Dick Maio
I am a native of Washington, DC (born and raised there) and ever since I can remember, I was always interested in electronics and things electrical and mechanical. I started repairing radios and learned how to repair TVs before I was a teenager. When I was in the 7th grade, I assembled a TV from a kit – and even aligned it from generator and oscilloscope kits. I used to go to friend’s houses to repair their TVs as well. When I could not repair them at their houses, I worked on them at home. After graduating from high school, I decided to attend Catholic University and majored in electrical engineering and physics – a double major where I earned two bachelor degrees. I decided that engineering was closer to what I was interested in, so I pursued higher degrees in this area.
In college I worked part time at the Naval Ordinance Lab in White Oak, MD, but decided that the government was not what I enjoyed, so, upon the advice of my thesis advisor, I did some acoustic analysis for a small company that built a special kind of sonar called “towed arrays”. They liked my work so well that they offered me a position equivalent to a GS-13 and volunteered to pay for my moving to the Annapolis area where they were located. Since I had a GS-9 position for the government and they were dragging their feet in advancing me to a higher position, I gladly took this offer for the towed array company. I’ve been working in this area since the 60’s, and never regretted my decision to switch to industry. My wife and I have been happy in the Annapolis area where we raised our 2 children.
I became an amateur radio operator (a HAM) over 20 years ago and heard a presentation about an interesting radio and TV museum from Brian Belanger. I was so fascinated about what I heard that I became a docent for the museum and started repairing radios for them. I am still enjoying this aspect of my life.