Paul Davis
I have been married to Bonnie for 20 years, and we live in Devon along with our two English Setters - Jill and Dudley. This is the second marriage for both of us, and I think we got it right this time. Although we don't have children of our own, we've stayed close to my nephew and nieces (brother Walt, LAHS class of '59). Bonnie and I share lots of interests - our love of dogs, collecting books and antiques, Jethro Tull at the Mann, enjoying nearby Valley Forge Park, Walnut Street Theatre, and travel. We have a 28-foot trailer and enjoy taking off for the Jersey shore, the Poconos, and hopefully this year to Disneyworld.
We're both Anglophiles, so it wasn't surprising that we chose England for our honeymoon. That trip prompted us to do more European travel, and we have returned to England, as well as traveling through much of Germany, France, Italy, & Switzerland, with our Euro Train Passes in hand. One of our more memorable trips was to Paris to visit friends we met through our mutual collecting of antique French advertising. Bertrand and his wife had come to America to stay with us for a week around Christmas. We took them all over the area, and they spent Christmas with our family. When they returned to France, Bertrand wrote the French government to tell them how much they appreciated their trip to the USA and especially the tour of the White House. He requested that we all be invited to France's Bastille Day Party on the grounds of the Presidential Palace. It worked and we received an engraved invitation, signed by President Francois Miterand, inviting us to the Bastille Day festivities. What a great time! We had reserved seats for the parade, the most delicious food I've ever eaten, a chance to chew the fat with Miss France from Tahiti, who spoke perfect English, (Bonnie kept tugging on my sleeve to leave and get something to eat??) and fireworks from the Seine on a boat next to the Eiffel Tower. Bertrand then showed us a wonderful week touring much of France.
As long as I can remember, I played with model airplanes and tinkered with cars, so it was natural that I would get into engineering after graduation. I enrolled in Drexel Institute of Technology in Mechanical Engineering. As part of Drexel's co-op program I worked for Black and Decker and later at Univac. After four years of the five-year program, I needed a break from Calculus, Quantum Mechanics, etc., so I left Drexel and, what else?, joined the Marine Corps. Parris Island wasn't exactly a vacation, but it got me in the best shape I've ever been. After basic and infantry training, I went on to artillery fire direction school. This itch to move on to something new was probably the first sign of my restless spirit, which would guide much of my upcoming years. Returning to Drexel, I had a co-op assignment with G.E. Missile and Space and graduated with a BSME.
My first job after graduation was with the U.S. Naval Air Engineering Labs in Philadelphia working with the military's most advanced jets. It was ironic that one program I worked on was a Marine Corps portable airfield. It included an aircraft catapult and arresting gear, and as part of a mock setup operation, I was on the engineering team on location. Guess where? -Parris Island, SC. This time, I was rubbing elbows with colonels and generals, when only a couple years before, I was a lowly private, being screamed at by my drill instructor that I was lower than "whale poop, and that lies on the bottom of the ocean".
After a few years working for the Navy, I was ready to move on and begin to see the world. A fellow Drexel engineer and I packed everything we could in our cars and took off for California. We both landed jobs with Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach. I worked in Structures, designing several new versions of the DC-8 airliner, which kept me close to my first love - aviation and airplanes. We lived in an area of Long Beach called Belmont Shores, less than a block from the Pacific Ocean. Single and living in California, what could be better?
I had an opportunity to return to the Philadelphia area and work on the MOL (Manned Orbiting Laboratory) program with G.E. It became a pattern for years to come to work on the West Coast for a few years and then return to home base in Philly. The MOL program was in the early phases so my efforts were writing proposals, customer presentations and mechanical design specifications for the classified Air Force vehicle. Over the years to come with G.E., I worked on many interesting projects, including the guidance system for the submarine-launched Trident missile, mechanical rotor design for the world's largest windmill, the parachute descent systems for the Pioneer Venus and Galileo Jupiter probes.
The Pioneer Venus program was probably the highlight of my G.E. career. I traveled all over the country to integrate the design, manufacture, and testing of the system. Much of the testing was conducted at the National Parachute Test Range in El Centro, CA, near San Diego and NASA Ames Research Center, near San Francisco. I was also in charge of a test program at NASA's Vertical Assembly Building (VAB) at Cape Kennedy to evaluate the descent characteristics of the Venus probe. At the time of our first planning meetings at Kennedy, the Apollo-Soyusz vehicle was still in the VAB. During the month or so in Florida, I met and partied with the Russian and American astronauts. It's quite a thrill to know that the probe, with my initials scratched on the inside, landed successfully on Venus, slowed down and guided to the planet's surface by "my parachute."
Contacts from the Pioneer Venus program gave me an opportunity to live and work in California again. I became Project Engineer with Irvin Industries in LA, the company which made the parachute, working on recovery systems for a secret RPV (Remotely Piloted Vehicle) and Boeing's ALCM (Air Launched Cruise Missile). I also was a consultant to NASA on the Galileo test program at White Sands, NM, and China Lake, CA. I lived in Redondo Beach and being single again (my first wife and I had divorced after seven years), I was happy to be back in California full time.
The most exciting adventure was my short career as an airline pilot. I obtained my Commercial Pilot's license and Instrument Rating and was hired by TWA to fly the Boeing 707. I completed the Certification training, but unfortunately, I made one of those untimely decisions you live to regret, and my career as a pilot was history. Other work experience included several years with Roche Medical Electronics designing patient monitoring equipment, including an early ultrasonic fetal monitor, and with Ford designing assembly equipment for automotive electronics.
Further education through the years included graduate school at Drexel for advanced engineering courses. I also enrolled full time in the MBA program at Penn State, which turned out to be a great year or so. Always a Penn State football fan, my timing couldn't have been better. It was 1974, Penn State went undefeated and John Cappiletti won the Heisman trophy. As a grad student, I got 50-yard-line seats and saw every game at Beaver Stadium.
After a rewarding career (mostly in the aircraft/aerospace industry), I decided to be my own boss. Having owned my house in Devon for over 30 years and having built an addition myself, I figured I could be successful buying properties that needed fixing up and re-selling. I started with a small twin in Phoenixville and over the next couple years bought both rental and fixer-upper properties in Wayne, Drexel Hill, and a nice old colonial on Plumstead Avenue in Lansdowne. I wasn't crazy about the landlord aspects, but all turned out to be really good investments.
Another venture was in antique prints, one of our many collecting interests. We opened a shop in Spread Eagle Village, Wayne, called Prints of Strafford. We bought and sold antique prints and did custom matting and framing.
I've also been very active buying and selling on eBay for the last 6 years. Accumulating "stuff" for years, there's a world-wide market that we've just begun to tap. Much of our memorabilia is related to old cars and airplanes, so we also set up at antique car and airplane shows to hawk our wares.
Well, I could go on, but you're probably about to nod off. It's been a blast recalling the last 50 years since graduation and putting it down in writing. Looking forward to the big party in September and seeing all of you.