News from California

Thanks to all of you who have replied to my e-mail, who at the time of writing are Dave Read, Julia Tomes , Gilly Warr, William Pedley and Alistair Kennaugh. Hopefully more of you will connect in due course. Also, thank you very much Adrian for setting the ball rolling. It was truly wonderful to hear from you and brought back fond memories of you all and the Woodroffe School. I have updated (somewhat!) my Facebook page. For those of you who would like to “friend me”, please do so on http://www.facebook.com/. There are two David Ls on Facebook – my son who is at Duke, and me (pictured at the top of Pikes Peak). Make sure you ask to friend me and not my son – he’ll get very upset with me if a bunch of late 50 year olds start to try friending him! Steve – my youngest son has a page also, but he won’t even friend me, let alone you!… A little more history of my life after Woodroffe School. After leaving Woodroffe I went to Swansea University and graduated with a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 1973. I then went on to do a PhD in Physics at the Royal Military College of Science in Swindon. After several years each at Every Ready in Abingdon and Plessey in Towcester I had the chance to come to a job in Los Angeles, Southern California in 1983. That didn’t work out but in 1984 I joined Spectrolab, a subsidiary of Hughes Aircraft which then became part of Boeing in 2000. I have been at Spectrolab and living in the LA area ever since. After several false starts I married my current wife Linda in 1989. We have two boys David and Steve who you can see on my Facebook page. David is a freshman at Duke, Steve is a sophomore at high school. Steve is very focused on a career in the U.S Air Force (hence the recent trip to the Air Force Academy on spring break). Several of you have asked if I continued my tennis. Yes Alistair - I remember the times we played on sand on our neighbour's court. I did continue tennis for a while. When I was single I played every day (what better place to play tennis than in Southern CA!), but as the children came along, together with more job responsibilities, I haven’t played for many years. I still like outdoor activities, especially hiking in the mountains. In fact I am going on a 4 day hike into the Yosemite wilderness in northern CA with Steve in August. I haven’t kept in touch with many from Woodroffe. I was in contact with Sarah H for a while; Steve M and his wife visited us in CA about 25 years ago; Peter R, his wife Karen and their daughters visited us about 10 years ago; and I exchange Christmas cards with David F each year. Oh - Julia T I remember meeting you by chance on the Tube in London in the late 1970s. That’s about it. I really hope to be able to stay in touch with you all, better than in the past. I usually come to Europe (Germany, France, Netherlands…) once a year on business so could take a detour to visit. And definitely I will try to get to a reunion in October if it materializes. Gilly - you had asked if I could write a short update for your newsletter, please feel free to use any or all of this for that purpose, and feel free to forward my contact information. It’s an open book on the internet these days anyway! Take care everyone! Best Regards Dave Lillington