His obituary by niece Emily Sauber:
Paul Thomas Sauber was born September 23, 1920 at St. Joseph Hospital,
Deer Lodge, Montana and died July 9, 2018 Bellevue, WA; son
of the late Bernard and Lena (Hollenback) Sauber, beloved husband of
Frances (Jacobs); father of Shirley Sauber; Thomas (Raquel); Bernard
(Carroll); Kenneth (Lois); Phillip (Elaine); Charles (Nancy); devoted
brother of Madalen Sugrue; grandfather to 12; great-grandfather to 13.
He was preceded in death by brothers Gregory, Joseph, Louis and
Edwin.
Paul attended The Gold Creek School, a one-room schoolhouse in Gold
Creek, Montana and Gonzaga High School, Spokane, WA (as a boarding
student). In 1944 he graduated from Gonzaga University with a BS in
Electrical Engineering and immediately took a job with Boeing as an
electrical engineer, earning $167.80 a month.
On May 22, 1944 he married Frances, who he met on a blind date while
she was attending Sacred Heart Nursing School in Spokane. He always
referred to Frances as his “sweetheart nurse” and was proud of their 74
years together.
Paul designed and patented a miniature device for airplane wind tunnel
tests that is still used today by doctors to measure symptoms of
Parkinson's. He built a facility at Boeing to stop airplane wing flaps from
coming apart on the first test flight of the B52 bomber. He tested the
flaps for the Bell X-1 rocket plane that Chuck Yeager flew to break the
sound barrier in 1947.
He worked with famous German rocket scientist Werner von Braun to
launch the Apollo spacecrafts to the moon, managed thelaunch teamfor
the Apollo Saturn V rockets and a team of 150 engineers at Cape
Kennedy, Florida who assembled and launched the Apollo rocket ships.
He shook President Nixon's hand after the launch of Apollo 12.
He retired from Boeing in 1982.
More important to Paul than work was his family, his Catholic faith and
volunteering. He volunteered with many organizations throughout his
life, including the Boy Scouts, The Diocese of Seattle, Catholic Charities
and The Giving Tree. He delivered meals for the Bellevue Food Bank
well into his 90s, when he himself had trouble getting around. Paul was
a skilled woodworker. His grandchildren and great-grandchildren
fondly remember the many toys and puzzles handmade for them by
their grandfather.
In retirement, Paul and Frances traveled the country in their
motorhome, spending time fishing and visiting family. They took many
of their grandchildren on trips across the United States, visiting his
hometown of Gold Creek, the National Parks, and many other
landmarks. Paul loved working in the woodshop he built in his
basement of his Bellevue home. Paul never met a stranger and easily
made friends with people from all walks of life. In his later years, he
enjoyed visits from his sister, children, grandchildren and great-
grandchildren.
His children and grandchildren describe him as curious, friendly, a
lifelong learner, a master craftsman, an eager storyteller, and a devout
Catholic. Paul could solve any problem, build or fix anything, and always
find adventure.
Paul Thomas Sauber was born September 23, 1920 at St. Joseph Hospital,
Deer Lodge, Montana and died July 9, 2018 Bellevue, WA; son
of the late Bernard and Lena (Hollenback) Sauber, beloved husband of
Frances (Jacobs); father of Shirley Sauber; Thomas (Raquel); Bernard
(Carroll); Kenneth (Lois); Phillip (Elaine); Charles (Nancy); devoted
brother of Madalen Sugrue; grandfather to 12; great-grandfather to 13.
He was preceded in death by brothers Gregory, Joseph, Louis and
Edwin.
Paul attended The Gold Creek School, a one-room schoolhouse in Gold
Creek, Montana and Gonzaga High School, Spokane, WA (as a boarding
student). In 1944 he graduated from Gonzaga University with a BS in
Electrical Engineering and immediately took a job with Boeing as an
electrical engineer, earning $167.80 a month.
On May 22, 1944 he married Frances, who he met on a blind date while
she was attending Sacred Heart Nursing School in Spokane. He always
referred to Frances as his “sweetheart nurse” and was proud of their 74
years together.
Paul designed and patented a miniature device for airplane wind tunnel
tests that is still used today by doctors to measure symptoms of
Parkinson's. He built a facility at Boeing to stop airplane wing flaps from
coming apart on the first test flight of the B52 bomber. He tested the
flaps for the Bell X-1 rocket plane that Chuck Yeager flew to break the
sound barrier in 1947.
He worked with famous German rocket scientist Werner von Braun to
launch the Apollo spacecrafts to the moon, managed thelaunch teamfor
the Apollo Saturn V rockets and a team of 150 engineers at Cape
Kennedy, Florida who assembled and launched the Apollo rocket ships.
He shook President Nixon's hand after the launch of Apollo 12.
He retired from Boeing in 1982.
More important to Paul than work was his family, his Catholic faith and
volunteering. He volunteered with many organizations throughout his
life, including the Boy Scouts, The Diocese of Seattle, Catholic Charities
and The Giving Tree. He delivered meals for the Bellevue Food Bank
well into his 90s, when he himself had trouble getting around. Paul was
a skilled woodworker. His grandchildren and great-grandchildren
fondly remember the many toys and puzzles handmade for them by
their grandfather.
In retirement, Paul and Frances traveled the country in their
motorhome, spending time fishing and visiting family. They took many
of their grandchildren on trips across the United States, visiting his
hometown of Gold Creek, the National Parks, and many other
landmarks. Paul loved working in the woodshop he built in his
basement of his Bellevue home. Paul never met a stranger and easily
made friends with people from all walks of life. In his later years, he
enjoyed visits from his sister, children, grandchildren and great-
grandchildren.
His children and grandchildren describe him as curious, friendly, a
lifelong learner, a master craftsman, an eager storyteller, and a devout
Catholic. Paul could solve any problem, build or fix anything, and always
find adventure.
Here is a biography written by Aunt Madalen Sugrue my dad's sister:
PROFILE OF PAUL T. SAUBER
Surprisingly, websites and chapters in books mention retirement as concentrating on financial planning. Herein, Paul Sauber, at the age of 98, has a life that adds up to more than just the sum of investments and retiring. His investments are molded in his caring desire of people, his Catholic faith, and his family.
Graduating from Gonzaga High School at the age of 16, Paul later returned to school at Gonzaga University to embark on a life-long career.
Christian living, theological reflection, and honored by the Jesuits of the teaching of quality education, Paul had some opportunities of becoming familiar with the variety of human cultures, thus obtaining a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in February, 1944. It was his living and studying at Gonzaga that inspired him to go on and serve humanity by his profession at the Boeing Company in Seattle, beginning in March, 1944 at a salary of $167.80 per month.
After two weeks of drafting school at Boeing to learn the “Boeing Way”, the vibration lab and the structures staff accepted him as an Electrical Engineer.
He often tells the story that after two years of measuring stress, strain, force, acceleration, etc., he was selected as one of two to go to San Francisco to instrument the work structure of Pan American Airlines “China Clipper”, Boeing Model 314, a huge intercontinental flying boat. He flew around the area, recording much data on a recording oscilloscograph. He was there two weeks and in returning home, his year-old daughter did not remember him!
During the next few years, Paul made many test flights on the B-29, B-50, C-97-377, and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s equivalent to Air force 1, (but much smaller) with 4 engines likened to the B-17 of WWII Days.
After the war ended he had new challenges to be solved; radiant heat, high noise generation, quick heat, electro-magnet with vibroos, flutter model tests in the Boeing tunnel, University of Washington tunnel.
During the B-52 first flight, it lost a flap and Paul was selected to design a 163db noise generator to determine a flap design and it was a success. He designed
and obtained a U.S. Patent on an accelerometer located a company to fabricate them commercially. The medical community also used them to measure symptoms of Parkinson, Tremors, etc.
On and on was the work in the Boeing plant there in Seattle from 1944 to 1965 and at home he was the father six, one girl and five boys. Raising his family always came first, their Catholic eduction, his involvement in various church centered activities. For many years he served as a member of St. Vincent de Paul Society, working with the poor and soliciting donations to continue the various projects in providing food and clothing for them.
Working with and being a Knight of Columbus was rewarding and today he is an active life member of this organization.
During the span of his five boys’ education in elementary school, Paul was a leader in Boy Scouts Webelo and taught many boys crafts, such as checkerboard games and the fun and joy of model airplanes.
Many community service projects were to his liking and involvd his children as well as the other children enrolled in the Catholic School elementary classes.
On 1948 his picture appeared in the Popular Science magazine showing him during the operating vibration testing of President D. Roosevelt’s B-29 plane.
He also was a volunteer at Shadel Hospital Neurologists, as a consultant in brain wave patterns.
As a supervisor in the Systems Test Division, Paul moved to Huntsville, Alabama; in 1967 to New Orleans; and in 1968 to Cape Kennedy, Florida to work in the Space program. He moved his family with him providing them valuable experiences, always keeping involved with the Catholic community, and ensuring a good educations thru high school and the universities they chose, to become adults.
Unforgettable experiences in the SPACE program that are most special range from shaking hands with President of the United States, Richard Nixon, being in the firing room during the countdown of an Apollo mission, to being on the Board of Decision Making as to the minutes/seconds of the flights of launch to the moon.
After moving back to Seattle in 1973, he worked at the Boeing Tulaup site. In 1974 he was in the Boeing Boat Division-Hydrofoil and Navy, by 1976 he was in the Space Lab. Retirement came in 1982.
His work and photos of him at work are documented in the book “Adventures in Aerospace Testing” by Larry Howard, published in 2014.
Travel, fishing and visiting parents and relatives in Montana ll were part of the retirement plan, yet Seattle was still ‘home’, and there Paul pursued his desire to reach out to the underprivileged of the community. The Diocese of Seattle had a homeless shelter fore men, where Paul volunteered as ‘toy maker’, showing the men how to make toys, puzzles to rocking horse, and how to sell them at Pike Place Market. He was instrumental in establishing the workshop with machines, keeping the saw blades sharpened and repairing the machines....ALL CHARITABLE WORK. Wooden puzzles and the ‘fish’ key ring puzzle continue there to be a favorite, (the key ring sells for $10 at Pike Place Market).
Paul volunteered his time and work for the Bellevue Food Bank delivering food from grocery stores to the food bank. He continued being active in his loyalty to the Gonzaga Alumni and to his Catholic Church, faith and parish projects... the latest collecting school materials of crayons, pencils, et., for the Catholic elementary school.
All six children are married and living in various parts of the United States (Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Washington). They visit often and take pride in celebrating Paul and his wife, Frances’ birthdays. Paul will be 98 years old on Sept. 23, 2018 and Frances turned 96 years old this past March. They take pride in celebrating their 74 years together. Paul still refers to Frances as his “sweetheart nurse”. While Paul attended his 4 years at Gonzaga University, Frances attended Sa- cred Heart School of Nursing in Spokane. They were married upon graduation May 22, 1944. They met on a blind date and danced the night away! A recent memory is that of a dance together at grand-daughter’s wedding reception, their favorite “Look At Us” by Vince Gill.
The last attendance at a Gonzaga Alumni Day included four classmates from the Class of 1944.
Being with a Senior Citizen group provides him another joy for helping others with crafts of his toy maker experience. The latest project was that of designing and making a spinning wheel for one of the senior ladies for her to use with wool.
Not withholding, it is commendable to mention that for the last few years, Paul has made various wood puzzles for special needs students in their elementary school classes. After a teacher returned from a summer trip to Africa, Paul had an elephant, giraffe, tiger, lion, and zebra puzzle for her and her special needs students to enjoy.
What a personal thrill of happiness for Paul at his age to have Gonzaga Univ. to recognize him as one of “Their Own” in a lifetime of accomplishments credited to his wonderful Catholic Education.
PROFILE OF PAUL T. SAUBER
Surprisingly, websites and chapters in books mention retirement as concentrating on financial planning. Herein, Paul Sauber, at the age of 98, has a life that adds up to more than just the sum of investments and retiring. His investments are molded in his caring desire of people, his Catholic faith, and his family.
Graduating from Gonzaga High School at the age of 16, Paul later returned to school at Gonzaga University to embark on a life-long career.
Christian living, theological reflection, and honored by the Jesuits of the teaching of quality education, Paul had some opportunities of becoming familiar with the variety of human cultures, thus obtaining a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in February, 1944. It was his living and studying at Gonzaga that inspired him to go on and serve humanity by his profession at the Boeing Company in Seattle, beginning in March, 1944 at a salary of $167.80 per month.
After two weeks of drafting school at Boeing to learn the “Boeing Way”, the vibration lab and the structures staff accepted him as an Electrical Engineer.
He often tells the story that after two years of measuring stress, strain, force, acceleration, etc., he was selected as one of two to go to San Francisco to instrument the work structure of Pan American Airlines “China Clipper”, Boeing Model 314, a huge intercontinental flying boat. He flew around the area, recording much data on a recording oscilloscograph. He was there two weeks and in returning home, his year-old daughter did not remember him!
During the next few years, Paul made many test flights on the B-29, B-50, C-97-377, and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s equivalent to Air force 1, (but much smaller) with 4 engines likened to the B-17 of WWII Days.
After the war ended he had new challenges to be solved; radiant heat, high noise generation, quick heat, electro-magnet with vibroos, flutter model tests in the Boeing tunnel, University of Washington tunnel.
During the B-52 first flight, it lost a flap and Paul was selected to design a 163db noise generator to determine a flap design and it was a success. He designed
and obtained a U.S. Patent on an accelerometer located a company to fabricate them commercially. The medical community also used them to measure symptoms of Parkinson, Tremors, etc.
On and on was the work in the Boeing plant there in Seattle from 1944 to 1965 and at home he was the father six, one girl and five boys. Raising his family always came first, their Catholic eduction, his involvement in various church centered activities. For many years he served as a member of St. Vincent de Paul Society, working with the poor and soliciting donations to continue the various projects in providing food and clothing for them.
Working with and being a Knight of Columbus was rewarding and today he is an active life member of this organization.
During the span of his five boys’ education in elementary school, Paul was a leader in Boy Scouts Webelo and taught many boys crafts, such as checkerboard games and the fun and joy of model airplanes.
Many community service projects were to his liking and involvd his children as well as the other children enrolled in the Catholic School elementary classes.
On 1948 his picture appeared in the Popular Science magazine showing him during the operating vibration testing of President D. Roosevelt’s B-29 plane.
He also was a volunteer at Shadel Hospital Neurologists, as a consultant in brain wave patterns.
As a supervisor in the Systems Test Division, Paul moved to Huntsville, Alabama; in 1967 to New Orleans; and in 1968 to Cape Kennedy, Florida to work in the Space program. He moved his family with him providing them valuable experiences, always keeping involved with the Catholic community, and ensuring a good educations thru high school and the universities they chose, to become adults.
Unforgettable experiences in the SPACE program that are most special range from shaking hands with President of the United States, Richard Nixon, being in the firing room during the countdown of an Apollo mission, to being on the Board of Decision Making as to the minutes/seconds of the flights of launch to the moon.
After moving back to Seattle in 1973, he worked at the Boeing Tulaup site. In 1974 he was in the Boeing Boat Division-Hydrofoil and Navy, by 1976 he was in the Space Lab. Retirement came in 1982.
His work and photos of him at work are documented in the book “Adventures in Aerospace Testing” by Larry Howard, published in 2014.
Travel, fishing and visiting parents and relatives in Montana ll were part of the retirement plan, yet Seattle was still ‘home’, and there Paul pursued his desire to reach out to the underprivileged of the community. The Diocese of Seattle had a homeless shelter fore men, where Paul volunteered as ‘toy maker’, showing the men how to make toys, puzzles to rocking horse, and how to sell them at Pike Place Market. He was instrumental in establishing the workshop with machines, keeping the saw blades sharpened and repairing the machines....ALL CHARITABLE WORK. Wooden puzzles and the ‘fish’ key ring puzzle continue there to be a favorite, (the key ring sells for $10 at Pike Place Market).
Paul volunteered his time and work for the Bellevue Food Bank delivering food from grocery stores to the food bank. He continued being active in his loyalty to the Gonzaga Alumni and to his Catholic Church, faith and parish projects... the latest collecting school materials of crayons, pencils, et., for the Catholic elementary school.
All six children are married and living in various parts of the United States (Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Washington). They visit often and take pride in celebrating Paul and his wife, Frances’ birthdays. Paul will be 98 years old on Sept. 23, 2018 and Frances turned 96 years old this past March. They take pride in celebrating their 74 years together. Paul still refers to Frances as his “sweetheart nurse”. While Paul attended his 4 years at Gonzaga University, Frances attended Sa- cred Heart School of Nursing in Spokane. They were married upon graduation May 22, 1944. They met on a blind date and danced the night away! A recent memory is that of a dance together at grand-daughter’s wedding reception, their favorite “Look At Us” by Vince Gill.
The last attendance at a Gonzaga Alumni Day included four classmates from the Class of 1944.
Being with a Senior Citizen group provides him another joy for helping others with crafts of his toy maker experience. The latest project was that of designing and making a spinning wheel for one of the senior ladies for her to use with wool.
Not withholding, it is commendable to mention that for the last few years, Paul has made various wood puzzles for special needs students in their elementary school classes. After a teacher returned from a summer trip to Africa, Paul had an elephant, giraffe, tiger, lion, and zebra puzzle for her and her special needs students to enjoy.
What a personal thrill of happiness for Paul at his age to have Gonzaga Univ. to recognize him as one of “Their Own” in a lifetime of accomplishments credited to his wonderful Catholic Education.
Some stories as remembered by his son Philip:
Childhood
Dad attended the one room school house in Gold Creek, MT until he graduated 8th grade. He lived on a farm called the Hubb place just outside Gold Creek from when he was born in 1920 until they move into town in 1929. Grandpa only had a Model T and he was busy farming so that meant dad rode a horse to school for 4 or 5 years! After they moved into Gold Creek he could walk to school. School lunches in those days consisted of whatever Grandma Lena and the other school mothers cooked and brought to school at lunch time. Nice hot lunch! When dad was 10 years old he got a new baby sister. Grandma Lena was going to name her Magdalena after herself. When dad heard that he said “Haha, Maggie the Magpie!” So that is how we got Aunt Madalen! Those were not all happy years. In 1937 his younger brother Louis was killed by a car that slid over him on the icy road on the hill behind Gold Creek. Grandpa Bernard put Louis in his 1936 Oldmobile and drove as fast as possible to get him to the hospital in Deer Lodge. But Louis was dead and the car dead as well. The Oldmobile was worn out from all the desperate driving to save his boy. When dad graduated from 8th grade he was only 12 years old as he had skipped a couple grades. In 1932 there weren’t any school buses to go to high school in Deer Lodge, 20 miles away. But those 20 miles wasn’t like today’s 20 miles and 20 minutes to get there and nobody had more than one car. Only the state hiway 90 was paved with gravel, the rest of the way was on bumpy dirt roads. So going to the big city of Deer Lodge was only an occasional event. Dad would have had to board in Deer Lodge to go to high school there or somewhere else. That somewhere else turned out to be Gonzaga High School in Spokane, WA 260 miles away by train, a 5 or 6 hour ride. Dad moved away from home at age 12! Hard to imagine a 12 year old away at school and only getting to come home several times a year. Recently I asked him if he felt like a country bumpkin in the big city of Spokane, WA at Gonzaga High. To my surprise he said it didn’t take him long to figure out the one room school house in Gold Creek was a little behind the schools in the big city. Dad wrote a letter home every week. Many years ago I got to read the letters as grandma Lena had saved everyone. They were mostly about every day life at Gonzaga. Dad didn’t have to do laundry however. He mailed his clothes home and grandma would wash them and mail them back! He genius was developing during those years at Gonzaga high school. Dad was interested in the high technology of the day, radio, tube radio that is. He read every book in the library on radio and must have found instructions on how to build one. He built his own crystal radio set. It wasn’t all smooth going however as he didn’t realize the coil of wire used for tuning into different channels had to be insulated so the radio didn’t work at first. There certainly wasn’t anyone else in high school to tell him why it didn’t work. But he got it going. For an antenna he threw a coil of wire out the window of his room into a tree. The radio required a sensitive set of head phones. He would put the head phones on and cover his head with his pillow at night so the priest-in-training called Misters wouldn’t see the radio at lights out time when they checked every boy’s room. The boys weren’t allowed to have a radio in their dorm rooms. He eventually did get caught with the radio. The Mister told him however that if he were smart enough to build his own crystal radio set that he could keep it, just don’t tell everyone about it! Dad graduated high school at age 16 in 1936 and stayed home out of school for 3 years. Dad was always fixing something even in those years between high school and college. Grandpa Bernard wouldn’t let dad repair the old cars that they had. One time they took their old Chevy into Missoula 62 miles away to get a tune up. After the tune-up the car ran worse than before after they got it back to Gold Creek. So grandpa let dad fiddle with the car and he got it going good as new! After that dad fixed all the Sauber cars in Gold Creek himself. Dad got a surprise baby brother Edwin in 1937 grandma being 40+ years old by then. After high school he was a little too young to go on to college so he stayed home and helped grandpa Bernard in the Gold Creek country store for 3 years. The deal was that if he worked for 3 years in the store then grandpa would pay his tuition at Gonzaga University. Neither Lena nor Bernard had gotten past the 8th grade as they both grew up on farms, Lena in Gold Creek and Bernard in Iowa and Nebraska. Both wanted dad to go to college. The alternative was getting a job as a lineman with the local electric company. But grandpa Bernard really wanted dad to go into partnership and open up a string of grocery stores. That was not to be as dad went off to Gonzaga University in 1940 in his 1937 Willys sedan, one of the ugliest cars ever made IMHO, and studied Electrical Engineering. He took most of the engineering courses offered at Gonzaga including most of Mechanical Engineering. Dad did have some part time jobs while at Gonzaga. He zoomed fast from building a crystal set to fixing radios. One job was helping fix radios at the local radio repair shop. He said one time they bought a pickup truck load of radios that didn’t work from Sears & Roebucks for $50. The first radio he fixed they sold for more than $50 for just the one radio! He also helped at a local gas station to run cars thru the yearly state inspection. He had lots of practice adjusting the mechanical brakes on the old Fords. And he learned about all the cars of the 1930s and 40s. He had a good memory for details as well. Years later when I would be under an antique car and had a question I’d call dad and his answer to the problem was always right! In the 1970s I bought a 1930 Philco cathedral radio and a box of old tube at the local swap meet. Dad had the old radio working in no time!
Childhood
Dad attended the one room school house in Gold Creek, MT until he graduated 8th grade. He lived on a farm called the Hubb place just outside Gold Creek from when he was born in 1920 until they move into town in 1929. Grandpa only had a Model T and he was busy farming so that meant dad rode a horse to school for 4 or 5 years! After they moved into Gold Creek he could walk to school. School lunches in those days consisted of whatever Grandma Lena and the other school mothers cooked and brought to school at lunch time. Nice hot lunch! When dad was 10 years old he got a new baby sister. Grandma Lena was going to name her Magdalena after herself. When dad heard that he said “Haha, Maggie the Magpie!” So that is how we got Aunt Madalen! Those were not all happy years. In 1937 his younger brother Louis was killed by a car that slid over him on the icy road on the hill behind Gold Creek. Grandpa Bernard put Louis in his 1936 Oldmobile and drove as fast as possible to get him to the hospital in Deer Lodge. But Louis was dead and the car dead as well. The Oldmobile was worn out from all the desperate driving to save his boy. When dad graduated from 8th grade he was only 12 years old as he had skipped a couple grades. In 1932 there weren’t any school buses to go to high school in Deer Lodge, 20 miles away. But those 20 miles wasn’t like today’s 20 miles and 20 minutes to get there and nobody had more than one car. Only the state hiway 90 was paved with gravel, the rest of the way was on bumpy dirt roads. So going to the big city of Deer Lodge was only an occasional event. Dad would have had to board in Deer Lodge to go to high school there or somewhere else. That somewhere else turned out to be Gonzaga High School in Spokane, WA 260 miles away by train, a 5 or 6 hour ride. Dad moved away from home at age 12! Hard to imagine a 12 year old away at school and only getting to come home several times a year. Recently I asked him if he felt like a country bumpkin in the big city of Spokane, WA at Gonzaga High. To my surprise he said it didn’t take him long to figure out the one room school house in Gold Creek was a little behind the schools in the big city. Dad wrote a letter home every week. Many years ago I got to read the letters as grandma Lena had saved everyone. They were mostly about every day life at Gonzaga. Dad didn’t have to do laundry however. He mailed his clothes home and grandma would wash them and mail them back! He genius was developing during those years at Gonzaga high school. Dad was interested in the high technology of the day, radio, tube radio that is. He read every book in the library on radio and must have found instructions on how to build one. He built his own crystal radio set. It wasn’t all smooth going however as he didn’t realize the coil of wire used for tuning into different channels had to be insulated so the radio didn’t work at first. There certainly wasn’t anyone else in high school to tell him why it didn’t work. But he got it going. For an antenna he threw a coil of wire out the window of his room into a tree. The radio required a sensitive set of head phones. He would put the head phones on and cover his head with his pillow at night so the priest-in-training called Misters wouldn’t see the radio at lights out time when they checked every boy’s room. The boys weren’t allowed to have a radio in their dorm rooms. He eventually did get caught with the radio. The Mister told him however that if he were smart enough to build his own crystal radio set that he could keep it, just don’t tell everyone about it! Dad graduated high school at age 16 in 1936 and stayed home out of school for 3 years. Dad was always fixing something even in those years between high school and college. Grandpa Bernard wouldn’t let dad repair the old cars that they had. One time they took their old Chevy into Missoula 62 miles away to get a tune up. After the tune-up the car ran worse than before after they got it back to Gold Creek. So grandpa let dad fiddle with the car and he got it going good as new! After that dad fixed all the Sauber cars in Gold Creek himself. Dad got a surprise baby brother Edwin in 1937 grandma being 40+ years old by then. After high school he was a little too young to go on to college so he stayed home and helped grandpa Bernard in the Gold Creek country store for 3 years. The deal was that if he worked for 3 years in the store then grandpa would pay his tuition at Gonzaga University. Neither Lena nor Bernard had gotten past the 8th grade as they both grew up on farms, Lena in Gold Creek and Bernard in Iowa and Nebraska. Both wanted dad to go to college. The alternative was getting a job as a lineman with the local electric company. But grandpa Bernard really wanted dad to go into partnership and open up a string of grocery stores. That was not to be as dad went off to Gonzaga University in 1940 in his 1937 Willys sedan, one of the ugliest cars ever made IMHO, and studied Electrical Engineering. He took most of the engineering courses offered at Gonzaga including most of Mechanical Engineering. Dad did have some part time jobs while at Gonzaga. He zoomed fast from building a crystal set to fixing radios. One job was helping fix radios at the local radio repair shop. He said one time they bought a pickup truck load of radios that didn’t work from Sears & Roebucks for $50. The first radio he fixed they sold for more than $50 for just the one radio! He also helped at a local gas station to run cars thru the yearly state inspection. He had lots of practice adjusting the mechanical brakes on the old Fords. And he learned about all the cars of the 1930s and 40s. He had a good memory for details as well. Years later when I would be under an antique car and had a question I’d call dad and his answer to the problem was always right! In the 1970s I bought a 1930 Philco cathedral radio and a box of old tube at the local swap meet. Dad had the old radio working in no time!
Early Boeing days:
One of the more amazing stores is about how he helped solve the problem of flaps disintegrating on the then new B52 jet bomber. It seems the flaps on the B52 had a habit of coming apart upon takeoff. Dad was an instrumentation/testing/stress strain specialist. To solve the problem a method had to be devised to test the flaps to destruction when they were off the plane. At 160+DB of noise the flaps self destructed. Dad's idea to get that much noise was to use a large air raid siren to make the noise. This in the mid/late 40s just after World War 2 and Seattle was considered a possible target for attack do to the Boeing war effort building war planes So he went to a local air raid siren and measured how much noise it could put out and sure enough it would do the trick. So dad designed and built a test facility and building at Boeing that could be used to test airplane flaps to destruction. His pal T Wilson(who later to become CEO of Boeing) helped him build it. So he tested the flaps and figured out why they were coming apart. Back to the engineering basics it was. The ribs on the flaps were evenly spaced so at some harmonic frequency they would vibrate with increasing amplitude until they came apart, like pushing a child on a swing at just the right time so they go higher and higher. Well space out the ribs at random to avoid harmonic frequency excitation. I'm sure there were other ways that helped like better dampening etc. So problem solved. Dad later went to an airplane engineering conference in Chicago to tell the story of how to test jet airplane flaps and prevent them from coming apart. He said at the time there were two talks going at the same time at the conference and at the end of his talk his audience had grown as everyone at the other talk came over to hear his! Even more amazing than this accomplishment is that he tested the flaps on the Bell X-1 rocket plane that broke the sound barrier for the first time. So Chuck Yeager the test pilot to break the sound barrier owes my dad one. This is just one of many stories I've heard. Haven't known too many engineering genius's like my dad in my life.
One of the more amazing stores is about how he helped solve the problem of flaps disintegrating on the then new B52 jet bomber. It seems the flaps on the B52 had a habit of coming apart upon takeoff. Dad was an instrumentation/testing/stress strain specialist. To solve the problem a method had to be devised to test the flaps to destruction when they were off the plane. At 160+DB of noise the flaps self destructed. Dad's idea to get that much noise was to use a large air raid siren to make the noise. This in the mid/late 40s just after World War 2 and Seattle was considered a possible target for attack do to the Boeing war effort building war planes So he went to a local air raid siren and measured how much noise it could put out and sure enough it would do the trick. So dad designed and built a test facility and building at Boeing that could be used to test airplane flaps to destruction. His pal T Wilson(who later to become CEO of Boeing) helped him build it. So he tested the flaps and figured out why they were coming apart. Back to the engineering basics it was. The ribs on the flaps were evenly spaced so at some harmonic frequency they would vibrate with increasing amplitude until they came apart, like pushing a child on a swing at just the right time so they go higher and higher. Well space out the ribs at random to avoid harmonic frequency excitation. I'm sure there were other ways that helped like better dampening etc. So problem solved. Dad later went to an airplane engineering conference in Chicago to tell the story of how to test jet airplane flaps and prevent them from coming apart. He said at the time there were two talks going at the same time at the conference and at the end of his talk his audience had grown as everyone at the other talk came over to hear his! Even more amazing than this accomplishment is that he tested the flaps on the Bell X-1 rocket plane that broke the sound barrier for the first time. So Chuck Yeager the test pilot to break the sound barrier owes my dad one. This is just one of many stories I've heard. Haven't known too many engineering genius's like my dad in my life.
“Saving” the Apollo program for Boeing in 1964 Huntsville,AL
In 1964 storm clouds were gathering at the Boeing Company. Dad was working managing the budget for part of the company. The storm clouds eventually resulted in ¾ of the employees of Boeing being let go in 1970. The bill board outside of Seattle said “will the last person leaving Seattle turn turn out the lights.” Dad thought he didn’t have a safe place to go so when one of his former bosses called from Huntsville, AL in 1964 to come on down and and work on the space program dad jumped at the chance. I’d heard many times from dad that he had to leave Seattle or get let go. Recently I couldn’t stand hearing it he was afraid of being let go and I told him, “dad Boeing wouldn’t have let go one of their smartest engineers ever!” Off the family went to Alabama, mom, dad, Ken, Ben, Phil and Chuck. Tom was left at Seattle University with a baseball scholarship provided by the Houston Astros. Shirley was left in Spokane at a Catholic girls college. Moving to Alabama was quite a shock to our family. We though we had landed on another planet. We’d never heard anyone say you all before. Mom almost lost her driver’s license when she took her driving test when she was told to “mash the brake” and she didn’t know what that meant. Ken and Ben both graduated from Huntsville High School in 1966. Boeing at Nasa’s Marshal Test Flight Center had the job to program the primitive computers of the day which filled whole rooms with equipment to make a simulated launch of the Apollo rocket. Several Boeing managers had failed to keep the work schedule. Not meeting the schedule would have meant delaying Apollo getting to the moon. Dad was working for one of the famous Rocket scientist Werner von Braun’s engineers that came to America after World War 2. His name was Ernst Klaus. Von Braun and company had built the V1 and V2 rockets for Nazi Germany to bomb London with. Any way Ernst Klaus had a heavy German accent and never could get the family name pronounced right. One day dad told Ernst he must not be a real German. Ernst said “vat you mean?” Dad said if he couldn’t pronounce Sauber correctly he must not be a real German since it means “clean” in German. Ernst got a big smile on his face, laughed and said oh “zauber”, never mispronounced Sauber again and dad had made a very good friend. Well dad “worked the problem” as he liked to say and got the work done meeting the deadline. After meeting the deadline dad had to lay off dozens of engineers since the job was complete. All was not happy though as both Tom and Shirley 2,000 miles away from home had serious medical problems mom and dad had to try and solve from a long way away. When the job was done dad got a call from his old boss who by now was in New Orleans, LA to come work for him there.
In 1964 storm clouds were gathering at the Boeing Company. Dad was working managing the budget for part of the company. The storm clouds eventually resulted in ¾ of the employees of Boeing being let go in 1970. The bill board outside of Seattle said “will the last person leaving Seattle turn turn out the lights.” Dad thought he didn’t have a safe place to go so when one of his former bosses called from Huntsville, AL in 1964 to come on down and and work on the space program dad jumped at the chance. I’d heard many times from dad that he had to leave Seattle or get let go. Recently I couldn’t stand hearing it he was afraid of being let go and I told him, “dad Boeing wouldn’t have let go one of their smartest engineers ever!” Off the family went to Alabama, mom, dad, Ken, Ben, Phil and Chuck. Tom was left at Seattle University with a baseball scholarship provided by the Houston Astros. Shirley was left in Spokane at a Catholic girls college. Moving to Alabama was quite a shock to our family. We though we had landed on another planet. We’d never heard anyone say you all before. Mom almost lost her driver’s license when she took her driving test when she was told to “mash the brake” and she didn’t know what that meant. Ken and Ben both graduated from Huntsville High School in 1966. Boeing at Nasa’s Marshal Test Flight Center had the job to program the primitive computers of the day which filled whole rooms with equipment to make a simulated launch of the Apollo rocket. Several Boeing managers had failed to keep the work schedule. Not meeting the schedule would have meant delaying Apollo getting to the moon. Dad was working for one of the famous Rocket scientist Werner von Braun’s engineers that came to America after World War 2. His name was Ernst Klaus. Von Braun and company had built the V1 and V2 rockets for Nazi Germany to bomb London with. Any way Ernst Klaus had a heavy German accent and never could get the family name pronounced right. One day dad told Ernst he must not be a real German. Ernst said “vat you mean?” Dad said if he couldn’t pronounce Sauber correctly he must not be a real German since it means “clean” in German. Ernst got a big smile on his face, laughed and said oh “zauber”, never mispronounced Sauber again and dad had made a very good friend. Well dad “worked the problem” as he liked to say and got the work done meeting the deadline. After meeting the deadline dad had to lay off dozens of engineers since the job was complete. All was not happy though as both Tom and Shirley 2,000 miles away from home had serious medical problems mom and dad had to try and solve from a long way away. When the job was done dad got a call from his old boss who by now was in New Orleans, LA to come work for him there.
Making history landing men to the moon in Florida.
I was in high school when we once again moved to Florida in 1968. I knew dad worked at the Space Center but didn’t think much about it. Many years later after the movie Apollo 13 was shown on television I asked dad if he had seen it. His response was “yes it is pretty accurate.” My response was “what do you mean pretty accurate?” He said that since the Boeing guys in Florida launched Apollo 13 that they kept a pretty close eye on the story of Apollo 13 while it was happening. I was so shocked by his answer that over the next several years I asked him what he did in detail during his career as an engineer and manager at Boeing. Up until then he was just dad, not the genius engineer he was at Boeing, and that is when my hero worship began. By that time he was in his 80s and some of the detail had begun to be forgotten. We did figure out which launches he was involved in because he shook President Nixon’s hand after the successful launch of Apollo 12. Dad was the Boeing front line manager for a crew of 150 engineers that assembled the 3 stages and spacecraft of the Apollo rocket and then launched them. Dad was in the underground bunker for all the Apollo launches. The US was in such a hurry that there were two launch teams to get them up faster to land a man on the moon before 1970 as President Kennedy had promised. When I was in high school the big question everyone asked at school was “Is your dad the one who pushes the button to launch the rocket?” Little did I know then that the answer was yes although a computer actually “pushes the button.” My favorite story from the Florida years is about Apollo 12 and even now I find it hard to believe what really happened that no one outside of a very few people know about. President Nixon was in the VIP stand only 3 miles from the rocket to watch the launch. It came down to 10 seconds before the launch when the crowd starts chanting 10, 9, 8…. There was a problem somewhere to hold up the launch. Boeing, NASA and the other companies involved in the launch called a quick meeting to figure it out. Imagine that the President of the United States is waiting on you to solve the problem preventing the rocket launch! At first no one knew what to do to solve the problem with everyone just looking at each other. The problem was that one of the liquid oxygen fuel tank vent valves had frozen up with ice. Dad said that as a manager he couldn’t make a suggestion so he told his head engineer what to say. They did what dad said and launched the rocket! They launched the rocket into a thunder cloud and lightning struck it. The astronauts reset the circuit breakers, landed on the moon and safely returned to earth. Dad didn’t even get the credit for once again “saving the program.” His head engineer got a commendation in his personnel file for “saving the launch.” President Nixon was impressed with the launch but apparently not enough. When he got back to Washington he cancelled the last 3 planned launches of Apollo even though the rockets had already been made!
I was in high school when we once again moved to Florida in 1968. I knew dad worked at the Space Center but didn’t think much about it. Many years later after the movie Apollo 13 was shown on television I asked dad if he had seen it. His response was “yes it is pretty accurate.” My response was “what do you mean pretty accurate?” He said that since the Boeing guys in Florida launched Apollo 13 that they kept a pretty close eye on the story of Apollo 13 while it was happening. I was so shocked by his answer that over the next several years I asked him what he did in detail during his career as an engineer and manager at Boeing. Up until then he was just dad, not the genius engineer he was at Boeing, and that is when my hero worship began. By that time he was in his 80s and some of the detail had begun to be forgotten. We did figure out which launches he was involved in because he shook President Nixon’s hand after the successful launch of Apollo 12. Dad was the Boeing front line manager for a crew of 150 engineers that assembled the 3 stages and spacecraft of the Apollo rocket and then launched them. Dad was in the underground bunker for all the Apollo launches. The US was in such a hurry that there were two launch teams to get them up faster to land a man on the moon before 1970 as President Kennedy had promised. When I was in high school the big question everyone asked at school was “Is your dad the one who pushes the button to launch the rocket?” Little did I know then that the answer was yes although a computer actually “pushes the button.” My favorite story from the Florida years is about Apollo 12 and even now I find it hard to believe what really happened that no one outside of a very few people know about. President Nixon was in the VIP stand only 3 miles from the rocket to watch the launch. It came down to 10 seconds before the launch when the crowd starts chanting 10, 9, 8…. There was a problem somewhere to hold up the launch. Boeing, NASA and the other companies involved in the launch called a quick meeting to figure it out. Imagine that the President of the United States is waiting on you to solve the problem preventing the rocket launch! At first no one knew what to do to solve the problem with everyone just looking at each other. The problem was that one of the liquid oxygen fuel tank vent valves had frozen up with ice. Dad said that as a manager he couldn’t make a suggestion so he told his head engineer what to say. They did what dad said and launched the rocket! They launched the rocket into a thunder cloud and lightning struck it. The astronauts reset the circuit breakers, landed on the moon and safely returned to earth. Dad didn’t even get the credit for once again “saving the program.” His head engineer got a commendation in his personnel file for “saving the launch.” President Nixon was impressed with the launch but apparently not enough. When he got back to Washington he cancelled the last 3 planned launches of Apollo even though the rockets had already been made!
Grandpa can fix it, cars, fishing and hobbies
Dad was not one to hire anyone to fix anything. Starting with his cars. Dad went off the college in a 1937 in 1940 in a Willys 4 door sedan, IMHO one of the ugliest cars ever. He had to keep after that one and changed the timing chain repeatedly. After the kids started coming he had two cars, one for mom and one for driving to work. One car I’ve heard a lot about is a 1940 Ford panel truck. As well as driving to work it was also his fishing truck. He put some boards in the back so he could stack his fishing gear as well as have space for sleeping. His fishing buddy was someone from work named Norval Ivy Woodward. They would go salmon fishing at Westport,WA. Back in the 1940s Westport was very rustic. They towed a 16 foot converted life boat with a kicker outboard motor on the back. They had to launch the boat into the surf to go fishing. They fished for salmon out in the pacific ocean in the 15-20 foot swells. They didn’t just jerk the fish in either. They used 6 pound test line and 4 pound leader to catch gigantic king salmon as large as 30 pounds. They chased the fish all over the pacific. There is a family picture that shows Tom, Ken and Ben as small children holding up a stringer of fish with some of them as long as they are tall. Salmon weren’t the only seafood he caught. He would also dig razor clams. There were plenty of clams in the 1940s and he could quickly fill up 5 gallon buckets with them. He had his young kids grab them as well by punching their arms in the sand. I can still remember as a kid 5 gallon buckets full of clams squirting water at me. Dad got the fishing hobby growing in Montana. He and grandpa were avid fishermen. When we spent family vacations in Montana grandpa would take his grand kids fishing with him. That is just so long as the kid didn’t catch more fish than grandpa. It would be a long wait to got fishing with grandpa again if you caught more fish than him. Oh and he did work on the old Ford. He was coming home from work one day and 3rd gear quit working. He managed to nurse the old truck home. He went down to Pacific Iron and Metal in Seattle and climbed up a mountain of old iron and picked out a used transmission. He brought it home, installed it and his truck lived to see another day. Next car I know about is a Crosley station wagon. The Crosley was a tiny car small enough you could drive it through a 4 foot wide door and was sold by Crosley Refrigerator dealers. The Crosley was for mom to drive around the 4 preschoolers she was chasing after in the early 1950s. Brakes were a weak point on the Crosley. After having it just a short while he decided it was just too small. Next came the 1950 Ford Woodie station wagon. It was big enough to haul around his now growing family as I had arrived as kid #5 and had 3 wide seats. A car with wood on it was not the most practical for Seattle. Dad said the wood would look perfect from the outside but would rot from all the rain and you could poke your finger right through the wood in places. I happen to won a 1949 Ford Woodie now and it is the same red color as the old 1950 dad owned. Well when kid #6 arrived a bigger station wagon was next, a pink 1957 Mercury station wagon with room enough for all 8 of us. The Mercury had acres of chrome on it and a push button shifter like all stylish 1950s cars did. Oh, and there were other cars that he drove to work. He had an early 50s English Ford Console, a 1940 Chevrolet and a 1959 Studebaker. He was always looking for a car that got good mileage to drive to work. I guess the old Baker got Ben interested in them. He has a 49 Studebaker hot rod today. And did I mention that all the cars he bought were used? Money I’m sure was a little tight with 6 small mouths to feed and clothe. And he could fix anything so a used car was a very practical item. In the 1960/70s we had a 1963 Buick, 1963 and 1966 Ford Fairlanes, 1970 Oldmobile and a 1969 Ford Ranchero. Dad made me learn to drive in the 1963 Ford with manual transmission. It is quite a feat to learn to drive and shift gears at the same time. Dad kept that old Ranchero for years until he retired and replaced the engine at least once. All the Sauber boys learned to work on cars from helping dad keep the many used cars fit and trim. He helped me fix my first car a wrecked and not running 1962 Volkswagon bug and the 1970 Toyota I bought to drive to my first job in California. I was thrifty just like dad and didn’t buy a new car until 1980. Dad helped the other boys with cars as well. Ben bought a 1959 Mercedes 190SL sports car from San Diego where he mustered out of the Navy to New Orleans. I can remember Ben driving it from New Orleans to Florida for a visit. It was worn out and didn’t run very good. Dad advised on how to repair the beyond fixing worn out carburetor so the car ran like a top on the way back to New Orleans. Dad helped Tom with the 1934 Ford he bought in eastern Washington. They found a wrecking yard with old Fords to get the parts to convert it from mechanical to hydraulic brakes from a later model.
Dad was not one to hire anyone to fix anything. Starting with his cars. Dad went off the college in a 1937 in 1940 in a Willys 4 door sedan, IMHO one of the ugliest cars ever. He had to keep after that one and changed the timing chain repeatedly. After the kids started coming he had two cars, one for mom and one for driving to work. One car I’ve heard a lot about is a 1940 Ford panel truck. As well as driving to work it was also his fishing truck. He put some boards in the back so he could stack his fishing gear as well as have space for sleeping. His fishing buddy was someone from work named Norval Ivy Woodward. They would go salmon fishing at Westport,WA. Back in the 1940s Westport was very rustic. They towed a 16 foot converted life boat with a kicker outboard motor on the back. They had to launch the boat into the surf to go fishing. They fished for salmon out in the pacific ocean in the 15-20 foot swells. They didn’t just jerk the fish in either. They used 6 pound test line and 4 pound leader to catch gigantic king salmon as large as 30 pounds. They chased the fish all over the pacific. There is a family picture that shows Tom, Ken and Ben as small children holding up a stringer of fish with some of them as long as they are tall. Salmon weren’t the only seafood he caught. He would also dig razor clams. There were plenty of clams in the 1940s and he could quickly fill up 5 gallon buckets with them. He had his young kids grab them as well by punching their arms in the sand. I can still remember as a kid 5 gallon buckets full of clams squirting water at me. Dad got the fishing hobby growing in Montana. He and grandpa were avid fishermen. When we spent family vacations in Montana grandpa would take his grand kids fishing with him. That is just so long as the kid didn’t catch more fish than grandpa. It would be a long wait to got fishing with grandpa again if you caught more fish than him. Oh and he did work on the old Ford. He was coming home from work one day and 3rd gear quit working. He managed to nurse the old truck home. He went down to Pacific Iron and Metal in Seattle and climbed up a mountain of old iron and picked out a used transmission. He brought it home, installed it and his truck lived to see another day. Next car I know about is a Crosley station wagon. The Crosley was a tiny car small enough you could drive it through a 4 foot wide door and was sold by Crosley Refrigerator dealers. The Crosley was for mom to drive around the 4 preschoolers she was chasing after in the early 1950s. Brakes were a weak point on the Crosley. After having it just a short while he decided it was just too small. Next came the 1950 Ford Woodie station wagon. It was big enough to haul around his now growing family as I had arrived as kid #5 and had 3 wide seats. A car with wood on it was not the most practical for Seattle. Dad said the wood would look perfect from the outside but would rot from all the rain and you could poke your finger right through the wood in places. I happen to won a 1949 Ford Woodie now and it is the same red color as the old 1950 dad owned. Well when kid #6 arrived a bigger station wagon was next, a pink 1957 Mercury station wagon with room enough for all 8 of us. The Mercury had acres of chrome on it and a push button shifter like all stylish 1950s cars did. Oh, and there were other cars that he drove to work. He had an early 50s English Ford Console, a 1940 Chevrolet and a 1959 Studebaker. He was always looking for a car that got good mileage to drive to work. I guess the old Baker got Ben interested in them. He has a 49 Studebaker hot rod today. And did I mention that all the cars he bought were used? Money I’m sure was a little tight with 6 small mouths to feed and clothe. And he could fix anything so a used car was a very practical item. In the 1960/70s we had a 1963 Buick, 1963 and 1966 Ford Fairlanes, 1970 Oldmobile and a 1969 Ford Ranchero. Dad made me learn to drive in the 1963 Ford with manual transmission. It is quite a feat to learn to drive and shift gears at the same time. Dad kept that old Ranchero for years until he retired and replaced the engine at least once. All the Sauber boys learned to work on cars from helping dad keep the many used cars fit and trim. He helped me fix my first car a wrecked and not running 1962 Volkswagon bug and the 1970 Toyota I bought to drive to my first job in California. I was thrifty just like dad and didn’t buy a new car until 1980. Dad helped the other boys with cars as well. Ben bought a 1959 Mercedes 190SL sports car from San Diego where he mustered out of the Navy to New Orleans. I can remember Ben driving it from New Orleans to Florida for a visit. It was worn out and didn’t run very good. Dad advised on how to repair the beyond fixing worn out carburetor so the car ran like a top on the way back to New Orleans. Dad helped Tom with the 1934 Ford he bought in eastern Washington. They found a wrecking yard with old Fords to get the parts to convert it from mechanical to hydraulic brakes from a later model.
More hobbies
Dad was always busy with something at home. He coached the older boys little league teams. I can remember being taken to little league games as a very young kid. I played under the bleachers while my brothers played ball. Model airplanes was another hobby. What I remember about that is coming home one day from a friend’s house and seeing bloody rags everywhere. Dad was testing out a model airplane engine and cautioned all the kids to stand back in case something happened. Well something did happen, the prop for the engine flew off and sliced the end of his nose off! He was at the hospital getting plastic surgery done on his nose. You may have noticed that the end of his nose was often red and that is from that accident from 60 years ago. The basement and the garage at our home on Capital Hill was always full of tools, cars to repair and many projects to build or fix. He built several end tables and a grand mother’s clock with chimes. Dad built his own travel trailer as well from the ground up in the 1950s. He covered the trailer with thin aluminum sheets. He fastened the sheets together with the then new miracle glue epoxy at the advice of his pals at work who were building aluminum airplane skins. He towed that trailer over to eastern Washington to go pheasant hunting. I was too young to go along. He was very fond of that trailer. We towed it all the way from Washington to Florida, where ever we moved but we never did vacation in it. When we moved back to Seattle in 1973 he dropped it off at Grandpa’s house in Montana. When we were living in Louisiana he bought a boat for water skiing and fishing. One time he let someone borrow the boat. They were riding around the Louisiana bayous and were having motor trouble. The trouble distracted the boat driver and the next thing they knew they hit the side of the bayou and flipped the boat over. No harm done except it broke the windshield We later towed it to Florida where we used it for water skiing and fishing. We also used it for shrimping. At certain times of the year we would anchor the boat, hang out Coleman lanterns at night, catch shrimp with dip nets often filling up iceboxes, catching the shrimp one at a time. Chuck and I wanted a small boat and motor since we lived across the street from the water. Instead of buying a new outboard motor we went to the local scrap yard and picked one out paying for it by the pound. In no time we had the motor running and were out boating in a small boat. We would drag the boat from out garage and launch it in the canal across the street from our house. We used it for fishing, cruising, and duck hunting. We moved back to Seattle in 1973.
Retirement
Dad retired in 1982 from Boeing where he started working in 1944. We he got back to Seattle he got teased by his pals that stayed and was called a “space cadet”. Well he said, he might be a space cadet but he had spent 10 years in the space program making money for Boeing while in the 1960s the airplane making part of the company was losing money! His first retirement project was buying a motor home. Ben bought a very large 10+ year old motor home for him and he spent the next 10+ years fixing it. As it was old something seemed to break down on every trip. But that was no problem for Dad, he was never stranded and always manage to get the old rig going again. When mom and dad went on their first motor home trip, mom said, “you can’t smoke in the motor home Paul.” Dad who had been smoking cigarettes and cigars for 50 years quit smoking. I asked if it was difficult and he said no not really. He took it one day at a time, starting out with throwing away the box of cigars he had in his pocket. He quit cold turkey but often told me that cigars others smoked sure smelled good to him. Dad and mom toured the country in the motor home and towed a small car behind it. He made it to Texas several times to visit me. He also took his grandkids touring around the country giving them a chance to see the national parks. At the same time his grand kids sure took a shine to grandma and grandpa. He took Emily and Claire on one trip and Steven and Scott on another. When he got older the large motor home became too large. So he bought a smaller one and kept his travels to around Washington and trips Montana. He sure had a liking to visiting Montana where he was born and raised. He was on a trip in the motor home to Colorado in the late 1980s when he got the call that his dad, my grandpa Bernard 93 had died. We flew from Denver to Missoula for the funeral. Dad was always up to something. He became interested in wine making and made fruit wines. Since every vacant lot in the Seattle area is covered with blackberries that is what he started out making. He joined the local wine club as well. This was a very curious hobby for him since mom and dad didn’t drink much wine. His blackberry wine was very good. He would make the wine sour and then would add sugar when it was done to the desired sweetness he wanted.
Dad was always busy with something at home. He coached the older boys little league teams. I can remember being taken to little league games as a very young kid. I played under the bleachers while my brothers played ball. Model airplanes was another hobby. What I remember about that is coming home one day from a friend’s house and seeing bloody rags everywhere. Dad was testing out a model airplane engine and cautioned all the kids to stand back in case something happened. Well something did happen, the prop for the engine flew off and sliced the end of his nose off! He was at the hospital getting plastic surgery done on his nose. You may have noticed that the end of his nose was often red and that is from that accident from 60 years ago. The basement and the garage at our home on Capital Hill was always full of tools, cars to repair and many projects to build or fix. He built several end tables and a grand mother’s clock with chimes. Dad built his own travel trailer as well from the ground up in the 1950s. He covered the trailer with thin aluminum sheets. He fastened the sheets together with the then new miracle glue epoxy at the advice of his pals at work who were building aluminum airplane skins. He towed that trailer over to eastern Washington to go pheasant hunting. I was too young to go along. He was very fond of that trailer. We towed it all the way from Washington to Florida, where ever we moved but we never did vacation in it. When we moved back to Seattle in 1973 he dropped it off at Grandpa’s house in Montana. When we were living in Louisiana he bought a boat for water skiing and fishing. One time he let someone borrow the boat. They were riding around the Louisiana bayous and were having motor trouble. The trouble distracted the boat driver and the next thing they knew they hit the side of the bayou and flipped the boat over. No harm done except it broke the windshield We later towed it to Florida where we used it for water skiing and fishing. We also used it for shrimping. At certain times of the year we would anchor the boat, hang out Coleman lanterns at night, catch shrimp with dip nets often filling up iceboxes, catching the shrimp one at a time. Chuck and I wanted a small boat and motor since we lived across the street from the water. Instead of buying a new outboard motor we went to the local scrap yard and picked one out paying for it by the pound. In no time we had the motor running and were out boating in a small boat. We would drag the boat from out garage and launch it in the canal across the street from our house. We used it for fishing, cruising, and duck hunting. We moved back to Seattle in 1973.
Retirement
Dad retired in 1982 from Boeing where he started working in 1944. We he got back to Seattle he got teased by his pals that stayed and was called a “space cadet”. Well he said, he might be a space cadet but he had spent 10 years in the space program making money for Boeing while in the 1960s the airplane making part of the company was losing money! His first retirement project was buying a motor home. Ben bought a very large 10+ year old motor home for him and he spent the next 10+ years fixing it. As it was old something seemed to break down on every trip. But that was no problem for Dad, he was never stranded and always manage to get the old rig going again. When mom and dad went on their first motor home trip, mom said, “you can’t smoke in the motor home Paul.” Dad who had been smoking cigarettes and cigars for 50 years quit smoking. I asked if it was difficult and he said no not really. He took it one day at a time, starting out with throwing away the box of cigars he had in his pocket. He quit cold turkey but often told me that cigars others smoked sure smelled good to him. Dad and mom toured the country in the motor home and towed a small car behind it. He made it to Texas several times to visit me. He also took his grandkids touring around the country giving them a chance to see the national parks. At the same time his grand kids sure took a shine to grandma and grandpa. He took Emily and Claire on one trip and Steven and Scott on another. When he got older the large motor home became too large. So he bought a smaller one and kept his travels to around Washington and trips Montana. He sure had a liking to visiting Montana where he was born and raised. He was on a trip in the motor home to Colorado in the late 1980s when he got the call that his dad, my grandpa Bernard 93 had died. We flew from Denver to Missoula for the funeral. Dad was always up to something. He became interested in wine making and made fruit wines. Since every vacant lot in the Seattle area is covered with blackberries that is what he started out making. He joined the local wine club as well. This was a very curious hobby for him since mom and dad didn’t drink much wine. His blackberry wine was very good. He would make the wine sour and then would add sugar when it was done to the desired sweetness he wanted.
Volunteering and giving
Another one of his hobbies was wood turning. He got a very nice wood lathe but there was a catch, the motor for the lathe was 3 phase meaning residential power wouldn’t run it. No problem for an electrical engineer. He bought a conversion box from 3 phase to single phase so he could run the motor. He had a terrific wood supply. He collected wooden pallets and scrounged around to find wood anywhere he could find it. On one of his trips to Texas he brought back some mesquite fire wood and made wood turnings with it. By the time he had to move away from home to the Garden Club he had half his shop full of wood for future projects. His favorite wood related hobby was scroll saw work. He used the scroll saw to make intricate puzzles, key fobs, and toys. One I like is a plaque scroll sawed to say “grandpa can fix it.” I think the dad’s favorite hobby was collecting food from grocery stores for the Bellevue Food Bank. I think he did it for at least 20+ years. He would take his little pickup truck to several stores and then haul it over to the Food Bank. It didn’t take long for me to figure out why he liked it so much. When I helped him on visits it was hard to get him out the door of the grocery store. He knew the employees in all the grocery stores by name and had to catch up on news with everyone. He continued on until the last minute. He was still doing it when he was 96 years old and had trouble getting around! He would get out of his truck and grab a grocery cart to use as his walker. He never did accept any money for all the hundreds of times he drove around to the stores. He did however usually keep a package or two of cookies to eat as a snack. My mom never really did talk much throughout her life as she was pretty quiet and dad the outgoing member of the pair who always had a lot to say to family and friends. Those trips to the food bank kept dad going as the conversations with mom slowly faded away due to dementia. Dad also volunteered at a homeless shelter near the Space Needle in Seattle. There is a rooming house in Westlake run by the Catholic Diocese of Seattle for men and there was a little craft shop next door that some of the “homeless” who lived at the rooming house worked making kids toys out of wood. Dad sharpened their saw blades and kept the wood working equipment working there. He often ate lunch next door at the rooming house as well. When he had to collect food and the food bank was closed he would drive into Seattle and drop the food off at the rooming house. Dad made several good friends over the years at the little shop. Didn’t matter who you were, dad never met a stranger. Dad was also a welder. When he was a young man he got what he called a buzz box and learned to weld which took lots of practice. Someone in later years gave him a wire feed welder that didn’t work. Yup, he fixed it and then did MIG welding as well. Well he got his pacemaker 7 years ago he had to give up the welding. The strong electric currents of a welding machine could disrupt the pacemaker.
Another one of his hobbies was wood turning. He got a very nice wood lathe but there was a catch, the motor for the lathe was 3 phase meaning residential power wouldn’t run it. No problem for an electrical engineer. He bought a conversion box from 3 phase to single phase so he could run the motor. He had a terrific wood supply. He collected wooden pallets and scrounged around to find wood anywhere he could find it. On one of his trips to Texas he brought back some mesquite fire wood and made wood turnings with it. By the time he had to move away from home to the Garden Club he had half his shop full of wood for future projects. His favorite wood related hobby was scroll saw work. He used the scroll saw to make intricate puzzles, key fobs, and toys. One I like is a plaque scroll sawed to say “grandpa can fix it.” I think the dad’s favorite hobby was collecting food from grocery stores for the Bellevue Food Bank. I think he did it for at least 20+ years. He would take his little pickup truck to several stores and then haul it over to the Food Bank. It didn’t take long for me to figure out why he liked it so much. When I helped him on visits it was hard to get him out the door of the grocery store. He knew the employees in all the grocery stores by name and had to catch up on news with everyone. He continued on until the last minute. He was still doing it when he was 96 years old and had trouble getting around! He would get out of his truck and grab a grocery cart to use as his walker. He never did accept any money for all the hundreds of times he drove around to the stores. He did however usually keep a package or two of cookies to eat as a snack. My mom never really did talk much throughout her life as she was pretty quiet and dad the outgoing member of the pair who always had a lot to say to family and friends. Those trips to the food bank kept dad going as the conversations with mom slowly faded away due to dementia. Dad also volunteered at a homeless shelter near the Space Needle in Seattle. There is a rooming house in Westlake run by the Catholic Diocese of Seattle for men and there was a little craft shop next door that some of the “homeless” who lived at the rooming house worked making kids toys out of wood. Dad sharpened their saw blades and kept the wood working equipment working there. He often ate lunch next door at the rooming house as well. When he had to collect food and the food bank was closed he would drive into Seattle and drop the food off at the rooming house. Dad made several good friends over the years at the little shop. Didn’t matter who you were, dad never met a stranger. Dad was also a welder. When he was a young man he got what he called a buzz box and learned to weld which took lots of practice. Someone in later years gave him a wire feed welder that didn’t work. Yup, he fixed it and then did MIG welding as well. Well he got his pacemaker 7 years ago he had to give up the welding. The strong electric currents of a welding machine could disrupt the pacemaker.