Rob Crimmins:
CLASS OF 1973
Concord High SchoolClass of 1973
Wilmington, DE
Rob's Story
'Been with my wife Judi since 1979 and we have a great family. Both our sons are good guys and we like to be together. In 1981 we moved to Oregon, then Los Angeles, Florida, Seattle, and finally back to Delaware. Kent County turned out to be a great place, better than the others except Seattle. I lived in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008 too - 1 yr in Baghdad and 7 months in Bagram and Paktika Province, Afghanistan.
Since dropping out of college I worked as a draftsman and designer and then went to work with my father building a hybrid airship called the Cyclocrane. Google "Rob Crimmins Cyclocrane" for the web page I have about it and the video I posted on Youtube. That was in Tillamook, Oregon and it was the start of a career in "Lighter Than Air", which is blimps and airships. All the moving around was for jobs in that field. Then I went to work for the company here in Delaware that makes balloon and blimp envelopes and other inflatables, including the Apollo and Shuttle space suits. I was the only non-degreed engineer there and managed to get a patent but I got restless and started my own video production company, which was interesting but I couldn't make a good living at it so I went to work for Gabe Fieni (Concord Class of '72) as operations manager in his building maintenance...Expand for more
and restorations company. (Gabe and I were in adjacent weight classes on the wrestling team and have remained close friends ever since high school.)
I write too, although without significant (any?) success; a self published book (inspired by Jim Keenan and dedicated to his mother), three unpublished books, a screenplay, short stories and a few Delaware Today articles. A few chapters from the book about my time in the war zones are on the web. Google "Rob Crimmins Balloon Wars".
I went to Iraq in May of 2007, the worst month of the worst year of the war. Two years was all I could stand of that so I came back and I've been enjoying my freedom, my home and my wife since then.
After what I saw in the Mid East and southwest Asia, I'll NEVER get used to living here. We have it made!
A few guys I knew in high school and college are still my friends. I have very few. Writing this makes me think of what we've been through and how we've changed. It really has been interesting. I don't lack stories to tell. I bet a lot of us are like that.
One story about a night Chuck Farmer and I did a very dangerous thing is on my web site. Google "Rob Crimmins engineering" to read it (It's about 1/3 of the way down the page under the heading "S/T Corinthos ablaze in the Delaware River - February, 1975").
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