From: JLR173rdNY@aol.com
Date: Fri Aug 09 2002 - 20:28:58 EDT
NAME: Janet Rice
Lurker on ASA list
Location: Round Rock, Texas (just north of Austin on the path of the Chisholm
Trail)
AGE: 50
VOCATION:
Materials Engineer - currently between engagements
18 years at IBM in materials engineer in development of printers and
computers at IBM in Austin.
5 years at MCC, a now defunct research consortium doing connectors, MEMS, and
whatever else came to hand
2 years at Teravicta Technologies - a start up company
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND:
High school at Maple Valley High School in rural western Michigan - class of
'70 (I mention this because like it or not, who I am and how I look at the
world was shaped by growing up in a small town in western Michigan)
Combined Bachelors in Physics (Grand Valley State University) and Mechanical
Engineering (University of Michigan) - meant I got more liberal arts than
your ordinary engineer
MS, Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan
PhD, Mechanical Engineering - University of Texas (did this while working
part time at IBM and they paid for it - took forever, but how can one turn
down a chance to go school when some one else pays for it.)
FAMILY:
Married 25 years to James Rice - met him when I first moved to Austin and we
were married less than a year later.
Two sons - Thomas, 18 and going to college, and Will, 13 and in 8th grade
CHRISTIAN/SPIRITUAL BACKGROUND:
Umm, ecumenical. My birth mother was Mormon (family has been in Utah since
the 1850's), my father was raised Methodist, but was more or less an agnostic
(actually he figured there were things that were God's problem - like world
peace - and things that were his - like raising me. He figured God could
take care of God's problems and he'd take care of his responsibilities). My
birth mother died when I was 3-1/2 and my father did his dead level best to
raise me in the Mormon church as he'd promised her. My step-mother (who is
my mom in everything but DNA) is Catholic. So any time anyone said "if
you're not like us, you're going to hell", I knew that was nonsense because
all three of my grandmothers were different religions, and no one believes
their grandmother is damned. Couldn't stay Mormon, just didn't feel at home
there. Met up with the Campus Crusades people in college who told me that
not just all my grandmothers, but everyone else I loved was going to hell and
I should be happy about it. So I took a little walk away from Christianity
for a couple of years. Found my way home at the Congregational Church in Ann
Arbor, Michigan - which was next door to my dorm - found an intellectual
satisfying Christianity that for some reason is what I need. My husband was
raised Presbyterian (PCUSA) and we started going to his church, St. Andrew's
in Austin (no better way to impress a young lady with your seriousness than
to take her to church). We were married at St. Andrew's, our boys were
baptized there, and now I'm a "church lady" -work in the office once a week,
do anything that church needs that involves needle and thread, do my turn in
Children's Church, that sort of thing. We're sort of a hippie liberal
church, but I find the intellectual challenge that I need and I like the fact
that I don't have to agree with everything that's said from the pulpit.
INTERESTS:
Civil War reenacting (173rd NYSVI), 19th century women's issues, music (a
proud 3rd clarinet in the Austin Civic Wind Ensemble), heirloom quality
needlework, quilting, raising kids.
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