MY TWO STAGES OF LIFE

Sundays are sometimes spiritual and occasionally reflective.  So today I'll look at my 84 years of life in that manner because it took 42 years of development to allow for the latter 42 years of progress.

To begin;

• I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and was a little more than a year old when my mother held me in her arms and pointed to the smoke emanating from Pearl Harbor on 7December1941.  Of course I don't remember any of that, and not much about World War II either.

• 
  Growing up in the "fishing village" of Kakaako, which is now at the edge of the expanding Ward complex of high rises, life was easy.
• After graduating from McKinley High School, I went to Stanford University, departing in 1962 with a degree in chemical engineering, to work for C. Brewer as a sugar trainee at the Hutchinson Sugar Company.  

• 
  I made this "sacrifice" because most of my close friends chose to join the first year of the Peace Corps.  They went off to places in Africa and the South Pacific, while I ended up  in Naalehu on the Big Island, the southernmost city in the USA, where I couldn't even receive radio signals, and, of course, no television.

• 
  My 7 years in the sugar industry also took me to Kauai, where I learned about my roots.
• Having grown up in Honolulu, I knew so little about things like luaus and living in a small community.  
• Job was from 9AM to 6PM, working 12 days and 2 days off, with calls at night when the factory had a problem.  Most difficult work experience I would have in my entire life.  
• But I learned a lot about how to survive and enjoy life.
• 
  Also met a nurse, Pearl, who became my wife.
• C. Brewer continued to pay my salary when they sent me off to graduate school in 1969, but it had to be Louisiana State University because they had the only sugar degree, which was conveniently in the chemical engineering department.
• I talked the company to allow me to continue for a PhD in biochemical engineering.

• 
  Returned home in 1972 to join the College of Engineering at the University of Hawaii.
• During the next decade, I got involved in renewable energy because of the Energy Crisis, and also spent time at the NASA Ames Research Center on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence and two summers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in laser fusion.
• 
  In 1979 I joined the staff of U.S. Senator Spark Matsunaga in DC, and managed the passage of legislation in deep seabed mining, ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) wind energy and hydrogen.  This Hydrogen Act seeded the developmental R&D which someday will be lead to the Hydrogen Economy.  That Hard Mineral Act, after 45 years of incubation has suddenly been revived by President Donald Trump.  The combination of OTEC and hydrogen led me to develop something called the Blue Revolution.
• I finally returned to the University of Hawaii in 1982.

Thus, it took 42 years of education and gaining experience to get me to stage 2 of my life.  The second 42 years was a lot more enjoyable and progressive.

• I became professor of engineering and director of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (HNEI).

• 
  Also with Paul Yuen, who was dean of engineering, created the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research.  We were able to secure $25 million projects from the Department of Energy for building an OTEC plant on the Big Island and a biofuels facility to produce methanol on Maui.
• HNEI became the national research center for the Department Interior's Marine Mineral Technology Institute, Department of Energy's Hydrogen Research and Education Center and National Science Foundation Marine Research Bioproducts Engineering Center.  The combination of these led to the Blue Revolution.

• 
  My dual roles allowed me to travel the world, where I am now approaching 3 million miles just on Star Alliance.
• After 15 years directing HNEI, I retired, but retained my office on the Manoa Campus.  It has been 53 years since I first arrived.
• 
  Wrote a couple books in the 1990s, and three more after I retired.  Reported for the Huffington Post, where I published more than 100 articles, condensed in my SIMPLE SOLUTION Essays.  Also began this blog site in 2008, so it has been 17 years of daily postings.  You know how long this is?  Picture yourself:
• Starting kindergarten.
• Then going to school until you graduate from high school.
• College for four years.  
• In this 17th year, you graduate.
• While students have weekends off and holidays, I continue daily, every day.

Let's see, now, in Stage 3, I should be able to witness the development of the Blue Revolution, Hydrogen Society and Laser Fusion.  Of course, at the end of this period it would be 2067 and I would be 126 years old.  Something tells me this won't happen because the longest documented and verified human lifespan is that of Jeanne Louise Calment of France, who lived for 122 years.

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