About Me
and
Our Family
This is a picture of me and Anne, my beautiful wife of over
50 years, taken at Wildacres Retreat -- before Alzheimer's stole
the light from her face. The song you are hearing exactly reflects
my feelings for her, then and now!
This is a short biography of me, Hale Sweeny:
I was raised in South Carolina, a lot of that time in Charleston. My dad
had a civil engineering company, so I guess it was natural that I started
out in Engineering when I started Clemson, in 1942. But very soon, college
got cut short by the war... so into the Navy and on to Midshipman School,
where I was commissioned in 1943. After a short stay at radar school, I
went to the Pacific to the USS Heyliger, a long-hull Destroyer Escort,
as the CIC (radar) officer.
Well the war ended, (I won't bore you with war stories!) and I came home,
and restarted school at Clemson. I met Anne in 1946 and married her in
1948, and graduated with an Engineering degree in 1949. Started work as
a draftsman-machine designer for a textile machinery manufacturer -- but
after 6 months, I found that I really hated sitting over a drawing board.
Since I still had some GI Bill time left, I went to VPI to try to think
about what I wanted to do in life. My advisor made me take math and statistics,
and I loved it.
Received a Masters degree in Industrial Engineering in 1952 and then enrolled
in the Doctoral Program in Mathematical Statistics, where I graduated in
1956.
Started my 'career' work in the Research Labs of Atlantic Refining Company
in Philadelphia, and then, two years later, quit and started my own consulting
company in statistics and computing. I did that for a couple of years,
during which time we adopted our first son, Sean, and our daughter Sandy.
Was offered a job with Research Triangle Institute and moved here to NC
in 1961. Took up sports car racing and enjoyed that for three years, racing
a Lotus 7 most of the time. Took up fatherhood (also enjoyable), again,
and Anne gave birth to Brian - the caboose!
In 1972, I went to work for Burroughs-Wellcome, a pharmaceutical manufacturer.
My stay there was enjoyable, and I retired in 1989.
Our two sons are both married and live close by; our daughter is married
and lives in Farmington, NJ with our three grandchildren.
And that is just about where I am now... have loved retirement. I worked
for a while for the Red Cross in Disaster Relief, and then got into lapidary
as a hobby. I am the Regional VP for the Eastern Federation and the Regional
Director for the Southeast Federation.... Anne came down with Alzheimer's
and - to take up time while I stayed at home caring for her, I started
Lapidary Digest. Never thought it would have more than 100 or so subscribers
-- and now it has almost 1450! Well, that's about it! |
