Preface To the 1975 Journal Entries

Ancient History

Written Monday, 10 December, 2007

When I was cleaning out a box in the storage room downstairs, I found several old journals that I had sporadically kept over several years. All the entries dated 1975 come from one of those journals.

I turned 30 years old in 1975.

At the beginning of the year we were living in Krefeld, Germany and I was the Branch President of the Krefeld Branch of the Church. Nina was driving the kids to and from school every day, about a half-hour drive each direction if the traffic was good. Mid-year we moved to the Munich area.

James was 10 years old as this journal started. Heather was 8, Dawnmarie was 6, and Trevor was 3. Traci had died the year before. The older three children were attending the Düsseldorf International School on the north side of Düsseldorf.

Locations of interest:

We were living in Krefeld, Germany about a half-hour west of Düsseldorf. I was on an expatriate assignment to the TRW plant in Düsseldorf, Ehrenreich. In addition, I was working to set up computer systems at the TRW plants in Alfdorf, German (Repa) and Munich, German (BLW). Alfdorf is a little east of Stuttgart near the city of Schwäbish-Gmünd which at that time had a large U.S. Army supply depot. On a good driving day I could drive from Alfdorf to Munich in about two hours thanks to the unlimited speed allowed on the autobahn.

Cast of Characters:

Work-related people:

  • Gordon Plummer: he was my boss (and good friend). Gordon was at the Automotive International Group Headquarters of TRW in Cleveland, Ohio.
  • Dick Schneider: the Finance Director at Ehrenreich. Dick spoke fluent English, almost without an accent. The EDP (electronic data processing) department at Ehrenreich reported to Dick.
  • Henry Heinrich: The EDP manager at Ehrenreich.
  • Bill Stevens: The Finance Director at Repa. Bill was also on an expat assignment originally at Ehrenreich. His wife divorced him and went back to the States and Bill took this assignment at Repa after that. He was also seriously looking for a steady girlfriend (whom he eventually found, married, and brought back to the U.S.)
  • Hans Hettich: The EDP manager at Repa
  • Bill Hoerner: The Finance Director at BLW. Bill resigned in 1976 to go back to the U.S. and go to law school.
  • Busch: a programmer at BLW. When his wife decided not to move to Munich after he took the job at BLW, they divorced and he married a Yugoslavian girl he met in Munich.
  • Werner Gantner: A programmer at BLW. He succeeded me as the EDP Manager there.
  • Sherry Burnette: A programmer at BLW. She was originally from San Antonio, Texas and had been living for several years in Munich.

Church related people:

  • Rudi Trautmann: My counselor in the Branch Presidency. His wife Susann Trautmann had a beautiful singing voice.
  • Dietmar Rudloff: The Branch Clerk. Br. Rudloff suceeded me as Branch President.
  • Mervyn and Lynn Wright: Mervyn was the financial clerk for the Branch. He was a soldier in the British Army stationed at the British Army Post in Krefeld. Mervyn and Lynn became our very best friends while we were there and sadly, we’ve since lost complete contact.
  • Peter Chasteauneuf: That’s how I’ve got his name spelled in the address book of the journal, but I’m sure it isn’t correct. I’ve not been able to find anyone in England with that name! Peter was also in the British Army and was a cook at the same post where Mervyn was stationed. About a year after we returned to the U.S., Peter came to Chardon, Ohio for a summer and stayed with us.

Many other names will come up in entries having to do with the Krefeld Branch. The Branch was very small and struggling. I was called as the Branch President probably in desperation. The previous Branch President along with some others in leadership at the branch were excommunicated the same day I was sustained as the Branch President. I spent most of my first year as Branch President getting the finances of the Branch straightened out and cleared up with the Presiding Bishop’s office in Frankfurt.

I kept the journal pretty faithfully until about June, 1975. By then we were moving from Krefeld to Neuried (a suburb of Munich) and I was spending all of my time in Munich and Alfdorf. The move was necessary to maintain a family relationship! After that there are only a couple of other entries.

The journal probably isn’t interesting to anyone except me. However, by entering it into the blog, I’ve been able to revisit the past and resurrect some of the memories of the cars, scarce finances, people at work and in the Branch, and just life as it was for me as a 30-year-old kid with a large family living in a foreign country.