Charles Stout:  

I learned to fly right after graduating from high school. That won't surprise anyone who knew me--I was crazy about airplanes even at Peabody. I've enjoyed four, no wait, five wonderful careers. First as an auto mechanic: I was one of the first ASE certified mechanics in Colorado (1975), then ran a Conoco service station at Quincy and Broadway (78-79). I became an auto tech and lab tech for a national testing laboratory, working on experimental cars for most of the major manufacturers. It was a great chance to apply the science I'd learned studying Aerospace Engineering at UCD. But, having gone about as far as I could go in the automotive profession, I turned a childhood hobby into a career as a professional model maker. Yep, people paid me to enjoy my hobby! I designed and built all kinds of models and prototypes for engineering companies, museums, TV and movies, etc. I got married, but my wife became sick as I was launching my model business, and suffered a massive stroke. While she was in intensive care, I learned all I could about stroke rehab. Two subsequent strokes, and a bunch of other stuff over the next several months, gave me a lot more to learn. Unfortunately, she died of cancer before I could apply that new knowledge. It seemed a waste to just forget all I had learned, so I started volunteering at Craig Rehabilitation Hospital in Englewood. That turned out to be such a wonderful fit that I eventually gave up the model biz to work there full time as a rehabilitation engineer. I designed and built custom equipment to help people with disabilities to lead more functional and independent lives. It was great fun, and enormously satisfying. Several thousand devices later, I was presenting papers at international conferences and helping other rehab engineers around the country. Arapahoe Community College asked me to help develop and teach a rehab technology curriculum--one of the first in the country. That sorta led to the next career as a technical writer. Then an opportunity came up to help write flight training books. It was a perfect chance to combine my writing and teaching skills with my 25 years experience as a pilot. These weren't just any books, though, they were the ones used by something like seven out of every eight people who learn to fly. Wow--not only did they pay me to sit and write about airplanes, they even paid me to fly! But a year or two later, I was lured away by an even more interesting offer. Did I mention that I've always been a museum junkie? Or that I think raising science literacy in America would go a long way toward solving some of the world's most pressing problems? So I was delighted when I got the chance to become an exhibit designer for the Denver Museum of Natural History. (It's not as much of a change as it sounds. I did quite a bit of exhibit design as a model maker, expanded my knowledge of prototyping and fabrication techniques as a rehab engineer, and learned a lot of science along the way.) The museum changed its name to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, then downsized about a third of the staff. Quite wisely, they kept their most experienced people. I had only been there a couple of years, so I went back to writing flight training materials. Actually, I never stopped--I did contract writing for my old employer the whole time I worked for the museum. They've paid me to learn about and then write about many o...Expand for more