LEWIS VAUGHN:  

I dropped out of SMHS at the end of my Sophomore year in 1950 and enlisted in the Army at 16 years of age. I received my GED in late 1951 before my class graduated. My graduation year was 1952. I spent 6 years in the Army (July 1950 - Oct. 1956). I rose in rank rather rapidly to Sergeant-First-Class. I was in the Armored Corps the entire six years. I was first a tank driver, cannon loader, then gunner, then tank commander. I went from there to being a Platoon Sergeant. My final months in Korea was as a First Sergeant of a Tank Company. I married Lila Waldrop, from Mountain View, on August 26, 1955. We will soon celebrate 61 years together. We had two children, Keith and Mike. Mike succumbed to leukemia in 1968. I was discharged in October 1956. I went to Draughon's Business College while I worked in the Data Processing Dept. of J. P. Stevens' Cotton Division located at Dunean Mill. I studied computer programming at night on my own as well as attending Furman University. I did not complete my studies at Furman. I left J. P. Stevens in June 1963 and went to work for Monsanto Company's Textile Division, then known as Chemstrand as a computer operator. I was transferred to Orangeburg, SC to help set up a computer department for a new dyeing and finishing plant, Fabric Services, Inc. I was the Operations Supervisor, but was promoted to Dept. Manager in 1967. In 1968, I transferred back to Greenville as a programmer. I was later promoted to programmer analyst, systems analyst, and project manager. I did some trave...Expand for more