User:Bill McElroy

William (Bill) C. McElroy Jr. Born in August of 1942 as an Army Brat Bill joined the U.S. Air Force Security Service in 1960 and was assigned to Wakkanai, Japan as an ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) engineering technician. (SLA-1 systems) Bill was transferred to Hof, Germany and helped set up the ECM and Inventory systems for the GLR-1 system.

Upon leaving the Air Force in 1964 Bill went to work as an engineering technician for Brake Shoe in Mahwah, New Jersey where he and two others designed and hand-built the first 48-track 'Hump Yard' (RR switching yard) for the Santa Fe railroad.

Bill took an assignment in 1965 working for Isotopes (New Jersey company) and was assigned to Mercury, Nevada as a engineering technician maintaining the Nuclear Radiation Analysis laboratory for the final testing of Atomic Weapons at the site.

Bill then took an assignment as an engineering technician / Scientist Magnetometer operator on the Robert D. Conrad oceanographic vessel where he spent the good part of a year circumnavigating the planet studying its ocean secrets. Bill documented his voyage in 'Pioneers of Oceanography: Saga of the Robert D. Conrad'

Bill joined Ampex Service Center in Hackensack, New Jersey in time to be assigned to Gramman Aircraft in Bethpage, Long Island modifying, calibrating, and testing the Ampex FR-1900 recorders used for the Apollo 11 LEM (Lunar Excursion Module LM-5 {Eagle})lunar landing.

After leaving Ampex Bill joined Dohrman Instruments of Santa Clara, California where he work with the chief engineer designer of the Gas Chromaticgraph that was used for analyzing the dirt and rock samples returned from the lunar missions. Bill also designed the first 1 mv full-scale, table-top, multi-speed, multi-range, field modifiable Chart Recorder.

Rejoining Ampex in Burbank, California Bill took over the position of Assistant Manager of the service centre and was in charge of the Instrumentation recorder division where he modified, calibrated, and tested the recorders for JPL used for the Viking 1 lander that took thousands of samples and pictures of the surface of Mars.

Bill was transferred to the Ampex Service Center in Detroit, Michigan where he managed the center that repaired the Ampex consumer, video, professional audio, and instrumentation recorders used by Ford, GM, Motown, Sears, Arnold Palmer, and hundreds of our Military stationed in war zones. Bill and his team built the room-sized working model of the Ford Motor Company 'People Mover'. When Ampex closed their service centers Bill purchased the center and advanced it into the number one consumer audio repair facility in Detroit, Michigan and nearby states. A break-in and robbery forced the closure of the center.

Bill moved to Santa Clara, California and took over the electronics PCB (Printed Circuit Board) department of Microair. Promoted to acting Vice President Bill was the driving force behind the '2001 Space Odyssey' wet process integrated circuit lab at Fairchild Semiconductor. Bill was instrumental on some 45 break-through designs that advanced wet processing and he wrote the training manual for IC process operators and IC process equipment designers. He was featured in MicroContamination with his four page IC Wet Processing review.

Bill moved to Kay Plastics, Santa Clara, California and took over their engineering lab; he designed several pieces of wet processing equipment including a Gold Recovery (reclaim) station.

Bill moved to Canoga Park, California and took over the drafting room an engineering management position where he designed Class 1, 10, and 100 Laminar Flow units, Clean Rooms, Gloveboxes, and a portable clean room for use on aligning tank firing systems in Israel.

Bill suffered a mild heart attack and took a year off to help his parents build their 'dream home'. Bill returned to Canoga Park and took a position as Drafting Room manager for ComCenter Corp in Van Nuys where he guided the drafting of blueprints for the Los Angles Police Department's in-vehicle computer system and downtown subterranean headquarters. Bill and his crew also documented the company's Amtrak East Coast signal system.

The building of his parent's 'Dream House' led to a contract with Craftsman Book Company to produce the 'Painter's Handbook', 'Fences and Retaining Walls', and co-author of 'Electrical Blueprint Reading', which in turn lead to a contract with Prentice Hall for the 'Roofer's Handbook'.

Retired and no longer in the industry, Bill moved to Tucson, Arizona and created several websites on tourism in the Four-Corner States. He has several e-books published in 2007-8 that document the southwest. Bill intends to travel and continue writing for many years to come.

REF: Source, William C. McElroy Jr.