DEL Mfg.

I went home for Christmas break at the end of 1975 to discover that my father had initiated a solar energy project at Halm . He put me to work on some of the technician work so I could collect some cash for pocket money. I think he knew I was not going back. I did not. The axe fell. He put me on the payroll with the comment "This is fun but it doesn't pay". I paid off my student loan in the grace period. I have been cash only since. We had a good time racing into the front of the field. We were doing patentable work. I ended up with three. There were about eight. I learned to drive and bought an old Triumph Spitfire and rebuilt the engine. I kicked tobacco and have stayed off it. We had a house built as a test platform. I was learning the instrumentation trade. I was good at it and loved the work. Carter founded the DOE. Government funding disappeared. We went on. In November 1978 my father had a fatal heart attack in the night. I was not able to manage the project. I was out a year later. There was minimal insurance. Mother was working the orchids at Planting Fields on a state line. A family friend gave me a pittance to struggle with his Edwardian house in Sea Cliff. Electrical work, Plumbing, some carpentry. I was drifting out to Stony Brook. Initially it was memory leaks and good libraries.