Early Retired Life

After we were settled in Ashland, I did make a few rather desultory probings about getting some employment, not necessarily along the line of engineering but looking into that also. Nothing came of these efforts however locally and they gradually dwindled. I have mentioned the idea I had of getting a BS in business from the college here, but this too wasn’t implemented because of a lack of pressing reasons.

During this time I wrote to my last supervisor at Shell for a possible recommendation in my attempts at securing some engineering work. It happened that the engineering department was scheduled to develop a large, rather complicated design for one of Shell’s processes or s potential licensee and he needed to assemble the staff for the project. Anyway he offered me the opportunity of working on the project as a “consultant” and I decided to take him up on it.

So from March 1975 through October or November I spent most of the year in Houston, plus a brief period in early 1976. Initially I simply stayed at a motel near downtown Houston, later I was able to set up a series of house-sitting periods when various Shell personnel were on vacation etc., so I didn’t use the motel facilities from then on. This afforded Jean a good opportunity to join me which she did for a considerable part of the time. During the summer of 1975, Palma also joined us in Houston; first she worked I seem to recall as a “temp” but later she was continuously employed at Pennzoil I believe it was.

The work was quite profitable money-wise and in addition it provided sort of a tapering off of my engineering career, which in retrospect softened the transition process into retirement.

Since I came back after the brief stint in 1976 I have done no engineering work at all, and as of the present time (late 1991) I would be quite out of touch with current methods, status of computer programs etc. As the years have passed my interest in engineering in a specific way has gradually disappeared, although I suppose you could say I still have a general interest.

For awhile I continued subscriptions to a few technical magazines. The last of these was the general organ of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, entitled Chemical Engineering Progress, which I have decided to discontinue in 1992. I will still receive a monthly newsletter, with its news of obituaries etc. but here too the names of persons described or listed seldom contain any names that I have known so it is of swindling interest.

I have also dispensed with the periodical information on technical meetings. I doubt I’ll ever attend another, the technical sessions would mean nothing to me, the chance of encountering old-time acquaintances small, and the plenary sessions of at most marginal interest. I shall probably continue my membership contributions in the society the rest of my life; actually because of the years I belonged I am listed as an emeritus member and do not have to pay any further dues.

Here in Oregon there are two local sections of the AIChE, one in the Portland area and the other taking in the rest of the state, from Salem south through the Willamette Valley and including a few stray individuals like me farther south. I belong to this southern group and have attended occasional meetings when it could be included with some other trips. The section is rather small so it doesn’t have a very active program but it is interesting to experience occasionally again the flavor of a local meeting of the institute.