David Chartrand:
CLASS OF 1954
Keith AcademyClass of 1954
Lowell, MA
David's Story
Hi Guys,
For those who remember me I was the 110lb all wet little nerd from across town. I enjoyed my four years at Keith, it was 4 great years. My only sad day there is when I was pulled out of class (chemistry with Brother Moore) and was told to go upstairs to see Brother Clemmicus the headmaster. To my surprise, not knowing what I did wrong, he offered me a 4 year scholarship to Providence College. I had to refuse it because I knew my parents nor I could come up with $375.00 for room and board per year.
I went to Lowell Textile Institute (now UMass Lowell) nights, until I got drafted in 1957. Ended up as a tank commander in a M48 tank, 3rd Armored division. Returned to night school in Lowell after getting discharged and got married to my still lovely wife. We are looking forward to next April 2020 when we will celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary. We adopted two kids, my son is the Deputy Police Chief in Dracut and my daughter is a stay at home mother.
I got my first job at Raytheon Andover where I met my wife and worked as a Draftsman. In 1962 I got a call from a friend who worked for the Itek...Expand for more
Corp. in Lexington and asked me if I'd like to join him there. Went to look at the job and retired from Itek after 30 years to the day. I could not believe the luck I'd fallen into, I would look forward to get to work every day for 30 years, I could not have asked for a better job. I was on the eng. team that built the cameras for the early spy sattelites, the U2 and Sr-79 spy planes, Sky lab., the cameras that landed on Mars in 1976, and the Space Shuttle program where I met some of the most interesting people you would ever meet. One can only dream of a job like this and I fell into it by sheer luck.
Retirement did not last long, playing golf with some friends one day, one of them asked me to join him at the Harvard Eng. Labs in Cambridge, he had just received a goverment grant for some research and it would last a year at the most. Seven years later I had enough and retired for good.
My wife and I are "snowbirds" and have been heading to Florida to spend the winters for the past 20 years. Age is starting to take a toll on us with aches and pains but we are enjoying what time we have left.
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