I joined the College of Engineering Co-Operative Education Program when I attended the University of Arizona I had great work rotations at Texas Instruments in Dallas, Lear Jet Stereo in Tucson, and Motorola in Phoenix. While working for Motorola I met my wife Pat Strahan. We lived in the same apartment complex. My room mate ended up marrying her room mate and we are all still good friends.
I never win anything, but I almost won the draft lottery, I remember listening to the reading of the first draft lottery on the radio in my dorm room. I did not have to wait long, my birth date was the second one read off. It took extra time for me to graduate my BSEE because of the co-op work rotations, and the draft ended before I graduated in the spring of '73.
My junior year in college I bought my first car, a '62 Jeep Utility Wagon 4 x 4, and my grades were never again as good as they had been, but I had a lot of fun; rocky roads to Chivo Falls and Charleau Gap, Arizona; mountain switchbacks to Black Bear Pass, Colorado; sandy tracks in the Glamis Dunes, California; cruising the infinite beaches south of El Golfo, Sonora, Mexico.
After graduating from U of A in the spring of '73, I went to work at Motorola in Phoenix, got married in August, and bought my first NEW car - a 1974 CJ5 Jeep (It still runs but is tired and relaxing in my garage with 285,000 miles on it. I'm seriously thinking about making it electric.) I have a newer TJ Jeep, it works great, but it's just not the same.
Over the next 35 years I helped my wife raise 4 biological kids and numerous foster kids (she's a mother and a teacher and cannot but help to grow up any and all youngsters she runs into.) In '85 we moved to Minneapolis (My wife's family is mostly there), and I worked for Honeywell doing what I've always done - designing analog (not digital) integrated circuits.
After two years we moved back to Phoenix and Motorola. Somewhere along the line, Motorola "spun off" the group I worked in and now I work for ON Semiconductor still doing the same type of job.
Not all has been perfect - my oldest son developed an enlarged heart in 1999 when he was 23, and his heart doesn't pump very well, but he's stable and now over 30 - someday he will need a heart transplant.
Also in the late 90s I went to the Phoenix murder trial against Scott Falater. Scott had shared an office with me at Honeywell in Minneapolis. He was convicted of the first degree murder of his wife while he was sleep walking.
In 200,1 my younger brother Jay died in a drilling accident in Hawaii. What a shame, it seemed like he was getting a second start on his life, new wife and child and new job in paradise.
Message to the Class:
You just have to live through the bad times and appreciate all the good times - and keep on Jeep'n.
Robert "Bob"
Dotson
rndotson@yahoo.com
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