Passing the Torch to the Younger Generation

前事不忘 後事之師
Use incidents from the past as lessons for the future

One of my great pleasures is to help teach lessons to younger people in our industry. I tell many stories about all the problems I had and, hopefully, how they can achieve more success than me.

Here is a great picture, not "Beauty and the Beast," more like "Pioneer and the Geek." These are two of my good friends. Brian Wilson is one of the original pioneers of our industry. Brian started in filament winding when Mount Everest was only 2 meters high, silk was the only fiber available, and the filament winding machines were operated by a horse going around in circles.

Maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit. I think Brian started working in filament winding in the 1950's, when the science just started...or when it was really not science but only trial and error. He's the PIONEER.

Next to Brian is Joann Du, Chinese name DuJuan. She is the GEEK. She is only 25 years old and just finished her Master's Degree from Notre Dame University. She is incredibly bright and just starting to learn about filament winding and our industry. It's my great pleasure to introduce her to one of the original Pioneers of our industry. Hopefully she will be able to learn from the old guys like Brian and me. Then we can hand off the torch and let Joann's generation do the hard work of taking our industry to a much higher level than we ever dreamed possible.

I can't wait. It should be an interesting future.