Leaving The World In A Better Place
From as far back as I can remember I was told to always do my best at what ever it I chose to do in life, treat people with respect and do good things for others in need. Words of wisdom from my grandfather and later from my father after he became a recovering member of AA. In every job have had from helping my grandfather to hang wall paper or paint he would always instruct me to do my very best. We were working in a big pre-civil war mansion when I was about 10 years old. The people had left expensive jewelry laying out in plain site. I ask my grandfather were they afraid someone would take their jewelry? He said, son the reason it is laying out is because over the years I have acquired a reputation of honesty! If you see something that doesn't belong to you leave it where it lays. Always leave the world a better place than you found it!
He instilled in me to expect the best from myself and to help others in need when I could. My grandfather on my fathers side died when my dad was 7 years old in 1932. He was a sharecropper who had an accident and it blew both his hands off. Now he could not plow or work the fields, he left my Grandmother with 9 children to feed living in a one room cabin in rural Rutherford county. He felt like he had no choice but to commit suicide as he was taking food from the children. After his death the oldest boys and the two youngest children stayed with their mother and the other children were sent to live with brothers of there mother on their farms. They struggled through the depression after my grandmother and the two oldest boys and the two youngest moved to town, the boys worked at what ever jobs they could find. Working in stockyards, finding scrap metal to sell, anything to earn a few pennies. The would go by the grocery and get bones to take home for making soup or broth, they eat natural wild greens, grow what they could, my uncle Dick made a sling shot and would shoot pigeons squirrels, rabbits, birds for meat wasn't much but times were hard.
One day a lady from the State of Tennessee stopped in and she said, the state would take care of the two young children, a baby boy and three year old girl until my grandmother got back on her feet. She told my grandmother she could come visit them anytime she wanted too. She did that every weeks for a few weeks and then they were gone. She ask, where her babies were and she was told by the lady they had placed them in a foster home for the time being. For years my father and his brothers paid lawyers and private detectives to find their brother and sister. As a child I would hear them meeting discussing what to do to find them as their mother continued to grieve over the loss of them.
Later that woman was convicted taking children from poor families all over the state and selling the children of poor parents to wealthy families. They were eventually found or should I say found them after their mother passed. The girl was sold with adoption papers to a wealthy bootlegger in another town. After her adoptive parents died she found the papers and found out her real name. The boy was sold and adopted buy a wealthy family in another town in Tennessee. The story came out about the reunion and was picked up by newspapers and the National Enquirer magazine and told the story.
My father became a dental technician after being in the Marines, he continued in the profession until he passed at 84. He worked long hours as he didn't want his children to grow up like he did he made lots of money bought new car and bought a brand new home for us. Unfortunately, the stresses caused him to drink more and both parents became alcoholics and life changed as it got worse over the years until he lost every thing and was forced to join AA, that is a whole other story. However, he always said to me after I became a dental technician, "Never Ever Give Up!" His career advice was do every case like it is for your mother, the patient deserves your very best everyday.
I was gifted with an artistic talent so I chose to be a crown & bridge technician. I studied under two of the top crown and bridge technicians in Kentucky, Fred Johnson and Dave Adamson. Porcelain fused to metal had only been on the market for 5 years at that point in time. I sat between the two of them and they would had me a single crown to wax up as far as i could go with it and then they would finish it while I watched and explain why they were doing it that way. I continued to study and apprenticed under private ceramic technicians, took continuing education courses. Studied removable dental devices, partial and full dentures. When I worked in one laboratory in the late 1960's, I ask, why don't we use microscopes? The answer was we don't need to use them as it would take to long to do the work! To me quality should always be the top reason to do what you do everyday.
When I started my own laboratory I started using microscopes in 1976 to improve the quality of my work. It did several great things; it reduced chair time for doctors, it assured the patient the best restoration I could produce, and it reduced my remake factor to under 1%. I then went on to lecture and teach dental technicians to use them to improve the dental restorations patients received.
I created aerosol ceramic systemsto save me time and improved the quality of my work. I was like many dental technicians and used airbrushes. It produced great results, however it took time to clean out and change colors of ceramic opaque. I thought if they could put ceramics into and aerosol for use in dentistry it would save time improve the quality of dental restorations for patients. Today, due to my thinking and persistance to create areosol ceramic spray systems, spray glazes are used and sold around the world. Proven superior to brush and paste ceramic glazes as it increases the flexural strength and maked the restoration have a more natural appearence. I created the strongest ceramic to titainium bonding system using aerosol to color titanium abutments so the alloy would not show under the gums to make the tissue appear unhealthy. All of my dental medical devices were tested to be superior by material scientist Dr. Russell Giordano PhD. Boston University.
When a friend was killed in a hunting accident I created a hunting safety vest to protect in blunt trauma injuries in falls from deer stands or ATV's using DuPont Kevlar. It was tested by the US Department of Justice as the materials I used also protected police officers and soldiers from blunt trauma injuries. I used another DuPont fabric used for the Mars Lander crash bags to create the worlds lightest and coolest snake and briar chaps and pants for use in the outdoors. Products were sold in Cabela's and other outdoor retailers under the brand Wise Hunter. It was used by Snake wranglers on the Animal Planet when approaching snakes in Australia, Africa and USA.
A friend who was a police officer and police Cheif asking if I could create a way to keep the black fingerprint from ruining their clothes and property. I created the aerosol fingerprint powder for assisting law enfocrement to reduce the mess save clothes and property from damage. Test by the US ARMY Forensic Laboratory, after testing the published two white papers on my development. Their suggestion was that every patrol officer should carry a kit with them while on duty as they are most often the first to a crime scene and could get prints before the scen became contaminated when other people arrived on the scene.
Being an American and entrepreneur I hope I have contributed to society to leave this world a better place. I will continue to create things to make our world a better place as my creator gave me the talent to create, I WILL NEVER EVER GIVE UP!