Loomis, Steven, IC3

I spent my life as... the A-V GUY.

Early on, I studied photography as a 4-H Club member. I learned to process my own film and made prints in order to have photographs of our 4-H and local Coin Club in our town's newspaper. During high school I excelled in drafting and was a member of the A-V Squad, providing movie projectionist services to the teaching staff. While in the US Navy I was assigned to an Advisory Unit in the Vietnamese Naval Shipyard where I produced visual aids, charts and graphs, for weekly management briefings at the NAVFORV, U.S. Naval Forces Viet-Nam headquarters in Saigon. I went on to the fleet rated as an Interior Communications Electrician, maintaining telephones and other shipboard communications systems. When I got out of the Navy I attended a technical college and earned an Associate of Applied Science degree, with honors, in Visual Communications (audio-visuals, graphics, photography and television production). I also spent two additional years at the University of Wisconsin in their mass communications program.

In all, I spent some forty years in the field of multimedia production and management. Among my employers were three hospitals, where I provided A-V services and became a Medical Photographer. I also spent two years managing the media facilities of a technical training school in Saudi Arabia and two and a half decades managing the media resources for a large school district in Phoenix, Arizona.

Of the advice my father gave me, two really stuck in my mind and I took him seriously.
The first was: "Compare yourself with the top of the class, not the bottom".
The second was: "Get a trade and learn to do it well so you have something solid to fall back on. Then, do whatever you want in life". And so, I did.

I am rather proud to say, when I retired at age 60, I had never received a single unemployment or welfare check.

Now, looking back, the best personal asset from my last job was the retirement package at the end of my career. I retired with an accumulation of *26 years credited toward my retirement with the Arizona State Retirement System. (*24 years plus a buy-back/add-on of two of my military service years)

Things I remember from High School.
1. First, I may have been the shortest guy in the school. I actually grew over four inches while I was in the Navy. I enlisted in April of our senior year. As soon as we graduated I went on active duty and spent a year, "boots on the ground" in Vietnam. Then a few years after graduating college I went to Saudi Arabia with Lockheed Aircraft International.
2. I was one of those AV Squad guys, running movie projectors for the teachers during what would have been my study-hall period.
3. Back in the summer of 1967 I was the drummer for a garage band called The Exists. I may not have been a great drummer but memories of being there, especially playing at the "Y" have always been fond memories.
4. I'd been a 4H member since grade school and took woodworking and photography as my main subjects. I went on to become a professional photographer.
5. Although my grades were not great, I only needed two credits for my diploma at the start of my senior year. I believe my favorite classes were drafting, both mechanical and architectural drawing.