Bob Wright
Hawkeye
In my rather lengthy lifetime, I've had the pleasure of knowing two brilliant men. Whether they qualify as genius or not I'll never know. But in my estimation, they were truly brilliant.
One was the head of the engineering department where I worked, and was executive vice president as well. The other was my former brother-in-law. And both men seemed to be diametrically opposite in their backgrounds and education.
Dave was a graduate engineer, a mechanical engineer and a registered professional engineer in most of the states of the United States. He was well educated and refined in his bearing. Born and raised in Indiana, moved to Memphis and worked for many years for a large construction company before joining the firm for which I worked.
Hugh was a millwright by trade. Before the opening days of World War II he was in the Merchant Marine. His ship was torpedoed by the Japanese in the opening days of the war. He survived and reached some remote island in the South Pacific inhabited by primitive peoples. He was there maybe a month before he was to see another white man, a Navy pilot who had been shot down. Both were rescued by a Marine Corps reconnaissance patrol. He later went to work at the Savannah River Bomb Plant near Augusta, Georgia, where atomic bombs were being made.
Both of these men had an analytical approach to any problem, and calmly applied a workable solution, no matter the problem. They went smoothly along the journey of life, met and enjoyed the company of others. They could discuss, intelligently, many topics of religion, philosophy, national affairs, social issues, physical hands-on work. They could solve problems in trigonometry as well as replace a faucet washer. But they both seemed to have such great minds.
So far as I can see, they had one thing in common, they read books. Not paperback mysteries nor westerns, but books of deep thinking about deep thinkers of the past. Dave read out of a desire to learn, to broaden his outlook. Hugh, out having restrict his workaday conversation to
Other than small talk at work. At the bomb plant, no talk was permitted about events or situations at work. This left conversation to either family or ideas. And family soon became saturated and dead-end topics.
It was refreshing to me to see the approach these two men took to solving problems, great or small.
This post was maybe pointless, but just wanted to put it into words.
Bob Wright
One was the head of the engineering department where I worked, and was executive vice president as well. The other was my former brother-in-law. And both men seemed to be diametrically opposite in their backgrounds and education.
Dave was a graduate engineer, a mechanical engineer and a registered professional engineer in most of the states of the United States. He was well educated and refined in his bearing. Born and raised in Indiana, moved to Memphis and worked for many years for a large construction company before joining the firm for which I worked.
Hugh was a millwright by trade. Before the opening days of World War II he was in the Merchant Marine. His ship was torpedoed by the Japanese in the opening days of the war. He survived and reached some remote island in the South Pacific inhabited by primitive peoples. He was there maybe a month before he was to see another white man, a Navy pilot who had been shot down. Both were rescued by a Marine Corps reconnaissance patrol. He later went to work at the Savannah River Bomb Plant near Augusta, Georgia, where atomic bombs were being made.
Both of these men had an analytical approach to any problem, and calmly applied a workable solution, no matter the problem. They went smoothly along the journey of life, met and enjoyed the company of others. They could discuss, intelligently, many topics of religion, philosophy, national affairs, social issues, physical hands-on work. They could solve problems in trigonometry as well as replace a faucet washer. But they both seemed to have such great minds.
So far as I can see, they had one thing in common, they read books. Not paperback mysteries nor westerns, but books of deep thinking about deep thinkers of the past. Dave read out of a desire to learn, to broaden his outlook. Hugh, out having restrict his workaday conversation to
Other than small talk at work. At the bomb plant, no talk was permitted about events or situations at work. This left conversation to either family or ideas. And family soon became saturated and dead-end topics.
It was refreshing to me to see the approach these two men took to solving problems, great or small.
This post was maybe pointless, but just wanted to put it into words.
Bob Wright
