My first job after school was with a small company designing electromechanical computers. I worked on a planetarium for astronaut training and a part of the Apollo guidance system, then went to work for MIT on Apollo. During those three years, I developed the first hybrid (digital/analogue) simulation of the system, moved into systems engineering, became MIT's wandering expert for the program, and eventually relocated to Houston as their technical representative. Apollo was the most exciting program I ever worked and those five and a half years were the happiest of my professional career. (The busiest, too; the two are closely correlated.)
Still on Apollo and in Houston, I switched to TRW, initially as a firefighter, then in the program office managing a number of separate analysis and verification efforts. When the first manned flight was imminent, I got out of the program and Houston to work on Earth resources projects in Los Angeles. Next came managing development of a mainframe database system - and TRW's first formal software quality-control effort. 1970 brought the first major aerospace cutback and I left TRW for a small company to work a variety of projects. One of them proved exciting in that I was able to develop a formal proof of correctness of some critical software - and to find both hardware and software errors that had eluded the 'experts' in the process.
I returned to TRW two years later to work on a major defense system (over 300 engineers on the project). Again, I had the chance to develop new technology and to make major advances in software systems - and to get into cryptography. I moved to Huntsville to support some groundbreaking work TRW was doing for the Army in software specification, but returned to L.A. in a couple of years to work a wide range of smaller projects. In 1980, I wandered away for brief stints with a small company doing advanced systems engineering; with Aerospace corporation in software technology; and with Commodore to develop applications for the then-new Commodore 64.
I came back to TRW in 1982 and joined the Senior Staff at the Group level. That gave me the chance to oversee and coordinate areas of research and development and to assemble the technical material needed for top-level planning. When my boss (a scientist) was succeeeded by a general, I found another job in the company and moved on to a classified program, supporting other programs, and managing a project in multilevel security. Before the current round of layoffs hit, I became disabled with heart disease and my professional career had ended.
Mail me at operas@mrichter.com
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