Lloyd Williamson:  

My history: I married my Lewistown HS girlfriend, Peggy Bishop, in '72. That same year I went to work for Cat at the Mapleton plant after a directionless semester at Spoon River College in spring '71. We had a daughter, Heather, in 1974 but then, unfortunately, divorced in '75. After the divorce, I moved to Peoria and shared a house with Alan Froehling (CHS class of '69) until '79 when he and I both married the women we were engaged to within weeks of each other. In '77 I started the Cat electrician training program. In '77 I also ran into Kathy Harn (CHS class of "70) in Peoria and we started dating, eventually marrying in '79. We had a son, Brian, in 1980. I finished training and became an electrician in '81 at the Cat Mossville plant. That lasted 1 yr. until Cat ran into trouble and I had to go back to the line. Like many at that time, between strikes and layoffs, I worked about 2-1/2 years between '80-85. In '82 I became concerned about my future at Cat. Kathy suggested I should go back to college in engineering. I had never been a great student because I had no goal, so that was a leap, but Kathy believed in me and she was willing to work (she was a Speech and Language Therapist in the schools) while I went to college. So, I went to Illinois Central College part-time between '82-85, and then, when Cat laid me off the final time in '85, I went to school full time at ICC, transferred to U of I in '86, and graduated in '88 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. I took a position as an engineer at a Kimberly-Clark Corp. plant (Kleenex, Scott, Huggies, Kotex, and other brands) in Paris TX upon graduation. Kathy and I had another son, Kyle in '90. Kimberly-Clark moved me to a staff engineering po...Expand for more