He married firstly Martha Orr of Evansville, Indiana, in 1959. Three children were born of this marriage: Henry of Austin, TX; Ruth Walker of Ojai, CA; and Betsy Christie of Costa Mesa, CA.
He taught math and English at high school and college levels for several years starting in 1959.
He joined the aerospace industry in San Diego in 1963 as a mathematician and computer programmer. He worked several years at White Sands Missile Range, NM, in mission control and data analysis. In 1967 he transferred to the home office of the company in Orange County, CA. There he worked as a rocket guidance analyst and flight dynamics simulation engineer on a variety of projects. Some of his analysis work has been published in the engineering archival journals. He was listed in Who's Who in the West for many years.
In 1977 his first marriage came to an end. He married secondly Alberta Jane Parker, also a math major, a former teacher and then an entrepreneur in San Pedro, in 1979.
In 1996 his employer quit the aerospace business. So he took a series of classes in environmental engineering and worked as a consultant. During that year he and Al contracted the building of their new home in Fallbrook. She designed and then made all the cabinets for this new home. Serendipitously he found employment nearby as a statistician. He analyzes the reliability of ammunition and missiles in the Marine Corps stockpile.
Another page on this web site gives their experiences during the Fallbrook fire which destroyed this home. After demolition and major reconstruction the home is nearly rebuilt.
One of his hobbies is genealogical research. He has traced all of his children's ancestry back to the early 1800s and many lines back to the early 1600s. The family information is on the web and parts have been published in national magazines. The Governor of Kentucky recognized his research work on early families there with the highest honor possible: a Kentucky Colonel's commission.
He is active in several lineage societies: the Society of the Cincinnati, the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Society of Colonial Wars, and the Descendants of Colonial Tavern Keepers (Flagon and Trencher). The latter ties in with another of his hobbies: he makes his own beer and wines.
He is also active in music performance. He plays the fife outdoors and the recorder indoors. In the early 60s he played the fife in parades with the San Diego Chapter, S.A.R. He was now the commander of a combined color guard and fife and drum corps of the South Coast Chapter, S.A.R. At its peak the group contained four color guardsmen, two drummers and two fifers. They wear the unique Continental Marine Corps uniforms made by his wife Alberta.
Selected Bibliography of Published Articles