At Phoenix College in the early 70s, Max took a "Life Drawing" class...

Also in the early 70s, there was an annual Bathtub Boat race at San Diego's Mission Bay. Though he never made the race, the following sketch was Max's proposed entry...

At the end of his stint in the Air Force, Max moved from Cheyenne, Wyoming to Phoenix, Arizona with a friend who went there to build race cars for a living (as well as warm up from the Wyoming cold). While attending classes at Arizona State University, Max would often spent make sketches of cars to help relieve the boredom of some of the lectures.

While in college, Max migrated from automotive technology to engineering to psychology and then finally to industrial design. The following is a photo of one of his industrial design class projects. It's sort of a marble game designed to test a students ability to meet a customer's design requirements.

Whitman Elementary:

McLaren Elementary: 1st and 2nd grades

Mills Center Elementary: 3rd grade

Mills Town Hall: 4th grade

Mills Central Elementary: 5th grade

Sanford Elementary: 6th grade

Cady School: 7th grade

Northeast Junior High: 7th and 8th grades 

Midland High: 10th grade

Meridian Senior High: 11th and 12th grades

Utah State University: Automotive Technology

Delta College: General Studies... dropped out when drafted

Phoenix College: Engineering, Psychology

Arizona State University: Psychology, Industrial Design

Mesa Community College: Humanities class to complete Associates Degree requirement and, later, some electronics courses.

Embry Riddle: Helicopter Design class

University of Phoenix: Business classes

Life

As with most kids, early entertainment consisted of playing with toys, brothers, friends and cousins, mostly outside.

As one of the earliest of baby boomers families, we had TV. It's small round 7" screen insured that Dad, Mom, Roger and I would remain a close family because we all had to sit so close to it to watch. At first, only 3 channels were available, ABC, CBS and NBC, but we could only get one of them (I don't remember which). For the first several years, programming was limited to day time hours and all you saw late at night and early in the morning was a test pattern... 

TV was also not really reliable so Dad seemed to spend a lot of time tweaking knobs to stop the roll or to straighten a crooked picture. Dad was also handy with a soldering iron so replacing a tube or bad resistor or capacitor was not an unusual event. Dad's acquired electronics skills were also useful in helping friends and neighbors with their TV or radio problems.

After the first one died, the next TV was not much bigger but it did have a rectangular screen and, if I remember right, was a bit more reliable. By the time brother Randy was born, we had acquired a second, bigger TV and we no longer had to squint to watch from a distance. Favorite programs in the early 50s for us kids included Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy and The Lone Ranger. I also remember that Arthur Godfrey, I Love Lucy, Amos & Andy and Red Skelton. Jackie Gleason, Milton Berle, Jack Bennie , Ed Sullivan, Perry Como and George Gobel were also family favorites.  Later on in the 50s there was Dragnet, Walt Disney, Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Cheyenne and The Rifleman. Just listing all of those programs here after all these years is a reminder that there sure were a lot of Westerns.  So many Westerns that ran for so many years... I wonder what that says about our 1950s values?

TV continued to be a major source of entertainment as Max grew up but there was also bicycle riding and 4H and Boy Scouts and camping and hunting and fishing and all sorts of other entertaining things in his life... 

The kids Max grew up with were his schoolmates and neighbors. Although there was some occasional animosity or bullying, he considered most as his friends. Even though he moved from one school to the next fairly often, after he started riding the bus in the third grade, Max was lucky to be with most of his friends all the way though high school...   Follow the link for more...

The 4H Club had a monthly night at the Roller Rink that only cost 50 cents. Max really had a good time there but never did learn to skate backwards...

When Max was in the 9th grade, the school had a design contest for a large wall mural near the front entrance. Max didn't enter the contest but did participate, along with others in Mr. Hopfensberger's art classes, in the assembly of the colored ceramic tile panels that workman would later install on the wall with cement and grout.

The summers of '63, '64 and '65 were the best in Max's young life.  He spent many summer days on the beach and as many weekend summer nights as he could on and around the concrete dance pad in front of the bandstand.

Immigration:

Abortion: There are too many people in the world. I wish that people were more responsible and would use birth control but, failing that, I am in favor of abortion in the first trimester for those who could not or should not raise a child. Abortion in the second trimester should only be for the health, both physical and mental, of the mother but I would leave that decision to medical professionals. Abortion in the third semester is bad and, except for the health and safety of the mother, should not be allowed. I would go so far as to say, as soon as healthy baby is at the point of a live and successful birth, abortion of that child should subject both the mother and doctor to prosecution for a crime...

Voting: I was concerned about Vietnam at the time and I think I've voted in at least every national election since 1968.

Making Laws:

Making Judgments: From personal history and experience, I have been right more often than I have been wrong. I've learned to accept that ratio.

Leading: I have been a leader off and on for most of my life but I know my limitations. As the oldest of seven kids, I've learned I can't handle supervision of too many more people than that...

The Constitution:

The World:

Any time with friends is recreational

Building and rebuilding airplanes

Flying

Computer surfing

Reading

As a child, Max grew up assuming that there was a God and that he was good. After learning a bit more about the world around him, Max became an agnostic.  But, when trying to learn how better to talk to his very Christian sister Barbara, he began to study the Bible... After a bit too much study, he became an atheist...

As the oldest of seven kids, Max was expected to be good babysitter so, through Jr. High and High School, he did that for a few dollars a week.

In his High School years, Max also mowed a lot of lawns and did a lot of yard work.

For a few days while at Utah State, Max picked apples and potatoes.

In the summer of '65, Max helped to spray insecticides and herbicides for Joe Hansen. When that work ran out, Max took a job as a gas pump jockey at Harold Alexander's Bay Station on Saginaw Road in Midland, Michigan.

Max Joined the Air Force and reported to the induction center in Detroit on February 6th, 1966. After basic training in San Antonio, Texas and Technical School in Rantoul, Illinois, Max served as a Minuteman Missile Maintenance Technician in Cheyenne, Wyoming until his release from service in December of 1969.

Max moved to Phoenix, Arizona and took a job as a Cartographer (map maker) for Maricopa County in January of 1970 until he left that job for Phoenix College in the fall of 1971.

During school breaks, Max worked again at the county for two summers and then a third summer as a delivery van driver for Dave Reiff Printing.

In 1975, Max left school to take a job as a draftsman at a small airplane company called Varga Aircraft. He eventually became the Engineering and Quality Control Manager and was Engineering Manager when the doors to the factory closed in June of 1982.

After Varga Aircraft closed, Max was unemployed until September of 1982, along with friend, Al Wilson,  he started his own metal fabrication business called "Tech Fab".

While still operating the fabrication business, Max took a job as a Project & Process Engineer at Binswanger Mirror Products in Chandler, Arizona until he left for McDonnell Douglas in Mesa, Arizona, just before the Binswanger factory closed.

Max started a job as a simulator crew station designer (title was Engineer/Scientist) at McDonnell Douglas Helicopters in December of 1984. 

At McDonnell Douglas, Max eventually became the supervisor (Technical Area Chief) of a 10 person engineering team until, in December of 1987, He moved to Montana to design and build small airplanes again for a company called Montanair. After working 9 months to design and build and fly a prototype airplane, it was decided by Montainair's owner that the business climate was not right to go into production so Max returned to McDonnell Douglas as a crew station designer in January of 1989.

Max was still a crew station designer when McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing in 1997, but in 2001 became the supervisor of Boeing Mesa's simulation facility maintenance team where he remains today.