Robert Rudolph:  

Life Born in Baltimore (along with 2 younger brothers, John & Dan) - my father worked for Glenn L. Martin, building B-26 aircraft. Lived near Martin plant until around age 8, when my father, by this time working for Philco as a Tech Rep returned to the area after a year in Berlin, Germany, where he kept the radio and radar sets alive so that Berliners did not starve during the Airlift. After he commuted to Philadelphia during the week for over a year, coming home only on weekends, the family relocated to Philadelphia area. Arrived in Hatboro in 1950, and entered school in Miss Finegan's class, and was immediately cast as Prince Charming (opposite Barbara Henryson) in the class production of Cinderella. School life wasn't particularly noteworthy - I excelled at getting by, one might be tempted to say. Because of the influence of a girlfriend and many others, I entered Penn State after high school, studying Chemistry (her father was a research scientist at Scott Research.) Well, I was at Penn State the year the attendance rules went away, and at the end of the first year got ushered out for academic insufficiency. I knew that land grant colleges slept with the draft board, I left Hatboro in 1961 to join the Air Force and learn electronics - but ended up in intelligence as a Russian Linguist. It was a surprise, but turned out not to be a bad change for me - I got to Germany, which had been one of my Heart's Desires since my father's return in 1950, learned a lot about myself (some of which I wish I didn't know; some of which pleased me) and learned that I could, after all, learn to speak foreign languages (I was not too sure about German, having taken German 1 at Penn State [twice!] and having failed it both times.) I Left the Air Force in Germany (I don't recall why but I suspect some German girl had something to do with it) and stayed there a year as a tourist (on my motorcycle, of course), working at Stars & Stripes as a warehouse hand, multilingual phone operator, and not working when I wasn't broke. Returned to the USA in 1966 to find my parents had relocated to Baltimore and, needing somewhere to go, I came here, resolved to go to work, and stay away from cars, motorcycles, beer and and women (in no particular order) and go back to college and get some kind of a degree. Joined the choir at the church my parents attended (I'm still a reasonably good first tenor) and met Phyllis, who is a pretty good soprano, and we married in 1968. We planned to have children by the time I got to 30, and when none appeared we adopted two, James in 1973 and Jessica in 1976. In 1983, Elizabeth, our youngest, showed up by a more conventional means, much to our surprise. I have been a choirboy (and am married to my director) most of my life, photographer, motorcyclist (which, according to my lovely wife, is much better than being a Booze & Broads guy), BBS operator, computer nerd, shooter (working for cops, the ammo is free at the range....) but not a hunter. No plans to retire - I like what I do and having had children late, it'll take until I'm 74 to repay college costs! Some regrets over directions taken, but not enough to exit life and try for a different one. Regret distance between myself and many classmates, and some of the dumber things I have done - but wisdom comes only with age, and I intend never to become old, simply by never growing up! School Chase Elementary outside Baltimore, Maryland from 1948-1950. Roslyn Heights Elementary in Roslyn Heights, Long Island, New York in 1950 Hatboro Elementary (Loller bldg) in Hatboro, Pennsylvania from 1950-1954. Hatboro-Horsham High School in Hatboro, Pennsylvania from 1954 to 1960. College Penn State - Ogontz Center (commuter student) 1960-1961. Flunked out. Syracuse University - Military Language School (Russian Specialty) 1961-1962. Performed adequately and became intelligence linguist for Air Force. Catonsville Community College, Catonsville, MD 1976-1979 - Information Technology AA degree with honors at age 37! Workplace After the Air Force, I returned to the USA and followed my family back to the Baltimore area. Since I was good with my hands, and the field manager at SCM needed mechanical skills, I got hired as a field engineer to work on data processing gear, and was given 90 days to learn the electronics needed to function. Since then, I have been a field engineer for several companies, working sometimes on equipment that predated even me! Long about the fourth year, I learned that software guys and hardware guys both get awakened at night by a ringing phone - but the software guys talk and go back to bed, and the hardware guys get to get up...Expand for more