RPG Bulletins, Notices & Proposals

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This is a repository for information from or about RPG that is particularly intended for coordinators, but may be of use or interest to other residents.  The material is subject to change, but well enough developed to merit presentation.  All of the items are open to comments or questions — email  rpgrvm@gmail.com.

 

Coordinator qualifications —
— a reviewed draft of what a volunteer coordinator should be able and willing to do

Coordinator Back-ups —
— Making sure emergency functions are carried out if the primary coordinator is not available

Safety vests and contents
— Why coordinators have safety vests, and suggestions about what to carry in or with them

 

Coordinator Qualifications:  Floor and Neighborhood Coordinators (Draft 9/08/21  RWB)

 Effective functioning as a coordinator requires certain capabilities and actions:

Ability to walk at least three round trips of the area of responsibility (floor or neighborhood), in prompt succession at a brisk pace, with brief stops at every residence.

Ability to record, remember, and repeatedly transmit clearly, various kinds of procedures and multi-step instructions.

Ability to hear and communicate with telephones.

Ability to learn the use of a hand-held radio for communication within the Area or Building [training provided]

Possession of a TV capable of displaying Channel 900/901

Possession of and access to an email account and a computer, tablet or phone with which to use it.

Willingness/ability to communicate effectively with residents, and to compile basic information.

Highly desirable but not necessarily essential:

Possession and use of a Smart Phone.

Willingness and ability to participate in recruiting and working with a back-up or assistant coordinator.

NOTE:  Area and Building Coordinator qualification specifications are in development

 

 

THE RPG BACKUP ISSUE   — Draft,  RWB 08/09/21

  1. Priorities (in order):

1.1 Terrace Radio Room (TRR);

1.2  Building and Area Coordinators (BC & AC);

1.3  Floor and Neighborhood Coordinators (FC & NC).

Other positions may be added as the organization develops, but for now that’s it.  Most important are positions critical to communication.  We recognize that every location will be unique to some degree and that creative approaches by the coordinators will be needed.

The TRR is really a separate and unique issue in terms of qualifications; let’s set that aside.

  1. Constraints:

2.1  Backups should be geographically close to the position they are backing up.

2.2  We currently do not have the resources to equip a full complement of backups (radios, maybe vests)

2.3  Recruiting experience has shown that there is little hope of finding a second person for every coordinator position.

A Possible Approach (top down):

Concentrate on recruiting backup BCs and ACs –

People in these positions will/should be able to carry out the duties of F/NCs, so if both the primary and backup B/ACs are present, the backup can also serve to back up the F/NCs.

We probably can afford to equip one additional person for each of the B/AC positions.

One possibility is recruitment of one of the F/NCs as backup B/AC – they’re already committed and partially trained, and if the backup process occurs, filling in for a missing F/NC is less critical (see discussion below).

Compensatory mechanisms (bottom up):

For the problem of missing F/NCs – the first step is making use of existing resources by cross-training and cross-assignment.  Each coordinator should have the information necessary to take over an adjacent neighborhood or hallway after doing his/her primary assignment.

Existing dual assignments provide some additional scope for spreading the load, although both members of husband-wife teams may be gone at the same time.

Addition of other individual backups is still possible even if cross-assignment is used.

Backup Transition Preparation and Management:

There will be both planned and unplanned coordinator absences

— planned is going on vacation, hands over radio, vest and information list

–unplanned is downtown, in the pool, in bed with the flu

Backups need to know the procedures (local information, radio training, exercises) in either case.

Implication – all backups should be on the same notification list as the primary person

B/AC could contact a backup by phone (important to have cell!), or might be issued a spare radio, vest, etc. for unplanned absences when a substitute is available

If primary and backup are personally close, they might be able to arrange a mutually accessible storage location for gear (e.g., garage or golfcart garage, sharing keypad combination).

 

 

RPG Coordinator Safety Vest Information, 9/07/21

This accompanies the safety vest you have been issued, and offers some information and suggestions.

  1. The vest is a loan, not a gift; it should be passed to your successor or backup or turned in when you relinquish the position (a trade can be arranged if it doesn’t fit your successor/backup).
  2. In addition to its safety features, a primary purpose of the vest is to identify you to staff and residents as an emergency worker with specific assigned duties.
  3. Please wear it not only for emergencies, but also for exercises, training or RPG “business” visits to residents of your neighborhood or floor. This will help assure that people are familiar with it.
  4. This vest has been selected in part because of its pocket capacity – it can be stored pre-stocked with desirable gear and supplies. Most of the items mentioned below are part of your emergency preparation kit or go-bag.

Supplied:

  1. Notebook, pencil and marking pen
  2. Blue painter’s tape. If a unit is known to be vacant, tape a blue X on the door and mark with dte, time and your initials.  The tape is also useful for leaving notes or notices on surfaces that do not take ink well, such as glass or brick.

Strongly suggested:

  1. Headlamp and/or flashlight w/wrist lanyard (see https://thecomplement.info/2020/07/01/light-electricity/)
  2. Work gloves (e.g., to handle broken glass in a hurry)
  3. N95 masks (at least 2)
  4. Whistle
  5. Some sort of cutting/prying multitool (e.g, Swiss Army knife, Leatherman)

Suggested:

  1. Aluminized mylar emergency blanket
  2. Ultra light-weight plastic poncho

The First-aid question:  Coordinators are NOT required or expected to render medical assistance.  However, for those who wish to be prepared, the following self-assembled kit is suggested.

Blunt tipped scissors & tweezers, Nitril gloves, masks, Disinfecting wipes, Large (i.e. knee) bandaids – waterproof or “tough”, Non-stick wrap – Coban or softer, gauze type wrap, Cloth medical tape, riangular bandage, 5” x 9” (ABD) pads -as many as possible, QuikClot Advance Clotting Gauze, Aspirin packs.

Other Considerations:  seasonal items such as sunscreen or handwarmers; water bottle with a belt clip.

Book Review: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster

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Last May, resident Sally Densmore also submitted a review about “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” which she encouraged others to read.  We feel that the following review neither negates nor duplicates Sally’s, which was written on a more personal basis.  Taken together, they supplement — or we should probably say, complement — each other in focusing attention on a critically important topic.  Indeed, others have been appreciating the book as well as the other books referenced at the end of this article, and we hope that multiple reviews in the Complement will inspire yet more people to engage with the issues.

Leslie      Schettler

Reviewed by Leslie Schettler and Anne Newins.  

Anne Newins

Legendary Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill was famous for saying “all politics is local.”  Bill Gates, one of the world’s wealthiest men and mega-philanthropist, understands that in the case of addressing climate change, all politics must necessarily be global, along with corporate innovation and investment, research and development.

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates (Alfred Knopf 1921) is an optimistic book, but Gates acknowledges that the necessary steps will be complicated, hard and expensive.  This short volume is intended for the readers who may not have a strong science background.

Gates says there are two numbers one needs to know about climate change.  One is 51 billion and the other is zero.  51 billion is the number of tons of greenhouse gases the world typically adds to the atmosphere every year.  Zero is what we need to aim for, in order to stop the warming and avoid the worst effects of climate change.

There are five “takeaways”:

  1. We have five sources of carbon emissions, all of which need to drop to zero:
    making things; growing things; getting places; plugging in; keeping warm and cool.
  2. Progress is a good thing, but it means increasing greenhouse gases. Many developing countries are just now experiencing the industrial growth that is already a part of the rich world.  Gates wants to find ways to continue to improve their prosperity, while still addressing carbon emissions.
  3. We need to drive down the “green premiums” in every sector, i.e., the difference in cost between choosing the existing option and upgrading to an emissions free (or emissions-reduced) option, such as an electric car. Gates provides a number green premium estimates, such as switching to biofuels for aircraft.  In some cases, the premiums are high, in other cases less so.  He is optimistic that some premiums may reduce over time as innovations are improved and more widely incorporated.
  4. The technology we need has yet to be invented; in this area Gates argues for nuclear power as the most efficient energy source because it supplies clean, reliable energy 24/7. He also discusses wind and solar energy, direct air capture and point capture (trapping pollution where it starts).
  5. We need to adapt to and prepare for existing warming while planning for zero.

Gates follows these discussions with a chapter on the importance of government policies, a plan for getting to zero, and a summary of what each of us can do.

At the end he shares a quote from Hans Rosling, author of Factfulness (also available in the RVM library), “When we have a fact-based worldview, we can see that the world is not as bad as it seems—and we can see what we have to do to keep making it better.”

Reviews of the book have been generally positive.  In a New York Times review, Bill McKibben, author of the highly regarded Falter, credits Gates with addressing the issue and his numerous philanthropic investments. At other times, McKibben is more critical.

Gordon Brown, in a review in The Guardian says that “Gates’s most important proposals involve new technologies,” and that he “is right about the scale and urgency of the problem.”

Besides Gates’ and McKibben’s books, several other related books might interest residents and also are available in the Manor library. The Gates book is also available in large print. Other books include Drawdown by Paul Hawken, and Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. Beloved naturalist David Attenborough has recently published A Life on Our Planet, and a copy will be made available in the library by late July.

July Library Book Display

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July Library Display

Library Volunteer Judy Simpson looks over this month’s display.

Visit the Library’s July book display which focuses on the Founding of the Country and its founding fathers, founding mothers, and founding brothers with books by Pulitizer Prize winning authors and New York Times best selling authors.  Here are some examples.

“Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates” (an audio book), tells of pirates boarding the new country’s ships and kidnapping American sailors for slaves and ransom.  Jefferson sent the U.S. Navy’s new warships and the Marines to Tripoli, beginning America’s journey toward super power status.

“Founding Mothers” by New York Times bestseller Cokie Roberts provides an intimate look at women behind the scenes such as Abigail Adams, Deborah Read Franklin, and Martha Washington.  Social history at its best, proving that without our exemplary women, the new country might never have survived.

“Benjamin Rush” by New York Times bestseller Stephen Fried, describes one of the youngest signatories, an M.D. called the Father of American Psychiatry, who revolutionized treatment of mental illness and addiction,

There are fiction, non-fiction, large print, and audio books.  Come and enjoy some of our nation’s early history.

Rachel’s Curios

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Read more

In The Community

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Congratulations on taking those first steps into a new volunteer activity — and WELCOME!

The Birthday Luncheon Committee has two new members — submitted by Jamie Harris.

Meridel Hedges steps into the position held by Jamie Harris for 14 years.  Meridel and her husband, Dan, moved to RVM from Eagle Point in 2019.  She attended one Birthday Luncheon just before the shutdown, enjoyed it enough that she thought it would be a good committee to join.   Meridel has been involved in  several volunteer committees in the past and will be a wonderful new addition.

Faye Isaak steps into the position held by Sharon Purkerson for 10 years.  Faye, along with her husband, Merl, moved to RVM in 2005.  Faye has been an active member of the community and is well known as the author of the Rogue Valley Manor history book,  “Vision with a View”,  She is also appreciated for her artistic talents, and poetry.   We look forward to having her on the BD committee.

Meridel and Faye join Patti Robb, who very recently also joined the Birthday Luncheon Committee

How About That Complement?

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by Bob Buddemeier

Did you ever stop to wonder about the on-line journal that you’re reading?  If not, it may be time to switch to a different article, but if so, read on.

The Complement was built by David Gordon of Ashland Websites, who continues to coach us and troubleshoot as needed.  No, he doesn’t work for free, but it turns out that this is a remarkably cheap hobby compared to many.

Under the hood, it is powered by WordPress software running on the Bluehost site.  That’s a giant ho-hum for most people, but it’s worth mentioning because those pieces of software account for a remarkably large percentage of the cottage-industry blogs and websites around the world.

The dedicated editorial team consists of Joni Johnson, Connie Kent, Tom Conger, Reina Lopez (photographer), and yours truly.  That is far from all, however.  We offer frequent contributions from Nit-Wit Newz correspondent A. Looney, Russy Sumariwalla, and our outstanding panel of book reviewers (Anne Newins, Bonnie Tollefson, Jan Hines, Liz Caldwell, Connie Kent, Sally Densmore, and Leslie Schettler).  We’ve also had contributions — both written and pictorial — by and about many RVM residents.

What can we do?  Well, we can post pictures, videos, downloadable PDFs (and other formats), and plain old click-and-read articles.  The zippy thing is that we can do it fast and easily — from a final draft in Word to an on-line article can be a matter of minutes — which means we get to concentrate on the fun and exciting parts of journalism instead of bogging down in process and procedure.  As far as we can tell, our readers appreciate that as much as we do.

And how much do those readers read?  The figure below shows monthly views — the total number of articles (posts) that get clicked (whether or not they actually get read).  Over 3,000 — not bad, we think.  How many actual human beings does that represent?  A visit is one person coming to the site (no matter how many posts s/he views).  We get 300-ish in the first few days after an issue comes out, and if we announce a mid-month feature or even just put out a reminder, we get another pulse about half as big.  The trouble is, we have no way of knowing how many visits are due to a few insatiable people coming back again and again.  We think around 300 is a conservative estimate of individual viewers.

 

What can’t we do?  We can’t provide for the non-computer (or non-internet) users.  We’ve looked at it, and it is just too costly — in time and effort as much as in dollars.  Actually, let’s be honest.  We won’t do that, because we aren’t interested in replacing our writing and thinking and editing time with formatting and copying and distribution.  Sorry.

Another thing we can’t do is get to the computer-users who do not look at RVMlist — at least not without going to hit-everybody email blasts, which is really pretty obnoxious.  We do offer a “subscription list” to anyone who wants to get a personal email when the RVMlist notice goes out — just give one of us your email, or send a request to openinforvm@gmail.com.

And finally, we can’t (or again, won’t) connect to myRVM, because the conditions for doing that aren’t consistent with our view of how an independent publication should operate.

Let’s take a look at expectations and actuality.  We set up the structure with three main subdivisions — Arts & Info, News & Views, and Prepare.

Arts & Info was envisioned as the place for resident products — we started out with some poems by RVM poets past and present, and haven’t done that again largely because we’ve had enough other items (we figure 3-4 major ones plus some shorter notes or links for N&V and A&I — fewer for Prepare).  We try to have at least one visual feature, and something on the lighter side each month, at least one book review and the library display, the program schedule, and whatever else comes along.  We could run more some months, but we have actually had people tell us that we put out so much they have trouble getting around to reading it all.

New and Views = facts and opinions; in fact, quite a few of our resident-authored products end up here rather than in A&I because of their focus on a current issue (for example, Asifa Kanji’s “I am Not a Racist, They are“).  We also have how-tos (grocery delivery), general community descriptions (solstice religious holidays), and resident concerns (what happens on hospital discharge).  There are a few glimpses of the outside world — links to the Seattle and Portland Mirabella newsletters, which are very different products providing a look at other PRS facilities.  We also offer links to and reprints of other items of interest; in this issue we reprint an article from the Seattle Mirabella Monthly on one of their residents who contributed to the translation of the Bible into Hawai’ian Pidgin.

Prepare was — and is — envisioned as a repository of accessible and RVM-relevant information on preparedness for emergencies and disasters.  A lot of material has been accumulated there, but we have been marking time during the pandemic because we can’t refine resident plans or instructions until we have a clear picture of RVM emergency plans.  Fortunately, the RVM planning process is within a very few months of being complete, and we expect to be making major updates to the information on the Prepare page.  In the meantime, we have been focusing on Wildfire Season issues, which deserve everyone’s attention.

It seems to be going pretty well, but we would like to get more public feedback — there have only been 44 comments posted.  Some have been substantive, like Doyne Mraaz’s comment on Russy Sumariwalla’s reprinted article, but the overall public number is few.  We get far more personally — for example, only two of the 15 remarks in Life’s End Comments were posted publicly; the rest are anonymized personal communications.

 

Now — the latest — what about VIEWPOINTS?  We wish we could tell you.  We launched it with the conviction that there was another level of candor and debate needed beyond what we were providing with The Complement.  We also launched it with a lot of internal debate and soul-searching and concern about how to to link it to or detach it from The Complement so as to maintain separate personalities.  Well, silly us.  We published a suite of articles on perceived failings in PRS/RVM management vis-a-vis the residents, and another article on one of the most problematic loci of ethnic and geopolitical strife, and guess what?  The crowds with torches and pitchforks completely failed to materialize.  We suspect that this does not mean that RVM is one giant nest of harmony and agreement, but rather that the residents have rather quickly self-selected into readers or non-readers.

It’s nice to be appreciated, but talking only to those who agree with you does not provide much of a feeling of advancing the total of human understanding.  Since we didn’t make a specific schedule commitment for VIEWPOINTS, we’ll let it go fallow for a little while and see if something or somebody turns up.  It could be you — think about it.

What’s New in September

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Do you want to get a personal email notification of a new Complement issue or new material?   Email us at openinforvm@gmail.com and we will put you on the mailing list

Past articles are all on display;  If there is a “Load More” link at the bottom of the page, clicking it will bring up the older articles. 

Special Item #1:  This is our first anniversary edition!

Special Item #2:  The PREPARE page is getting a major ongoing makeover in content and organization

NEWS & VIEWS

Haappy Biirthdaay to us!, from the Staff
      – The Complement is one year old!

The New Friendship Table, by Fred Sommer
      – Getting to know you…

Everything You  Want to Know about Secret, by Joni Johnson
      – Wonderdog!  — profusely illustrated

We Are All First Responders  by Bob Buddemeier
      – Community counts

This Too Could be You!, by Joni Johnson
      – Getting to know you even better…

         in Big, Borrowed, or Both

3550:  the Portland Mirabella quarterly magazine (most recent issue)

Mirabella Monthly, Newsletter of the Seattle Mirabella (Current issue)

 

ARTS & INFO 

Some South American Crafts, by Reina Lopez, ed. Connie Kent
      – Beautiful and distinctive jewelry and fabrics

RVM September – October Event & Entertainment Schedule

September Library Display, by Anne Newins; poster by Jan Hines

Aging and Dying Your Way, by Anne Newins
      – Library display details and a featured book

RVM DVDs on Aging and Dying, by Dave Guzetta
      – A companion to the Library display

RVM Play Reading Group,  text by Tina Vasavada, photos by Reina Lopez
       – Thespians without costumes

PREPARE

The entire Prepare page is being revised and updated — check back frequently

RVM Campus Evacuation Guidelines for Fire, by Bob Buddemeier, based on RVM information
      – with updated RPG directory and maps

 

Comic art by Liz Argall:  thingswithout.com

 

A Special Book

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“A Special Book” is reprinted with permission from the June 2021 issue of the Mirabella  Monthly, newsletter of the Seattle Mirabella community.  We are grateful to the author and to the editor, Jared Curtis, for allowing us to share this special article with the RVM community.

 

A Special Book, by Sally Hayman

Janet Ohta sat in The Bistro sipping coffee with the product of a nearly thirty-year project on the table beside her—two books with bright blue images of the Hawaiian Islands on the  covers. They are Da Jesus Book and Da Good An Spesho Book, translations of the New Testament and the entire Bible into Hawaii Pidgin.

Janet Ohta, a member of the translating team. Photo by Jared Curtis

Janet speaks Hawaii Pidgin even more easily than she does English. She was born in Hawaii of Japanese parents. Her mother and father had emigrated to Hawaii in search of a better life and a good place to raise their eight children. Japanese was spoken at home, but not encouraged in public for fear of being mistaken for Japanese spies during World War II. So, when Janet started first grade, she spoke Japanese and Pidgin English.  Her wonderful first  grade teacher spoke both languages and helped Janet to become more fluent in Standard English.

Hawaii Pidgin is not a dialect, but a Creole language developed when workers from China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Portugal came together in camps to work under English- and Hawaiian speaking bosses on pineapple or sugar cane plantations. Pidgin is orally transmitted and cannot be learned from reading English books or from English classes. Today there are still large groups in Hawaii that speak mainly Pidgin, but only a little English. The language is a bit different from place to place.

Though Janet’s parents were Buddhists and even dedicated a Buddhist temple in Hawaii, her father decided that the chanting was not meaningful to his children. So, he took them to the Kahului Union Church, founded by American Congregational missionaries, and Hiroko (Janet’s Japanese name) and her seven brothers and sisters became Christians. Janet fell in love with the Biblical stories.

Then Janet met Drs. Joseph and Barbara Grimes, both former professors of linguistics at Cornell University and associated with the Wycliffe Bible Translators, a non-denominational, non-profit group.  The couple had retired to the west side of Oahu where mainly Pidgin is spoken. Embedded in a community of native Hawaii Pidgin speakers, the Grimeses worked with the Greek and Hebrew Bibles and countless other translations to ensure that every word in the Hawaii Pidgin Bibles was true to the intent of the text and to find meanings best suited for Hawaii Pidgin. They enlisted a group of twenty-nine people, including Janet, who helped with the translation through the years 1987 to 2020.  In Hawaii Pidgin the Old Testament is referred to as “Da Befo Jesus Book” and the New is referred to   as “Da Jesus Book.” Da Jesus Book was published in 2000, followed by Da Good An Spesho Book, comprised of Old and New Testaments, in 2020.

Janet and her husband Jim are members of Kalihi Union Church on Oahu, part of the Evangelical Free Church of America. They divide their time among three children and five grandchildren. Here at Mirabella, she and Jim continue Bible study in a group led by Phil Braden and Darrell Guder.

A sample of a few passages in the book will amaze you with the vitality of the language. When the Angel Gabriel comes to Mary he says, “Aloha! Da One in Charge goin do something spesho for you.” Or Song (Psalm) 23: “Da One in Charge, he take kea me, / Jalike da sheep guy / Take kea his sheeps. / Az why I get eryting I need.” Every new language brings new insights.

You can get a copy of Da Good An Spesho Book at Costco or Walmart in Hawaii. It might be more interesting than a can of macadamia nuts to bring back as a flavor of Hawaii. And for many Hawaiians the book opens a whole new world.

 

 

Estate Planning Matters

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On Wednesday 23 June, Beth Knorr, Director of Trust Services at Oregon Pacific Bank, talked about the importance of estate planning on Channel 900. Her presentation is available for later viewing via a link on myRVM.

Here is a fillable form you can use for your estate planning: Estate Matters. Either print it out and fill it in by hand, or complete it on the screen then print it out filled in. The Complement will not save your completed document.

Here is the same thing in MS Word — ESTATE MATTERS 6-7-21, which you can edit and personalize after downloading it to your computer.

Dave Cochran Changed History

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What I find incredible about RVM is the number of people who have had fascinating careers.  Dave Cochran is one of them.  David Packard introduced him to a navy admiral as the man who invented the HP-35- the pocket calculator that changed the world.  One year after its invention in 1972, slide-rules were a thing of the past.  While numerous people worked on it, Dave was HP’s Project Chief for the HP-35. Basically, he was responsible for how it looked and how it worked. For his part in the development of architecture and algorithms of the HP-35, he was included in the bicentennial issue of Time Magazine’s “American Ingenuity”. One of the major components of the HP-35 was its use of Reverse Polish notation (RPN). Instead of putting in 8×2=16, you would you hit 8, Enter, 2, X  (you still get 16).  Dave said that the reason he used this was due to the greater exactness of the equations under study and less chance of ambiguity. People either loved it or hated it, but it was mostly techies who loved it, so ultimately mass marketing demand led HP back to ordinary algebraic formulations.

In some sense, America’s electronic future was serendipitously linked to the fact that the Navy’s electronic school was on Treasure Island, just a short distance away from Palo Alto where he grew up. His original interest was in mechanics and he planned to study mechanical engineering at Stanford before the Korean War took him to other shores for five years.  But since the Navy offered him a nine-month training in electronics on Treasure Island, that is what he studied. And after the war was over, he went into electrical engineering when he was able to return to Stanford. While studying, he managed a part -time job at Hewlett-Packard and of course this relationship melded into a full-time career when he received his degree.

 

How one’s mind works is certainly the fascinating part of the creative process.  Dave believes that creativity is developed and learned by trial and error.  If your circuit works the first time, you don’t learn anything.  He thinks graphically, imagining shapes in his mind.  He was part of a Princeton study looking at his thinking ability.  They wanted to know if he needed to visualize things along the way, which he does. He invents by having a goal and then stretching the idea to reach the goal.

 

Of course, there would be no HP-35 without Bill Hewlett.  He wanted a calculator that would fit inside his desk.
Before that, calculators were much, much larger.  Dave, leading the team, developed the HP 9100. Unfortunately, it was just a little big for Hewlett’s desk, so quietly, they restructured his desk so that it would fit.  The 9100 was the first mass-produced computer in the history of the world.  Before that, no one had ever built fifty at once.

 

As soon as that was done, Hewlett pushed for a pocket calculator.  One that would do everything that the 9100 would do, but would fit perfectly in his pocket.  The team dreamed of designing Bill new shirts with bigger pockets, but that didn’t last long. And so the HP-35 was on its way. Hewlett started to bug Dave personally and would come into the lab and look at him and ask him how it was coming.

 

Dave said that the HP-35 ruined parties.  Before, if there were a piano player at a party, everybody would cluster around and either listen or sing.  After the HP-35 got off the ground, groups of men would be huddled together and women would be on the other side wondering what was going on. I thought this was rather a sexist comment and so I asked him again about men and women during the seventies. But he reiterated that at that time, there were almost no women engineers.  And even today male engineers outnumber females ten to one.

Dave said that he saw how the HP-35 changed the world first hand.  He would go down to universities out of state for college recruiting and would give a little talk about the HP-35 design.  Afterwards, the professors would tell him how difficult it made their lives.  “What do I do? Do I let them use a calculator (instead of a slide rule)?  They all can’t afford it ($395).  Do I have to buy them for everybody?”

 

During the development stage, they had a “name the baby” contest with many entries such as Math Marvel, Athena, etc.  But Hewlett came by and said it should be call the HP-35 because it had 35 keys. And that was that.

 

This is actually a picture of Dave

The HP-35 was the number-one selling HP product of all time.  Looking back, it was Dave’s most important project.  But 70% of his projects at HP were successful, meaning that they went into production and were profitable for the company.  If he couldn’t embrace it, he either killed the project or got off of it.

A friend of mine said ,” I had an HP-35 and it was a great calculator. The keys had “positive click action” and I loved that. You also had to enter your equations using Reverse Polish Notation which was odd at first but easy to learn.  I was the last student in my high school physics class to use a slide rule because the others all had calculators and I couldn’t afford one. Then I won the HP in a contest and that was the end of the slide rule.”

Of course, Dave had an HP-35 for me to hold.  He kept talking about the keys and how they felt, and they did feel wonderful.  They would click easily and comfortably so that you knew your number was going in.  What he loved the most was the admiration and appreciation of the engineers who knew what it took to develop the product.  He loved fixing problems and unlike today pretty much wherever you work, HP of that time was very collaborative so it was a pleasure to work there.  Thank you Dave for the HP-35.  I remember the slide rule.  I am glad that it is gone!!!!!

Addendum:   People have asked about the others at HP who worked on the HP-35 so here they are:  Tom Osborne, Paul Stoft, Paul Williams, Chu Yen, Ken Peterson, Rich Marconi, Charlie Hill, Bill Misson , Dick Osgood, Clarence Studley, Bernie Musch, Jim Duley, Margaret Marsen, John Welsch, Ed Liljenwall, Tom Holden, Neil Honeychurch, Thomas Whitney, Chung C. Tung and France Rodé.