After taking a job at Honeywell in 1967, Bill moved his family to Franklin, Massachusetts. At first, the move proved difficult for the family. Bill’s fourth child had been born in the summer of 1967, and supporting a family of six while adjusting to a new town and a new position seemed overwhelming to Bill. Furthermore, the path towards his educational goals was filled with obstacles. Bill still had ambitions to achieve a master’s de
gree, but when he went to enroll at Northeastern University in Boston, he found that the classes he needed to take were full. Discouraged, Bill decided that instead of continuing to work towards another degree, he should channel his efforts into community service and professional development.
One of Bill’s long-term goals was to write an article and present it at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Solid-State Circuit Conference. Having an article accepted by the IEEE would be an opportunity to display his engineering skills and make connections in the electronics industry, but in order to be prepared for a presentation, Bill would have to improve his public speaking skills.
Fortunately, Bill found an opportunity that would allow him to get more involved in his town’s community while also building professional skills that could help him communicate his engineering innovations. Bill joined the Franklin Chapter of the United Stated Junior Chamber, or Jaycees, a public service organization, and began to lead efforts to introduce public programming to the town of Franklin. He organized the Franklin Junior Miss Pageant, and soon became the Vice President of the Jaycees. Throughout 1969 and 1970, the Franklin Jaycees undertook a campaign to convince the town to hire a director for its Department of Recreation.
Serving as the Franklin Jaycees Vice President and then President, Bill was a key organizer for the recreation campaign. The role demanded administrative and public speaking abilities, which provided Bill with the opportunity to develop skills that he needed to advance in his career. Bill, along with one of his Honeywell colleagues, Joel Karp, wrote an article addressing their research into transistors and computer memory. The IEEE published their article in the October 1970 edition of its Journal of Solid-State Circuits, and they were invited to give a presentation at the February 1970 IEEE Solid-State Circuit Conference in Philadelphia.
Even though presenting at the IEEE was a long-term goal for Bill, preparing for his presentation was still a nerve-wracking experience. He later described how intimidating it felt to arrive in Philadelphia for the conference: “it’s at the convention center. It is huge. For a little guy from a little town…as a coal cracker, it’s a scary thought!”
Despite his nerves, Bill enjoyed the presentation experience, and he continued to seek out opportunities to establish himself as an innovator within the electronics industry. He and Joel Karp continued working together, eventually working with a third colleague to author another article on computer memory that was accepted by the IEEE in 1973. The professional skills that Bill developed through involvement with the Franklin Jaycees and through his early presentation and publication experiences continued to serve him throughout his career as the computer science industry continued to emerge.
