As a military officer, I had always savored the sense of duty and purpose in serving America directly, and I saw the US Senate as a similar continuation of this mindset. So, on January 2, 1984, I began my campaign in Michigan while Gratia and the three children, now ages 20, 17, 15, and 3, remained in Texas to finish the school year in June. My campaign covered the entire State of Michigan with 4-8 events every day except Sunday. The whole family was involved in many of the events. It was necessary to add economic and social components to my repertoire of more familiar military and technical issues. There was much interaction with news media, staff, volunteers, politicians, opponents, and others during public and private speaking events, fundraisers, debates, and parades. President Reagan, running for his second term, Vice President Bush, and several US Senators visited Michigan to campaign for me and other candidates. I won the Primary Election handily but was defeated in a 4-5% margin by the incumbent Democrat in the General Election. Although I lost the election, which was a complete departure from military and space life, the campaign was one of my family's most interesting learning experiences. We had many dedicated volunteers, enthusiastic supporters, and new friends who worked tirelessly for a cause in which we mutually believed. It was a cultural change into a new arena that broadened our lives for the next path we would follow. For me personally, the political defeat was quickly overwhelmed by having already reached the pinnacle of a more cherished career in aviation with its many years of meaningful, challenging, productive, and God-directed endeavor. It was time to add to the mix whatever was learned from the political excursion and to move on! I declined a later request to run for another US Senate seat as I was already too engaged in the "rest of the story".
We remained in Ann Arbor after the election, and I began receiving calls from companies requesting technical help with their aerospace and defense projects; a ready-made consulting business with customers mostly in the US, but also with some international firms. Among the latter, I twice assisted the European Space Agency (ESA) in educating their new astronauts on the operation of the Space Shuttle, and also in the design and development of their own spaceplane. Among my major US clients were two firms in my own hometown specializing in the development of sensor systems for Earth-observation satellites and also providing "machine vision" for robots and other automated manufacturing applications. Others included consulting on classified military applications of the Space Shuttle, and also with a contractor competing for NASA's space station contract.
These individual consulting adventures eventually led to working with small startup companies with innovative concepts and ideas in which I usually held President, CEO, or other upper management positions. I was asked to create a new non-profit, international information center to collect, analyze, and distribute natural Earth-science data collected via satellite and to integrate it with social data about the environment for electronic access by policy-makers, resource managers, scientists, students, and general public. This took about four years, after which I resigned for other interests. This organization was very successful and now resides with Columbia University as the "Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)". I also co-founded a small company to invent, patent, develop, and market a small, portable "metabolic analyzer"; a medical device to determine physical fitness during exercise. That product was approved by the FDA, as was an innovative dental device; a silver-tipped probe to detect periodontal disease before it caused its damage. We developed, commercialized, and marketed this dental device as the "Diamond Probe", after its inventor. Both of these companies required the setup of administrative, manufacturing, quality assurance, marketing, and sales functions during their evolution.
When terrorists began smuggling explosives on airplanes, I worked with a nuclear physicist to invent and develop a neutron-based sensor system to detect explosives in baggage, narcotics in shipping containers, and location of subsurface landmines. The technology was good but was superseded by smaller, nuclear-free, enhanced X-ray systems. Also, for several years I held a part-time management position with a small company that invented, built, and flew the world's first corporate propjet airplane made of all-composite material, the Avtek 400A. This was before the similarly constructed Beech Starship was introduced. Although the Avtek 400A was flown experimentally, we were unable to raise the millions of dollars necessary to certify the production model by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). With most of the startup projects, much of my time and expertise was engaged in writing Business Plans and funding proposals, making presentations to venture capitalists and private investors, or briefing potential acquisition entities.
My post-election business pursuits also included serving on several Boards of Directors, of which two were for publically-traded companies. I joined the board of Republic Bank in Ann Arbor about a year after its inception and served on it for 16 years during which time it grew rapidly and profitably until it was acquired. I was also on the board of Newcor, Inc., a long-established Michigan-based company with several subsidiaries engaged primarily in manufacturing major precision parts and assemblies for the major US automobile companies. I was also a member of the board, often Chairman, of the small companies in which I was engaged in an operational capacity. The Michigan Business Aviation Association (MBAA) also invited me to join its board on which I served for many years, and I was recently honored to accept MBAA's Lifetime Achievement Award. During this time, I had continued to fly single and twin-engine general aviation airplanes primarily for business purposes and compiled a career total of 7,000 hours of flight time.
More recently, we relocated back to Texas to be closer to most of our four families with 16 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. We remain active in church and community affairs, and I am often privileged to make presentations at local, national, and international events for youngsters of all ages. We are thankful to God for long life, good health, and a wide range of opportunities with wonderful memories, and we look forward to a continuation of meaningful and productive endeavor!