Grand Haven Mens Golf Assoc.

As a relatively new member (a year) I know I haven’t had a chance to meet everyone yet so I am glad to have the chance to tell a bit about myself here. I am the middle child of a family of six children from a mid sized town in central NY called Utica. It was a great place to grow up, with plenty of open spaces, lakes and mountains to run around in. Hunting, fishing and sports were the norm for most of my friends and I. I was in the civil air patrol as a teenager, and always wanted to be a pilot. My eyes didn’t allow for that dream to come true, so I went to school to learn how to design planes instead. 

 

I received my first two year degree as an electrical technician in 1978, got married, moved to the Boston area and went to work for GE aerospace. I immediately started night school and got my Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering and a Masters degree in Computer Engineering from The University of Massachusetts. Meanwhile my wife Robin and I were blessed with two children. A daughter Andrea and a son Gary. It took six plus years to finish my degrees at night, as you might imagine I didn’t sleep much during that time. 

 

I was blessed in my career as well, acquisitions in the defense industry made me part of Martin Marietta, then Lockheed Martin. I was an engineer, an engineering manager and director, a program director, and led several lines of business for the company. I designed a variety aircraft avionics systems including cockpit displays, jet engine control systems and fly-by-wire flight control systems. I led the team that developed the first full color active matrix LCD displays that we all know and love today, and I had the opportunity to transition defense technologies to commercial businesses and led those teams. This included taking aircraft controls technology and applying it to electric and hybrid electric vehicles, trains and busses. This business is still around and a major player in hybrid electric drive systems for mass transit applications. I was then “requested” to move to New Jersey to take some image storage and management technology used for satellite images and apply it to medical imaging for cardiology. GE Healthcare was my marketing partner, and after six very successful years GE decided to buy the capabilities from us. It was an offer we couldn’t refuse.

 

 After that I helped transition technologies into renewable energy applications, other medical applications, and also some new defense/security markets for the company. The last six years of my career was with corporate engineering where I was the technology lead for Canada. Basically, I got to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into various research projects with universities and develop new products with small companies. We bought the first Quantum computer in Canada, we were part of a multinational consortium for 3D printing of large metal structures and I was on the Board, we invested in renewable energy, meta materials, robotics, and Artificial Intelligence to name a few. I had a blast, and got the opportunity to work with the Canadian government to help shape their science and innovation strategies, acquisition policies, and improved support for indigenous companies through policy changes. The travel and the cold winters started to wear on me so I decided to retire at the end of 2019.

 

Robin and I have three grandchildren ages 9, 6, and 2, and are hoping for one more soon. We have had our home in Ormond Beach since 2005, and enjoy the gated community we live in. I particularly enjoyed being a “snowbird” when working in Canada. It gets pretty cold there in the winter, and coming home on the weekends to Florida was a gift. I have enjoyed the experience at Grand Haven immensely, mostly because the people are wonderful. I retired a bit early, so I could play more golf. So now you know why you see me out there so much!