Pat Gardner:
CLASS OF 1959
Denton High SchoolClass of 1959
Denton, TX
Brookhaven Community CollegeClass of 1986
Dallas, TX
University of North TexasClass of 1961
Denton, TX
Pat's Story
Life
My company has moved me around the country from Dallas to Nashville to Columbus, OH, to Atlanta to Phoenix and now to Austin TX. I spent eight years in the US Air Force and all three of my children were born while I was on active duty. I now have seven beautiful granddaughters and one grandson.
My work is in the energy conservation field, saving commercial companies, government and education facilities mega bucks on their utility costs. Presently I am working on a project for the Navy on the island of Guam. I now have fourteen years with my present company. Teddi (my dog) is a mix of pomeranian and korgy. She is a beautiful red color and looks somewhat like a small fox.
I love to stay busy and have recently built my own computer just as a challenge. I do not do this as a hobby or career.
School
Living on a farm while going through school put some major restrictions on my social life but the experience of being self sufficient, learning to improvise and learning the value of hard work at a very early age was very rewarding although I did not see it as rewarding at 4:30 in the morning while milking a cow under the light of a kerosene lamp or hunting for a missing horse or cow in a severe thunderstorm. It's funny how time can alter ones' outlook on life.
Workplace
From electrician, to jet engine technician, to instructor, to air conditioning, to industrial plant engineer, to facility director, to energy engineering, it seems like I have done so many things and have enjoyed all of them. I really enjoy the energy performance contracting business that I am in at the present ti...Expand for more
me. It is so rewarding to help other people and businesses save money by saving energy.
Military
Following Air Force basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX I attended 12 weeks of Jet Engine Technical Training at Chanute AFB, Il. Following graduation I was sent to Lakenheath RAFB in England. This was a Tactical Air Command base flying the F100 Super Sabre aircraft. The engine repair shop was dimly lit but very clean as all military shops are. Sometimes the fog was so bad that standing under a street light, I could not see my feet. Except for two weeks of summer, the weather was usually damp and cold (well for me, being a Texan, it was cold). Following 3 years and six months of this, I was reassigned to Kinchelo AFB on the U.P. of Michigan. I arrived there on the 12th of January 1968 and the temperature was -39F. The cold would absolutely take your breath away. I was assigned to the Flight Line maintaining the engines on B-52s and KC-135s. I only stayed at Kinchelo for nine months before being reassigned to a Field Training Detachment at Randolph AFB in San Antonio as a instructor for Jet Engine Mechanics. I really enjoyed this line of work and the only negative about it was that my classroom was on the flightline where sometimes the noise from the T-38s and T-37s was so loud that I would have to almost shout to be heard. I lost my voice several times from talking so loud. I left the Air Force in August 1971 and entered the Air Conditioning trade as a civilian. Two of my children were born at Lakenheath RAFB in England and the last one at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.
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