I graduated in 1968 with a BSME from Long Beach State College (now CSULB) and went to work in the Aerospace Industry.

After a few years  working for large corporations, I made the transition to a very small company.  Plas-Ties manufactured twist ties, used mainly in the baking (bread) industry.  I was one of two engineers working to design equipment for the manufacture and equipment to apply twist ties that we sold to various customers.  My boss (the other engineer) was an experienced machine designer.

After a couple of years, the company was sold, and new management created a lot of changes that did not seem to me to be positive, so I started looking for a new job.  (It turned out I was right, the company didn’t last that long)

My next position was at Hartman Slicer, a company that made automatic bread slicers and bun baggers for the wholesale baking industry.  I was both the engineer (sole) and the plant manager.  Since I had already been working as the part-time plant manager at Plas-Ties, the transition was pretty smooth.  The company had about 35 employees, including the owner and the owner’s wife.

From this position, I decided that I should strike out on my own, so I opened a machinery manufacturing company, using contacts had made with Hartman.  (Hartman was a one-hour commute from my home which contributed to this decision.)  I designed and manufactured a few small items for various wholesale bakers.  This led to some introduction to the tortilla equipment industry.  It was during some consulting with one of them that the idea of a tortilla press was hatched.  I manufactured these for a few years, but ultimately I could not support myself and family with it.  There simply wasn’t a large enough market for the tool, to grow the company to the size I desired.

After closing the company, I went to work for Comco, Inc in Burbank.  Again, a long commute, but this was solved by moving to Burbank.  I was hired as a machine designer, but when the Engineering Manager retired, I was promoted to that position.

Then events conspired to force changes,  my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and my father didn’t react well.  In fact, he could be said to be clinically depressed.  Since my parents lived in Santa Ana, and we were in Burbank, there was little we could do at this distance.  So, we moved to Santa Ana so we would available for assistance.

I attempted the commute for a few months, but it just proved too difficult, what with stop and go traffic for most of the distance.  So, I applied for a designer position at Thermco Systems, which was only a few miles away.  In fact, it was close enough that I rode my bicycle to work most days, to take advantage of the company program to award vacation days for it.  Thermco manufactured semiconductor furnaces, and I began as a designer on the VTR (one of the furnace models).  After several  months, my boss expressed his unhappiness with his position and would like to return to design, and suggested that I take his position.  Thus, I found myself in management again.  After a few years working for Bob Piccioni and Frank Martin as CEO and VP,  they were both forced out in a political move by one of the Sales VP’s.

The two ended up at Ontrac in Milpitas and encouraged me to join them.  I went, and became the System Enginering Manager.

After a couple of years, history repeated itself and Bob was forced out, only this time by an ambitious Marketing Manager.  At this time, I was fortunate enough to have connections with Strasbaugh in San Luis Obispo, where I was brought on board to manage the Symphony machine program.  This was an interesting position, and my wife and family enjoyed living in San Luis Obispo.  However, Alan Strasbaugh brought a new CEO to “take us to the next level”.  I’m not sure if Alan was aware that there always two next levels.  And the new CEO took us to the other one.  I escaped Strasbaugh only a few weeks before the bankruptcy filing.

Next, I wound up at Delta Design in San Diego.  This job was touted as a “mini-CEO” position managing the entire team for the Castle Product (a semiconductor device tester).  Oddly enough, the two VP’s of Engineering that were part of the interview process warned me not to take the job, saying that the environment was toxic.  Unfortunately,  I had little choice, since I was watching Strasbaugh dissolve before my eyes.

They were right, but I lived with it for a couple of years, and then couldn’t.  Next stop,  Cymer.  I had a couple of friends there from Thermco, so I was brought on as a System Engineer.  There I worked on the next generation light source for photolighography.

At this point I was commuting from Lake Arrowhead to Rancho Bernardo once a week, and staying at a friend’s house.  I could only do this for so long, until an opening appeared at Tamarack Scientific in Corona.  It was a lot closer to home than Ranch Bernardo, so I went for it.  This was a happy change, until the owner/founder died, and everything went south.

My next, and nearly last, position was as Director of Engineering at Arc Machines in Pacoima.  Another weekly commute, but had the advantage of reworking a demoralized Engineering Department, which has been damaged by my predecessor.  This company was managed by the founders, and was a great place to work.  Then, disaster struck.  The company was sold to a private equity firm that had different ideas and motives than the founders.  I hung there until the third CEO in three months decided there was no need for a Director of Engineering. I actually tried to find work for a while, but at a certain age, it becomes difficult.  So, I answered at ad for an engineer locally and designed a centrifugal clutch for a group looking to supplant the current design.  In addition I went ahead and got a Real Estate Salesman’s license and began to spend a little time with that.  Eventually, I got my Broker’s license, and now planning to open a brokerage under my DBA of Coven Real Estate.