My Interests

My Interests

I have written in detail about my interests, both past and present. This material, which is on another web site, is only accessible to members of my immediate family, however.

For those who do not know me, and/or who are interested, here is a synopsis:

Family History and Genealogical Research

	Beginning in 1984, and primarily since my retirement in 1986, genealogy and family history research has been my main interest and it occupies much of my time. An explanation of my research, its scope, and its publication can be found on another web site.
	My primary interest has been to acquire relevant documents and pictures and my primary goal has been to preserve these and the other results of my research on dvd-rom discs and in books for my descendants; making any of this material available to others, particularly on web sites, is only a secondary by-product. This interest, by its very nature, involves other interests I have had for a long time, including photography and computers.
	I have been or am a member of the New Brunswick Genealogical Society (Canada); the Yates County Genealogical and Historical Society (NY); the Red River Genealogical Society (ND); the East Bay Genealogical Society (CA); the Hathaway Family Association ; and a life member of the Lansing Historical Association (NY) and the Society of California Pioneers (CA).

Photography

I have had an interest in photography since I began using my father's Kodak No. 1 Junior at age 15 and I acquired my first camera (an Argus C-3) and built a darkroom at the age of 16. Over the intervening years I have used a wide variety of equipment (mostly Rollei and Leica) and have a rather large collection of images that I have taken all over the world - black and white prints, Kodachrome color slides, color prints and digital images.

In the early 1950s, I successfully entered a couple of my images in international competition; they were shown in color slide exhibitions in ten cities - from New York to Hawaii.

Computers

	My first exposure to computers was in the late 1950s in a graduate school independent research course - an early IBM machine with no keyboard, no monitor, lots of blinking lights and programs that had to be introduced into the machine with each use via decks of punched cards. I wrote a program (two boxes full of punched-card decks) that would handle the routine of recording passenger reservation information for an airline - long before any airline had computers in use for passenger handling functions. I subsequently used IBM 360s and time-share terminals (including punched tape) in connection with my employment and later did some NOMAD programming for use on my employer's main frame computer.
	When Hewlett Packard released their first programmable calculator, David Packard (who at the time was also a director of my employer) personally arranged delivery of mine - an HP-65 - for a project I was working on in Europe. I used programs I had written on it for many years and it is still in use.
	When the first personal computers became available I began following developments in the literature. In 1981, I finally acquired my first one. It was the first of three Apple IIIs and the first personal computer to incorporate features that I really wanted - including a real-time clock that did not stop when you turned the computer off. Although antiquated technology in today's world, they were a huge advancements over my punched card experience. In the intervening years I have had 286, 486, 233 MHz Pentium III, 850 MHz Anthlon desktops and a 900 MHz Pentium laptop ; I'm currently using a 2.0 GHz laptop, and 2.53 GHz desktop. I was a very late comer to the Internet - way too time consuming for me.

Travel

I have wanted to travel from the time I first worked part-time at a travel agency when I was in high school. In the intervening sixty+ years I have been very fortunate to travel all over the world, both in connection with my occupation and for pleasure. I have records for much of my travel, but I have no idea what it all adds up to; I do know that I circumnavigated the globe on six trips. I was a loyal and frequent customer of Pan American World Airways. During the 1970s and 1980s, I not only had a lot of foreign travel (up to three months out of every year) but I also was able to live in some locations for extended periods. While I have by no means seen every part of the world, I've covered the vast majority of it and by the time I retired in 1986, I had been to most places I wanted to visit and done most of the things I wanted to do. Nevertheless, in the last twenty-two years there has been more travel, although the frequency has slowed.

I am a life member of Pan American World Airways' Clipper Club (the problem is, I've lived longer than Pan Am).

Old Cars and Their Restoration

	I have been interested in old cars and their restoration since 1968, although not active in this hobby since 1994. I still own three cars that are older than I am - all Model A Fords: a disassembled 1929 Closed Cab Pickup (the picture is of a 1928, however), a disassembled late 1931 Sport Coupe, and a late 1931 Deluxe Coupe. Both of the latter have rumble seats; the Sport Coupe has a cloth top that does not retract - the Deluxe coupe has a roll-down rear window. A fair inventory of "choice" extra parts augment these.
	I also restored a 1942 Ford GPW military Jeep - a son is now custodian of this piece of history.
	The car I drive every day, and have since 1979, is a 1971 Mercedes-Benz 280SL Roadster (with both a retractable cloth top and a removable hard top). It was repainted in 2002, and now has better paint than when it left the factory at Sindelfingen (which Mark and I visited in the early 1980s). It is now considered a "classic" by Mercedes-Benz.
	I have been a member for over 35 years of the Model A Ford Club of America, the Model A Restorers Club, and the Mercedes-Benz Club of America; and a life member of the Military Vehicle Preservation Association, as well as a charter and life member of the Model A Ford Foundation.

Railroads, Model Trains and Timetables

	Since childhood I have been fascinated by anything related to trains. At one time a had an extensive collection of pre-1950 time tables (both railroad and airline). I think my mother chucked them after I went away to college and they moved. I have ridden trains every opportunity I've had, both in this country and in my foreign travels.
	I built an HO train layout for my two sons and had a fair amount of equipment to go with it. My youngest son has these now for his two boys. I still have a very small train set (a German N gauge-9mm) that I get out and run occasionally, though .

Philately, Numismatics etc.

	I have collected stamps since 1942, based on a U.S. collection my Dad had started for me in 1932. I also began collecting United Nations stamps when they were first released in the early 1950s but I stopped adding to that collection about 1998 - too many issues.
	I have collected coins off and on over the years based on a very small U.S. collection I inherited from my namesake (an uncle of my mother's) and from my foreign travels.
	I have a very small collection of paper money from around the world and souvenir cards issued by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
	None of these collections are even close to being complete or comprehensive. Since items of any value are stored in a bank, I don't get to enjoy them very often, but they have brought me a lot of pleasure over the years and added to my education.
	I am a life member of the American Philatelic Society.

Other interests

	I personally manage three investment portfolios. I read two daily newspapers and about a dozen magazines every month. I am very busy.
	I am a member of the National Counter Intelligence Corps Association and a life member of the Army Counter Intelligence Corps Veterans Inc. and the Stanford Alumni Association.