***Editor’s Note: The “I Became An Engineer” blog runs every friday. To share your story email sarah.goncalves@advantagemedia.com***
This week’s story is brought to us by reader Robert Esse.
I grew up on a farm in central Minnesota, and when I graduated from high school, I wanted no more schooling. I worked for two years laboring and then was drafted. After boot camp, they put me in the Signal Corps. They placed a list of the classes I could take in front of me. I saw that Pole Lineman School was the shortest at eight weeks, and so I said that was what I wanted to do.
The Sgt. said no. He wanted me to go to a 20-week course called Repeater and Carrier. No discussion.
I quickly learned a lot about telephone communication and its state of the art in the 1950s as it existed within the military. I found it extremely interesting. Nearing the end of my two-year stint, the army offered to let me out 90 days early if I committed to go to college. The time was right; I had become more interested in studying, learning and problem solving. I wanted to learn more about the broad area of what today is called STEM.
I went to a liberal arts school in the Midwest thinking of pre-engineering but was talked into getting a physics major. With that new degree, I was fortunate enough to work within a relatively narrow industry segment called Package Engineering and the associated challenges of material composition, structural design, equipment automation, and food safety.
It was a tremendously rewarding field with very unique challenges but broad implications when you consider that what you design repeatedly enters millions of homes in a wide variety of executions. This all must be done safely while meeting users’ expectations.
Beyond that first career, I was challenged with developing and taking to market a new liquid product to manage relative humidity that was inexpensive, portable, and also disposable. We formed a company, and now at 83 years old, I find the technical challenges of this latest career to be the peak of applying what I have learned over my lifetime.
At this point, 10 patents have my name on them and four more are emerging. I have been very blessed in my lifetime.
Read other stories, here:
- A Note From The Editor: An Engineer’s Story
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Lunch Box
- I Became An Engineer: Because of Christmas Lights
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of The Cool Jackets
- I Became An Engineer: Because My Dad Said Not To
- I Became An Engineer: Despite Being Bad At Math
- I Became An Engineer: Because of Uncle Chet
- I Became An Engineer: Because I Can’t Stop Asking ‘Why?’
- I Became An Engineer: Because of Star Trek (Specifically Montgomery Scott)
- I Became An Engineer: Because I Was A Really Lucky Nerd
- I Became An Engineer: But ‘Nobody Knows’ Why
- I Became An Engineer: Because of Nuclear Submarines
- I Became An Engineer: Because of a Sewing Machine
- I Became An Engineer: Because No One Was Hiring Shoe Salesmen
- I Became An Engineer: Because of Mr. Kenny, the TV/Radio Repair Man
- I Became An Engineer: Because of a Book (And My Mom)
- I Became An Engineer: Because of a Cattle Ranch
- I Became An Engineer: Because of a Wise Father and the Possibility of Death
- I Became An Engineer: Because of An Evil Mastermind
- I Became An Engineer: To Get Off the Tractor
- I Became An Engineer: Because of My Rodeo Coach
- I Became An Engineer: Because the Air Force Equipment Kept Breaking
- I Became an Engineer: Because My Mom Let Me Take Apart the Old Vacuum
- I Became An Engineer: Because I Liked Tearing My Toys Apart
- I Became An Engineer: Because of the Mysterious Glowing Tubes
- I Became An Engineer: Because of My Father, Star Trek, and Music
- I Became An Engineer: Because I Was Tired of Sweating
- I Became An Engineer: But Almost the Wrong Kind
- I Became an Engineer: Because of a Car
- I Became An Engineer: Because of a Trip to Disney World
- I Became An Engineer: Because I Ran Out of Programming Classes
- I Became An Engineer: Because of My Best Friend Joe
- I Became an Engineer: Because I Loved Languages
- I Became An Engineer: Because of a Hypothetical Hovercraft
- I Became An Engineer: Because of My Uncle’s Girlfriend’s Brother-in-Law
- I Became An Engineer: Because of Genetics
- I Became An Engineer: Because I Set Fire to the Mattress