Richard Smith:
CLASS OF 1969
Watertown High SchoolClass of 1969
Watertown, CT
University of New Hampshire - EngineeringClass of 2000
Durham, NH
Richard's Story
Life
During my early post-WHS days, I went to college for a few years, studied Russian (why, I can't think for the life of me, but it was fun) and was in and out of rock bands (definitely fun.) Around 1976, I decided to get serious about things and I got married and went back to school to take few engineering classes. Eventually, I received my BS degree at the University of New Hampshire. In 1983, I packed up wife and kids and we moved to Los Angeles, where I began my career at Xerox as a process engineer in semiconductors, which I still do now, but at Intel in Arizona making microprocessors.
The work is great - I love being involved in pushing technology to new levels. It has taken me all over the place. I have lived in 6 other states besides Connecticut and at this point, hope that that number does not further increase. My favorite stops along the way have been Philadelphia (spent 3 years there and it's close to Civil War sites in Virginia) and San Diego, which I visit as often as I can.
I haven't lived in Connecticut for nearly 25 years, but just about every year or two, I come back to visit family and get my fix of New England. In my spare time I still...Expand for more
enjoy playing guitar, photography, hiking in the desert and mountains, and travel.
In my most recent endeavor, I became a published author with the release of "The Old Nineteenth: The Story of the Second Connecticut Heavy Artillery in the Civil War." I wrote it during the 90's while I was living in New Hampshire. I was close enough to Connecticut to make frequent research jaunts there, plus I dragged my family up and down the east coast going to the battlefields (under the guise of vacation) several summers. Sales haven't yet reached the point where I can quit my day job, but it was more of a love of labor.
Update September 2022: I retired in 2018 and now live the good life in in Arizona, spending a lot of time in astrophotography. I don't have to go very far away to find REALLY dark skies out in the desert to snap some shots of the galaxies. Something that I've always loved since I was a kid but didn't have the time (or money) to do.
My family is pretty spread out, one of the kids living in Dallas, another in Florida, and another just up the road in Phoenix. I've been itching to go back for a visit to Connecticut, probably before the end of this year.
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