I grew up in Putnam, CT, a little textile mill town in the
northeast corner of the state. In New England, the industrial revolution was primarily industrialization of textile manufacturing.
The earliest mills required rivers for the water wheels that provided the power and New England had plenty of them. In
addition, being the arrival site of the technology coming from England made it a natural. And Putnam was right in the middle
of it.
From earliest childhood, the mill bells and later the
whistles, train whistles, church bells, hum of the spinning frames and music from the weave sheds were all second
nature and each distinct. In a textile mill town, peoples lives were governed by the bells and whistles and mill activity.
Everything centered around the mills activity.
I started working in the mills part time after school in the 40's and went
full time after high school. Went into the army in '51 and on return went back to the mill and decided that if I was going
to stay in the mill I needed more education. Enrolled at RISD in '54 in a textile engineering program during the day
and started weaving nights in a Linen upholstery mill.
Graduated in '58 and started chasing that famous career path.
Worked with three major textile firms in my career in the US and Europe. Milliken in wearing apparal, Albany International
in paper makers felts and industrial products and Tetko in Silk Screen media for printing and filtration. Retired
in '80 as general manager of Tetko US mnfging operations and loved it all.
I got involved with handweaving in college and in retirement spend all
of my time in some form of fiber arts.
I have my own studio/shop, sell the full line of new Leclerc looms and
accessories, do some weaving, restore and retrofit old looms, chat with other weavers and fiber artists, am a facilitator
for Elderhostel, do some consulting work for Leclerc Looms and am the US technical advisor and a dealer for Leclerc.
