Kirby Hallenbeck:
CLASS OF 1971
Malabar High SchoolClass of 1971
Mansfield, OH
Case Institute of TechnologyClass of 1980
Cleveland, OH
Kirby's Story
Well, it's been a long convoluted road but ended up in a good place.
After high school I attended Muskingum College for one year. I wasn't ready to get serious about a career at that time, being more interested in partying, and ended up in Cleveland doing an assortment of jobs but had a good time, including rescuing a basket case Honda 150 during the Arab Oil Embargo and rode it across Canada to Vancouver/Vancouver Island where I spent a summer, then down to California and back, which began the California theme. Getting back to Ohio, I had little money and rescued a rusted hulk International Harvester Metro Van and turned it into my apartment for a cold winter and learned to repair TV's among other repair oriented pursuits, used the van in the budding TV business, and started maintaining an apartment building, for free rent. So at this point I was a mechanic, electronics technician, building superintendent, and of course, partier. .
Seeing the demise of the TV repair businesses coming with the onset of transistorized sets, I enrolled in Cuyahoga Community College, and got back to what Malabar was trying to do with me, but I was too immature to embrace. So it was Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, etc, all over again. I worked in the Chemistry Lab, for tuition, as I had a knack for that. Remember when we evacuated one wing has Malabar because I made Hydrogen Sulfide (rotten egg smell)? I was a lab tech there too, and also made Ammonium Tri-iodide and put in the back of Mt High's class, to react, pop-pop-pop. So I did real well my one year at Cuyahoga and the lab manager liked my work ethic and he came to me one after noon and asked "Do you want to go to Case?" I said how in heck can I afford that? He again asked "Do you want to go to Case?" I said, heck ya if there is a way? So he wrote a letter, as he was a Case grad, and in I went.
That was the beginning of a major turn in my life of scraping by, as when I was registering for my first classes I thought I was in the twilight zone, with the archery range and all. I had trouble with the government grants because they said it is impossible to live on my W2 wages. Well I traded for everything, so eventually I got those, work, study, loans, plus my job running the TV projectors at Richfield Coliseum, the apartment, and the repair biz. Believe me I was busy and still wake up some nights wondering how I am going to pass some final.
I started in chemistry and worked in the lab and chemical repository. I have handle some of the most obnoxious chemicals on this planet, and thought, I really did want to be around this stuff all my life. After doing a little research I found chemists had the lowest life expectancy and lowest pay and electrical engineers got paid well and lived longer. So I got a job over at the electrical engineering building and switched majors and it was great, learning thi...Expand for more
ngs I like to learn, and working in the communication and laser lab.
During my senior year I was so busy with my senior project, a 3d TV prototype for a NASA grant my professor had, I forgot the this company who's chips I used and liked named Intel was on campus. At 5PM I called the recruiting office and asked if the Intel guy was still there, and he said come on down. So with my book of schematics, with Intel Inside I strolled in and described the 3D TV and the work I had done with Intel's 8080 and Eproms. Next thing you know I am back in California, where the motorcycle trip told me I wanted to be, working in what then was a small company. Well, I worked there for for 27 years, met my wife, had two kids.
During my first sabbatical I learned to whitewater kayak and raft guide, met my wife. That was also a life changer, as we have been all over the west exploring remote river canyons and had a great time, which I still do today(she retired - smarter than me), but I limit it to class III-IV at my age. Swimming Class V rapids is more interesting if you are young. So I supplemented the water theme with going to sailing school on San Francisco Bay, bought a used Hobbie Cat and trailered that around for a while, have fun hanging out on the trapese, flying one pontoon, with a beer in my life jacket. I got an opportunity to get a slip and a boat on the local reservoir without going through the seven year waiting list, so now we also have the HapiKat to sail around, which turns out is from Cleveland too. Small world.
The years between the first and second sabbatical was about starting a family and had a girl, Jessica, and a boy, Michael. There was everything that goes with kids, piano lesson, youth football, basketball, tennis, etc. We all love skiing and bought a ski cabin on Donner Summit to be close to the ski and cross country area. My kids were on skis at two years old and it is great to ski off piste with my son who is full of adventure. We are in the community with the highest average snowfall in North America, so I get to shovel lots of snow. We had over 60 feet this year, which is near a record. The community was, and still is under a voluntary evacuation notice, due to snow damage to power poles and broken propane lines everywhere.
My wife retired before me to help with our son who has some neurological impairments, and I retired about three years ago. Intel was good to us, but it was quite a sacrifice, time wise. But now we have time to spend with our kids, ourselves, and our friends. To supplement the now displaced need for nerds, I got into Ham Radio and built a tower on top the hill we just happened to have, so when I get bored I got talk to people all over Europe, Asia, Oceania, or wherever.
Looking forward to the reunion this summer. I don't have the contact info, so write me if you do, or just want to chat.
Kirby
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