I did not Want to be an Engineer

It is finally time for me to confess this, now that I am 80 - and have had plenty of time to review my working life, from 1960 to 2000.

I grew up in my Father's home town of Ft. Madison, Iowa. An Industrial town with the Santa Fe Railroad on the West End of town - the Sheaffer Pen Company on the East End.

Ed McKiernan, a personal friend of my Father, was an Engineer, who had graduated from the U of Iowa, and worked for Sheaffer Pen. Where he was treated badly - even though he was responsible for many of its successful innovations. I took note of this, and decided I was not interested in Engineering. More abuse I did not need.

However, in High School, I was urged to become an Engineer - because the pay was so good! And in 1959, I graduated from the U of Illinois, as an Electronic Engineer. This was at the height of the Cold War - and I made a lot of money on exotic Radars, that would protect America from Soviet Bombers.

I did no Engineering work, and was not expected to. I just held Engineering positions in the Military-Industrial Complex. There was immense amounts of money there - and I got some of it.