Weldon Adair:  

Life During my Senior year Mother was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer and we were back and forth to Austin, TX where her physicians were. We finished out that school year and Dad moved the family to Austin, TX so I could continue on my desired college track while being at home with the family and Mother could live close to the doctors. That was probably not a good career move; for Dad, but when you have a sick wife and children about to go off to college you have to choose between family and career. Family obviously came first. I learned that lesson well. Mother didn't make it though the end of 1969. But Dad, my sister and I were family and we were together. The next few years were all hard work at college for me. I took physics on the qualified degree path. As most who knew me would expect I ended up with more physics points than required and enough math for a major in math. I also did the USAF ROTC thing, but with the end of the Vietnam war the Air Force was letting navigators go and putting pilots in the navigator's seat to keep the pilots they had. I had started out pilot qualified and at the top of my AFROTC class, but I developed astigmatism and lost my pilot qualification. So, no more Air Force for me. I didn't want to fly a desk. Near graduation I was introduced to a beautiful blond girl from Houston, Belinda Stephenson. I went to church with her cousins and Aunt and Uncle. Her Aunt had introduced us. She had been put up to introducing us by Belinda's father's parents. I had met them through the church and her cousins. I guess they liked me as much as I liked them. They set us up. And I was ever so glad they did! Belinda and I married in 1973. We have four children, born in '75, '77, '87 and '89. Our daughter who was born in '77 has presented us with a son-in-law and two wonderful grandchildren. We have always been a family active in the Lord's work. While in Houston I served as a deacon at the Cy-Fair church of Christ. In Florida, I am one of the elders of the Boca Raton church of Christ. We now live in South East Florida with all four children near us. Belinda and I run our own computer software company, Adair Software Corporation. College Dad moved the family to Austin, Texas. That made going to my chosen college easy. I could live at home while going to college. The down side of that was I was not so much a part of the college scene. The up side of that for me was I was not so much a part of the college scene when there was so much anti-American culture on the college campuses. I was not the type to march and protest. I was the type who joined the USAF ROTC and marched in uniform. I must have done something very right in the AF-ROTC. The commandant, General Badger, offered me an appointment to the Air Force Academy. Unfortunately the offer came only a few months after my mother passed away and I felt that since Dad had made self sacrificial efforts to keep the family together during Mother's illness, I would be dishonorable to abandon Dad and Sister to accept an appointment to the Academy. That decision was a major crossroads in my life. I had really wanted to be a fighter pilot. But, family came first. It always dose with me. And family was the result of that decision. Because I remained in Austin and continued to attend church there with my future bride's cousins, Aunt and Uncle. I also met her grandparents from Burnet, TX. They took a liking to me as I did to ...Expand for more