OK, I'll produce the baby pictures.

 

I was the forth of 5 brothers, and so my parents were already getting tired and I don't have all the infant baby pictures my oldest brother has. The first is a 1945 picture of the 4 boys, with me second from left. Can you see in the eyes the bright kid who two years later would outsmart his IQ exam and get himself double-promoted past third grade?


By 1947 my youngest brother had arrived, and here we are with the model airplanes of the day.

My oldest brother Kasimir (Casey) was the wild one. Bored in high school, he joined the Air Force at 17 and immediately had taken this picture in his uniform.

He loved the Air Force and and serviced radars on the F86 Sabrejets in Korea. I remember his telling fascinating stories about how the pilots used that rats and mice to increase tailpipe temperatures and speeds of the jets; this was most exciting to a 10-year-old, in an era when it was good to be patriotic.

My next brother Eugene (Gene), and his son Larry Schild at the 1999 Packard meet in Warren Ohio. They stand next to their 1954 Packard Carribean as Larry prepares to bike home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My closest brother, Harold (Harry). Popular in high school, he was proud of his letter sweater, and was elected class president. We were close together in age and always hung out together until he, too, joined the Air Force.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My kid brother, Ray, playing with Snookie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite picture. My first telescope was a Skyscope reflector, costing $37.50 in 1954. Harry and I saved up money to buy it shoveling snow and delivering newspapers. I built the projection screen for observing the sun and made daily sunspot observations and sketches. When I displayed these at an Adler Planetarium science fair, the judge, J. Allen Hyneck declared that I might become a professional astronomer. I knew Prof Hynek many years later as a colleague, but never mentioned the encounter for some reason.
When 16 I ground my own telescope miror and built a 6-inch Newtonian reflector.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tall skinny kid knew that he was not to become a tennis star. I was pretty good, but not really into it like I was into science and engineering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My second telescope I built myself. I walked around the barrel to grind, polish, and figure a 6" F:8 reflector with instructions from MAKING YOUR OWN TELESCOPE book by Allen J. Thompson. It had magnifications from 35 to 220 and with it I could see to magnitude 14.3. I studied and photographed the moon, sketched sunspots, and studied the planets and Messier Catalogue objects. This kindled interests in astronomy and optics that would serve me well in future professional life.

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