Bill Martin:  

Chapter 1 Graduated in June 1959 from Abraham Lincoln HS, started at HarveyMudd College in Claremont that autumn. I had a very good time socially but only scraped by for two years. Having worked at Sharp Memorial Hospital for two summers I decided that something like biochemistry/medical physics was more interesting than engineering. I transferred to UC Berkeley where I crashed academically but I did meet Susan Dewar of Escondido who became my wife in 1964. The Draft Board was instant in declaring me 1A and I decided to join the Navy instead. So, Susie married a sailor in 1963. After boot camp in San Diego and a year at electronics school in San Francisco, I sailed the ocean blue on the USS Prairie for two more years. Really big bugs in the Philippines. I was a pretty good electronics tech, too. I got out of the Navy in December 1966 and started over at SDSU in February 1967. Scrubbing my share of toilets and painting all non-movable objects for 3.5 years did wonders for my motivation. Sue graduated from Berkeley and spent a year at SDSU getting a teaching credential so with her support and the GI Bill, I got a BSc and MSc in physics and doubled my grade average from my first try at college. I went to work at NELC on Point Loma in June of 1970. Christopher was born in 1972. I worked on semiconductors and lasers of various sorts and NELC saw fit to give me a one year fellowship to complete a PhD which I did in 1974 at UCSD. David was born in that same year. A year later we moved to Pleasanton CA near Livermore where I was working in the Laser Fusion program at LLNL. Fun job and a super time in the Bay area for a number of years. LLNL staff are University of California employees and so get sabbaticals. We took off for England in 1981 for a year at the British Atomic Weapons Research Laboratory and lived in Newbury, Berkshire. Kids went to the local school, I discovered Indian food, and learned to juggle for my 40th birthday. We returned to Pleasanton and I moved to the Particle Beam group. If you need a Death Ray, I can design one for you. After two years I decided to do something rash. I wrote to the Chairman of British Aerospace and asked if there were any jobs in the UK for a slightly used physicist. There were, we sold the house, packed up the kids and moved to England. We settled in a village near Bristol where I was working in the corporate research center (centre). Chris and David did very well in school and the quilting and crafts that Sue was doing (we part-owned a shop in Pleasanton) filled her days. I left the research centre and went into management of various defence bits. A black belt in Shotakan was my 50th birthday goal--I didn't make it. In 1993 I was posted to Washington DC for two years and left BAe to run my own company for a while. Being a beltway bandit turned out to be a drag so when Marconi Electronic Systems offered me a job as technical director (VP) I gave up on Washington and went back to the UK in 1995. Sue and the boys stayed in England during the year I was away but Sue joined me for the last six months in 1994. The cat was not amused at having to spend six months in quarantine when we returned. Chris entered Cambridge University in 1990 and graduated in 1993. He went on to do an MSc and (finally) PhD in radio astronomy at Manchester University. He worked at Marconi but the defence business is a bummer so he now does control software for a German company. He married Jo Smith MD in April 2006 (at last!) and moved himself and the cat to Bath. David entered Kent University in 1993 and graduated in 1996. He worked in the City (London) for a few years but decided to do something different and has been teaching English in Korea for a few years. He's now back in the UK along with his bride, Park Young Ju. They have been living with Sue and I for a year but the kimchi has been banished to the fridge in the garage. Their traditional Korean wedding in September of 2006 was quite fascinating. Being in Korea so many times over the last few years has led to some interesting consulting jobs. Sue and I bought a house in Hertforshire and...Expand for more