MY LIFE and TIMES John Minck Introduction Everyone Should Write
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MY LIFE AND TIMES life as a marketing engineer was just about the best I can John Minck imagine. It has given all my kids a college education and Jane and me, a comfortable retirement. Introduction What more could anyone want? Good friends, good marriage Everyone should write the story of their life. Long or short, it (56 years Feb, 2012), great work associates, interesting and should include more than just where you have been and what you challenging technologies to learn and sell, which for the most have done. What makes life interesting is the inside-you as well part, were employed for the betterment of humanity. Well, as the outside-you; your thoughts, aspirations, reasons why, your actually my atomic bomb work, and some of the microwave heroes, your causes, your passions, your hobbies, and how and products I promoted and sold were pretty destructive and what you felt along the way. negative things. Jane's brain tumor in 1997, which rendered her unable to walk on her own, was an unexpected and undesirable In my 81-year-long lifetime, I have found a lot of interesting and development. But, as you will see in my Philosophy of Life at challenging experiences and not a small amount of happiness. Not the end of this narrative, "Life is a Crapshoot." We learn to that you would observe it in me at first glance, because I seem to cope as best we can, and life goes on. As my son says, ―It is wear a perpetual frown. My kids recall that it seemed like I was what it is.‖ always scowling. It has even etched itself into a weird permanent wrinkle between my eyebrows. Too bad, because I have always There are two narratives that describe my life and times. This is felt rather open and accepting, well not always, I suppose there one of them, and the other is a 115-page document, which were times when I was just a stupid grouch. I guess my 100% covers a lot of history of my 37 years at HP. I called it, “Inside German heritage and my Capricorn personality doomed me to a HP, A Narrative History of Hewlett-Packard from 1939-1990.” curmudgeon-like exterior. Remember that Richard Nixon and Immodestly, in it I included a fair number of my own Jesus Christ were both Capricorns, and neither seemed the experiences, in and out of HP, for the times of 1958 to 1995, happiest of people. which covered my career there. So, if you want a more complete picture of me, read both of the narratives. To get to So I moved on, from a humble beginning in a small Midwest the long HP Narrative, just Google HPMemory.org. town. I admit that I lucked out in getting accepted to the University of Notre Dame. In fact, a whole lot of my life was a Finally, I have put most of these chapters in the time sequence series of lucky breaks. Those 4 Notre Dame years didn't do much they occurred. In a few cases, like when Jane and I were for my personality, but they did give me a little more confidence married during the USAF chapter, I have chosen to cover most and quite a lot more knowledge. They also gave me a skeptical of the marriage events in the following Family chapter. That view of religion, even though I took one or another religion way the subjects correlate better. course all four years. Apologetics, Moral Theology, Philosophy, Ethics, and some more I don't recall. So, my lifelong criticism of Genealogy the Institutional Catholic Church came with my basic education. But I'm not blaming Notre Dame for that, even though it was a My father's name was John Laurence Minck, and unfortunately, relatively liberal education. his parents used a spelling of his middle name ("u") that always caused me problems, with signups and memberships and so At every step of my life, chance has taken some credit for my forth. His parents were Anthony Minck and Mary Dick of decisions. Working on atomic bombs in New Mexico, entering Cecil, Ohio. Anthony immigrated to the US in 1860, from the USAF for 2 years, choosing Stanford, and ultimately having Alsace Lorain, a province between France and Germany. the luck to stop in at Hewlett-Packard to learn more about the Mary's ancestry was from Bavaria. My father was one of 6, company. Then getting a job offer in the midst of the recession of three boys and three girls. I think there may be a discrepancy in 1957, were all pretty lucky. Anthony's immigration date, because some papers show that as the same year as my father's birth year. I have relatively little My wife and family have been a crucial part of my life, although, genealogy data from my dad's side, but Mom prepared a fairly honestly, I still have trouble talking about my feelings. Surely I complete document that went back about 3 generations. would have raised my kids more kindly if I could do it over again. Surely, I would have treated Jane better, and tried to be a better My mother's name was Juliana Laura Keber. Her parents were husband. I would have helped Jane more in our many critical Jacob Keber (5/22/1855—1/7/1919) and Mary Riebschlager middle years when I was too busy with what I thought were (9/8/1885—3/26/1942). Mom's data indicates that the Keber's overwhelming HP crises. came from Braunweiler, Rhineprussia, and lived in that town in 1754. They both emigrated to the U.S. from the Holstein area Like I have often said, for the two most important things most of Germany. They came over to the German communities in men do in their lives, they get no instructions. The first is picking Iowa. After Jacob homesteaded on some land in north central a wife and learning how to treat her, and the second is raising Nebraska, he went back to Iowa and married Mary. Mary had children. The old truism goes, ―babies don't come with an been working in a local hotel. Mom's family had 11 children, instruction manual.‖ So, of course most of us would do things plus two more boys who were adopted from the legendary differently, knowing what I know now. But I doubt that I would "orphan train." The orphan train was the brainchild of an change hardly any of the big decisions: Family, Notre Dame, orphanage manager who conceived of a regularly-scheduled Sandia Corp, USAF and Hewlett-Packard. I am what I do, and my train full of New York orphans which traveled westward, 1 merchandising the kids at small towns all along the way, through and champions. I believe in later years, there was a big the cooperation of local churches and community organizations. recognition for the patience of those families who were always just on the edge of acceptance. With the 1950’s construction of My mother never liked the name, Juliana, and shortened it to the General Motors Central Foundry heavy industry downriver, Julia. This was sort of ironic, because she never liked the idea of a huge and diverse workforce began commuting and moving nicknames for our kids. She often recalled to us the stories of into the Defiance region. Within 2 or 3 decades, Defiance was living in a sod house in Primrose, Nebraska, for some years, until 10,000 and is now 16,000+. her father built a wooden structure. The family later moved to Church sponsored elementary schools were popular in those Spalding, a slightly larger village north and west. days, feeding into the single Defiance High School, although there were several public elementary schools too. Homesteading was a common way for citizens to gain free land, which was checker-boarded in 1-square mile increments, for 20 My Father miles on each side of the Union Pacific Railroad. Half the checkerboard went to the Union Pacific and the others were sold or homesteaded to settlers. Since Primrose and Spalding were more like 60 miles north of the railroad, I think the regular US homesteading rules prevailed. You had to take up residence on the land for a certain number of years, and work the land regularly. I think one homestead was one quarter "section," equivalent to 1/4th square mile. There are 640 acres in each square mile (one section). So, here comes the young man from Defiance, Ohio, with a 100% German ancestry, headed for engineering, and without the slightest idea of the humanity side of life. John & Julia Minck, 1930 Defiance, Ohio My Father was born on 2/16/1862. He was an older man, 68 If you went out on the street and asked the first one hundred years old, when I was born in 1930. He died on 7/16/1938, at people what they thought of the hometowns of their birth, I 76. He was a handsome man, even at that age, tall and thin, should think that 99 will look back with a kind nostalgia. The with all of his hair. Pictures of him seemed to show him fairly Defiance of my memory was that of true small-town America. It grim, but I learned that he was actually quite attentive to his was probably not as unsophisticated as the River City of Meredith three small boys, rather remarkable for a man that age, in that Wilson's "76 Trombones" musical, but it was a terrific place to 1930’s culture.