Meet George Blake

We recently connected with George Blake and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have George with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you got it from?

I attribute my work ethic to my father, George Oscar Blake. My Father began his early adulthood by trying to enlist in the Vermont National Guard back in 1922. He was born on August 15, 1905. He was too young to enlist in the military. They found out about his age and denied him. he then tried again with the U.S. Navy. He was accepted. He had falsified his information, so he appeared 18 years old. All of his older siblings were in the military. His Father, my Grandfather Frank Oliver Blake had enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force prior to the U.S. entrance into World War I under President Wilson. One of my uncles, Frank Oliver Blake, had risen from an Airman to the rank of Colonel before he left the U.S. Army Air Corp (now Air Force) in 1955. he had been one of the officers involved in the Berlin airlift before the Berlin wall was built across eastern Germany.

My Father was sent to the U.S. Merchant Mariners under the U.S. Navy and served many years. He was sent to many places. Once he was on an oil tanker to Japan and went through a Typhoon, tearing off the wheelhouse and leaving the ship adrift. He traveled to Cuba, Caribbean and many other ports. He never shied away from challenging work. After his time in the MM, he started his own repair business for open tub washing machine and wringer dryers. During his trips to a customer, he lost one eye when his truck overturned, and the battery spilled Hydrochloric Acid. He met my mother during one of his repair visits. They were married in 1945, just when V-E day was announced. When they had my sister, my father felt he needed stability and benefits for the family. They packed up and moved to California on a promise from one of his brothers that he had a job waiting.

He took a job at Electra-City Appliance Store in Los Angeles across from the CBS studios. They had many would-be actors and actresses working there. Betty White was a Salesgirl there and sold them their first set of real China dishware for just watching her demonstrate a new Dishwasher. He met many movie stars and would go to their homes to do everything from installing appliances to plumbing, even as simple as replacing a washer in a faucet.

Later, he received a job as a Night Watchman at Warner Brothers studio. This was paying more and my late brother, Frank, was on the way. Later, he found a job as the Membership Coordinator for the Loyal order of the Moose, a Fraternal organization. He successfully set up and installed 22 Moose Lodges across California and Nevada.

He later took a job delivering baked goods for the Helm’s Baker Company in Los Angeles. His route was Simi Valley, California where we moved to. When Helm’s started to decline, he became a Fuller Brush Salesman. When Fuller Brush went into decline, he went to work as a District Manager for Simi Valley for the Ventura County Star-Free Press newspaper delivering newspaper bundles to newsboys all over Simi Valley. That was his last job before he passed away in April of 1974 at the age of 68. I was 14 years old then. I had a newspaper route, but I also mowed lawns.

When my father started to get ill from the effects from his age, attributed to his smoking, he would either ask my brother to go with him to help deliver his route, or he would pick me and my bicycle up after Junior High and I would help him deliver them. This was actually a treat, because after delivering the bundles, he would drive me around my route and deliver my papers. I did not have to ride home or ride my bike to deliver my papers.

We all pitched in, except for my sister. She married at 19 and my Brother-in-Law was in the U.S. Airforce and spent 22 years in active duty. When my father passed away, it was me, my brother and my mother. Mostly me and my mother. She was too young to receive Social Security. My brother had graduated college, and he was too old. The only income for a while was my SS as Survivor benefit. Soon, I had enough credits to graduate High School, but I still had 2 required classes to complete. To build up money to go to college, I worked during the day in my last semester, came home to eat and then went to High School to finish at night.

My Father did whatever it took to keep the family going, and we learned from him.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and on what you are working?

Well, I was never one to go out and instigate a group team sport or be the captain of the football team. I was always a loner. I was mostly inside, working on a project or reading or listening to music. I was more interested in learning and expanding my mind than to be social or acceptable to the neighborhood. I always had a small circle of friends. I would never try drugs or alcohol. I was never one to try to be part of the “in” crowd.

I learned a lot from my father. Not just my father. I was more interested in learning about many subjects. I was usually hanging around older people in the neighborhood. Growing up in Southern California in the 1960’s and 1970’s, many of the bread winners were working in the Aerospace and Defense industry. There were plenty of Technicians and Engineers that I would meet and learn from. There was a retired couple up the street that would feed my peanuts from a dispenser when I came over. I would stay and listen to stories until my father came looking for me. I would stop in when someone had their garage door open and talk.

My Father taught me things mechanical: automotive repair, appliance repair. Once he taught me to grease wheel bearings on our car. I was finding it difficult and asked him if there was an easier way? he responded: “Elbow Grease”. I stopped and looked at my elbows. A neighbor, Bob, was there and they got a chuckle out of that. I am very analytical like that. I take something apart, learn what makes it work, put it back together.

It was my inquisitive nature that allowed me to try anything electrical, mechanical or architectural. I am a fairly good DIY person. I can paint the inside of a house, plumbing, electrical, drywall, plaster, etc. If I saw someone doing something new, I would take an interest in it. Once, a neighbor bought a cement truck and scraped the old concrete off of the truck and out of the mixer. I chipped right in. I learned to drywall from our Pastor who was working on the daycare portion of our church. Anything new I could do with my hands and my mind, I was up for it.

I took an interest in electronics early in my life, around 8 years old. I would find old radios and television sets, take them apart to see what they were made of. At first, I merely discarded the remains. Most of the appliances were already dead. I would find them in the trash and pull them out and take them home. After watching TV Repairmen and talking to electronics technician, I started to repair them by taking the vacuum tubes out, taking them to the Thrifty drug store nearby, and testing the tubes. I would replace defective ones and continue trying to resurrect whatever it was I was working on. I also would learn about what constituted a useful design from a bad one. As time went on, I became one of the only teenagers to own my own TV, stereo, reel-to-reel tape recorder, and Apple II computer owner on the block.

My electronics really took off after meeting an Amateur Radio Operator and Technician, Don. He taught me a lot about Ham radio, design, repair, etc. We were close friends until his death in 2002. When I received my own Ham radio license, I took his callsign to honor him. Hye taught me the basic theory of electronics. Later, he needed assistance with the newer, more modern electronics and was happy to help him.

When my father died in 1974, I was mowing lawns for money besides my newspaper route. I learned to repair my own lawn mowers. I would take them apart, inspect, clean, repair, and re-assemble. I would take lawn mowers that had been set out for trash, took them home, and repaired them. A lawnmower shop would try to rip you off, saying it had a broken crankshaft or other problem just to try and sell you a new machine. I learned their tricks and how to service them to keep my expenses to a minimum.

My first automobile was my father’s 1971 Datsun Pickup truck. After dad died, my brother had taken his truck for the day. As he pulled out into traffic, a left turn, my brother was hit on the driver’s side. It totaled the truck. We brought it home and received insurance money for it, but it was a mess. When I became driving age, the only vehicle around was the truck. I had to rebuild it in order to have a vehicle. I bought a new fender, a used door. My Brother had a friend who knew how to weld. We repaired the lower A arm. I used a post jack from the truck, a 4×4 post and a hand sledgehammer and bent the door post back into shape. I drove the truck until someone hit the other side and totaled it again. I knew how to work on engines, transmissions, drive train, brakes, clutch, etc. I would do this for myself and others like High School friends. It was nothing to work through the night to fix a car, and then drive it to work or pleasure the next day.

I picked up a summer job working in electronics two years in a row as a technician. I had taken Drafting in High School which came in handy. I transitioned from Technician to Electro-Mechanical Draftsperson. This was after High School. I was trying to go to college and work at the same time. This did not work out. I found myself more interested in making an income than an education. I tried to finish my junior college but work finally won out. I then started designing and laying out printed circuit boards. In 1980, In 1980 I was employed into the Aerospace and defense field. The company made Satellite and Telemetry tracking systems for mostly military defense. I was hired for electro-mechanical drafting and PCB design. I was soon learning other things because the principal Systems Engineer was overloaded with other work. I learned about technical writing (Manuals, Training Aids, Specification writing); Integrated Logistic Support (Reliability, Maintainability, Availability, Logistic Support Activity Records (LSAR)), Failure Modes, Effects, Criticality Analysis (FMECA); Servomotor Control Systems engineering.

As I progressed upward and moved to other companies, I gained more knowledge and new positions: Controls Engineer, Reliability (Manufacturing) Engineering Manager, Systems Engineer, Engineering Services Manager, Senior Systems Engineer, Program Manager, Sales / Marketing Manager, Senior Sales Manager, Technical Operations Manager. I was performing Engineering, Quality Assurance, Production, and Sales management.

In 2013 I was employed by the University of Kansas Aerospace Engineering department as the Laboratory Coordinator for their Garrison Flight research Center. I spent 5 years working on Drone UAV’s, Autonomous RC aircraft. I performed not only electronics but also management and upkeep of their flight research facility at Lawrence airport. I participated in obtaining FAA and FCC licenses for their flight systems. I also taught undergraduate Freshmen how to integrate electronics: use of hand tools, wiring, soldering, how to read and interpret schematics, testing. The culmination of the class was an actual test flight of their RC airplanes that they had to build in teams.
Speaking of lectures: I was an instructor for a one-day Short Course and an international symposium held every year in the USA. The International Telemetry Conference was held every year, alternating between San Diego, California and Phoenix, Arizona. When I was involved, it was Las Vegas and San Diego. I gave an all-day, One day course on Satellite and Telemetry Tracking systems.

I have my name on a U.S. Patent, number 8,593,362 titled “Multi Band Telemetry Antenna Feed”. One of the projects I worked on was part of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Organization’s VERITAS project, located at the Whipple Observatory in Arizona. I developed the dual-opposed servomotor drive for the positioner portion of their 12-meter telescope. The purpose was to look for black holes in space, relying on the Cherenkov Light or Hawking radiation spent by the black hole.

All of this without completing my Degree in Engineering. It was all based on what I learned, who I learned it from, how to apply my knowledge. I performed all of this with integrity. I never sought favors, special privileges. I never “brown nosed” or tried to “get in good” with my superiors. Quite the opposite: I detested this sort of behavior. I may not have been in the spotlight, but at least I was controlling the light. It is bad karma. It eventually gets you, not helps you. I may not have been in favorable circumstances with my superiors, but at least they knew where I stood. IYou have to live with yourself first before others.

I have also written and published a science fiction novel, “The Sun Sets in the West”. I finished writing it in 2013 and published it in 2021. It is available through Amazon and Apple, among others.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1. Watch and observe others. Learn from other people’s mistakes. I have been taught, “You have two ears, two eyes and one mouth. Use them in that proportion”. Use people who are older as mentors. They know where the road bumps and sharp turns are. They know which fork in the road to take. Be a knowledge sponge. Suck up as much as you can hold. keep the good parts, discard the rest.

2. Don’t follow the crowd. They do not know where they are going. The crowd is typically headed for a cliff. Be your own person. Sports bars, pool halls, etc. are for the little people with no desires and no imagination. Be cerebral. You have plenty of time later in life to socialize. If sports entertainers, actors, etc. so smart, why are most of them in therapy? Or, on drugs, alcohol, suicidal? Plot your own course. keep on the path until you reach your own dreams.

3. There are FOUR kinds of people:

A. Those that know what they know: You understand what knowledge you have, and you know your limits of understanding. Don’t put yourself out on a limb. Tell someone when you are not a knowledge expert in what they are asking for. You will be recognized for it.

B. Those that know what they don’t know: Again, know your limits. Know when to seek the advice of someone who is better than you in a subject. Collaborate with others. This is what a team is for. Do not think you know everything. You don’t. Seek out other experts to create and complete a successful project.

C. Those that do not know what they know: Sometimes you will surprise yourself with an answer you did not think you knew. Relish it. Keep it for future use. We all pick up information along our travels of life. But do not be brash about it or hold it over someone else.

and….

D. those that do not know what they don’t know: This is the most dangerous type of person. These are the ones that try to bluff you, when they really do not know what they are talking about. They believe in themselves without correct information. They are a danger to others and to themselves. Avoid them. Do not try to impress someone with knowledge you do not possess. “Better to keep quiet and be thought of as a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt”.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

They tried to instill in me the basic things that today’s generation has lost:
Hard work
Doing chores
Trying to be debt-free
Owning up to your responsibilities
Being punished for when you are bad
Good manners
Etiquette
Paying your bills
Don’t let your WANTS outweigh your NEEDS

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thesunsetsinthewest.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-r-blake/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Ferret488