April 2005 photos of Elizabeth and Grandpa
Short BIO:
I attended K-State from 1946 to 1950, graduating with a BSEE in the summer of 1950. My call sign at that time was W0ABV. I obtained a first class commercial phone license in 1949 and worked at the KSAC transmitter site until I graduated. As I recall, the pay was .60 cents/hour. After graduation I worked at the WIBW transmitter site in Topeka while I was waiting for security clearances required for CIA employment. I worked for the CIA from 1950 to 1961 and again from 1968 to 1981 with assignments in Virginia, Cyprus, TDY to Iran and various parts of the world. I worked at the Goddard Space Flight Center from 1961 to 1968 designing, fabricating and integrating space flight hardware for the Solar Physics Branch there.
I took a job with Quest Research Corporation in 1981. I worked for them in Berlin Germany from 1981 to 1983 and travelled to many parts of Bavaria to retune microwave radios for the US Army for most of 1984. The US Army hired Quest to respond to a German Government request to vacate Ku band microwave frequencies they were using so that a State TV network in Germany could occupy this spectrum.
I worked for Quest Research Corporation from 1981 until I retired in 1995. In 1995 my wife and I vacationed for 3 months by automobile in Germany, Austria and Italy. We visited friends we had made during our stay in Berlin in 1980's and early 1990's.
I was working on the Island of Cyprus when the 1951 flood inundated north eastern Kansas. My home town of Topeka suffered greatly from this flood. My father-in-law in Topeka (W0UPU) was very active working emergency communications during that time. His home in North Topeka was badly damaged by the flood.
I am now living in Potomac, MD with my wife of 54 years. I hope to visit Topeka some time in the fall of 2005 and will visit K-State.
Joseph Thornwall
11910 Whistler Court
Potomac, MD 20854-3350
stimple@earthlink.net
