FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | SEPTEMBER 2015 7
"The personal computer had just been
invented," he said, and he saw this as a
chance to "work into something" in a new
and expanding industry.
His first job was to test Atari games.
"They wanted someone who knew almost
nothing about computers, because that
was what their users were like. I would
make the same mistakes they would and
Atari would learn from that. I was paid to
play games," he said.
He learned a lot about computers
over his business life, moving on from
Atari. Because the computer industry
was growing explosively, companies
aggressively recruited and offered high
salaries to the few who had the needed
knowledge.
"I took advantage of that," he said, and
went on to work in testing departments,
customer service and management
at several companies in the U.S. and
overseas, including Litton Industries and
IBM, where he retired as a vice president
and general manager of a division.
One job offer he might have considered
more carefully, he said, was from "a couple
of guys with a weather station in Atlanta.
They wanted a TV channel devoted
exclusively to the weather. I thought, 'that's
going nowhere,' and turned them down."
The Atlanta venture went somewhere; it
turned out to be The Weather Channel.
He said the Weather Underground
keeps a record of his station's data that
can be read at www.wunderground.com/
KCABEAUM7. The record goes back
to when Beckes started recording in
December, 2010.
If you are curious about how much
rain fell during the uncommon summer
storms in July or the high temperature
last Memorial Day, it's there, along with
anything else you might want to know
about the weather.
Now, that's worth talking about.
RemindeR to WRiteRs of
ARticles foR tHis mAGAZine:
All articles should be received by
fourseasonsnews@yahoo.com by noon on
the 8th of the month. Be sure to send a copy
to cindyg@euclidmanagement.com and to
Bobbie eckel at eckel2b@aol.com. this will
allow us to track articles.
Dale Beckes in his back yard with his
weather station behind him
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