In March, I passed the two year anniversary of my retirement. This milestone seemed to be the right time to write down my thoughts – long enough to gain perspective and short enough to still have vivid memories. My professional life can be broken into 3 chapters: a year and a half at Kaman Sciences in Colorado Springs, two years at General Railway Signal (GRS) in Rochester, and the remaining 34+ years at Harris Corporation/RF Communications also in Rochester. Although I very much value the experiences and knowledge gained at Kaman and GRS, I consider the “RF Comm” years to be “my career” and will devote the remainder of this discourse to that experience.
First, a bit about what I did: I started at Harris in late 1980 as an Electrical Engineer. I was one of the new generation of “microprocessor guys” that designed hardware and wrote firmware. This was important, because most of the existing leadership and management were “old radio guys” and it created great opportunities for young people who could lead the transition to digital radio. Consequently, I started leading a team of engineers at the age of 24. Over the next fifteen years I had Engineering responsibility for a number of emerging High Frequency (HF) Radio products. After returning to Harris in 1997 after 2 years at GRS, nearly all my responsibilities were in Product Management. The key military tactical radio product areas I was responsible for included HF radio, Multiband radio, Networking radio, and Multi-channel radios.
I had the good fortune to work with some of the smartest, most talented, and most passionate people in the industry. Many people from both the management and technical ranks had major influences on me throughout my career – too many to mention here. To this day I still marvel at the inventiveness and sophistication of the advances we collectively made. When I started at Harris we were essentially a bit player in military radio. Through enlightened management, unmatched technical talent, and an incredible work ethic we become the undisputed military radio leader in the world for the last decade.
As a result of the persistent pursuit of better and more versatile radios, I worked on some of the coolest technology on the planet for more than three decades. By the early 90’s we were on the cutting edge of just about all tactical communications gear that soldiers used. As a result, we were always learning, always under pressure to get to market, and constantly trying to understand our customer’s mission and solve their problems. We just didn’t talk about it, we did it. That is not to say it was stress-free – the bar was always set high and it was not an easy place to work. Many fine people came into the organization only to leave because it proved too difficult, too demanding, and/or too time consuming. There were many days when I wasn’t sure I’d make it through the week. But it was always exciting and many of us lived for the adrenaline of the chase and the addictive euphoria of winning.
In addition to my Harris colleagues, I had the privilege to meet and know a lot of interesting people from around the world. They ranged from fresh navy recruits to brilliant engineers to four star generals. Most of these people shared a passion and determination for what they did and why they did it. People of character and integrity. Many of the people I know, both here and abroad, are still my friends. Of course, there were also antagonists, obstructionists, and self-serving players, but most often they just made us that much more determined.
As well as the people I’ve met, many of my memories are of the places I’ve been. I was fortunate to be in a lead position on quite a few new products as an engineering manager or as a product manager. Consequently, I regularly traveled to brief and meet with customers, standards groups, and partners. By my count, I went to 24 countries on 6 continents and 27 states in the US. Even now, I often recall the images, people, and experiences that I had with great fondness.
To sum it up, I had a fantastic career at Harris. I was part of something big and important, and got to do things that many people only dream of. I can honestly say there wasn’t a single day that I didn’t want to go to work and I never took a “mental health day”. I’d like to think that I did the best I could with what God gave me and that I made a difference. As it was the day I retired, my prevailing emotion is gratitude. Gratitude for the fascinating work, trust given to me, opportunities, colleagues, customers, and the way I was taken care of by the company. I count myself as one of the luckiest people on Earth.