I just received news that Karen has published an article in Compound Semi-Conductor Magazine,  a technical journal in the U.K. for the technical community and public at large. It concerns her research on light emitting diode and laser materials, mostly Gallium Nitride, at the Sandia National Laboratory. It has the potential to bring lighting costs down by several magnitudes. It also has ramifications for several other areas of scientific research, and eventually, for products that will dramatically cut energy costs. We occasionally have long phone conversations in which she tries to keep me abreast of her findings, but I’m afraid that’s a tougher job than doing her research. LOL. For any who are interested, a Google of "Karen E. Waldrip" will show the kinds of things she's into.

Amy has completed an MBA program in Norman, Oklahoma and has been selected for a professorial position as head of the law library at the University of Virginia. She and her family will be moving to Charlottesville, VA in the spring. That will bring my two grandchildren close enough for frequent visits, and I can’t tell you how happy that makes us.

Susan, in a career move that makes me swell with pride for her incredible courage and iron will, gave up her position as executive vice president of a 400 person computer software and consulting firm in Washington, D.C. and has taken up dairy farming in Albuquerque, N.M. She always loved the city, so this was a surprise to everyone who knows her. It’s been a couple of years now and I’ve never seen her more happy. She builds web sites part-time, and loves her new work in animal husbandry. She also loves taking long hikes into the Sandia mountains with her string of ten pack goats and two 150 pound Great Pyrenees guard dogs.             

Here is a re-post of “Breaking New Ground.”

Breaking New Ground

Please permit a proud parent to dote
On successes daughters have earned.
All have worked into careers of note,
Easy paths steadfastly spurned.

Sue has always been on the frontiers,
Star of boy’s soccer in junior high,
Choir leader during her college years,
Martial arts learned to apply.

She followed her father’s career path,
Found in computers her interests lie,
Matched social skills with network math,
In growth passed her father by.

The intricacies of law, Amy chose,
And very soon, took her degree,
Through the office ranks she rose
Now chief researcher’s come to be,

But holds family life over the other,
And has been absolutely superb,
To Joey and Wendy, terrific mother,
To community, pillar and proverb.

Karen is the life of the party,
Ebullience her stock in trade,
Tells a joke with laugh so hearty,
Disguises contributions made.

For she takes to physical sciences,
Physics, chemistry, double degree,
World-class scientific conferences
Invite to speak of her artistry,

Of her major scientific advance,
Inventive knowledge, world to show,
Revolution in industrial stance,
Esoteric new way crystals grow.

I’m thrilled at their vocational prowess,
Systems manager, lawyer, PhD.
Equally happy with their loveliness,
The people they turned out to be.

© 2004 R. Leland Waldrip

© 2008 R. Leland Waldrip