An
eDiary of
Some of the
Key
Things in
Don's
Life
As some of
my
memories are starting to slip away in my 70's, I've set up these eDiary pages for some key threads that meant more to me than any others…
they may well get "tweaked" as I recall others and/or get replaced!
I started these eDiaries in the mid-80's, organizing into decade-based pages…
each are sorted by year and months, showing from Jan to Dec;
click on any of these sections to visit that decade?
Main page |
2010's |
2000's |
90's |
80's ( this page ) |
70's |
50's-60's
You should also consider visiting my family tree profile
page
that shares info about me or view the
Global Places
that lists where I've visited?
For a more "historical" perspective, you could start your visit at
the very end
of my eDiaries & then scroll up to read them backwards in time?
Also, the embedded content of the textualized events reflects the time of the events vs. current time—view the pages full-screen?
I updated my eDiaries regularly until the creation of FaceBook's
2011 "eHistory"
feature, whereupon I stopped… sadly, my account then crashed out in 2019
( while I was updating my profile )
and I had to redrill some of the "lost years" to get them back!
Have fun, regardless ;)
The Decade of the 80's…
As many events occurred for me after the end of the
70's,
my selected 80's memories are tabulated here…
Enjoy, as you choose!
| Month | Selected Events sorted by Year—oldest 1st |
|---|---|
| January |
In 1980 I advised my Burroughs bosses ( Eric Burnett & Dennis McDivett ) in London that I needed to be transferred to the United States branch,
without sharing the actual reason ( this was for the pending birth of my son, Stu ); I also shared that if they can't do that, "I'll quit & find my own way" In 1985 I got my new Mercury Lynx car In 1987 I was hired at GE Medical in Waukesha, WI full-time on the 8th, after consulting for 6 months and some considerable negotiations following the tax law changes; I also brought my family to Wisconsin shortly after this I began as a Senior Software Systems Analyst, with technical/project leadership of varied software developments over a 3½ year period in a number of areas of the ADVANTX X-Ray control software system, with teams of up to 25 engineers—I became an Engineering Functional Manager in July, 1990 - Software team leader for several positioning devices for the ADVANTX product line—an X-Ray diagnostic imaging control system (5MM+ LOC) networked multi-processor/multi-tasking architecture… the positioner subsystem architecture was based on Intel 80x86 µ-processors, with up to 100,000 lines of PLM-86 code in each device - Team leader of 8 software engineers with several suppliers to develop real-time software for applications, diagnostics and calibration for each positioning device - Lead role in the software group for redefining and improving critical processes for software design and development - Software coordinator for Model Period 7, a major ADVANTX product release, planning/executing all software deliverables - Drove significant process improvements related to this position; coordinated and directed the activities of 25 engineers, as well as communicating all software needs and issues to cross-functional groups (Mktg, Mfg, Svc, etc.) |
| February | In 1988 we got our new Mercury Tracer car |
| March |
In 1982, my 2nd son
Alex
was born; he sadly passed away at age 19 in
2002…
In the spring of 1985, I left Fairchild Industries & went on to form my business, Creative Logic Software, LLC where I purchased my 1st IBM Desktop PC with my business operations—I closed CLS in late 2016 with my retirement after several years This was after my quite short stint at Case Rixon, producing modems and electronic equipment at 2120 Industrial Parkway in Silver Spring, MD |
| April |
I lived in a flat in Friern Barnet for a few months in 1980
_Original.jpg "snapped from my flat")
( a view from my window )
after moving out from
Jane
I brought Ms. T ( who was carrying Stu at ~5 months ) to England at that time & we later became engaged ( although I was not yet completely free of Jane ) We got our new Chevy Citation in 1981 |
| May |
Many of our houses are grouped here—not all were in May!
For more information on these, see my
history,
my
Bio
and the list of all the places where I've
lived?
Jane and I lived in and around London in 1978 where we had brought our 1st house in August… Silver Spring, Maryland—behind the mature trees, see closer views of the front & the rear Mum & Alan flew in from Bournemouth ( via London ) to visit, touring Virginia, Pennsylvania, etc, where Stu was teething loudly in the back seat of the car! .jpg "Sterling Park house")
in Sterling Park, Virginia where we lived for 2 years
.jpg "Germantown house")
in Germantown, Maryland, quite close to my work at
Fairchild Industries
for six months at GE Medical Systems—this move became my most significant major life/work change for the next 22+ years… On Wednesday, July the 2nd I packed up my bags from our Germantown home & drove my Lynx out west for 750+ miles, stopping overnight en rout & checking into a nearby hotel late afternoon… I slept quite well after the trip & early on Friday the 4th, I dressed nicely in my hotel room, grabbed breakfast there, drove over to .jpg "drive")
GE Medical Systems & parked there at around 7:30am…
Was wondering as I arrived why the huge parking lot was totally
empty of cars—as I attempted to check-in at the guard-shack, I discovered that GEHC was closed for the July 4th holiday! As Monday the 7th was also part of their annual holiday event, it was Tuesday morning before I was actually able to formally arrive. Mark Egide was called by the guard-shack to come and escort me to my desk with a temporary ID badge; he took me across the facilities describing as we walked the cafeteria, the bank, toilets, etc to my small desk ( next to Gail Kaishan ) and presented me with several large 3-ring fully-loaded binders describing the ADVANTX system which he said "Read these… John Raker will be in shortly" John came and found me around 9am or so, introducing me to the team; see my 22+ years of work here? .jpg "Oconomowoc house")
house
in May, 1988 at 146 East Greenland Avenue in Oconomowoc, WI that had been built in 1923 with a huge garage,
a tap for a hosepipe, a drain & an attic as well as a large storage barn; we moved into the house Based on available historical information, the property had been a key part of the Montgomery Ward family estate at "Knollward," the nearby 15,222-square-foot palatial summer mansion that was built in the 1920's on the shores of the Lac-La-Belle lake by Ms. Marjorie Montgomery Ward Baker, the orphaned niece and adopted heiress of Aaron Montgomery Ward; our house was where their driver had maintained their cars in the huge garage View info on the property here and another view of the mansion here? I then moved with my then-soon-to-be wife to a rental house on Keesus Lake in '96 & a few months later we brought a big house near Sussex, WI & moved in… After several years there in the 90's, we built our "Palace in Nirvana" house 
happily arriving there in
Nov, 2004!
Our 1st year there was spent in a rental house; on Wednesday, September 30th, 2015 we moved across town into our current house in Roswell… We also ended up selling our "Palace in Nirvana" house on Monday, June 15th, 2015 as maintaining 2 properties was difficult! A sad day 31 Hopkins Plaza, Baltimore, Maryland |
| June |
I learned around this time in 1980 that my transfer to Burroughs in the US had been approved & I started planning for the move…
I had sold my 1st car ( the Hillman Husky Imp ) in May for £250 and had purchased a Moped; it worked fine to-and-from work, but it took me 5+ hours to get to my Mum & Dad's house in Bournemouth at 25+ mph! |
| July |
Many, many of my birthdays were held in July with dozens of parties & gifts—just a couple are shared here…
My 25th birthday "gift" on a Friday in 1980 was the 3rd major ( and most significant ) life event that began with my one-way London departure late in the evening of Sunday, July 20th… My 2 other major life events were my military accident in 1976 & my brain tumor in 1998; also see my childhood years, Soltau and in & around London? I arrived ( for the 3rd time, with a 1-year residential visa in my passport ) in the afternoon of Monday, July 21st at the JFK airport in New York, hauling along a pair of suitcases that were each heavily-filled with "my whole life," carefully filtered prior to the departure… Ms. T and her sister Marlene picked me up and drove me to their home; we later found an apartment in Silver Spring, Maryland and I moved in In 1981, my 26th birthday, Jim & Bev Ashford came to visit; their son & Alex were then conceived! In 1986 my birthday gift was to start a 3-month contract with at GE Med on July 4th ( on the 5th actually!! ) which changed my life More of my birthdays are shown year-by-year the 90's, 2000's etc |
| August |
On Saturday, the 9th of August in 1980, my divorce papers from
Jane
arrived from England, allowing me to formally marry
Ms. T
on August 21st
Stu was born on the 30th, 10-days late ( he was due on the 20th ) and we were subsequently married in September at her mother's church Niagara Falls 
.
en route
A snap of Alex with his lobster badge 
and one of
Stu
with his lobster 
Stu at Thunder Hole 
On our route home ( after a week at the cabin ), we drove via the town of North Pole, NY 
where we also met
Santa-Moose!
|
| September |
At a 1981 job fair held in downtown DC, I meet with Ted Stathis;
he brought me in to join up with
Fairchild Industries
in November '81 ( shared below )
In 1985, I took my family to Europe for our fabulous 1st UK family & friends visit!! My genealogy research began in 1988; view my development page here ( or an older one )? |
| October |
In 1980, Stuart came as a baby with
Ms. T
from staying at their house in Paoli, PA to our apartment on Castle Boulevard, in Maryland ( see above )
In 1985 we got our new AeroStar van |
| November |
In 1981 I moved my family
( just Stu;
Alex arrived in 1982 )
to a rented
house
in Sterling Park, Virginia ( a 35+ mile commute back to work! )
I also moved on from my 3½ years with Burroughs, starting work at Fairchild Industries as a Software Engineer. I designed & implemented embedded real-time control applications, becoming the Lead Engineer for teams of up to 8 software engineers responsible for overall systems & software design with timely delivery of high-quality product software and planning, deploying training and technical reviews of team members & other engineers, configuration management of all project software. I coordinated team members there for 3½ years with work for several systems:
|
| December | As there were far too many Christmas's to share in detail, I did get some awesome gifts like these, captured in '99! |
Return to the top or visit my Home Page
The End of My 80's Decade…
Well, that's the end of my selected events from the 80's decade…
visit the more recent decades here?
You could also go to
my Bio summary page,
the personal profile that I created a few years ago,
a page that shares my many years of work,
my family tree page or
visit my FaceBook
where you can scroll down to view my events year-by-year
As I expect that parts of my eDiary will improve and/or change as I tag some more year-by-year info, or clarify some of the threads… watch this space!
Please also visit my
privacy page
to be aware of some legal stuff?
As a final thought, view some snaps of me & my family in my
older album? Enjoy!! ;)