PART IV

  My love with computers

The rapid development of computers, automatic data processing and electronics in the last 50 years is without a doubt the most outstanding, important, staggering, unimaginable and even fantastic phenomenon of our twentieth century. In my long life, it is without a doubt the phenomenon which most affected and influenced my career and had the most interesting and unexpected consequences. A real life adventure which began without my realizing it in the summer of 1938. I had finished my fourth year in high school in the month of June and was preparing to enter Ursinus college in the fall. In order to make money to pay for my tuition, I worked as a handyman for the parents of a high school classmate. Their property faced the college science building. The physics laboratory was on the ground floor where I could observe my future physics professor, John Mauchly, working with several student assistants. He had obtained a contract from an important government agency in Washington to perform some statistical studies on a subject unknown to me. I noticed that he was using two small electric adding machines which he had built. Neither he nor I could have suspected that this obscure beginning would lead to the rapid development of our modern computer world, a world revolution.

 

Professor John Mauchly was a brilliant physicist with the rather special character of a genius. I remember that each year just before the christmas holidays he would present a special lecture in the amphitheater which was attended by both students and professors. For example, to illustrate the laws of physical motion he would perform on the long laboratory table with roller skates. I lost contact with professor Mauchly in my junior year, 1940-1941 when he accepted a new position at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. It was not until 22 years later in 1962 that by one of those strange unexpected coincidences which occur in our lives, we met again to become part of one of the greatest adventures of the twentieth century: The Computer! ADP Automatic Data Processing.

 

It was at the University of Pennsylvania in 1944-1945 that he and an electrical engineer, Prosper Echart, built the first numerical computer, the ENIAC (Electric Numerical integrator Automatic Computer). They had a contract with the American Army to develop a machine to automatically calculate the trajectory tables for artillery. But the technology available at that time was electric; electronics, transistors, miniaturization, etc. did not exist or were strictly in the laboratory development stage. As a consequence, their computer was a gigantic electrical machine with thousands upon thousands of diode tubes. The air conditioning system was almost as large and powerful as the computer. But it worked. After the war Mauchly and Echart formed the first computer company, UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer).

 

In order to construct this computer and especially the improved first generation electronic, the Univac 1, they had the collaboration of John Von Neumann the world famous physicist who was teaching at the University of Princeton. It was he who defined the structure of an automatic electronic machine with three types of memory: ROM, read only memory where the basic control programs are stored and cannot be entered or altered by the programmer; RAM, read and write memory used by the programmer and auxiliary memory such as disks which is external to the computer to store data. After this collaboration the revolution and ultra rapid evolution of the computer and data processing began in earnest and I became a direct participating member of the gigantic worldwide effort.

 

On 1 july 1968 I retired from the US Air Force after 26 years of faithful service. They were unforgettable years of learning, experiencing and working in many countries around the world. I traveled by plane, by ship, by train, by automobile, by horse and on foot. During those years we, the people of the United States of America, had lived through three major armed conflicts: World War Two, the Korean and Vietnamian conflicts. I told myself that it was time to settle down, to find an occupation not requiring constant long journeys by plane and long absences from home. What an illusion! As we shall see, my absences from my family in St Cloud and my travels by plane around our tiny planet Earth surpassed by far my many travels during my military career.

 

After crossing the USA by automobile, accompanied by my dear wife, and having visited several impressive sites such as the Grand Canyon, we spent a month with my brother Stanley in the lovely city of San Diego, California. He had settled there with his wife after a hectic career of several years in New York city.. He was doing well in real estate and his wife in the beauty parlor business. She gave it the name "Happy hair". She enjoyed her work and worked hard but didn't like keeping books, so it was Stanley who was the financial genius of the family.

 

Mexico is only a few miles from the city of San Diego. The city of Tiouana is just across the border. Their maid came by bus from Tiouana to keep a spick and span house for the hard working couple. During our stay, we visited Tiouana several times to do some shopping and descended along the coast of Baja California to enjoy some of the local lobster at an unbeatable low price. Yes, at a distance of just a few miles you passed from a rich, opulent and clean country to a third world country, very poor and not very clean. We also visited the Mohave desert on the east side of the California coastal mountains. The most impressive was the city of Palm Springs, a city full of opulent villas of the Hollywood film Stars. Not long ago the population of the desert consisted of a few impoverished indian tribes. Recently, they asserted their rights on their ancestral lands and have opened opulent Casinos like those in the modern Sodome and Gomorrhe under the name of Las Vegas in the the neighboring desert state of Nevada. The hundreds of gigantic hotels with their Casinos open 24 hours a day are the Meccas of millions of gamblers and tourists.

 

On the way back to New York to board the plane for our return to our residence at St Cloud, France, we stopped in Washington D.C. to discuss possibilities of a job with my friends in Univac. Apparently I was just the man they were looking for to fill a position as marketing manager for the northern European area in the London, England office. The founders of the company, John Mauchly and Prosper Echart were still with the company as president and vice president with headquarters in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, just a few miles from my birth place, my dear Plymouth Meeting. At the same time I finally paid a visit to my favourite cousin Francis who still resided in the town and was now the mother of four children. It was my first visit in twenty years and a renewal of a warm relationship which has lasted to this day. She still resides in the same town but alone. Alas her husband is dead and the children have all flown the coop. On the 1st of september 1968 I began my new career as an area marketing manager with Univac in the London office. Thirty five years later the company is still in existence but the name is now Unisys.

 

Once again I was undertaking an interesting career but little did I realize that once again I would be traveling the world over and spending weeks at a time far away from my family which was comfortably installed in our lovely apartment in St Cloud, France, a suburb of Paris. On the first of september 1968 I reported to the Univac London, England office which was the headquarters responsible for the subsidiary companies in the northern european countries plus Switzerland. The head office for the southern european countries was in Rome, Italy. The first two and a half years I spent most of my time in the northern european countries: Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland where we were fairly successful in selling large computer systems. Of course our major competitor was IBM, then and still the largest computer company in the world. We had no language problems in these countries for unlike the Southern European countries where few people spoke English, in these Northern Countries almost everyone spoke good English and we worked in the English language. This was not the case in most of the southern European countries especially in France. The French language was long considered to be The official international language. Today the English language, especially the american version, has replaced it, much to the chagrin of the French.

 

Before this assignment, during my military career I had been to many countries around the world, but I had never worked or visited in these northern countries. Once I had been nominated to be a military attaché to Sweden but the assignment was canceled for reasons unknown to me. So, of course, I was in for some surprises. The first concerned the long days and short nights during the summer months. During high summer the sun sets at midnight and appears again at four A.M. which in itself is nothing special. The problem I had was that I need complete darkness to be able to sleep well. To my surprise, almost all the hotel rooms had inadequate window curtains. Fortunately I had in my possession some of the eye covers the airlines issue to passengers on the long flights.

 

One of the most interesting facts I soon learned about the authorities in these northern countries was that they are able to keep automobile accidents, and deaths, due to drunken driving, at a minimum by enforcing a strict law concerning drunken driving. The result is an accident rate which is much lower than that in France and other southern European countries. Like their southern cousins, especially the young, the Scandinavians like to enjoy their saturday night fever at the night clubs or at private parties and they tend to abuse the use of beer, aquavit and whiskey. To solve the problem of alcohol at the wheel, they group their traveling and one person is designated as the return driver who does not drink or they take a taxi. An effective system which is difficult to enforce in France because of their strange mentality concerning their driving habits. Like in many domains, even though repressive laws exist, they are seldom applied.

 

In Finland I had an experience which illustrates perfectly the situation and the effectiveness of the measures taken and enforced. One day after arriving at the Helsinki airport I was waiting just outside the terminal building for the local UNIVAC manager who was to pick me up in his car. Two Finns, obviously quite inebriated, approached me and spoke to me in Finnish. I answered that I did not understand Finnish. Besides Finnish is a strange language with little connection to other languages of the western world, so obviously only the Finns speak it. So, like most Finns, they spoke to me in English and asked me if I knew how to drive. My answer was yes but that I could not help them because I was waiting for someone to pick me up. They wobbled off looking for someone else. When my friend arrived, I told him of the incident. He laughed and pointed at the new terminal building under construction and explained that about 50 percent of the workers on the project were men who had been arrested for drunken driving. Instead of serving a prison term they were sentenced to spend six hours per day after there normal job hours working without pay on a public construction project. Today, the automobile accident rate due to drunken driving in the Scandinavian countries is less than one half that in France.

 

After two and a half years of working out of the London office, I was transferred to the Zurick, Switzerland office where we were responsible for Univac sales to the Middle East countries and the eastern block of communist countries, primarily the USSR. The USA relations with the eastern block of communist countries had improved in spite of the fact that that the Vietnam conflict was still in progress. Companies like Univac could obtain export licenses for standard computer systems which were destined for proven civilian type usage. With the help of several experts from Univac France and Air France we were able to sell a computerized reservation system to the russian airline Aeroflot.

 

At the time the managing director of Univac France was Robert Mitterand a younger brother of the futur president of France Fran‡ois Mitterand.

 

During our negotiations with the officials they would on occasion invite us for a dinner in one of their best restaurants reserved strictly for the apparatchiks. Of course, before, during and after the repasts numerous toasts with their strong vodka were proposed. Little by little the russians relaxed and began to tell the latest jokes making the rounds in Moscow concerning their communist regime. Being careful not to offend our hosts, I avoided telling them some of our many western jokes on communism, I told them the following story :

 

"The beloved Tsar of all the russains was suffering from depression and sadness. All the best doctors and healers of the tzardom were consulted but to no avail. One of the sages finally realised that the only cure available was to have him wear the shirt of a peasant who was really happy. Special emissaries combed the entire tsardom in search of such a moujik but to no avail. One day in farthest Siberia one of the last emisaries noticed a peasant working in a field and singing a gay song. He stopped and asked him if he was singing because he was a happy man. The peasant answered with a broad smile on his face that of course he was happy for he had everything needed to make him the happiest man in the tzardom. He explained that he had a horse to help him work his land, that he had a cow, that he had an isba with two rooms and a sheep skin coat and a good stove to keep him warm during the long winter, that he had a good wife and six children in good health, obviously all that a man needed to be very happy. Quickly the emissary explained the malady of his beloved Tsar and asked him if he could give him one of his shirts. The moujik answered: " I'm very sorry sire but I'm a poor moujik and I don't have a shirt."

 

During the year 1972 I was often in Bucarest, Rumania negotiating the sale of two large computer systems, one to the railroad company and the other to the tourist office. After these two successes I never returned to Rumania. In a sense I was lucky, for two years later, in 1974, Mr. Ceausescu the self proclaimed Carpathian genius took dictatorial power which he held until 1989 when he and his wife were executed during a popular revolution. During my visits I was surprised by the extreme poverty and ruinous condition of the country outside the capital Bucarest. Since 1989 the country has made slow but certain progress both economically and politically and has recently expressed its desire to become a member of the European Economic Community.

 

During the year 1971 I concentrated a good part of my marketing efforts on the Middle East, that is primarily in Turkey, Isra‰l and Lebanon. The local offices were run by a local team and I acted as the company expert in computer systems in presentations to prospective customers. Since I was in the area for long periods I had rented a small apartment in Tel Aviv.

 

In the 1970's, Univac had a strong position in the computer systems for airlines, banks and universities. So with our local agents we concentrated our efforts on these potential customers. One of the most interesting Universities was the one at Beersheba in the center of the Negev dessert. We also made several technical presentations to the El Al airline. To help me in this effort the Univac airline systems specialist in the USA joined me.

 

During his stay, my wife had joined me for an extended visit. Taking advantage of the jewish sabbath when all work stops, we rented a car and the three of us drove to visit the Dead Sea. We had a special reason. Mary was suffering from a bad case of eczema The waters of the Dead Sea are renowned for their beneficial effects on various types of skin problems. Mary duly took several baths and was surprised that she couldn't sink. We had neglected to tell her that it was because of the density due to the various minerals dissolved in the water. Before leaving Israel for a stopover in Istanbul to visit with our agent responsible for marketing our systems in Turkey, Mary and I spent a few days at Eilat a resort town near the Red Sea at the southern tip of Isra‰l next to the Sinai desert which we visited one day in a Jeep, not by camel.

 

After our two days in Istanbul, I left for an important meeting in Zurick. Mary remained alone to enjoy another day of visits and shopping in the fantastic bazaar where she acquired a ring and a fur coat. When she prepared to leave the hotel for the airport she realized that I had her ticket and our credit card with me. She had very little cash with her. She was about to panic but fortunately our turkish Univac agent came to the hotel to accompany her to the airport and was able to arrange a new ticket.

 

My visits and stay in Israel reminded me of a trip I had made many years before which tends to prove that our lives tend to follow a preprogrammed plan beyond our control. I had visited Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for the first time just after the end of World War Two in august of 1945. I was a member of a B17 bomber crew which flew from Foggia, Italy to Alexandria, Eygpt on a very special mission. After two days in Alexandria, we drove to Cairo in a Jeep. Eygpt was still a colony of the British so we were well received and had the pleasure of a three night stay at the famous Shepherds hotel.

 

I had the time to visit the Gizah pyramid on horseback. Palestine, the future Israel, was still a british protectorate. With the same Jeep we drove to Tel aviv and Jerusalem. During our short visit I noticed that the population in both cities , especially in Tel Aviv, was in majority jewish not arab. The nation of Israel was created on 14 may 1948 and after two short wars won by Israel, the bloody struggle between the Israelis and the palestinians and neighboring arab countries has never ceased.

 

The nation of Israel has been at war with its Arab neighbors almost continuously since its foundation. To avoid difficulties with the officials at the airports of entry when I visited Lebanon and Israel, I used two passports. I would fly to Nicosia in Cyprus then take the flight to Beirut and upon landing I used one of the passports. Then I would return to Nicosia to take a flight to Israel. I visited Damas in Syria only once and found that the potential market was nil, I never returned. As for Irak, we judged that the political situation was already very unhealthy, so we never went to Bagdad. Today, in the 21st century the problems and tensions between the arab countries and Israel persist and are not about to be solved.

 

During the 1970's Irak was already controlled by the Baath party and Saddam Hussein was one of the leaders. He took power in 1980 and established a military dictatorship with he, his family members and his clan retaining full and absolute powers. His megalomaniac and blood-thirsty personality son became apparent. He saw only one human being: himself. For this type of man, like Hitler and Stalin, war is his way of survival. He first eliminated physically all real or suspected internal opponents and the Kurds. He then began his campaigns against his neighboring countries. He first attacked Iran which resulted in a slaughter of hundreds of thousands of pour devils on both sides. He then invaded Kuwait.

 

Surprise! The United Nations disapproved the action and authorized a multinational force headed by the USA to evict him, but we made the mistake of not completing the job by taking Bagdad and disposing Saddam and his regime. The grand finale was finally played in march of 2003, but without the participation of the United Nations, with the total destruction of Saddam's regime in a matter of three weeks by the Anglo-American forces. The regime of Saddam collapsed like a house of cards. A flagrant proof that his regime had always been nothing but a bag of wind built upon terror. Yet certain countries, like France, kept insisting that we could reason with him. In other words maintain the status quo and negotiate to resolve the problems. The rapid results of the anglo-american mighty military action has once again proven that a strong decisive military action is sometimes the only possible, efficient and valid alternative. During our bloody twentieth century the proofs are flagrant that you cannot negotiate with a tyrant like Hitler, Stalin or Saddam.

 

Unfortunately in our real world often the only choice in a crisis is the force of arms. The long history of human civilization, the warlike events of the past century and the recent war against the regime of Saddam Hussein in Irak, teach us that human civilization and nations are mortal. Some are constructed by tyrants who betray, go astray, massacre, rape, torture and destroy. They are the dictators like Hitler, Stalin and Saddam. World war two and the recent conflict in Irak prove that that one cannot negotiate with such tyrants. There is no other choice than the force of arms where there is no place for the timid, the undecided, the reckless, the weak and those who prefer the statu quo instead of reacting and taking the audacious actions and decisions required.

 

During 1972 and 1973 I shifted my marketing efforts for Univac to the eastern block of communist countries, primarily the USSR and Rumania. Most of our prospective customers were in Moscow and Saint-Petersbourg. After 1970 the relations between the USA and the USSR had improved. The Soviets were especially interested in US technology and especially computer systems. US firms, like ours, could offer systems for airlines and large hotels which could easily be controlled and were not necessarily of the latest technology. To assist us we had one of our men, Hans Krause, stationed permanently in Moscow. He was now a Swiss citizen but of East German origin and spoke fluent russian,

 

One of the members of the soviet team we were negotiating with was a member of the secret police , the KGB. Fortunately I spoke and understood enough of the language to get along in this strange Orwellian social and working structure. I soon learned why the Soviet communists proclaimed loud and strong that unemployment did not exist in their communist paradise. The horrors of the Soviet socialist system began at the airport with the numerous police and customs agents there to check you. Finding a taxi was the next hurdle. Once at the hotel you found that among the dozen or more clerks behind the counter, when three would have been sufficient, not one could find your reservation. Without a reservation it was virtually impossible to find a hotel room in Moscow. Once you had your key, you were surprised that when you left your room you were obliged to leave your key with the lady (babushka) sitting by the elevator on your floor. There was a lady equivalent on each floor twenty four hours per day, seven days a week, 365 Days per year.

  My ITT/CGCT adventure 1974-1985

I quit my job with Univac in 1974 and immediately found a new job with CGCT (Compagnie Générale de Construction Téléphonique) the French subsidiary of ITT (International Telephone and Telegraph) with offices in a Paris suburb not far from St Cloud where we had our residence.

 

A terrific example of the strange coincidences in life. During the previous years when I was with Univac in Switzerland I telephoned fairly often to Paris - or rather I tried to telephone to Paris. During daily working hours it was almost impossible to get through, all lines were always busy. So I telephoned in the evening to my wife, the offices were closed for the night. But with the French one must never lose hope, for slowly but surely the state owned telephone company, the PTT, woke up and began to move. By 1975 they had caught up with and even surpassed the rest of Europe in developing efficient computerized telephone exchanges. One of the private companies which manufactured all types of telephone equipment for the French national and export market, from large public switching center small telephones and had contributed largely to this success was CGCT/ITT. It was the company I had just joined as an export manager. ITT had a subsidiary company in almost every country on all the continents and its headquarters in New York City. It was by far the largest international telecommunications company in the world.

 

Once again my desire to slow down or even completely stop the incessant traveling was frustrated. I was soon traveling to and discovering countries I had never been to before, countries on every continent. From 1977 to 1985 I was responsible for the promotion of our latest technology telephone exchanges to our sister companies throughout the world. About three times per year for the first four years, I made my round the world trip to visit our sister companies in many countries. A typical trip included stopovers in Turkey, Singapour, Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Hawaii, Chicago, New York, then back home to Paris. Fortunately there was one important consolation, during my many travels I was able to pay visits in the USA to brothers Henry, John and Stanley plus to a few other old and dear friends. Little wonder that today I avoid airports and travel by air. The French have an expression which describes well the life of a person completely taken by the daily work routine. It is: "Metro, boulot, dodo"; in english "subway, work, sleep". My routine quickly became: "airplane, work, sleep".

 

During my last five years with ITT/CGCT, 1980 to 1985, my area of marketing responsibility changed. It became more reasonable thus requiring less travel and much shorter absences from my dear family. I was fast approaching the retirement age of 65 in the american system. In France the official retirement age had been lowered to 60 and the system included a possibility of early retirement at the age of 58. I soon learned that I was the only one in the local french company who continued to the age of 65. In general the French have a strong urge to work less while we Americans tend to accept to work more and longer. A basic difference in the two approaches to the work ethic.

 

I was the marketing manager for Western Europe, Mexico and South America. My customers were our sister companies. In the case of South America I did business with the companies in all the South American countries except Paraguay and the Guyanas. Of course all the trips were by air. I had the pleasure of taking the famous French Concorde, capable of flying at twice the speed of sound, several times on my trips to Mexico City and Rio De Janeiro. The Concorde is the only supersonic passenger airplane ever to have been put into regular passenger service. On some of my trips to South America I had the pleasure of being able to make weekend stopovers with brother John in Puerto Rico or with brother Henry in Homestead, Florida.

  Our lifelong intimate friendship with the De Givenchy family

Perhaps our existence on this strange planet Earth is often made of sequences of events resulting from chance encounters which by circuitous ways develop close friendships which last a lifetime. Our meeting, friendship and intimate relationship with the Taffin de Givenchy family are striking and touching examples worthwhile telling.

 

Jean-Claude was born on the 5th of may 1925. His brother Hubert, the world famous fashion designer, was born on the 20th of february 1927. Their father died in 1930 during the terrible influenza epidemic which caused the death of tens of thousands in all of Europe. Thus they were too young to have retained any real memory of their father. Their lovely and loving mother never remarried and dedicated her entire life to the raising of her beloved sons. When World War Two began in 1939, Jean-Claude was only 14 and Hubert only 12. Jean-Claude was rather turbulent and very active while Hubert was rather timid and reserved and already showed an interest in art and fashions for the ladies. In 1945, at the age of 18 Jean-Claude joined the french resistance. At the age of 16 Hubert was already six feet tall and was already designing beautiful high fashion dresses and accessories.

 

Our lifelong close friendship began in 1946 in the city of Wiesbaden, Germany. At that time I was a young Air Force captain. Mary, my future wife, was working for the Air Force as a secretary and Jean claude was working there as a reporter/photographer. It is also the city where Jean-Claude fell in love with Patricia, the daughter of an Air Force colonel. At the end of 1946 Jean-Claude and Patricia left Wiesbaden and stayed for several months with his mother in Bacon La BruyŠre, a suburb of Paris. During the same period Mary had left Wiesbaden for a job in Paris. She became their confidant and helped them to prepare their departure for the United States.

 

That is when and where Mary first met Jean-Claude's younger brother Hubert. She noticed that his room was full of high fashion designs. He was already working as a stylist with the fashion house of Jacques Fath and at the same time was studying at the school of Beaux Arts. He was only 19 years old and over six feet tall.

 

Jean claude and Patricia left for the United States in the spring of 1947. Less than a year later their twin sons, Patrick and Richard were born in Tucson, Arizona. We were always in contact by letter but did not meet again until six years later in the merry month of May 1953, in Washington D.C. We had just arrived from Paris and Jean-Claude was working in the Washington office of Air France airline. The family had grown. The children count was at five. The twins Patrick and Richard were followed by Philip (the most mischievous), then Hubert and finally a girl, Béatrice.

 

Although our stay in Washington only lasted six months, we had the pleasure of seeing the entire family fairly frequently. The children immediately adopted us as their dear tonton and tati (uncle and aunty). They looked forward to their frequent visits when we took them for a swim in an abandoned sand quarry full of pure clean spring water and had a picnic lunch.

 

One day Jean-Claude helped us prepare a huge pot of "homard à l'armoricaine", a lobster specialty we had learned to make in Brittany. We had bought a basin full of lobster at the fish market on the Potomac river in Washington. In those years lobsters were abundant and the price very reasonable. Today, especially in France, the price of lobster is outrageous. We had invited two couples to enjoy the dinner with us. The husbands were Air Force colonels working at the Pentagon. We remained lifelong friends. I have often wondered if the delicious lobster didn't have something to do with this result. By the way, we still have the large pot in which they were cooked !

 

Mary and I left Washington for New York City in the month of September 1953 for an assignment which was to last for a year. We rented a lovely house in the Bronx and our beloved niece, Colette soon left Paris to join us. Jean-Claude came to visit us with the whole brood several times before our departure for Paris which was forecast for the month of September 1954. In the summer of 1955, Jean-Claude quit his job with Air France for a new position with a company which was constructing an oil pipeline across France for the american military forces in Europe. Finding an apartment for rent in Paris in those times was practically impossible and the prices were outrageous. While Jean-Claude was looking for a house, the children stayed with us in our newly acquired apartment in St Cloud. He finally rented a house in a southern suburb of Paris. During their youth, especially during their teen-age years, all the children loved their short and long stays with tonton and tati at the apartment in St Cloud.

  And now let us speak about brother Hubert

After having worked with Jacques Fath, Hubert worked for a year with Robert Piquet where he designed the models and Mr. Piquet made his choice. After a year with Piquet he worked with Lucien Lelong, then with Madamoiselle Schiaparelli. She was extremely exigent but remained his favorite. In the fall of 1951, with the help of of several close friends who had recognized and appreciate his immense talent, he opened his own fashion house in a mansion on rue de Alfred de Vigny near park Monceau. He was only 24 years old. At the age of 24 I had just been promoted to the grade of first lieutenant somewhere in Italy during the Second World War. In 1951 I was a US Air Force captain living in Paris and working at the Paris/Orly airport.

 

Hubert De Givenchy presented his first official fashion collection on the 3rd of february 1953. It was a great and surprising success. The fashion house and the world renown fashion name "Givenchy" was launched. With his first collection Hubert became the "infant terrible" of french high fashions. He was only 25 years old and over 6 feet tall. Soon many rich ladies and famous motion picture Stars became his regular customers. In late 1953 he met the mischievous movie star Audry Hepburn. He made several memorable dresses for her which she wore in some of her great films. They soon became fast and inseparable friends for life. Audry liked to call him "my twin brother". Alas! Audry died prematurely on 20 January 1993 after a long battle against cancer. Hubert remained one of the top, world renown high fashion designers until 1990 when he sold his business and his world renown trademark to the company Louis Vuiton. Much to his regret.

&nsp;
My wife Mary
(1980)

My wife, Mary, was invited through the many years to all his collections. After each presentation she would go back stage to say hello and congratulate him. He would bend over to give her a big kiss on the check and called her "ma belle Américaine". In 1957 Hubert asked his brother Jean-Claude to come work with him, after the insistence of Mary, for his contract with the pipe-line company had terminated and he had seven mouths to feed. He immediately took charge of the manufacturing and marketing of perfumes and beauty products under the Givenchy brand name. Over the years it became a great success and of basic financial importance to the Givenchy company since the high fashions line seldom made a profit.

 

In 1980 Hubert was interested in buying a chateau. By chance my wife Mary knew that one of her friends, the heiress of the Bellon family (Pharmaceuticals) was trying to sell hers, Le Jonchet" situated in the Chƒteaudun region. Mary informed Hubert. He visited it and was immediately seduced by its potential. He bought it and quickly undertook the work of repairing it and decorating it to fit his artistic tastes. Mary and I were often invited for long weekends. All the bedrooms were decorated in white , Hubert's favorite color, and the beds were baldachin style. One of Hubert's favorite dishes was Virginia baked ham but this ham was not available on the french market. In the decades 1950 and 1960 Mary and I had access to the american military commissaries in France, so occasionally we would present him with a lovely virginia ham which his and our favorite cook, Simone, would prepare virginia style along with sweet potatoes; a real treat !

 

When Hubert's nephew, Olivier, one of his brother Jean-Claude's six sons, was married in 1990, the marriage ceremony was celebrated in the small chapel adjoining the chateau. Of course it was too small to accept all the guests, so I, along with several other guests, watched the ceremony through the open door. Luckily it was a beautiful summer day. Olivier's wife is an american, born in New Jersey, but her family is of german origin. Among the quest there were several who spoke neither english or french. Since I was the only one present who could at least get along in the german language, I became the interpreter for the afternoon.

 

Today Olivier lives in London, England with his wife and two children, a girl and a boy, where he works in international banking. His twin brother James lives in New York City where he has his own business in the creation of high fashion jewelry.

 

Jimmies wife's family is of lebanese origin and live in Los Angeles, California. These are striking examples of the great changes which have occurred in our modern world concerning family life and family composition. My family is a good example. We were four brothers born and raised in a village with uncles, aunts, cousins and other relatives all living in farms, villages or cities in the same region. Today at the beginning of the twenty first century I live in France, brother Henry in North Carolina, brother John in Florida and brother Stanley in California. The world is now our village. More disquieting and dangerous is the overpopulation, the deforestration and ultra urbanization of our small planet. The farm of our youth and the many others in the region no longer exist. Housing developments have replaced the pastures and fields of corn and wheat. The woods are gone and the springs have run dry, All are additional proofs that "you can't stop so-called progress ?!

  My adventures and collaboration with the Givenchy twins

Through the years my wife and I have maintained very close relationships with all the Givenchy children. We were and still are after fifty years their dear uncle and aunty. The twins Patrick and Richard, the first born of the family, began working in the high fashions and fragrance industries after having finished their studies. Both have succeeded brilliantly in their respective careers. After my retirement in 1985 I was able to use my life long experience in the world of international business and computer expertise to assist both of them.

 

Richard was the first with whom I collaborated. In 1985 he was working as a marketing manager for the famous french fashion house of Balmain. He was responsible for the worldwide sales and distribution of their high fashion, cosmetic and perfume products.

 

At the time the company belonged to a Canadian who appreciated the competence and the professionalism of Richard. At the time I had just retired but continued to help friends with my Apple 2E personal computer which I had just recently acquired. Richard had also acquired one and I prepared several business applications for him. The owner of the Balmain company died several years later and his wife sold the company to a French group. Of course, the new director installed his own team and Richard lost his job but he didn't remain unemployed for very long. He joined a small company which manufactured and distributed products under the Givenchy label. Richard added a line of perfumes manufactured by an Italian friend. His new office was on a canal boat anchored on the Seine river just three hundred meters from our home in St Cloud. I was able to enjoy a promenade along the Seine river each time I joined Richard to help him prepare his computer programs.

 

I also had the opportunity and pleasure of being able to help Patrick in his career successes in both France and the USA. A week after my official retirement from the french company, CGCT, I left for the USA in May of 1985 as a consultant for the same company. At the time Patrick was working as a marketing director for a cosmetics and perfumes company with a factory and offices in New Jersey. He had purchased a lovely house in the lovely suburb of Montclair. During my contract as a consultant of four months, I had the joy and pleasure of being able to stay with them. During the week I did my consulting and travels, and then spent the weekends with them. Several years later Patrick returned to Paris to work as a marketing director for a large Japanese perfume and cosmetics company.

 

The five perfumers responsible for the creation of new fragrances and perfumes used a computer program developed by a small company situated in the mountains of western New Jersey. Since their were no computer program specialists in Patrick's company and since the program was in English, Patrick invited me to come help them with the program. So I spent several months learning the program, translating it into french and finally training the perfumers how to use it. In the year 2000 Patrick returned to the USA as president of an american perfume company in New Jersey. He has rented an apartment in a skyscraper facing Central Park in New York City. They recently acquired a lovely property in Roquefort Les Pins, France on the road between Nice and Grasse. Claudine has taken the responsibility of repairing and arranging it. Each time she comes to Cannes she stays with her dear aunty Mary and dear uncle Eddy.

  My french editor and computer pal, Marc Schweizer

In 1975 we met Marc Schweizer and his wife Carole, friends of Patrick de Givenchy and his wife Claudine. He was a writer (often as a ghost writer), editor and at the same time ran a book store in the Montparnasse district of Paris. In 1985 he sold his store and devoted all his time to writing and editing. In the same year I obtained my first mini-computer, an Apple 2E. It was developed by two young pioneers, Jobs and Wozniac in their garage in California. It was the first of its kind on the market at a very reasonable price and easy to operate. Very quickly all the large American and Japanese computer companies jumped on the bandwagon and the micro-computer quickly became a common affordable item in most households. The most important part and most complicated part of a mini-computer is the operating system (software). This most important item with a huge global market was cornered by Bill Gates and his well known and controversial company Microsoft.

 

The comparison of the price of a micro and a classical computer will give us an idea of the scope of the change: the system which I installed in Washington in 1964 cost 400,000 dollars. In 1985, twenty years later, the Apple 2E cost only 4000 dollars and it was more powerful, took up little space, did not require air conditioning and was relatively easy to use and program. In the space of a few decades, the widespread use of computers has revolutionized most aspects of our daily lives and the world of commerce and science.

 

Now that the book store no longer took most of his time, Marc returned to his primary interest, writing and editing. His wife, Carole no longer busy at the book store soon found a new and interesting occupation. A friend introduced her to an american company newly established in France, named "Forever Living". The company with headquarters in Arizona, manufactured and sold through a rather special system a line of health and cosmetic products based upon the pulp of the Aloe Vera plant. Since there existed very little literature concerning this interesting health plant, Marc and I collaborated in writing an up-to-date book about the pulp of this plant with unusual and interesting health and healing qualities. We published simultaneously French and English versions of which the mother company in Arizona ordered several thousand copies. I did all this writing and editing on my Apple 2E computer. I also developed a program enabling Carole to keep track of her sales for she had accepted to become a salesperson for the company, and she did very well.

 

Marc decided to follow in my footsteps and bought his first computer, the latest computer of the Apple company, the Macintoch, better known as the MAC. It was an ideal system for his editing work. Our collaboration continued through the years. He found translators to eventually publish our original book on Aloe Vera (The health and healing plant) in many languages: Spanish, Italian, German and Russian. Through the years I have translated numerous works of Marc or of writers whose works he was editing, an ideal exercise for keeping the cerebral neurons in top form. Marc now has a International Internet site which gives access in French and English to many of his and my works.

  Our Vietnamese and Thai friends

Once again a chance meeting by some unknown force led to the development of a circle of unusual and close friends which lasted a lifetime. In 1955 Mary was looking for a low cocktail table for her living room in our newly acquired apartment at number 8, avenue Eugénie, St Cloud, France. Since we already had some chinese style pieces, she decided to have one made to fit her artistic taste. Through a friend, Jika, a Hindou princess, she was introduced to Mr. Van Dinh a Vietnamese cabinet maker. He and his French wife had a work shop on rue du Cherche Midi in Paris where they made chinese style tables and other furniture to order. At the same time Mary ordered a copy of an 18th century chinese writing desk which she had seen at a museum. Fifty years later the two are still her favorite pieces of furniture newly installed in our apartment in Cannes, France. But the most interesting result of this encounter was the group of lifelong friendships which followed.

 

Mr. Van Dinh had a gay and exuberant character and had many friends among the Vietnamese living in France who had been high level government officials until 1954 when Vietnam was a French colony and had been since 1885. When the bloody struggle between the communist North and royalist South began, many of the high officials who had served under the french regime thought it safer to leave the country to reside in France since they could legally claim french citizenship. It was Van Dinh who introduced us to Mr. Do Hung, a retired ambassador, who introduced us to Prince Bu Loc, the brother of the disposed Emperor of Vietnam, Bao Dai, with whom he had served as prime minister.

 

The strangest personality we met was general Ba Vien. When he was in Vietnam he had his own private army, at least three wives and a flock of children most of whom he had brought with him to Paris. He had owned most of the bordellos in Saigon and other cities needed to finance his army. He too found it wise to leave after his french protectors left. The most serious couple was Mr. and Mrs. Li Con Trinc. He had been the chief of the Air France office in Saigon and his wife was a well known writer. In fact I translated three of her short novels from the original french into English.

 

To round off our new circle of Far East friends we were introduced to Mr. Prasit, the ambassador of Thailand and his pretty Vietnamese wife Helen. Their favorite pastime was private poker parties or gambling at the casinos. Mary and I sometimes joined them in a friendly poker evening and I was surprised at how well Mary was able to keep a poker face when she was bluffing. All of these friends except Helen were from the previous generation and had all passed away by the year 1985. Helen returned to Thailand and when her husband died she married an american architect who was working in Bangkok. After his retirement, they settled in Springfield, Illinois where he died several years later. She continues to reside in the lovely house he built but comes to visit with us in France each year on her way to visit her older sister who lives in Monaco. Her sister was the editor-in-chief of a french language newspaper in Saigon before she moved to Monte Carlo with her french husband who is a native of Monaco. He is 92 years old and still drives his car. During each trip to France to visit her sister, Helen passes a few days with us in Cannes.

 

Of course with our indochinese friends we learned to appreciate the many facits of chinese cuisine. Until the age of 21 in our rather rural Mongomery county, Pensylvania I don't recall ever having been introduced to chinese culinary specialties. My lifelong appreciation began in New York City in 1942, where as an aviation cadet with several buddies, for sunday dinner we would forgo our military mess to enjoy a meal at one of the many chinese restaurants. Beginning in 1947 I was able to continue to enjoy the chinese cuisine in many countries around the world but never in mainland China. The best and most renowned was in the chinatown of San Francisco. I don't recall ever having had a chinese diner during my many visits to the South American countries. However I occasionally enjoyed a corn on the cob bought from a street corner vendor, in place of a hot dog so popular in the states. Another one of my favourite dishes was New York irish stew.

 

Once again the United States of America became involved in a bloody and impossible conflict with unexpected consequences: the Vietnam war with all its atrocities and its ignominious end for the United States. Although I was still on active duty with the US Air Force until 1968 and was familiar with the Vietnamese situation, as is obvious in the above paragraph, and spoke fluent French but no vietnamese, I never became directly involved. Nevertheless I and my vietnamese friends followed the evolution of the struggle closely. A brief review of the history of that country and what transpired, and my peripheral involvement in what turned out to be a terrible tragedy for all concerned is in order. Creating tragedies seems to be the primary occupation of mankind.

 

The communist leader, Ho Chi Minh created the communist party in Vietnam in 1932 and his troops soon began active resistance against the french colonial regime. To counter the move, the French installed Bao Dai as emperor in 1941. The Japanese invaded Vietnam in 1945 and after the end of World War Two in august of 1945, the French colonizers returned and tried to re-establish their control of a country which had been their colony since 1885. After their infamous defeat at Diˆn Biˆn Phu by the North Vietnam communist troops in 1954, the French threw in the towel (I was on active duty with the US Air Force in Paris). At the peace conference in Geneva in 1954 the country was divided in two at the 17th parallel with a fanatic communist regime in the North and a feeble and unsuccessful attempt to establish a democratic regime in the South. After the French withdrew, the USA made the mistake of moving in to try to fill the vacuum, and in accordance with announced official Washington policy, to stop the movement of communism into Southeast Asia. My countries 50 year crusade against world communism and other repressive dictatorships was well on its way.

 

In 1973 President Richard Nixon negotiated the end of the conflict at a lengthy peace conference in Paris, France. The american forces withdrew but the truce did not last for long. In April 1975 the North Vietnamese communist army invaded and easily conquered the South and renamed Saigon, Ho Chi Minh Ville. But the tragedies continued. The takeover by the communists resulted in the terrible episode known as the "Boat People", when thousands upon thousands of non-communists trying to escape the new regime on fragile boats were killed by China Sea pirates or drowned in tropical storms.

 

Today, thirty years later, the new generation is turning rapidly to capitalist methods, like the Chinese. Poor Marx, Lenin and Mao must be squirming in their tombs.

 

The boat people of Vietnam in The 1970's and those of Cuba in the 1980's and 1990's risking their lives to escape from the promised communist paradise reveals the true nature of a communist regime: the falsehoods, the lies, the cruelty and the perfidy. All communist regimes of the twentieth century have proven to be nothing more than fanatical and cruel military dictatorships. Opposition of any kind is not tolerated and all opponents found or merely suspected are immediately liquidated. Yet today even in democratic countries there are still communist parties and members who still insist that the communist system is paradise compared to the horrors of a liberal democracy. Fortunately most people have finally learned and understand the true nature of the communist and other totalitarian systems. Today the communist parties in democratic countries rarely obtain more than 5% of the votes in a political election.

 

It has become obvious that in this twenty first century it is no longer communism which is a threat to democracy and the free world. It is Islam-Muslim obscurantism, ignorance and fanaticism. The narrow-minded, the poor, the stupid and the pseudo-intellectuals are easily seduced by a helping hand promising paradise. Yes, but in most of these types of religions the benefits are only for the males, with a heaven supplying a bevy of sixty virgins to keep them sexually satisfied when they sacrifice themselves for THE CAUSE: that is killing the infidels. A political and social system and mores not even fit for stone age societies, yet the muslim religion today claims more adepts than the christian religion and continues to impose its domination over the many poor and underprivileged muslim nations using the oil money so generously provided by the non-muslim countries often obliged to pay a high price for the oil. It is indeed a 'crazy, crazy world' we live in!

 

Accept without question what the politico/religious authorities preach and impose. Fall to your knees, bow your head, rise and open your palms, look into the heavans and shout "Allah el Allah" God is God! Which is like saying "White is White" and not knowing that the color white is a blend of all the colors of the spectrum. Not even knowing that light is electromagnetic wave energy traveling through space at 300 000 kilometers per second ! Yes, religions in general, and especially the Muslim religion, are based upon ignorance, stupidity, fear of the unknown and lack of an open mind and willingness to study and learn. Yes, studying and learned must be limited to reading and reciting the ancient texts written by ignorant and superstitious merchants and nomades!

 

Why has the "Ground Zero" of 11 march 2004 in Madrid awakened public panic and the political demogogues instead of enforcing the people's desire for positive and increased action against the assassins of Ben Laden's terrorist organization Al Qaida and help in the reorganization of a free and democratic Irak ?

 

The answer is simple and at the same time terrifying. Whenever the terroists of Ben Laden strike, the reaction of the silent majority is just the opposite of what it should be. Instead of increasing their resistance and determination to combat the enemy, they panic, blame and attaque those in their government who are actively engaged in combating the enemy. The weak and fearful majority, those "useful idiots" so dear to Lenin, even go as far as putting the blame for the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York City on the 11th of september 2001 directly upon President Bush and the CIA! The reaction of the spanish not so silent majority to the terrible massacre in Madrid perpeuated by the members of Al Qaida on the 11th of march 2004 is a perfect example of this phenomenon. The islamist legions shout "long live death" while the not so silent majority in Spain shout "peace". Those who still believe that you can discuss and soften this terrorism, or at least diminish the number of their troops, are as suicidal and utopian as those who in 1937 were pursuaded that they could negotiate with Hitler.

 

Once again, we have the proof that this terrorism is not blind and that it cannot be stopped by prayers and wishful thinking. On the contrary it is a revolutionnary, faceless and insatiable terrorism, well organized, well financed and determined to attack and demoralize the developed and democratic nations. To attain their objectives the terrorist organisation Al Qaida and its supporters will continue to perpetuate their abominable acts in the name of their merciful Allah! To crown it all, the organization and the senseless massacres are financed by the victims themselves when they buy the oil from the muslim countries. A strange, strange world we live in, indeed !

  Epilogue

I undertook the writing of this autobiography of the four rascals several years ago with the blessing and encouragement of my dear and beautiful wife Mary. Unfortunately she passed away on the 17th of february 2004 before its completion. With infinite love, regret and sadness, I dedicate this work and these closing words to her.

 

She was really someone, a beautiful, exceptional and marvelous person. She loved family, friends, children, animals, beautiful cloths, beautiful things and especially Life. She radiated compassion, love and understanding. At the same time she was a mischievous angel!

 

Our eternal home is the infinite Universe, the source of all creation. Our passage upon our small planet Earth is naught but a brief interlude in endless space and time. Upon death the countless atoms which form our body (90% water, H2O) return to the sea and the heavens (space) from which they originally came. The remaining 10%, the ashes, return to mother Earth. Our dear Mary, one of nature's loveliest creatures has returned into nature's all embracing arms

 

When I think of our dear, beloved and unforgettable Mary, I like to sing several negro spirituals. Here are two of them :

 

"I looked over Jordan and what did I see,
Coming for to carry her home ?
A band of angels coming after her.
Coming for to carry her home."
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry her home."

 

"Nobody knows the trouble i've seen.
Nobody knows my sorrows.
I'm sometimes up, I'm sometimes down,
But I know her soul is heavenly bound.
Glory, glory halleluya !"