Who Is Dave Fooshe?

If you live in Forest Heights, you may be wondering who the heck is Dave Fooshe. While you may know my wife, Cindi, the Professional Organizer - see www.organizingspaces.com, you may not know me.

I grew up in a small town in South Carolina, population: smaller than Forest Heights. Everyone knew everyone else, attended church on Sunday and mostly worked hard during the week. I lived a charmed life as a youngster, barefoot May through September, mornings at the library, afternoons at the swimming pool, BBQs in the evening. The highlight of any week was a fishing trip with my grandfather. I grew up thinking we were the wealthiest family in town - not the case, but I often thought so back then.

I did well in school, played trombone in the band, later broke my leg playing football, which is a big reason I'm an engineer today. Having missed two weeks of school, my algebra teacher kept me after class to make up lessons. She showed me how to solve polynomial equations and got me interested in math for the first time. My high school physics teacher suggested that I should become an engineer. I told her I didn't know if I wanted to work on a train. I had no idea what an engineer was.

I earned my BSEE in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Carolina, got a job at Westinghouse Electric Corp. in Baltimore, MD and worked on one of the first microprocessor systems. Didn't like the cold, so I took a job in Tucson, AZ with Burr-Brown Research, Corp. Didn't like the heat, so I joined TRW Inc. in Redondo Beach, CA. Weather was just right, liked the work, stayed 22 years. Learned to scuba dive, snow ski, got into bicycling, did a bike tour across country, co-authored a book about the trip, Bottoms Up, America. Met Cindi...

In May 1996, I got off the couch one Sunday afternoon, picked up the real-estate section, drove two blocks to an open house. Met Judith Scott, the realtor, she drove me around and showed me houses for about three Saturdays before she said the magic words, "I have a friend you need to meet." Friend was Cindi. Blind date was at the Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach where I first realized that Cindi had the prettiest smile I had ever seen. We were married on March 27, 1999 at Wayfarers Chapel in Palos Verdes, CA.

Exactly two years later, on March 27, 2001, we moved into our new home in Forest Heights. We had decided it was time to escape the big city and spent Christmas week 2000 visiting Portland. At the end of the week we had made an offer on the house and had decided to move. After almost eight years, we're still here. We love the rain, the trees and the community. In many ways, Forest Heights brings back memories of the small town where I grew up. In the beginning we knew no one, but soon after I began to feel as though we'd hit the lottery. We've made so many friends here that once again, I'm beginning to think we're the wealthiest family in town - still not the case, but in many ways, maybe so.

Currently, I'm a project manager with Nearfield Systems Inc. (NSI), located in Torrance, CA, www.nearfield.com. I work out of my home office - the loft over the garage. High-speed internet, email, IM, unlimited long distance and Webex keep me connected to the main office and to customers. I also find myself involved in RF system design, documentation, website updates, proposals and occasional light-duty software programming. I've written a few technical papers for the Antenna Measurements and Techniques Association (AMTA) annual symposium, www.nearfield.com/techpapers. The papers are presented to an audience of antenna engineers and are published in the proceedings. NSI is a small company, but provides antenna measurement systems to some of the largest organizations building antennas today including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Boeing, JPL and many more.

Most of the above was written in April 2007 when I ran for the Forest Heights HOA board. I was encouraged by several friends and my wife, Cindi, who has been active on the Forest Heights Community Outreach Committee for the past 5-6 years. They all thought I would do a good job and said that my "problem solving" skills and generally positive attitude would be good things to have on the FHHOA board. I wasn't elected to the board, but you can still refer to www.davefooshe.com to help answer the question, "Who the heck is Dave Fooshe?"

Perhaps, future topics of interest will be covered here...


Sincerely,

Dave Fooshe
dfooshe@comcast.net
(503) 297-6162