Grads Info

As of 2004

Name:  Hugh Catlett

E-Mail:  hcatlett@cfl.rr.com

Spouse:  Jo Anne

Address: 

Living In: Melbourne, Fl

Occupation:

Years Married:

Children:

Grandchildren:

Other:

After HS I went to Va. Tech for 3 years and partied my way to flunking out.  Found out I was going to get drafted to attend the Vietnam party so I went to Roanoke Va. and joined the Army.  Got trained as a Radar Repairman and wound up in Huntsville, Ala. (Redstone Arsenal).  There I got into missiles and control centers and spent next 4 years there (5yr, 2mo total army).  I met and married Jo Anne Handy (married in '65).  I got out of the army in '68 and went to work for Boeing Aircraft Co in Huntsville, working on the NASA Saturn 5 project at Marshall Space Flight Center as a digital data acquisition technician.  That lasted for about 6 months. Then I took a job with Bendix Field Engineering Corp (BFEC) as a technical instructor and training specialist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland.  Stayed there for 6 years, had first kid (Kimberly) in '71.  Moved to Brevard, NC (west of Asheville) to be part of BFEC management team taking over the NASA Rosman Tracking Station from RCA.  There for about 2 years.  Was recruited by an old boss to take a job in Saudi Arabia.  Went there as Ops Director for a Joint Venture company.  Took mama and Kim and stayed there for 2 1/2 years.  Second kid (Kevin) was born there.  Returned to Maryland in '77.  Still with BFEC then.  Got word from a friend that Harris Corporation of Melbourne, Fl. was recruiting people with security clearances to work at an intelligence collection facility in West Germany.  Took the job and moved family to Augsburg, W. Germany on Valentine's Day 1978.  I was responsible for maintaining 13 microwave sites, country wide.  (This was the best job I ever had...).  We returned to Melbourne Fl in 1981.  I had managed to put enough credits together to get a BS in Management from Upper Iowa University (mostly correspondence) and when we came to Melbourne, I went back to school at the Florida Institute of Technology and collected an MSCS in '85 and an MBA in '86.  We celebrated that year with a month visit to friends in Germany. (Loved it).  In '87 I left Harris and joined Martin Marietta in Baltimore, so once more we moved to Maryland.  After  3 1/2 years I realized I had made a mistake and in 1990 came back to Harris in Melbourne and have been here ever since.

My daughter Kim, (now 32) lives in New Jersey where she works for Novartis Pharmaceuticals as a Process Development Manager (something to do with software).  Kevin, on the other hand is 28 and is an electrician here in Melbourne.  He lived at home until I gave him the gate at 25.  Now he lives with his girl friend.  (That was last year, he’s back living a home again).  Jo Anne is an Enrolled Agent (IRS title) with H&R Block here in town.  She works about 4-5 months a year.

My professional title is Senior Principal Engineer and I am a system engineer responsible for design of command and control systems for ground stations for satellite communication systems.  Been with Harris almost 25 years now.

Jo Anne and I celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary last July.  We are going to Germany in 2004 to renew friendships and visit for a few weeks. (Planning is done!  We leave on July 31 for 3 great weeks in Bavaria.)

My father (Hubert) died of a heart attack in 1968 and my mother (Fannie) died of a stroke in 1990.  Betty, my sister, is still a hair stylist in Pompano (she never left).  She is 71 and still working.

I'm 62 but won't retire until I'm 65 - 66.  Only one that I know is dead is Grant Sabin (heart attack at about 40!).