I went to San Clemente Elementary school in Corte Madera, CA until third grade then moved and went to Greenbrae from third grade to sixth grade. Then I went to Kentfield junior high. Then I went to Redwood high school. I went to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. My dad was vice president for Crocker National bank. They got merged into Wells Fargo some time ago.

I was always one of those quiet, reserved kids. I developed an early interest in science, especially in the early space program to go to the moon in the 1960s. I followed that pretty closely and built models of rockets and things like that. I also tried to make rockets of my own with limited success. I wasn’t into sports or anything. I generally did well in science and math. I didn’t do as well in English.

I generally had one close friend. I was not really sociable. I had one friend who we would do science stuff together. His name was Tim. He and I were always trying to make some kind of rocket. I was really big into chemistry and had a little set in my garage.

My parents were really strict, but his were liberal so they would order some chemicals over the mail. We tired to make rockets, but they didn’t do very well, so we started making bombs, which were a lot easier. And we made some pretty good ones. I remember we were using little enamel bottles and we would fill them with magnesium dust powder and got quite a boom from it. Once we tried making a rocket and almost set his house on fire, but we were able to put it out on time.