Overview

The book is a collection of stories: assignments from a long and enjoyable engineering career as well as anecdotes and experiences from summer jobs, vacations, and consulting. The focus is technical; each little story pivots on some scientific principle.

Purpose

The intent is three-fold: a) genealogical: to capture descriptions of a lifetime of fun times and accomplishments for descendents who might be curious about old great-grandpa Tom; b) to inspire a next generation of youngsters to consider pursuit of engineering, science, and critical thought, as a door to a fruitful life; and c) to try to bridge that pervasive "boring and/or over-my-head" gap by showing that "engineering" concepts are essentially common-sense and intuitive (you learned them in kindergarten playground), and the jargon should not be off-putting.

The book's message: Engineering/science can be fun; it happens every day and everywhere; a degree is not a prerequisite.