I remember my time at Delta Chi quite fondly. I pledged my freshman year and lived in the house for both my sophomore and junior years. I was “B” my sophomore year while Art Angood ’56 was “A”. I lived with Dale Thiel ’58 in the house (also from Saginaw) and continued to live with him when we both moved to an apartment. We lived with brothers Paul Schultz and John Dwyer ’59 among others in the apartment.
I graduated in January 1959 with a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and went directly to East Hartford, CT to a career with Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Division of United Technologies starting as an Experimental Engineer. I worked at Pratt for 34 years, working my way up to be a project development engineer. I did a lot of work on jet aircraft engines, both development and certification.
I met my beautiful wife, Claire, in the Hartford area. We’ll be married 50 years in November of this year. We have two sons, Douglas and David, who are both married. We finally sold the family home in South Windsor, CT a few years ago and moved into a very comfortable condo nearby in Vernon, CT. We winter in Stuart, FL in a condo we own there. Stuart is on the east coast of Florida located on the Atlantic Ocean about 45 miles north of Palm Beach.
For those that remember, I did play and teach the bagpipes my entire life and recently retired from playing and judging, which I did all over the U.S. and Canada. My piping career is probably the thing that I am most proud of. I was Pipe-Major of the Manchester, CT pipe band for over 30 years. The band started competing under my direction and we won most of the major pipe band awards, including the North American Championship in grade 2 and we were the best overseas pipe band in the World’s Championship. The band ended up raising itself to grade 1 under my direction and celebrated 100 years of existence in 2014.
I am also very proud of the fact that I was the piping instructor of choice in this area and that many of the pipers in the Manchester Pipe Band today have been taught by me. I started judging solo pipers and bands in 1975 and plan to retire from judging this summer. I retired from the band and have played my pipes mostly in church with the organ recently.
One of the things I miss most is not being able to stay in touch with brothers due to the distance I am from Ann Arbor. I’ve been very healthy over the years although I’m starting to have some balance issues. Unfortunately, living so far away from Ann Arbor, I don’t get back very often. Please call or stop by to see me whether in CT in the summer or in Stuart in the winter. My email is [email protected] and I’d love to hear from you.
