Gregory Smith:  

Won't be back to NJ for the reunion but here is a what has happened since SPFHS... I went to Rutgers getting a BS in Environmental Science and a commission as a 2nd Lt in the Air Force. With a #21 in the draft lottery the question of going on active duty became moot. I spent 7 yrs in the AF as an Electronics Systems Officer working with electronic warfare and radar bombing systems. I was stationed in MS, NY, KS, ME and lastly Shreveport, LA. It was interesting and always challenging and got me interesting in engineering things. I left the AF as a Captain and used my savings and the GI bill to go back to grad school. I ended up in Chicago for grad school since they would give me a research assistant job and forego out of state tuition. I had met my "wife to be" in the AF where she was a Finance Officer and after 6 trips to visit her during her 2 year assignment in Germany we married in 1981. We took advantage of the trips and traveled widely thru Europe from Italy to Norway and even got to go into East Berlin while still under Soviet control. Melinda's military assignments kept us apart for the first 2 yrs of our marriage... she tells me they were the best years so far! Since 1983 we have lived in Southern California from Santa Barbara to San Diego. Melinda got her MBA after leaving active duty and worked as a Finance Director for several defense and biotech companies. She stayed on in the AF Reserve and retired as a Lt. Colonel. My grad school research was into synthetic blood materials and since then I have worked for medical device companies as an engineer, manager and Director of Research & Development departments. I moved around in different medical fields including ophthalmology, general surgery, oral surgery and cardiology with Johnson & Johnson, Baxter Healthcare and Bausch & Lomb among others. I have several patents in medical devices and have enjoyed the inventive part of this work and seeing these devices used in surgical procedures to help people. The work required a good deal of US and international travel which we could sometimes tie into vacations so we got to Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Macau as well as several more tr...Expand for more