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Today's Featured Biography

 
Ralph Irish

Two days after graduation, I enlisted in the Navy with classmate Frank Seed. We spent ten
Fun-filled weeks at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, and then went our separate ways.
He, to Dental Tech school in San Diego, and I to Electronics School in San Francisco,
California. Our paths crossed a few times in the next 3 1/2 years. In March of 1961 I
Ended up back in Waterford, and Frank followed his parents to Kansas. He has been there
ever since.

About 2 months after getting out of the Navy, I found a job at a Ford plant, 'way over' in
Sterling Township, in Macomb County. I figured that I could work there for a few years, while
I looked for a 'real' job. 43 years later, I had not found that found that 'real' job, and retired.
I figured that 43 plus years of looking for that job was long enough. I Retired in September
of 2004.

Shortly after starting with Ford, I met my wife-to-be. We met on a blind date that was
suggested by my mother. Mom must have had some pretty good insight, because Barbara
and I were married for a bit over 60 years.

Barbara (nee Lecornu) was a Pontiac High, 1957 graduate. She went to Wayne University,
where she got a degree in Education. Her first job was as an English Teacher at Waterford!
Waterford, during the 1961 - 1962 school year. Sadly, Barbara passed away in July of 2022.
She had multiple health issues, one of which was a Stage 4 Cancer.

We had two children, a boy and a girl. Both of them attended and graduated from Oakland
University in Rochester, MI. Both are married and they each have two kids. Life is good! We
tell people that our son is a Grandfather, not that we are great-grandparents! He has two
grandsons.

Our granddaughter graduated from the University of Utah in 2023. Her Major was Performing
Arts. We hope that she will find fulfilling work on the stage or screen, or wherever fate might
take her.

One of the things that the Navy prepared me for was my hobby of the last 60 years. I was a
Navy Radio Operator, and for the past 61 years, I have been a licensed Amateur Radio Operator.
It has been a great experience, and I have met some interesting people along the way. One of them was Ed McKenzie, known from his Detroit Radio DJ days as "Jack the Bellboy". Ed was
truly a legend in his own time. He was on Detroit radio on WJBK-AM, and later on WXYZ-AM.
Some years later he hosted two different TV shows on WXYZ-TV. One was a Saturday Afternoon
Teen Dance Party show, and the other was called, "After Hours", a show that followed the Late
Movie and often ran until they shut the station down.

(Remember when TV stations actually went off the air at night?)

So, between the fun things that happen on the radio, and the wonderful people I have met on
ham radio and via the internet, I have had a pretty interesting life. One can only hope that
things remain interesting and that I keep meeting great people!

Ralph Irish (Updated August 2023)

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