Donna

I was born October 24, 1943, in Baltimore, Maryland. I was the first-born, followed by two brothers and a sister, over a period of six years. My fondest memories from early childhood are from the period that we lived in North Beach, Maryland, which is on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay. I was about six years old when we moved there and nine or ten when we left. This is a photo of my mom, my dad, and my uncle with Bob, Jim, and me. My sister, Terry, wasn't born yet. It was at North Beach that I grew to love the water, the beach, and storms. We lived in the Maryland area until 1952, when my father's work took us to California.

I spent most of the rest of my life in California. During my remaining elementary school years, we lived in Riverside, La Puente, Ridgecrest (near the U.S. Naval Weapons Center at China Lake [then known as NOTS -- Naval Ordnance Test Station] in the California desert), and finally, in Claremont, home of the Claremont Colleges. Bob, Jim, Terry, and I spent our intermediate and high school years in Claremont, as well. It was in Oakmont Elementary School, Claremont, where I spent fourth grade with my favorite teacher of all time, Mrs. Jackie Jacobson. She was such a wonderful teacher! She now owns and runs the Oak Tree Day School (K-8th) in Pomona, California, and very successfully, I might add.

The Claremont Colleges provided many educational, artistic, and theatrical events occurring all year long at the colleges. The exposure to the arts at the colleges, combined with my mother's support, inspired me to pursue the art of tap dance and ballet during my late elementary and junior high years. My closest elementary school girlfriend and I tapped together at recitals and at the Los Angeles County Fair. Here's a photo of us doing one of our numbers. I'm in the short skirt.

I also danced in a number of ballet recitals, as well as at the L.A. County Fair. My mom made all my costumes for dance and saw that I got to all my lessons. Thank you, Mom. It wouldn't have happened without you.

When I wasn't involved in the arts or my after-school activities in intermediate and high school, I went with my dad to set up and coach Pony League baseball games for my brothers. They were both great players, and I enjoyed every second I was there. I helped my dad chalk the lines, put out the base bags, and I even practiced with some of the players. One team asked me to be their queen, but I had to refuse. They were the opposition.

El Roble Intermediate School was a good experience for me. The curriculum, separate classes, and the social climate changed completely. What I remember most was the introduction of parties and dancing. Our ballroom dancing classes were a kick, especially watching the boys. Our clothes changed dramatically, too. This was the era of poodle skirts with net half-slips to puff them out. Here's a photo of me with my best friend, Mickie, in our full skirts (sorry, no poodles here). Those skirts bring back a lot of good memories.

Here we are in November 2001.

Even though I was lucky to have the transition of intermediate school, high school was still a scary place to be for a while. Classes were much tougher, especially since Claremont High School is in a college town. I did quite well in high school, and it has helped me to this day. In addition to the required education, I was also involved in other activities. I was in the GAA (Girls' Athletic Administration) program and competed with other schools in several sports events (we did all the sports when they were in season). I was also in the French Club, the choir, and an all-girl quartet.

Our quartet was formed outside the school, and my father wrote four-part, close harmony songs for us to perform. We performed primarily at choir concerts but also at some dances. This was a very special part of my life. Thank you, Dad, for this and all the other opportunities you gave me that most girls at that time never had.

One of the high points of my life was the birth of my daughter, Lorelei Kay. She was born in Pomona Valley Hospital, Pomona, California. She was a delightful baby and child, and everyone loved her, especially me. She was so pretty and so good. See her web page for more information.

I worked full-time while I continued school and did that for several years. I've worked in many positions over the years, but my most fulfilling years were at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California (at the foot of San Francisco Bay). I worked 15 years there (1973-1988), beginning as a secretary, moving up to Executive Secretary to the Director of Astronautics, then to Resources Management Specialist responsible for the multimillion-dollar budget of one of the branches.

One of the highlights of working for NASA (and there were many) was that for several years, I participated in one-month airborne scientific missions on NASA's Convair 990 airborne scientific platform. A few of our destinations were Dakar, Africa (studied the origin of weather); Bermuda (flew into hurricanes to study dynamics); and Bombay, India (flew into the monsoon to study dynamics). We also put the Convair 990 on static display at the Paris Air Show in 1975, followed by scientific flights for the DFVLR (now the DLR), the German aeronautic and space agency. There were other trips, as well, and as you can imagine, I looked forward to every one.

I also flew on the C-141 Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO), which was the airborne scientific platform used to study infrared astronomy. As a matter of fact, Dr. James Elliot of M.I.T. discovered the rings around Uranus on one of the C-141 KAO flights. It was quite an aircraft. The interior looked something like you would see in Star Trek. In fact, some of the original Star Trek team came to Ames Research Center to see the KAO.

Following my years at NASA, I worked for a few years as an independent consultant, specializing in desktop publishing and work that I had done at NASA. We moved from California to Colorado in 1992. We lived in a small town called Nederland, just up the canyon from Boulder, which is about 30 miles north of Denver. We lived in a three-story house on a ridge , and the view was unbelievable . Fortunately, my husband is very computer savvy and had a web cam that faced part of Colorado's Front Range. During our eight years in Colorado, I spent pretty much the first half of the time working at home in both my business and my husband's. Most of the last half was spent working at a computer hardware/software distributor, Access Graphics, where I worked in the Oracle Division, and over time, became an Oracle Specialist.

A photo my husband took of me and insisted I have in here. Taken about 1996 (Click to enlarge).

During the year 2000, I decided I was tired of working just to earn money. I had always been interested in medicine, so I attended Front Range College in Longmont, Colorado on a part-time basis and got my certificate for medical transcription in May 2001. I had the opportunity to do medical transcription in a local family clinic during the summer of 2000 and was fortunate to work 40 hours of internship at the Boulder Community Hospital, Boulder, Colorado, as part of my school curriculum. Upon receiving my certificate, I worked for my medical transcription teacher for the summer of 2001. Then my husband and I changed our lifestyle completely. We decided to go full-time in our RV.

	My dog Reggie and me at Henry's Lake Idaho, a place we've come to enjoy spending our summers.		Taken at Henry's Lake, Idaho July 2006 (click to enlarge photo)
I'm getting a chance to be a grandmother to Newt's granddaughter, Chloe (his son Damon's first born). What a joy a small child can be when you don't have the responsibilities!!!

I am very happy now and look forward to many more of our experiences ahead. So far, this has been a dream come true.

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