Graduating from Hubert Elementary was really a major step toward adulthood. Myself and 3 or 4 other kids, would be starting at Cass Technical High School in February of 1958. Up until now, all of our travels to and from school required only a walk of a few blocks at the most. All of a sudden we were dealing with the responsibility of learning bus schedules, transfer locations, dealing with grown-ups in the real world, and using money for things other than candy and soda pop down at Butch's store. Cass Tech was all the way downtown!
Mom or Dad weren't going drive me down there. I had to make my own way. Mom packed me a lunch, gave me a couple of bucks, a kiss on the forehead, and waved as I headed down the sidewalk to catch the Fenkell bus. I was on my own and never got to go back.
I majored in commercial art at Cass. My dream had always been to be a professional artist, either drawing cartoons or doing illustrations for some type of
publication. I learned a lot about art at Cass, but basically ignored all my other subjects. All I wanted was to learn art. I got good grades in art, but failed miserably in everything else. So they kicked me out of Cass after a year, and I started at Redford in 1959. The only course I really took any interest in at Redford was Mrs. Williams' jewelry class. I got good grades in that class, but just scraped by with Cs and Ds in everything else. A couple of years I had to do summer school just to keep up. Plus, there were other distractions, like girls and cars. For spending money I had a Brightmoor Journal paper route, worked as stock boy at Jim's Market, and sold original jewelry to the Dearborn Inn Gift Shop.
In May of 1962, when I realized I wasn't going to graduate because of my grades, I decided to join the Air Force.
In July of '62, after passing all the tests, and being sworn in, I climbed on a train bound for Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. After basic training there, I was shipped to Keesler AFB, in Mississippi, to learn electronics. Once my training was finished I was given a 30130 Airborne Radio Technician career field, promoted to Airman Second class, and was ready for my first assignment.
Andersen AFB, Guam, was where they decided to send me. An 18 month tour of duty with the 54th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron. We were typhoon chasers.
tracking typhoons. Our planes would fly over, around, and into the storms, taking all kinds of readings, trying to predict what these storms were going to do. There wasn't a whole bunch of stuff to do during our down times, so I took on a job as nighttime disc jockey at our base radio station AFRS Andersen. The Mighty 1090. That was fun. During the day, if we weren't working on the aircraft, we'd go swimming, ride our motorcycles, or dive for seashells in any of the beautiful lagoons around the island.
After leaving Guam, I had a 30 day furlough and then flew out of McGuire AFB for Germany. A 3 year stint with the 496th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Hahn AFB, Germany.
There I took care of the communication and navigation systems of F-102a jet fighters. I had to extend my enlistment by 18 months, but I figured I'd rather be stationed overseas and get to see something, than finish up my enlistment here in the states.
From time to time we'd have temporary duty at bases in other countries. Spain and Italy were 2 of them, but mostly when I had some leave time and a few DMarks in my pocket, I would get on a train and travel around Germany. I saw a lot of the country, learned to speak some half decent German, ate a lot of viener schnitzel, bratwurst, cheese, and drank a hell of a lot of beer.
When my time was up in Germany I came back to McGuire AFB/Fort Dix for discharge. I finally got home on New Years eve, 1967. While I was gone, my folks got divorced, and my mother had just remarried. Mom let me stay at her house on West Parkway, that she had lived in while she was single, until I could find a job and get my own place. Finding a job in 1968 was anything but easy. The Vietnam war was really cranking up, and when I would go for a job interview and they found that I was an ex G.I., I was out the door. I finally got a job at a little stereo shop on 7 Mile called the "High Fidelity Workshop". I repaired stereos, tape recorders and similar electronic equipment. I got a little third floor, 1 bedroom apartment, over on Greenfield, north of Grand River. That's where I met my wife, Jean.
On Valentine's Day, 1969, Jean and I were married. We stayed in the same apartment building, but moved into a little larger apartment. My life was taking a whole different direction than what I thought it would. Things really changed when our son was born. Mark John Williams. April 21, 1970. I didn't make much money at Hi-Fi Workshop and I could see it was time to change jobs. I went to work at an Ampex repair depot in Ferndale. I refurbished reel to reel tape recorders and later did repair on the new cassette recorders. Things were looking up. We moved from the apartment to a place out in Utica called the "Village Square".
While at Ampex I got some schooling on video tape recorders. The guy that did most of the work on the video stuff was also married with a son. He and his wife became our best friends. Things at Ampex started getting a little crazy when we got a new manager, and Rob and I both left. Rob went to Campbell-Ewald advertising to set up their new video equipment in their Audio/Video center and I went to Sony-Superscope to fix more tape recorders. When Superscope moved into their new building, they needed someone to keep the place clean and shiny, so I took it on as a night-time job and formed "Spartan Maintenance". Jean and I did the work ourselves and we also did a couple of stores in the Utica area. After a year or so, Campbell-Ewald turned their A/V center into a subsidiary called Varicom. They needed a couple more electronics guys, so Rob recommended me. Superscope replaced "Spartan Maintenance" with another company when I quit working there.
I started at Varicom as a gizmo and gadget builder and as Audio Engineer. I designed and built various kinds of switching stations and control panels that were needed for doing our video productions. As Audio Engineer I would set up and operate the equipment used for the audio portion of those productions. After learning the ins and outs of all the audio and video equipment we used,
I became Audio/Video Engineer, then Technical Director.
On January 23, 1974, Julie Lenore Williams was born. We bought a house in Royal Oak in July of '74.
Campbell-Ewald did all of the advertising for Chevrolet, and Varicom did the development for their TV commercials, dealer shows, inter-corporate productions, and various other
presentations. As Technical Director I set up all the components and the video effects for Chevrolet's break-through commercial called "Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, and Chevrolet". I never got much credit for that one, but I did win a couple of "Twiggy" awards for other video productions.
In 1976, Campbell-Ewald pulled Varicom back into the company and we became the Audio/Video center again. I was promoted to Producer/Director and worked mostly on TV commercial development.
In 1978, I received a patent on a differential control for solar heating systems. I resigned from Campbell-Ewarld and started a company called Willtronix. I sold my control through mail order and a distributor down in Ohio. I sold those controls to people and companies all over the world, but the Israelis had a cheap little control that worked just as well and they flooded the market with them, pretty much putting me out of business.
I started doing custom electronic design and proto-typing for different companies and in the process received 2 more U.S. patents.
One was a cartridge protection system for the Atari video games, and the other was a sound to light generator similar to the jumping LED indicators seen on some stereos today. I never could dig up enough money to fully develop and market those gizmos, so nothing ever came of them.
In 1982, I started doing repair and refurbishing of printed circuit boards for garage door openers. This company was called "Electronic Restorations". I serviced most of the garage door companies in the local area, and then got a contract with Automatic Doorman in New Jersey to act as their national repair depot. Most of the garage door opener makers starting using unrepairable, "throw-away" circuit boards, so that business gradually died out.
In 1986, the maintenance people at Elias Brothers asked if I could do repairs on their waitress call systems in their restaurants. The systems were old and some were beyond
repair. I proposed the design of a state of the art system that would replace their old "Chef's Helper". I formed a corporation called Imtek, Inc. and started manufacturing my waitress call system called "Order-Redi". Most of the Big Boy restaurants in this area and a few across the country have the "Order-Redi". We also sold several of our systems to Flying J restaurants in several different states. In the early 90s both Flying J and Big Boy started installing the new pocket pager type system in
their restaurants. We sold a few systems to some of the Big Boy franchise restaurants, but the demand for the "Order-Redi" system is gone, and so is Imtek.
At present I spend my time doing small electrical and communication wiring jobs for a couple of companies and for people living in this area. I build and sell custom made computers and fabricate and install extended wire bundles for a limousine builder down in New Boston.
I also designed, build, and install a limousine control system called "Neuropath" for the limos. The system allows the passengers to control all of the lighting, audio, video, privacy window, and heating and cooling.
So let's check the scoreboard.
Graduated from Hubert
Kicked out of Cass Tech
Dropped out of Redford
Did 5 ½ years in the U.S.A.F.
4 major career changes
4 failed businesses
1 wife
2 sons
1 daughter
5 grandchildren
All in all, my life has been a pretty wild ride. I did things pretty much the way I wanted to do them, sometimes with disastrous results. I'm not sure I would change anything, even if I could. I've learned a lot of things in my life, mostly because I had to. I've been very fortunate to have been able to take my life in a direction of my own choosing. Through the years the ups and downs caused a lot of stress in my marriage to Jean, but she's stuck with me for all these years. Sometimes I wonder why. She says it's partly because things were never boring.
I'm not a wealthy man as far as money is concerned. My wealth lies in the joy of having a loving wife, the contentment of a comfortable home, the pleasure of watching my children and grandchildren growing up, the tolerance and acceptance of good friends, good health, and the keeping of an open and active mind. I'm not all that happy about what the years have done to my appearance, but more than satisfied with my life, and the kind of person I have become.
This is probably more than you ever wanted to know about Ted Williams.
