Tom Newman:  

I retired from Bates Technical College in 2020 after forty-six years developing and teaching programs in electronics, communications, robotics, and industrial automation. None of that would have been possible without my completing six semesters of Physics at Stadium with an “A” in each of them while simultaneously failing Junior English – a graduation requirement – multiple times. I would get removed from my English classes for not participating, sent to Study Hall, and then talk the Physics teacher, Russ Clark, into letting me take more Physics as an alternative.   I ultimately had to complete Junior English in summer school to get my high school diploma. This threw me out of sync with my class of ’64. Having no guidance, my picture didn’t get into the annual and I didn’t walk with my class. Concurrent with summer school, I enrolled in the Radio Television Repair class at Bates Vocational Technical Institute, which was operated by the Tacoma School District at the time. That made sense because I had worked on and off at a small radio repair shop near my home, Hessey Radio, throughout my junior high and high school years.   Utilizing my work experience and physics training, I completed the program at Bates in one-tenth the normal time. I was recommended for apprenticeship with IBEW Local 76 in a State sponsored program. The owner of the shop where I worked, Mel Hitchcock, would become the Apprenticeship Training D...Expand for more