Edmund J. Goodwin

Autobiography of Edmund J. Goodwin

Born in the same room and same bed as my mother—in Grandma’s house, north-west New Mexico, 1939. My first eight grades were in a one-room schoolhouse with one teacher in northern Idaho. Got my first ham radio license at 14—Wn5ZCY.

Married with children, I finished high school at night with junior college courses. Digging ditches by hand for a natural gas company, I worked my way through evening college. Then, I got lucky—really lucky !

The cold war, coupled with the technical revolution of the computer age in 1961, created a powerful need for programmers and computer operators. I got a new graveyard-shift job: operating massive mainframe computers at a National Laboratory. During the long, boring nights I taught myself how to program. Then I got VERY lucky again—promoted to a daytime job—programming those same computers. Then, I REALLY got luckier again !!

The Laboratory had an annual scholarship program, and one year I won it. After graduating from UC Berkeley as an Electronics Engineer / Computer Scientist, I had a great job as leader and supervisor of a group of scientists, engineers, and systems analysts. It was exciting stuff: Nuclear Weapons, Star Wars, Laser Fusion . . . even a stint working for NASA’s first moon shot.

We retired in 1990 and moved to South Africa for two years. Back in America, we had several adventures in several places, ending-up here in SW Washington.

Writing has been one of my interests, every since I retired. I’ve been in a couple of writer’s groups and edited books and stories for four published authors. I’ve also won a couple of short story awards in Science Fiction. I’ve written a few books, but never got published until Amazon Kindle. My favorite author is Robert A. Heinlein.

Other interests and hobbies have always been Science, Electronics, Engineering, History, SF&F, Computer Programming, baking, and Ham Radio. Call sign now is W7EZ.