunity in the computer industry had closed for me?
Would there still have been an opportunity to work for the Los Angeles Police Department? Maybe I would have worked in a bank or retail store, or maybe worked repairing televisions, etc. I do not know, and praise God, I don't have to worry about that now. All I know is that God opened that window of opportunity, I took it, and along the way I have had an amazing journey.
THANK YOU, GOD, for you truly blessed the life of Bill Gray long before I became a believer. But, being omniscient, You knew all the mistakes I would make on my journey to being a true Christian believer in 1987, a true child of God, and even the many stumbles and mistakes I would make, even after believing. THANK YOU, GOD!
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill Gray
Click on the image to enlarge:
