Photos From My History
by Lin Bothwell
In the 1950’s Ogden High School won an architect’s award as one of the 10 most beautiful high schools in the U.S. (Marble Halls, Art Deco auditorium with gold leaf, etc)
The kid is going to the Blue Zoo—article in the Ogden Standard Examiner. Notice how happy that Doolie looks prior to sequential E.E. courses!
Planning an RB66 recon flight along the East German border with our navigator Capt. Elmer Fudd.
This is the bird we flew in; we sat in the seat that ejected down!
A visiting Lt. Colonel is telling me what a paragon of studly manhood I am.
Congressman Laurence J. Burton, with the four cadets he appointed to USAFA (66-65-LJB-63-64). This was taken just after Ron Bliss beat the %$!#@! out of me in the intramural boxing ring and dislocated my shoulder again (just prior to Dr. Blade’s surgery).
Every thing IS under control. (I’m probably calling General Strong to wish him “Good Morning!”)
1) The OCD Cadet with his F-100 model, his picture of Ruth, and everything lined up just so. Those newspapers will become important in “Three Down”; 2) Yes he really was a First Classman; 3) Just prior to my flight in the B-52 (Viet Nam here I come—NOT!).
This is the official graduation picture that was taken, but that never appeared in the 1964 “Polaris.” Sigh!
These are two pictures of my midnight blue 1964 Chevy Impala that I drove away from USAFA in; and then the fire engine red four-on-the-floor Pontiac GTO muscle car that I drove in Southern California after….
Dr. Lin Bothwell, the Dean of Students, conducts the Commencement exercises in his Harvard robe. (The diploma and my reaction to getting it will follow in the “Rewards and Recognition” tab.)
The Dean with one of his adoring students who he just “graduated.”
Visiting Professor Dr. Bothwell, teaching MBA classes at Tsinghua University in Beijing
The only place to eat in Beijing; and Yao Ming was the McD’s spokesperson (every store had a seven foot cardboard cutout in the lobby) and I used to tell the little Chinese kids, “I could take this guy one-on-one.” They were very impressed, probably because they didn’t speak English.
This is me in 2002 meeting with my close personal friend the President of China. (Notice how waxy his complexion looks. Hmmmm!)
This is the way Susan traveled all over Southern China. Those Cantonese really know how to do a lady’s head dress!
Me with the Hong Kong skyline as a back drop. I love Hong Kong and I love this picture.
See, there is life after a “NDE.” Notice the personal attention from the nurse and notice the TV remote that is attached to my hand (it’s a guy thing!).
The bridge was definitely not falling down in 2004. We are standing in front of the Tower of London where Sir Thomas More and Mary Queen of Scots (married to the Earl of Bothwell) “lost their heads.”
This is my castle, Bothwell Castle in Scotland, near the monument to William Wallace (Braveheart to the uninitiated). Perhaps when I’m “really retired”…ah, never mind.
We’ve been to the ends of the earth and you can always find Coke. “Bula” means “gidday” in Fijian.
Some of the people in Fiji live like this.
Most of the people in Fiji live like this. These are the people we worked with.
This was our army relief truck; and I was handing out “lolli’s” to the kids who have just lost every thing in the flood. Their parents got the food, clothing and water. This little girl’s home came down a mountain side and a cemetery came down on top of it!
The is the little Toyota Hilux truck--stick shift, driver left side, that I drove 44,000 kilometers in Fiji on the worst roads on the planet earth. I was the only one I knew there who did not get in an accident of some type. And yes I have a Fijian Driver’s License good until 2013. Did I hate driving in Fiji? (Proceed if you dare.)
Driving at night was fun with cows, horses, pigs, dogs, goats and people in dark clothing on the road, often lying in the road. (During our two years I only killed 2 birds with the truck.)
The wealthier cows got to ride rather than walk. Safer for me???
The ubiquitous cane truck. If you got behind a convoy of these you went 20 mph for several hours. Ulcer time. Oh, and most of them had no working tail lights at night.
Driving off road was fun also. Mrs. Ratu said to me, “Go ahead Bothwell, you won’t get stuck.” That’s her watching the men attempt to push we out.
The flag man waved me forward…and my options are head-on steam roller or truck!
Do people die on the roads in Fiji? Every day!
Part of the Fiji Public Works bridge infra-structure project.
And if the concrete bridge is collapsing into the creek below, they put out a flashing saw-horse. No wait, that looks like a tree branch. Notice the goats in the background looking on and laughing. (The Fiji Dept. of Tourism will probably NOT want me to come back.)
But Fiji does know how to do a sunset. And yes I took this photo—not bought it.
Susan with three refugee families that we had just taken shopping in a big super-store. She is showing the women what aluminum foil is and how to use it.
Susan explaining a document to a refugee family.
These girls are: Burmese, Karen, Karenni and Thai (except for the blond one, who is their teacher).
This is how I suspect you all thought I would end up. Students love their professors day—especially the Business School Dean. (But I did get the highest bid in the auction.)
Here I am on the poop deck of my yacht in Mexico. Wait…I don’t own a boat. I am wearing a USAFA polo shirt with Harvard shorts…“be true to your school.”
Here we are in the Harvard Yard in front of the famous John Harvard statue. (And yes I know this is NOT John Harvard. Susan at this time had not seen “The Social Network,” and I didn’t have the heart to tell her about the “three lies.”)
The kid looks pretty good attending his 50th H.S. reunion. (I was at least doing better than classmates who came in walkers and wheel chairs…really!)
Here I am with my muse “Willy.” I’m whispering to him, “What do you think of the title “Three Down?”
This was on the day of the 65th Birthday surprise party that Susan threw for me. And she got all of us those pins with my picture on them taken when I was one and a half years old. Wasn’t I a cute baby?
And so we head off down the road together. Only another 30 years until we….
Proof positive hanging on the wall that the kid really got the sheepskin. (This was the first year in 341 years of Harvard’s existence that they did not issue their diplomas in Latin. I can get mine in Latin if I want to give them enough money to endow something.)
You’ve heard the phrase “Jumping for joy!” This is what it looks like. This was 1977 so you will forgive the polyester, plaid pants. (I remember returning to my seat in my last doctoral class after turning in my final, and tearing up realizing this was my last higher education test ever (of hundreds I had taken) after 10 years of university work that I had started 17 years earlier in September of 1960 at the United States Air Force Academy!).
This award was given to me by the City of Worchester, MA for training I did for the Mayor’s staff. (For the uninitiated, it’s pronounced “Woo-sta”). {I used to bedevil my Chinese students with this when I couldn’t pronounce the names of their cities like: Xian; pronounced “She-on.” (Not “ex-ee-on” like I said on my first try.)
Given to my by Tsinghua University at the farewell party when we were leaving China for the last time. The picture embossed on the plate is the famous Tsinghua Gate which is over 100 years old.
This plaque was given to me by my MBA students at the conclusion of our year long class, Spring Semester of 1990. (Note: I also have a submarine tie clip given to me by the Naval War College at the completion of the training I did there; but I didn’t feel inclined to take a picture of a tie clip.)
John Blaha signed this Thiokol space shuttle launch poster for me when we met at Thiokol. The “Coach” reference has to do with me coaching him my First Class Year on the 24th Squadron Intramural Soccer team. He was a very good player for me…but said nothing at the time about how he would later become an Astronaut. Oh well, neither did Fred Gregory or Roy Bridges.
Given to me by the Thunderbirds (I don’t know the year) and signed by all of them. I know a lot of USAFA alums have flown for them through the years.
This beautiful picture was drawn by artist Mark Waki commissioned by Thiokol. Though you will not be able to see it here, I love the detail of the Astronauts floating outside of the Shuttle/Station and the cloud formations on the surface of the earth.
I call this painting “My home for 1292 Days.” This beautiful painting was purchased for me in the Visitor’s Center at USAFA in 2001 by my friend and C-Springs resident, New York Times Bestselling Author Gus Lee. Gus’s novel, “Honor & Duty” is a vast look into his time at West Point (we were contemporaries), and did for the Point what I hope “Three Down” will do for USAFA. [Note: Ironically I first found and read Gus’s book in Mainland China.]
I call this picture “USAFA Then and Now.” Here are my four Polaris Yearbooks (thank you Harold Rust ‘65 for the gift of the 1964 book which I did not receive after my turn out). The thin book is the pictorial history of the first 25 years of the Academy. Finally there is the three-ring binder that holds my manuscript for “Three Down.” It IS a big novel.
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