I believe I have been very fortunate to have met some exceedingly interesting, delightful, talented, colorful, loving, intelligent, and even shameful people.  Perhaps like everyone, I have interfaced with thousands of individuals in the course of my seventy-plus years, but those listed below have made a special impact on me either in a very positive or a very negative way.  This list of individuals will only be complete when Earth no longer exists for me.

19. S.Azam
    

My TAVR cardiac surgeon.  Dr. Azam replaced my Aortic heart valve in 2023 using the TAVR procedure with assistance.  I was able to leave Torrance Memorial the following afternoon with no limitations.  Before this procedure, I needed assistance to shower, undress and dress, and get in and out of bed.  Obviously, I was unable to do much at all.  After this procedure, I no longer required very much assistance and I returned to mowing my lawns, taking long walks, and shopping.  Dr. Azam is truly a world-class pioneer in non-invasive heart procedures that removes an aortic stenosis in order to enjoy a new life beginning that carries a long term benefit.  TAVR is truly a remarkable and safe procedure that has the potential of saving thousands of lives every year.

R. Baker

My colleague at Rockwell who encouraged me to purchase an Apple ][+.  He tested all my software algorithms and helped me to think of the software user as one who is bound to always press the wrong key at the wrong time.

F. Bellino

Professor of music at Denison University who was strict and demanding, and he disliked any body movements while performing on the violin.  He allowed me to play in the Licking County Symphony Orchestra when I was 14.   He wanted to introduce me to chamber music but my high school schedule would not allow it.  I look upon that as a great lost opportunity.

M. Beveridge

A brilliant software manager who supported his people 100%, and he encouraged everyone to learn and discover enhancements to their assignments.  He suggested I pursue developing a Digital Playback Recorder in parallel with my other commitments.  If only there were more managers like him for developers like me.

L. Brink

An outstanding high school English and Foreign language teacher.  He was my second year Latin teacher, he shared with me his library of tape recordings of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales spoken in Middle English, and got me my first paying job during my senior year in high school.  I performed Have's Allegro Brillant privately for him to thank him for all his help and encouragement.

J. Burger

A kind, compassionate, and excellent violinist who specialized in teaching beginning violin students.  He devoted his time and talent to Arrowbear Music Camp where he had a nearby residence.

A. Carter

A professional violinist and teacher in Long Beach who helped me primarily in interpreting and phrasing music, and developing a personal playing style and sound.  He presented himself more as a colleague than as a teacher since I was slightly older than he.

C. Corbet

A violinist and celebrated middle school math teacher.  She helped me to develop Corbet Grade Book using software programming in Excel.  She was a member of my chamber music string quartet for many years.  She always saw the positive side of every situation and in every individual.  She passed too early in life due to cancer.  I will always have fond memories of her.

J. Gafford

My colleague at Rockwell who became Professor Galambos's personal assistant.  In 1996, literally crying into the telephone, he begged me to borrow $1500.  He eventually repaid $300 of that loan, moved to northern California, and dropped completely out of sight.  Was he running away from his dishonest dealings with the Galambos estate when Suzanne Galambos died?  I'll never, ever know for sure.  He has ignored all my attempts in restoring communication and to pay moral restitution.

J. Galambos

A brilliant astrophysicist who became an entrepreneur, and he presented his integration of Volitional Science and Physics in lecture format by means of classes offered through the Free Enterprise Institute, a company he and his wife created.  His wife was an equally brilliant scientist.

50. L.Geisse
    

My ophthalmologist for the past 25 and more years.  He is the only physician whose expertise I truly trust after having worked for physicians privately and with orthopedic physicians when I worked as an OPA in a local hospital.  He replaced the lens in both of my eyes with no complications and he performed minor surgical procedures after my failed attempts to remove a growth on my foot.  Dr. Geisse did not hesitate to provide me with a supply of Ivermectin during the pathetic China virus pandemic of 2020.

B. Haig

An Information Technology (IT) engineer I met at Hughes Aircraft when I returned in 1994.  He always made sure I had all my data transcription computer accounts in every program I was cleared to work.  He found ways to allow me to develop my software without unnecessary interferences.  He set up interfaces to unclassified computer systems that allowed me to work at home.

H. Harlin

An outstanding high school social studies teacher.  She was my first adult confidant; we enjoyed telephone conversations in the evening.  She played piano, and after school Mr. Maki and I would play piano trios for two violins with her.  Mr. Maki traveled to western Europe extensively and routinely brought music back for us to play.

R. Heath

My first roommate out of university when I started working as an OPA at a Long Beach hospital.  He was such a comedian at that time, too.  We attended the V-50 and V-201 lectures together.  I especially enjoyed and looked forward to the all-night discussions we had after each and every V-50 lecture.  He made this entire adventure special and incredibly memorable for me.

L. Hicks

A brilliant software engineer I met when I was first hired into Hughes Aircraft.  He designed the real time executive for DSIS running on a Gould Sel 9780.  He and I developed a Digital Recording System for a classified program where he introduced me to master/slave message handlers.  Occasionally we would meet on a weekend and cook liver and onions together.  After he retired both he and his wife trained to become doctor’s of chiropractic medicine.

C. Higley

My first private violin teacher who was also a pianist and a professional violist.  I progressed primarily from self motivation rather than from her laid-back teaching style.  If only I had transferred to playing viola when I was young. 

G. Hostetter

A professor of Electrical Engineering.  I took several courses from Dr. Hostetter primarily in Control Systems and a course in Operational Amplifiers.  Dr. Hostetter submitted my name for the Alton B. Zerby Outstanding Student Award.  He was a brilliant lecturer, he always came to class fully prepared, and he presented that session’s topic without benefit of notes.  I looked forward to every one of his classes.  He had the most perfect penmanship while writing with chalk on a blackboard.  He and Parker both used chalk holders due to an allergy to chalk.  He passed too early in life at the age of 49 leaving his wife and two daughters.

R. Kirk

An outstanding high school advanced composition and English teacher.  He introduced me to a vast array of poets, playwrights, short story authors, and novelists.  In my yearbook he wrote, "Heard melodies are sweet; but those unheard are sweeter!"  In other words, listen carefully before I open my mouth.  One of his outlandish assignments was to learn and be able to recite from memory the prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in Middle English.  He told me I would never forget those lines.  I can still tell him he was right.

G. Lindquist

A brilliant software tool smith and colleague of mine at Raytheon who I met originally when I was first hired by Hughes Aircraft.  He and I, as well as others were victims of Vawter’s malice.  He could design a Fast Fourier Transform algorithm with his eyes closed and one arm behind his back.

D. Mac

He was my first boyhood friend beginning in K-grade.  He lived one street over and we walked together to elementary school and rode the bus together to junior high school every day.  We lost contact when I left to live at UCLA.  He moved to the United Kingdom and we remained in contact via email until recently.  He and I shared an immense curiosity for electrical gadgets.

L. Main

A brilliant luthier in Long Beach who also sold violins, violas, and cellos.  He treated his instruments as if they were alive and had souls.  His wife was simply adoring and loved to prepare refreshments for his customers.  We always left his shop with a few pieces of Werther’s Caramel flavor hard candy in our pockets.  His son was a professional violinist.

Frau Milovanović

A UCLA German language teacher.  She called me a “dirty, filthy Croatian” after the first day of class.  She did give me a passing grade even though I worked especially hard learning my lessons.  She was of Serbian descent and obviously carried with her many prejudices.  I learned that some people carry with them a great deal of ethnic hate that cannot be rationally justified.

F. Moore

An outstanding violist who played in my chamber music string quartet.  She introduced me to the Humboldt State University Chamber Music Workshop in 1993.  I attended the workshop eight consecutive years with her.  She passed too soon, and I will forever miss this talented lady.  I will always remember her alternate meaning of the expression “How nice!”

M. Nease

My sister, who is 13 months younger than I.  She always watched out for me, loved to play sports, and twirl her baton.  She was a natural violinist, but found other, more interesting activities that she preferred to do.  She has become an extraordinary grandmother who reminds me of how I remember my mother’s mother:  kind, caring, a perfect homemaker, cook, and seamstress.

F. Ohlendorf

The director of the Long Beach Music Department in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and the owner and developer of the Arrowbear Music camp.  He touched the heart of every student he met.  He allowed me to attend music camp and pay for my tuition by selling World’s Finest Chocolate candy bars door-to-door when I was 13.

D. Oistrakh

A brilliant professional violinist I met when he performed a recital in Royce Hall at UCLA when I was 18.  He was an older man who was stocky and had short, stubby fingers, and gave a very firm grasp when he shook hands with me.  He was far from a jolly man, however.  To me, he appeared to be like a wild animal kept in a cage by his Soviet handlers.

C. Parker

An outstanding high school chemistry and physics teacher.  He met with my parents and wanted to know why I wasn't doing well in physics class at the beginning of my senior year.  They assured him I would catch up and surpass everyone.  My parents knew I was a slow starter when I was first introduced to new subjects.  I presented Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity to the class for my final paper.  He remembered by name and my accomplishments when I came to visit him four years later after I had just been graduated from UCLA.

S. Plummer

A professor of music at UCLA who was a very kind and compassionate teacher.  He had a laid-back teaching style.  I enjoyed all my lessons with him.

Aunt Rinda

A maternal great aunt, uneducated and very ignorant, and rather stupid.  She advised my parents to institutionalize me for the sake of the family.  My parents responded by saying, "Oh, my!  Is that what you think?"  She laughed at me and attempted to mimic me whenever I stuttered.  I was only 10 years old.

A. Rubinstein

A brilliant professional pianist I met when he performed a recital in Royce Hall at UCLA when I was 17.  When we shook hands I noticed not the size of his hands, but the length of his little fingers.  He was very old and he had a very easy-going and unassuming persona, and I felt he had a great love for life and for musical beauty.  Even the very air around him was still and calm.

C. Savant

A professor of Electrical Engineering.  I took Dr. Savant’s course in Digital Circuit Design and he forever changed my life.  Digital circuits fascinated me and I used this knowledge to modify the motherboard of my Apple ][+ and design my Real Time Clock card.  Dr. Savant accompanied me when I entered and won first place in the Region VI student paper contest.  He accompanied me when I won third place nationally at WESCON in 1982.  He was one of the most giving professors I had ever met:  giving in terms of his time, his knowledge and understanding of digital circuits, and his enthusiasm for teaching.

C. Shearwood

He taught me how to play chess when I had just turned fifteen, and was visiting California when we were living temporarily in Granville, Ohio.  I had taken the train alone across country and it was one of my most thrilling experiences.  His parents were best friends to my parents, and he, his sister and brother, and his cousins were all considered family to my sister and I.

J. Stalick

An outstanding high school English Literature teacher.  I developed the original Working Outline concept for her when I wrote my term paper on Edgar Allan Poe and utilized the concept for that paper.  She wrote in my yearbook, "Dear Phil.  The year has been a revelation to me and a pleasure.  All my best wishes for your continued success."  I will never forget when she read aloud The Tell-Tale Heart in class.  I still shiver from this memory and the silence she created after she shrieked “... here, here! -- it is the beating of his hideous heart!”

I. Stern

A brilliant professional violinist I met when he performed a recital in Pauley Pavilion (can you imagine?) at UCLA when I was 19.  He lit a huge cigar after his recital, we shook hands, and we chatted as if we were family.  I will never forget his Sequoia tree-like fingers.  I asked him how he remembers so many compositions.  He said, "One note follows the next."  I think, perhaps, he might have been joking?

J. Tyson

A software engineer extraordinaire.  She taught me the fine details in how to properly utilize software semaphores:  one write, many reads.  When I wrote DacPro in July, 2002, I used semaphores to gain maximum data throughput in real time.  She was fun, she was always curious, she was outrageous, and she had a wacky personality.  Lunch at Costco was fine dining to her!  She invited me to stay at her home in Ashland while I was taking care of my mother in Medford.  To me, she was a great, extraordinary lady!

P. Vawter

I do not know how many careers this man attempted to sabotage and how often he was successful.  When he attempted to sabotage my Raytheon career, he purposefully used deceit and vicious lies.  He was required to formally apologize to me for his actions.  He was a mediocre software programmer who became a manager, and he micro-managed his hand-picked staff.  He negatively misrepresented the talents of all the other people to whom he directly assigned tasks while he monitored their progress.  His son lived across the street from me a few years ago.  I only caught a glimpse of this disgusting man once when he was visiting his son during the five or so years his son lived there.  And that was once too many times!

M. Vrbancic

My mother was a bit short, standing 5’ 3”.  She had the most perfect blue eyes.  She was extremely intelligent, she read all the time, she was active in all our school and after-school activities, she made my sister’s clothes from dress patterns, she upholstered our living room furniture, and she crafted stained-glass works of art.  She was the nursing supervisor of an operating room in a nearby hospital for many years.  My mother was never short on imagination, creativity, and passionate curiosity.

W. Vrbancic

My father was physically a very imposing man, standing 6’ 4” tall, and probably weighing at least 240 lbs in solid muscle.  He was a golden gloves boxing champion two years in a row when he was a teenager, and yet he did not compel me to participate in sporting events.  He deferred most of the parenting to my mother.  His passion was gardening and he loved to grow vegetables.

K. Williams

An Apple ][ and Commodore 64 software entrepreneur who developed very fast, bit-mapped screen drawing algorithms.  He brought adventure-like computer games to the home player.  I would rather talk to his wife Roberta.  His brother was slow at everything he attempted.  Williams enclosed printed HomeWord documentation along with a spoken version of that documentation on cassette tape because he learned new concepts faster when he heard them rather than when he read them.  I found his outward persona to be incongruent to his success as an entrepreneur.  I had to reassess what I thought an entrepreneur might be.  Strange.

C. Wong

A brilliant public school music teacher who taught at the grade school level, the middle school level, and the high school level.  He taught me the alto clef and I was playing the viola as well as he was playing the violin within 30 minutes.  He is the love of my life.