Member of the month December 2011: Don Bertke - DAB
Rewarding 5 star members
This month, we are recognising DAB for his great contribution to the community showing great all round expertise.
Don Bertke– Retired Systems Engineer from Beavercreek, USA.
About DAB in his own words:
"I began tinkering with electronics in high school. I could not afford to go to college, so I went to a Technical School and got a two year degree in Electronics Technology. Then I got a lucky break and joined an Aerospace company. Not only did I get to indulge in electronics, but I was exposed to technologies that I never dreamed about getting to work with. I constructed a number of devices using the new microprocessor devices. In the process, I earned an excellent reputation as an associate engineer and programmer.
The company had a tuition reimbursement program, so they paid for most of my college courses, though it took me seven years to complete my degree while working full time. My college degree was in Computer Engineering, which allowed me to continue doing electronics while I helped build MCU devices for a number of interesting projects. To make me "more profitable" on contracts, the company paid the tuition for my masters degree in Computer Science, which I worked on while doing 40% travelling on three concurrent projects.
I moved into Systems Engineering to expand my role and use more of my capabilities by doing independent verification and validation for major Department of Defence programs. My broad technical background enabled me to provide key technical suggestions that greatly enhanced the systems capability and my reputation as an excellent engineer. I also migrated into project management, which enabled me to move into a Deputy Program Manager position on a 100+ million dollar contract. Finding the program management in chaos, I helped the new Program Manager to clean up all of the sub-projects to mollify an unhappy customer who was also struggling with managing a contract that went from a million dollars a year to 20 to 30 million dollars a year.
Along the way, I met and married my lovely wife Susan. Together we have travelled throughout the US, Canada, and Japan taking pictures, some which have been called post card quality. Over the years, we hosted two Japanese exchange students and visited their families in Japan. We were very distraught as we saw the Japanese earthquake and Tsunami devastate areas we had visited. Luckily, both girls and their families escaped any tragic losses, even though one had most of her family around Sendai, Japan.
Then, just when I had everything in place to begin training everyone, I suffered an accident in an airport while travelling for the company. The accident resulted in my having two cervical discs in my neck fused and left me in chronic pain. Under such conditions, I could no longer continue in my job.
Since then, I began collaborating with Don Kindell and Gordon Smith, who I met on the Internet at Naval-History.net. We are currently writing a detailed naval history series called "World War II Sea War". The books enabled me to do something useful with my limited mobility and time on the computer each day. Plus history has always been my second love other than technology. If you like day to day detail, check out the books at Lulu.com.
While writing the books, I became interested in technology again and it was then that I found Element 14. I first encountered the name when I found one of Jeri Ellsworth's training videos. She gave the site a plug so I went to see what it was about. It only took a few hours looking around before I became hooked. Element 14 provides me an outlet where I can again provide mentoring suggestions to people and also see the new creative ideas that most of them are dealing with. From my posts, I think a lot of people within the community have seen that I have a tremendous breadth of technical experience in a very wide range of levels and technologies.
I am very honored to be selected as a major contributor to the Element 14 community. I really enjoy discussing issues with people of all back grounds and technical levels and I encourage anyone who has an issue, idea or a problem to post it on the web site. I am confident that the members can provide useful information.
II hope to create a "Maker Space" out of my basement, but I still need to work through the details. My wife is an artist and she is excited about combining art and technology.
My physical limitations greatly slows down my actions for my projects, as some of you have probably seen. Each day I have to assess what I can do and for how long. On bad pain days, work is problematic.
So I want to thank Element 14 for this honour and I hope to continue to provide useful information to the community. You have all created an outlet that I needed to satisfy my unending inquisitiveness in technology and my desire to mentor the next engineering generation. Everyday brings something new.
Thanks you all.
DAB"
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The element14 member of the month is open to all members of the community who demonstrate a high level of expertise by being helpful, kind and respectful to others.