George Nace:  

N.B. - Need to correct dates in a later edit - this is off the top of my head. Most of this story is for the period 1947 - 1972 - the period that corresponds most to the K-12 plus college years of my life. Dec. 15, 1947 - born Culver City, CA. to Dr. George W. Nace and Mrs. Ruth Suzanne Nace while my father was in graduate school. My godfather was Admiral Richard E. Byrd, who my father worked with during the WWII in his role as a Naval Intelligence Officer. I got my middle name from Admiral Byrd - Richard, and I was always glad it wasn't Evelyn, his middle name. My family nickname was and is "Chibi", short for "chibi chan" a Japanese nickname that roughly translates as "Shorty" or "Little Rascal" - sort of a joke since I was a big baby. My father was raised in Japan of missionary parents, and had a life long love of Japan and the Japanese culture, he also spoke and read fluently in Japanese. c. 1948 - 1950-?? - We moved to San Francisco in about 1948 or 1949 when my sister Becky was born. We then moved to Brussels, Belgium for a year while my father was doing post-graduate work - I was three at the time and my first vivid memories are from Brussels. I spoke Belgian/French fluently and terrorized the neighborhood on my scooter or "velociped" as I think it was called, although I lost my facility with the language later. c. 1951 - 1957-?? - We then moved back to the USA and went back and forth between Bethesda, Maryland where my father was doing work at NIH as well as fulfilling his duties as a Naval Reserve Officer, and Durham, NC. where we settled between 195? - 1957. I attended K - 4 at Durham Academy (at that time known as Calvert Method School). We lived on Chapel Hill Road and on Pershing Street while we were in Durham. My father was an Associate Professor of Zoology at Duke University. Sometime in that period my paternal grandmother died and my grandfather remarried a girl he "picked up" at Atlantic City - our dear "Grandma Audrey". My sister Tricia was born in Durham as well. Lots of adventures in Durham, and I also remember walking past the Chesterfield and Lucky Strike factories there on my way to school. I started smoking around seven years old, and continued for 30 years - finally quit when I was around 36 or 37, although I admit I still love the smell of cigarette smoke when it is just lit up. c. 1958 - 1965 - Lived in Ann Arbor, MI. where my father was Professor of Zoology and Embryology. My father had served as a Naval Intelligence officer, so we occasionally had some interesting visitors at our house from the intelligence community from time to time. I attended Mack Elementary for 5th and 6th grade, and we lived at 1311 Colgate Circle. I then went to Junior High - 7th grade at ?? and 8th and 9th grade at Forsythe. I attended Ann Arbor High (Pioneer) for the 10th and 12th grades - graduating in July, 1965. My brother Bill was born shortly after we arrived in Ann Arbor. I played trombone in orchestra and band for most of my school career until the beginning of 11th grade when I had a personality clash with the new conductor that I lost - but I still have my trombone and play occasionally, although my main instrument now is the guitar (lots of them.) I have to admit that I was somewhat solitary and moody during a lot of my period in Ann Arbor - I had the distinction of being a member of the "crazy club" at Ann Arbor High School along with Dave Menefee and others - basically very intelligent kids that weren't motivated in school and did things that weren't approved of by those in authority. We got to leave the campus once or twice a week with a school psychologist - we got to smoke, cuss, and even drink on one or two occasions. We went and played pool or worked out at the gymkhana or go fishing at the lake while everyone else was back in school. In retrospect I'm not sure how this was supposed to motivate us to reform our ways. c. 1963 - 1964 - We spent almost a year living in Ashita, Japan between Kobe and Osaka while my father commuted to Kyoto where he was a visiting professor of Zoology. We were fortunate enough to live in a walled estate as the tenants of the widow of the man who owned the town's drinking water - her garden and house were occasionally used to film historical dramas for NHK TV - so you can imagine that it w...Expand for more