August 4, 2005 – Starting Anew Out West

August 4, 2005 – Starting Anew Out West

Upon leaving the halcyon haven of the University of Texas at Arlington in May 1974, I felt at a loss. The disciplined structure of college life that had directed a large part of my intellectual activity since January of 1969 was gone and I felt this hole in me where it had been. I had been kicked out of the nest and was expected to fly, but in my case that was not difficult. I was already working a full time job at the Collins Radio Company on Arapaho Road one of the northern-most exits off Central Expressway as it zoomed north toward McKinney, Sherman, Denison and on into the Sooner State. However, it did mean that I had to find a new position inside Collins, one more in keeping with my recent education achievement, or find a new job outside of Collins. I opted for the latter as Collins was in the throes of a decline in military spending—one of its major sources of income—and a painful corporate redirection toward enterprise customers. Before I left Collins, Rockwell International would acquire my financially ailing company. Besides, Collins would not see by Bachelor of Science in Economics of much value beyond what they were paying me. A new company would view the degree and past work experience as a package and make a better offer.

I needed a new job paying more for another more important reason: a source of secondary income had gone. I had tapped the last of my GI Bill earned for my service in the U.S. Navy at the start of the 1960s—Uncle Sam had fulfilled his obligation to me as I had earlier fulfilled my obligation to him. I found the new job in May at E-Systems (now part of Raytheon), another government contractor down the road from Collins. The job offered a change and also a 20 percent pay increase. I couldn’t completely give up on the university and began taking night classes at the newly created University of Texas at Dallas. It was and is located at 800 West Campbell Road in Richardson—a stone’s throw from where we lived in Plano, compared to the 40-mile one-way trip I had been making to UT Arlington. Before UTD became an accredited member of the University of Texas, it was known as the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies though it began life in 1961 as Graduate Research Center of the Southwest. In 1969 the founders and landowners of SCAS—men who had created Texas Instruments and associated companies involved in oil exploration—gifted it to The University of Texas System and then Governor Preston Smith, on June 13, 1969, signed the bill turning SCAS into The University of Texas at Dallas. The legislation restricted UTD to offering only graduate degrees until 1975. I was among the 408 students in 1974 in advanced degree programs at the new campus. I started in the summer session in pursuit of a Master of Business Administration.

In the week of August 20th, 1974 after being with E-Systems less than three months, I interviewed with a small company, Diablo Systems Inc. from Sunnyvale, California, which was doing a recruiting tour through Dallas. They needed a technical writer, which is exactly what I had been doing for the past four years. Diablo had just been acquired by Xerox Corp. and was embarking on a major expansion. The recruiter, BA, who turned out to be the human resources executive for the company, liked my resume, my newly acquired degree, and my willingness to relocate to Sunnyvale. A week later on Thursday August 30th, I was on board a Delta Airline flight out of DFW nonstop to SFO. I’d taken a day off work. Immediately after graduating I had gone to a discount suit warehouse and purchased two suits that would be used for interviewing. I rose early on that Thursday morning dressed in one of my new suits, collected my resume and writing samples into a nice looking black plastic portfolio, kissed my wife IM and our two daughters goodbye and made my way to DFW for a 7:00 AM flight. On board the plane for the three and a half hour flight to SFO, I was full of great expectations. If I got this job, IM, the girls and I would be on our way to the San Francisco Bay Area—a dream IM and I shared for all the time we’d been together and before. I couldn’t jinx this by assuming anything. I had to go through the process and wait for it to complete before I allowed our young family to get too excited.

The magic of time travel—flying with the Sun—is that you arrive in less time than you actually spent in flight. I arrived at 8:30, walked to the Hertz desk, found a car reserved for me, filled out the paperwork and by 9:00 was on my way south out of SFO on California 101. I had known this road only as a passenger, never as a driver. Now, here I was driving myself in a large two-door American Motors Sedan—I can’t recall the model name though I remember it being bright red. Before leaving the airport, I called, BA, the HR person at Diablo to alert him I had arrived and would be driving down. He said the drive would take just under an hour and he would look for me just before 10:00. He gave me direction to Diablo from 101—exit at Lawrence Expressway south to the second major intersection, Arques Avenue, and then left to the driveway on the right just before Oakmead Parkway. I arrived as predicted 10 minutes before ten, announced myself to the receptionist who beckoned BA. He arrived shortly attired in dress pants, white shirt and tie and my day of interviewing began.

My first interview was my immediate boss ST, a nice guy who I immediately liked. He was tie-less, dressed in slacks and a sport shirt, wearing loafers—many of the other employees I’d seen were similarly dressed. He asked about my experience and I showed him what I had done while at Collins—I wasn’t at E-Systems long enough to produce something worth showing. He enquired: why was I leaving E-Systems so soon after being hired? I explained that IM and I wanted to relocate to California, to find a small company and participate in its growth. He recognized the story—it was probably his a few years ago. He asked about my technical background, particularly about my knowledge of computer hardware and software. I answered the questions to his satisfaction and after an hour I was handed off to BA who said we were going to spend a half hour with the company president and from their ST and a couple of the engineers wanted to take me to lunch. The company president CW was close to six foot tall and in retrospect reminded me of a young Bill Gates, a similar shaped face and same color hair, thin stature, self-assured, with a winning smile. He asked me about my family and how I felt about relocating. I repeated what I had said to ST. He asked a couple of technical questions about my knowledge of computers and the answers I gave dissolved the tension that existed before each. He spent a few minutes describing Diablo and his vision for where the company was going, and then apologized for not being able to come along for lunch. I said I completely understood and thanked him for considering me for the company.

Lunch was at a chain restaurant on the eastern side of Lawrence Expressway right after it crosses El Camino Real. I want to say it was Charlie Browns, once ubiquitous in California—now long gone. Our waitress was in a uniform comprising a skirt so short it exposed pants of the same color underneath, a frilly long sleeve blouse, and a serving wench’s hat. The lunch talk was a mix of guy talk and shoptalk with the Diablo guys asking about what I had worked on at Collins. I described some of the older equipment, large computer systems, communications gear for the NASA Apollo Program, and some of the telecommunications equipment we sold to companies such as MCI, which was just getting started competing in long distance with AT&T—back then still the monopolistic giant of American enterprise. You can tell when you get to talking with a bunch of guys if you mix or not and over lunch I got the feeling that I had passed the unseen test people administer to one another in social settings. Is he one of us? Will he fit into the culture? Is he a cool guy we can hang out with? After lunch I spent more time with BA who began to explain the benefits that the company offered and why I should want to join the company. Without seeming too anxious I explained that I liked what Diablo had to offer and would welcome the opportunity to come aboard. He asked for a couple of references and I gave him names of ex-supervisors at Collins who would say nice things about me. He asked how soon I would be able to join on receiving an offer. I told him I would need to give two weeks notice but could be ready to start a week or so later. BA said that SK and CW wanted to fill the position quickly and that I might look for an offer letter in the mail within a week. I didn’t have the job yet but it was pretty clear that barring a complete change in plan our little family could expect to be on our way to California within a month. I was beaming inside and thanked him as I left for the return drive to SFO and the plane ride back to DFW—I had a 6:00 PM flight getting me into DFW close to midnight.

I called IM as soon as I had dropped off the car and checked in for my flight. She and our two daughters ME and RD had planned a trip to Scotland, IM’s first trip since a journey we made between August 11th to the 31st of 1970 to introduce ME’s Scottish grandparents to their first blond-haired, hazel-eyed grandbaby. This would introduce them to their second dark-haired, hazel-eyed grandchild. We had already purchased the tickets to get a low fare. The three of them were leaving early next week on the Tuesday September 4th and returning Monday the 30th. If BA’s timetable for getting an offer letter to me was accurate, the girls would no sooner return from Scotland than we’d be on our way west. I received the offer on September 13th, called IM in Scotland to tell her the good news, and accepted the offer by phone the next day. I had finally cut the cord and would soon be leaving the safe confines of the University of Texas behind—my collegiate years were over. I gave two-weeks notice at E-Systems on Friday September 14th. The moving van that Diablo was sending to pick up our belongings would arrive October 2nd or 3rd. Once we’d gotten our worldly goods on their way, we packed up our 1972 green Pontiac station wagon with my new Toyota Corolla hitched to the back and we’re on our way.