Family background and upbringing in northern New Jersey, including recollections of high school; involvement in horse shows and time spent as farrier; community college studies; gains experience in tool and dye industry and high precision work. Joins Lamont Geological Observatory machine shop, early 1960s; impressions of Angelo Ludas and machine shop operations; recollections of machine shop work for seismology and marine geophysics; effects of late 1960s funding cuts on machine shop and revised methods of instrument development; experiences on board Lamont research ships Vema and Conrad; recollections of Maurice Ewing, Henry Kohler, and Allen Jorgensen; recollections of air gun development at Lamont; impressions of work environment at machine shop from late 1960s through 1990s.