One of the first electronic techs that truly impressed me was Walt Walkolowicz, an electronic tech at Hamilton Standard Electronic Division - HSED - circa 1975 or so. Walk over to Walt with a napkin schematic or sketch of what you were thinking of and by the next day or two, he would present you with something that looked just like a finished product and worked better (from his subtle "improvements") than what you expected. Walt was a brilliant tech who was happy in his career and really didn't want to "climb the corporate ladder".
Walt was an ex-Air Force Senior Tech who had been around a long time working on F4 electronic systems and was usually left alone because we all knew how good he was. So, in a company where Engineers all wore suits (It was the '70's, remember? and many of them had "flat-top" haircuts, too) and where the techs wore chinos with casual, collared shirts and no ties, Walt stood out for his blue jeans and white tee-shirt.
When we were all reminded of the company "dress code" by memo one day, the next day Walt shows up in a neatly-pressed pair of blue jeans and a collar-less, white Nehru jacket. They were the rage back then - Remember when the Beatles wore them? He accessorized it with a crisp, narrow, black tie. He looked elegant...Truly elegant.
Only on close inspection did you notice that what he was really wearing was a white tee-shirt made to look like a Nehru jacket by really deft use of a Magic Marker. Walt fit right in with his group, a bunch of gifted hardware/software people who became "Rebel Engineering" at HSED.
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