I chose the communications side of Electrical Engineering because radio was the exciting technology in my youth. My family was heavily devoted to communications technology.

I loved every aspect of my work for it was exciting and made a real difference in the quality of life for ordinary people.

My typical work day involved Research and Development of new technology for the national telephone network. This was a combination of analytical studies and design of working models. I was fortunate to enter the work force at the very beginning of digital solutions to key needs and to spend my entire career riding the wave of the digital revolution.

I want others to know that engineering is an exciting and rewarding profession of challenging work. I enjoyed going to work every day, and I was awestruck by the talent of the people with which I worked.

Engineers are good and honest people, I worked six years as a Licensed (Radio) Engineer part time to cover college costs. Mostly it was a different group of about 6 people each summer. All were wonderful people and became close friends. My Engineering Class at college, including the Professors was like an extended family. My 40-year employment in a large corporation was a dream come true. All wonderful, supportive people.

An Engineer is never alone. Each branch of Engineering has an Institute devoted to the profession and provides a wide range of support. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) was a major factor in the success of my career. I thrived on their publications and their technical meetings. I learned a lot by serving on their committees and met many world class people in work groups creating technical standards and organizing technical conferences.

Engineers make a large contribution to society by just doing their jobs well. What a joy it is to me every day to see how the digital technology we started to generate when I first came to work in a major Corporation had changed the life of most of the world’s people by the time I retired 40 years later. To the world these products and services fall from the sky. To the Engineer they are the fulfillment of a Lifetime Dream

Even Engineers may underestimate what is possible. When I started work I would have thought it too bold to expect one tenth of one percent of the cost, size and power reduction obtained in digital circuitry by the time I retired. There was no expectation for fiber optic systems at all.

ADVICE FOR FUTURE ENGINEERS; Assume the world you know now will evolve rapidly and that your skills should evolve just as fast.