Image Up Advertising & Design

FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | FEBRUARY 2025 15 Transit engineers. The offer of three times my British salary looked very attractive. I applied and had a 30-minute telephone interview. At the end, I was asked if I could start on Monday in California. (At that time, I did not know where California was on a map.) The opportunity was great but how could I give up my guaranteed job for life? I persuaded BR to hold my job open for one year for me to learn all the U.S. technology. I was 28 in January, 1977, when I moved to California. In less than a year I had saved enough money to completely pay off our mortgage on a very nice house in Derby, England. But rather than return to BR, I thought that if we stayed just one more year we could have no mortgage and a substantial bank balance. That logic continued every year until I retired from Honeywell in 2004. Working with my new fellow engineers accommodated a different approach that I welcomed — start and solve issues as they arise. I f lourished in this new environment and in 10 years l was heading the Department of Rapid Transit. As a leading expert in a specialized field, when the company announced that they were getting out of the business, I took the work in Environmental Control Systems (ECS) without knowing what it was. The same laws of physics apply. I got the hang of it. ECS focused on aircrafts, space crafts, and military vehicles. For the next 17 years, I worked on a multitude of technologies including micro gas turbines, unmanned fighting vehicles, catalytic NBC protection, space station CO2 control, and several black programs. My degree is in electrical but the majority of my patents are completely non-electrical. I believe that out-of-the-box thinking is often easier for a non-expert who is not hampered by the knowledge of the way things have always been done. Some projects involved meetings in Japan and I was warned that in the evenings, drinking and Karaoke are required — not optional. The drinking part I can certainly do but I just cannot sing. I decided to learn a few magic tricks. Magic is an artform that is universal, does not require language, and most importantly does not require any singing! Soon I will be dubbed as the "Magic Engineer" and "Magic San." Five years before retirement, I was asked to take a senior program manager job but I turned it down. I was just a tech nerd. Two months later, Honeywell Aerospace created a perfect job for me — chief engineer for technical resource available to any group. Kathy was trained as a geriatric nurse so we had the idea to convert a rental house into a six-bed facility. She was happy and much to my surprise, it turned a profit. Over the next few years it got expanded into a 20- bed facility which we eventually sold. Next, a 100-bed facility in Hemet. We luckily sold that just before Covid hit. We moved here in 2007. I was reluctant at first to be living with a bunch of old fogies, but have since decided it's the best move we could have possibly made. I have been involved with the Wine Club, ARC, PAC, Technology Group, and currently the chairperson for the Community Planning Committee. Retirement has allowed us to be more socially active, travel, and just kicking back and enjoying life. ~ Edited by Elizabeth Westbrook

• Cover