My ancestors are Wendish (Wends, Vends, or Vendii in Latin).
Perhaps you have never heard of them, few
have. Perhaps you heard they are part Serbian,
that is not correct.
The Wends are an ancient group of tribes that settled along the southern Baltic Sea below Denmark nearly three thousand years ago and are considered one of the Scandinavian races. The roots of their language is similar to Danish. Prussia began its existence as the 'north mark' or border defense against the Wends. Rather unlike other Europeans, the Wendish community boasts the distinction of having the Forth Crusade directed against them in the 14th century - they obviously were not anxious to become Christians.
Alex Zavecz, my grandfather, emigrated to the United States from Hungary in 1911 and settled in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. My father, Edward, was a precision toolmaker who fought under General Patton in the second World War.
Donna Laudenslager became my wife while I was a senior at Lehigh University. Our family has four wonderful children, one of them adopted, and now many grandchildren whom we love and enjoy.
I graduated from Lehigh University with a BS in Engineering Physics in 1970 and worked for AT&T and Bell Labs in Allentown, Pennsylvania. I was honored to have AT&T select me for the Princeton-Lehigh Master's program and graduated with MS degrees in Metallurgy and Materials.
I have always loved science and history. After thirteen years and some initial moves within AT&T, I joined a semiconductor equipment development company in Santa Clara, CA. I worked for them for three years before starting my own company, TEA Systems Corporation, a research and development center for Semiconductor Research, Photolithography and High Technology Lithographic Optical Systems calibration tools.
I've designed Electron and Ion-Beam lenses, electronics, ICs and high technology tools as well as working with companies worldwide and helping a few startups in the Semiconductor Industries. Development engineers under me created the first one-megabite memory ICs in a production engvironment.
Through it all, I managed to keep my family settled in rural Pennsylvania while often maintaining apartments in Silicon Valley (California), Europe and the Orient. After years of professional travel and work around the world, I'm now semi-retired in Eastern Pennsylvania, with my wife, friends and extended family.
My hobbies and interests are many and include Photography, Astronomy, Hiking and Diving. I have always loved writing and for the first time in my life I can indulge another passion, the writing of Sci-Fi and Historic Fiction.