William Garber:  

Updated January 2021--- Life I attended San Diego City College for 1.5 years. Moved to Manhattan Beach in 1963, due to my Dad being laid off from Convair, along with the others in the 20%. My family opened an ice cream store in Burbank. (Celebrities, like Ron Howard, the Fearsome Foursome, Billy Kidd, Walt Disney's private pilot, etc. used to come in). Studied electronics technology (AA degree) from El Camino College, did one term at USC, then went 1A in the draft. Joined the Air Force in Feb. 1965, and went into Ground Radio repair. Spent time at Boron AFS, in the Mojave Desert. SR-71s, and B-70s used to routinely fly over, as the site was on the Final Approach radial of Edwards AFB runway 20. Worked on Communication systems, including a Digital one that provided vectoring data to control F-106 Fighters to their targets. After getting out, and working a short while at Collins Radio (now Rockwell Collins) in Newport Beach, I was hired at Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena in January 1970, and met my Wife, Sharon there. (We both worked on the Viking Mars landers and Voyager spacecraft, and have our signatures on the Microdots aboard the Vikings, which are on the Martian surface). (We are among the first to have our signatures on another planet). Was the Principal Test Engineer for Radiation testing, after Pioneer 10 flew by Jupiter and experienced MASSIVE radiation. The results were used to design shielding for the Voyager spacecraft (Who are now still sending data back from outside the Solar system, 40 years later). Amazingly, they transmit with only 20 Watts of power (as much as a Refrigerator lightbulb) and are now at a distance of almost a light-year. The received power is less than a Million-Billionth of a Watt! I Completed a BSEE degree while working at JPL in 1976. Joined Aerojet Electrosystems and worked in Test Engineering of several Army, Navy, and Air Force Defense projects, including improvements to the second generation Defense Support Program Satellite that replaced Boron AFS & detected the scuds launched by Iraq in the Gulf war. I also worked on the Lawrence Livermore Labs SHIVA "Pointing, Focusing, and Centering" systems and Submarine Countermeasure systems. Moved to the Northwest in May 1980, just before St. Helens blew, where I took a job at HP. We were making 41C and other calculators, HP-85 computers. Studied for a Masters in Statistics at Oregon State University. 21 years later, after working to make other calculators (48G, etc.), palmtop and notebook computers, and many travels to France, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailan...Expand for more