Charles Calland

Charles K Calland
1219 Turncreek Ln.
Katy Texas 77450
Home 281-579-0051 Cell 832-725-3533
charleskcalland@hotmail.com

 

What happened after graduation?
Immediately after high school, to just get away from home, I joined the Army and spent 2 years 11 months and two days (who’s counting) with an early out to attend college.  The decision then was to stay in the service or go to school.  After taking a close look at some of the 20 year men I decided I did not want to be a career military man and I did not want to dig ditches.  So after returning home and seven years later I managed to graduate with honors from the University of Houston.  I guess you could call me a late bloomer. Mrs. Ermel and Mrs. Jacobs probably would not believe it.

 

I went to work for a small company called International Controls Corporation which was owned by Mission Mfg. which built Supervisory Control Systems for the oil and gas industry.  This company was then bought out by TRW Controls and after 13.5 years I left and joined Saudi Aramco working in Project Management.  There were long term assignments in Florida, back to Saudi and then to Huntsville, Alabama and then back to Saudi, then to Ireland and then back to Saudi and then to Calgary Canada and then back to Saudi.  The last year and a half before retiring was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia which was very interesting because we lived in a compound close to the Diplomatic Quarter which was not run by Aramco.

 

I then returned to Houston in late 1999 and started looking for another job.  The plan was to work until I was 65.5 years old and then retire again.  I went to work for a company called ABB Energy Management Systems first as a Consultant and then as a Senior Project Manager. This was the same company, different owners, with many of the same people who I had worked for before I left to work for Aramco.  I ended up leaving in 2004 due to my wife's health problems caused by long term Diabetes (type 2) and High Blood Pressure.

 

Spouse
Nancy and I married in 1967.  She worked and got her PHT (Pushed Husband Thru) College.  She was always very interested in traveling.  I had several assignments before going overseas in South America working for TRW and she wanted to do be able to go with me.

 

We discussed overseas assignments and decided to wait until the kids graduated from High School and then we would do it. Later, a recruiter called me and asked me if I was interested in working overseas and I said no.  He then called the house.  Nancy straightened me out and said that I was interested and that I should see what it was about, which is how we ended up with Aramco.  Before we signed up, I told her that she would need to keep her bags packed because in Project Management you have to go where the work is.  She said fine and we moved at least 21 times in 20 years.  She did get her wish to travel.  We were able to travel (vacation) to Japan, Hong Kong, China, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Spain, London, Scotland, France, Egypt and probably a few more that I have forgot, but I would not trade the experience for anything.

 

Children and grandchildren
We have two children, Brian and Catherine and no Grand Children but we have one spoiled cat which in Nancy’s hierarchy of things is way above me.

 

I never thought I would…
I never thought that I would attend college.  I only did the least possible to get thru high school.  It is surprising what a few years will do for your maturity.  I also thought, at the time, that if you were smart it just came natural.  Again a lack of Maturity and the Army certainly took care of that in short order.   There is no substitute for hard work.

 

Rewarding events since 1958
Marriage to my wife was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.  It gave me a sense of purpose.  The second and third was the birth of my son and daughter which just reinforced the purpose in my life.

 

What I would do differently
 There were opportunities missed but I don't think that any of them would have made a big difference in my life.  With the lack of motivation in high school I did not take advantage of the situation.  But later, after the Service, I went the other direction and probably went too far at the expense of the family.  So I think that less work and more family time would be something that I would do differently.  You can still work hard and be successful but you don’t have to be a maniac about it.

 

Hobbies
My hobby now is taking care of Nancy, supporting the kids in their various activities and looking after my mom who is 89 and still lives in the same house in the Aldine school district.

 

Best Vacation
Our best vacation was probably the one where we went to Egypt on a Nile cruise.  At first, I did not want to go because a year earlier there had bee some terrorist activities where some German tourists were killed.  I was not interested in going any place where I was not liked.  But Nancy insisted.  The reason was that we could not get the kids back from boarding school to Saudi Arabia in time due to visa timing problems and we had to meet them somewhere and I only had two weeks for vacation.  After arriving in Cairo we flew to Aswan Dam and then picked up the cruise.  The boat we took probably could have handled fifty people and there only ten of us on the cruise.  We were pampered beyond belief.  The architecture and the art of Egypt are truly incredible.  We checked out the pyramids etc and if I had a chance to go again I would do so.