Warren Groberg:
CLASS OF 1960
Wallowa High SchoolClass of 1960
Wallowa, OR
Warren's Story
Hello any former Wallowa classmate or acquaintance! I have two emails but this stupid Classmates won't let me put them here. Today's date is February 17, 2014 and I'm doing well and still kickin here in Cove, Oregon. I tried to figure out how to join Facebook but don't have a clue how to navigate it so I haven't used it. Maybe I can use some code to give you my email. It's my last name in small letters, then use the first letters of eastern oregon net incorporated with . and then com I'd love to hear from you and share memories and life's course since 1960. Best wishes, Butch
I departed Wallowa in August of 1960 following graduation that year for 3 1/2 years in the Navy where I found myself stationed in rice paddies in Japan for 2 1/2 years as a Communications Technician Maintainence (teletype and crypto repairman) with a top secret security clearance. A large part of our operations at Kami Seya in Japan was in a tunnel which was a torpedo factory during WWII. Kami Seya was a short 12 miles from Yokohama with its Chinatown which had plenty of bars equipped with young Japanese josans to keep isolated land-locked sailors from getting lonely. I played a lot of basketball at Kami Seya (3 seasons) contrary to my senior year at WHS and even made the base allstar team in my last year there. I also played quarterback on our division intramural flag football team, which wasn't a bad deal except when we played the Marines. It wasn't flag football to the Marines, it was tackle football without pads! Little Butch actually grew to 5' 7 3/4" which helped, my Navy handle was Grobie! I came home from Navy service in March of 1964 as a CT"M" 2, Petty Officer Second Class (E-5).
Upon returning to the good ole USA I became employed with Ma Bell in San Fran in 1964 doing the same things I did in the Navy, teletype/comm maintainence. I worked in businesses and facilities from one end of San Fran to the other; Golden Gate Bridge to SFO Airport to Candlestick Park to Treasure Island where I'd gone to electronics school in the Navy 4 years earlier. I had to know how to troubleshoot complex systems as well as single machines in business locations. One of my favorties of those was the Playboy Club, down where all the topless joints were. The TTY machine was on the 3rd floor and I got up there on the service elevator which the Bunnies also used. Several times I rode the elevator with a couple of Bunnies, hoping there would be an earthquake and the elevator would stop. But even with the Bunnies, I knew I wasn't cut out for city life and I left Ma Bell after 4 years and started junior college at Santa Rosa JC in 1968 where I graduated in General Education with high honors in 1970. I had also started flying lessons in 1965 and obtained my Commercial License with an instrument rating at Santa Rosa Airport. I entertained ideas of becoming an airline pilot but the ex-military pilots were too hard to compete with for employment.
A memorable flying experience was in 1968. My bother-in-law, who was a 707 Pam Am first officer at SFO and lived near Santa Rosa, had broken his arm and had been on medical leave for about two months.
He asked me to fly him down to SFO and check his mailbox at Pam Am. So we fly off from Santa Rosa in a Cherokee 180 for SFO, about a 40 minute flight.
I was "cleared to land" on 28L (same one as Asiana) at SFO which we did, and then turned over to Ground Control. I requested clearance to taxi to Pam Am Ops in a Cherokee 180, ground control was shocked! I turned over the comm to my bother-in-law who had a hell of a time explaining why we wanted to go to Pan Am in a Cherokee 180. We were finally cleared to Pan Am and I parked amongst several Pan Am Boeing 707s while my brother-in-law went inside and got his mail.
Taxi for departure also had some complications because my brother-in-law had never seen the airport from such a low profile. But I went there and did that amongst the "big guys." I made several other trips into SFO, including my first commercial charter flight.
By now I also knew I wasn't cut ...Expand for more
out for the busy life in California, so as soon as I had my SRJC diploma in hand I headed back to Oregon after being gone for 10 years. I honestly breathed a big sigh of relief when I crossed the border on the Siskiyou Summit entering Oregon. My parents had moved from Wallowa to Medford during my Navy years so I went to live with them in Medford while I established residency to move on to OSU full time. I spent six months in Medford working the graveyard at a Boise Cascade plywood mill while taking chemistry courses at SOU, then SOSC.
I entered Oregon State as a junior at winter term of 1971 and completed a BS in Microbiology with Highest Honors in June of 1973. Between my junior and senior years I became involved with a fish disease research program in the Dept. of Microbiology and continued with that world class program until I came back to NE Oregon in 1987. With the Fish Disease Research program I obtained a Ph.D. in Microbiology in 1982. During the intervening years I taught courses, conducted reasearch, mentored students, collaborated with visiting scientists, managed the OSU Fish Disease wet lab, attended meetings all over the land, and worked on my degree program once in awhlile. From 1974 thru 1976 I was a graduate research assistant in a new fish disease program established by my major professor at the OSU Marine Science Center in Newport. Then in 1976 I was employed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife as their first virologist in the Fish Pathology group which was also housed in the Dept. of Microbiology at OSU, thus I returned to Corvallis. I had far more than a platefull from 1976 thru 1982. I had arrived at OSU as an undergrad in 1971 and left as an Assistant Professor (Courtesy Faculty) in 1987.
Also during this period I met and married a very bright and lovely redhead 10 years my junior in 1978. We built a big expensive house in the forest near Corvallis than came in far over budget, among other stressful things, and we divorced in 1982. Probably too much on our plates and I'll always regret not continuing life with Ann!
But in 1987 magic happened, the ODFW needed a Fish Pathology Lab in NE Oregon to serve fish health needs for rapidly expanding fisheies programs in the region. I "volunteered" to come over and establish that program which I did at EOU in 1987. I continued our involvement with faculty and students at EOU as we did at OSU while also fulfulling our ODFW responsibilites and more. At EOU I held an Assistant Professor (Adjunct Faculty) appointment and I was privileged to mentor two of the brightest and wonderful young students I'd ever been associated with, one young lady from La Grande and the other from John Day. During my 11 years with ODFW at EOU we mentored over 25 students ranging from high school to college and had numerous publications.
Listing of the Snake River salmon under the ESA in the mid 1990s made life at work very difficult with the resources we had, two full-time and two seasonal staff. One ESA program on top of our already budgeted projects quickly became three. My plea for help was fully acknowledged by my hierarchy in the ODFW, but I was told, "sorry, we don't have the dollars for new positions." I retired from the ODFW in 1998, over a year before I had planned to.
The opportunity to teach Microbiology courses at EOU was offered in portions of three years from 2000 to 2003. I taught Medical Microbiology, General Microbiology, and Immunology. It was wonderful to teach and interact with students without also having another fulltime job! I also facilitated a PSU high school biotechnology program from EOU during 1999 & 2000, I even took supplies and equipment to WHS in one of those years and got a nice tour and tried to ID my senior year locker.
I had taken a 20 year hiatus from flying and bought an airplane and began flying again in 2001 with about 450 hours. I broke 1,000 hours last September (2007) and have a more advanced airplane, retractable landing gear and lot's of avionics. I live in Cove with three cats, fully retired now.
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