Thanks to Ron Gault and Bob Bloss

Endless thanks for these two men in my life. Bob Bloss, on the left, was Ron Gault's and my boss at TRW during the hay-day of the company. And during its hay-day, TRW was pretty amazing. I was exposed to and learned more in those 7 years of working with Ron and Bob than most people would see in three lifetimes. I was lucky to work with them at TRW, surrounded by engineers and scientists that made my Fort Lewis College academic pedigree look like... well... Fort Lewis College.  Bob let us do just about anything, as long as it brought in new business and revenue and we didn't create an international incident. And so we did do just about anything.

A partial list of projects: White hat (good guy) attacks and threats against the US nuclear command and control system, from the President to the warhead. Risk assessment of the Hanford Nuclear Waste Site. Software testing and validation for the Peacekeeper and Minuteman ICBM launch control and targeting programs; and the Predator drone. Forensic analysis of the accidental detonation of a Peacekeeper rocket motor during maintenance. Supported the START Treaty. Supported the Project Sapphire to safely secure former Soviet nuclear weapons. Designed and developed the worlds largest data warehouse at the time, used for management and maintenance of nuclear ICBMs. Designed the Strategic Execution Decision Aid for the President and other National Command Authorities. White hack attacks and threat assessment of computerized US voting systems. We built a team around artificial intelligence technology when it was barely emerging, and applied it to all sorts of problems, including healthcare imagery such as x-rays and ultrasounds. Bob let me start a healthcare line of business, which included a research grant for the application of cognitive technology (AI) to healthcare. That grant funding went to Jerome Soller when Jerome was still a PhD student.

So, I owe Ron and Bob my healthcare career... should I thank them or blame them? :-) In any case, I love them. Profoundly wonderful influence on me and more than best friends to this day.