College Highlights - B.S.E.E., Princeton University, 1959; MSCS University of Pennsylvania, 1965. I gave up on my PhD and took the MS. I got the first MSCS degree from Penn!

Marriage and Family Highlights - I married Joan Rita Klecka, June 20, 1959, one week after college graduation. We have five children - Sean (1961), Elizabeth (1963), Catherine (1967), Jennifer (1968), and Ann Marie (1971).

So far we also have five grandchildren - Sean Kyle (10), Jared (8), Nathan (5), Jennifer Benjamin (1), and Catherine Lynn (8mo). Sean is married to Deena Rossi, lives in Southlake, TX, and works for Andersen Consulting where he was recently made an Associate Partner. Elizabeth has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Michigan, married John Kirchhoff, lives in New Baltimore, MI, and teaches at the University of Detroit/Mercy College. Catherine is an accountant (retired), married Stephen Silva (who just got out of the Navy where he has been a helicopter pilot). They live near Austin, TX while Stephen gets his MBA from UT, Austin. Jennifer is a social worker (retired), married Drew Coates, and lives in Georgetown, TX. Ann Marie lives in San Antonio, TX, is completing her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of South Florida, and just got a job as a counselor in a state children's hospital working with teenagers.

I have had a great surprise late in life in finding my father's family. When my mother died, I found a paper where she named my father, Benjamin Willis. We did a search for the family in the Carolinas and found them in Winston- Salem. I learned that my mother, grandmother, her friend, Helen Bryant, my father, his older brother and parents all signed a paper agreeing not to tell me who my father was. Helen made up my name and a story to cover up. The story was actually taken from her personal life. Unfortunately, my father died before I met him, but I did meet an aunt and uncle who welcomed me wholeheartedly. This uncle was five years younger than my father, and had not signed the paper. I learned I have two half brothers and 8 first cousins, of whom I have met 5 so far. My uncle died 3 years ago, but we still visit the aunt. This past summer she held a family reunion at her house while we were there, and we met a new cousin.

Career Highlights - I worked for Texas Instruments in Dallas for 31 years. Most of the time I worked on Design Automation for the Semiconductor Business. For the last few years, I worked in the Research labs. Major accomplishments were a logic simulator, design verification tools, and program manager for the development of a Design Automation suite on UNIX workstations. I had to fight a senior VP to get permission to use UNIX platforms instead of proprietary TI hardware. At the end of my career I was working on specialized tools which could not be purchased, principally in the area of Electro Static Discharge prevention. I retired in August 1998, which was three years ahead of plan!

After raising the children, Joan got a graduate degree in Psychology Counseling. She works as a volunteer for two local agencies. Now she is studying creative writing and has started a book on her family.

Travel/Vacation Highlights -While the children were young we alternated years of going to Joan's parents on Long Island, where we spent many happy days there, and at Robert Moses Park. I still remember the 4th of July family dinners at the Kleckas. The other years we traveled through the west: Grand Canyon, Colorado, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, San Diego, etc. The children now tell us that they had experienced travel far beyond most of their contemporaries and seen most of the sights. Now we meet every other year at a rented beach house on the North Carolina Outer banks (Corolla) for a week of sun and sand. It is great to have the whole family together and to see the grandchildren interact. For work I traveled to Bedford, England about twice a year starting in about 1976. When Helen Bryant moved to Henfield, England in 1978-9, I would visit her each trip while touring. I toured London, Cambridge, Oxford, Bath, Winchester, Stonehenge, Canterbury and much of Sussex and Kent. I became expert at driving on the left! Later I started traveling to Bangalore, India twice a year. Three or four times, I flew around the world because the around the world tickets are cheaper than round-trip to-from tickets. I visited Japan, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Singapore. Singapore is the only one I liked, a beautiful, clean city. In India I achieved a childhood goal by visiting the Taj Mahal. The roll of film I used that trip was one of the rare perfect ones. I have sold about four enlargements of my Taj picture. More recently, on my last trip, I went to Germany - Erlangen, and Nurnberg. Beautiful cities.

Joan and I have done several long distance walking tours. Three in England: North Devon, North Cornwall, and the St David of Wales. We also did the Ring of Kerry in Ireland and met Joan's cousins. One cousin, who lived in Dublin, drove us to Tipperary to meet the other cousin, a gentleman farmer. On the way we visited Kilkenny and Cashel. I feel that the Irish trip, although it rained overall, was the best one for the friendliness of the people, the pubs, and the scenery. Last year we walked in the Loire valley in France and spent a long weekend in Paris. This year we go with a church group to Italy for 12 days, to Assisi, Florence, Siena, and Rome. We have also started taking mini -vacations about twice a year to Florida. At first we went to Sarasota, but now we go to Vero Beach.

Hobbies/sports - Our main sport activity is long distance walking. Normally we walk 3-5 miles, 4-6 times/week, and then 9 miles around a local lake. We also walk with the Dallas Sierra Club and on self-guided 10k's sponsored by the American Volkssport Assn. These 10k's take you around a town showing the best residential areas and any lakes or other special features. For instance in Denison, we visited Eisenhower's birthplace. The most interesting one so far was Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. In the summer I swim about a mile every day, because it is too hot to walk in Texas in the summer. This summer we had over 40 days over 100, with a high of 112 on Labor Day. My main hobbies are stamp collecting, genealogy, and reading. I used to do photography, but not much now. The stamp collecting is the principal time and money sink. I specialize in Classic US, South America, and Australia. Currently I am having lots of fun with the varieties of Australian States.

I got into genealogy when my mother died, which was also when we started having grandchildren! My mother and her cousin had done quite a bit. Our son Sean was living in Connecticut at the time, and he managed to extend several New England lines back to immigrants. I have worked mostly on my father 's family in South Carolina and Virginia. Some of the Virginia lines have been traced back to English nobility, which, if you believe it, goes back to Charlemagne, and his line had been done near his lifetime back to ancient Rome. I have found about 900 direct ancestors, plus about 400 royals. Reading is a major activity. I started reading Scientific American when I was about 12, Fantasy and Science Fiction about the same time, and Atlantic in about 1970. I read history, currently Greek and Roman classics, most recently Lucretius and Seneca. I also read too many mysteries! I have converted an old hobby, baseball cards, into a small business. When I peaked I was buying wholesale, doing shows, and selling by private sale to a few select customers. Now I have scaled back to selling through ebay. Soon I plan to sell stamps through ebay also. I'm an old hand at the Internet, starting in about 1978 with ARPANET and Usenet. I got my first home computer in 1979. The Internet and collectible hobbies are a perfect match. I sell baseball cards all over the US and Canada, and buy and trade stamps all over the world.

Achievements/Awards - Texas Instruments Fellow, 1986

Comments - I welcome contact, preferably via email. The only class member I maintained contact with is George Kefeli. Through research for my Dutch ancestors in New York, I found Firth Haring Fabend. And later, Karen Dahlberg Vanderven. Most recently I discovered Bob Mock living 20 miles away. We met for lunch and will see more of each other.

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