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www.79thArmyBand.org - The Unofficial Website of Former Band Members 1964-1967

DAVID HOESLY
Percussion

Thanks to a few of you for initiating the re-connection of a bunch of us from The Fighting 79th! I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to make the reunion, but I’ve enjoyed reading your life summaries, so I’ll put in my oar as well.

Having gotten a Dear John as one of my until-then-daily letters from my first sweetheart (which letter I received about three quarters of the way through my hitch in Los Ejercito del EE UU), I returned to civilian life—and the pursuit of the next sweetheart—at the end of January, 1968. I was glad to get out after 23 months of involuntary servitude, and shared the flight home with Frost (don’t remember his first name). Oh, I also shared the trip with an unabridged dictionary which a half dozen of you gifted me with at the airport, when I had four good-sized bags to carry already! I’ll be amazed if I ever forgive John Fenner for orchestrating THAT! ;-)

After returning to the midwest, I resumed my tech rep job at Xerox, transferring in 1969 to the HQ in Rochester, to be trained as the first tech rep to go into the field with a one-step copying process, PEP. PhotoElectroPhoresis is the movement (Phoresis) of pigment particles in response to light (Photo) and voltage (Electro). Turned out that the process wasn’t quite ready for prime time, so they cut back the expected product launch to a research effort, and I worked as an engineering aide for a few years on R&D projects. In 1985 I was fortunate to be one of 17 selected for a year-long full-time intensive Computer Engineering course put together by Rochester Institute of Technology. It was a great opportunity, getting free mid-life career re-training while on full salary.

I later worked on several other R&D projects, finishing up as a member of a team developing instrumentation to characterize the performance of thermal inkjet printheads (how fast they can fire drops, how many drops ‘til failure, how large are the drops, what’s their directionality, that kind of thing). I retired at 55 as a Senior Scientist in 1998. I’d long planned to work until I was 59 1/2, but when they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse (through a Voluntary Reduction In Force program) I ran the numbers and decided I could afford to retire. It’s been a good ride since then, and I have plenty of money to live on. As long as I die by the end of this year! ;-)

Okay, that’s the professional stuff. As for the social stuff, I married John Fenner’s sister in July of 1972 (at the nuptials The 79th was represented by Paul Hurley, Harvey Jewell and Jerry Solomon) and, in what is surely the single most boneheaded decision of my life, left my wife seven years later. I had a long-term Significant Other from 1989 until 2006, and now I’m searching on various online venues trying to find the next (and hopefully the last!) Ms. Right.

Activities which fill my days of retirement include woodworking, hiking & biking, reading, working puzzles (Sudoku & Word-division), and teaching. The latter is a volunteer activity, teaching computer skills through a local social service agency. My target audience is presently the unemployed and under-employed, although in my decade of volunteer computer instruction, I’ve taught seniors, immigrants (Vietnamese & Somalians) and my favorite group: Displaced Homemakers (widows & divorcees)---and no, it’s not what you’re thinking; the reason I like that group best is that they appear to have the most incentive to learn, given their changed economic circumstances, and therefore take the instruction seriously.

I moved to the Charlotte, NC, area in the summer of 2005, having grown tired of the harsh winters in NY. Here the problem isn’t the cold, it’s the heat & humidity. So, in July & August you can go outside in the morning and evening, but you better stay indoors in the afternoon! I think, however, that I’m becoming more tolerant of what seemed super-oppressive the week I moved here from NY.

Anyway, thanks, guys, for writing your bios; it was good to “catch up” with you, and perhaps we’ll see each other at the reunion! Sadly, we’ll be missing some very good friends, among them Russ Freeman, Paul Hurley & Jerry Solomon, gone before their time. Makes you want to live every minute, huh?

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