Here is my "history" that I promised. I wish I could deliver it in person, but I can't.
First, let my explain why I can't be with you this year. In January 1996 I had a routine PSA test that read 14.8 - a considerable jump from the October 1995 reading of 5.7. I had a biopsy and ultrasound examination and the results showed a low-grade prostate cancer. The urologist wanted to do a radical prostatectomy right away, but I wanted nothing to do with that. After several more PSA tests, which kept dropping, and after reading the article in Fortune magazine for mid-May 1996, I elected to have radiation treatment. By the way, the men reading this may have a similar problem. If so, I hope this will help you understand my approach to prostate problems.
For those of you who may not have read that series of three articles on prostate cancer, the first article was written by Andy Grove, the CEO of Intel Corporation (they make computers and computer chips). He had researched the various options very carefully and had elected to have both external and internal radiation treatment. My treatment was essentially identical to his. In June I had daily radiation treatments for four weeks. This consisted of about a minute of resting on a "bed" while a 6-MeV cyclotron exposed a 10 cubic centimeter volume centered on the prostate. The dose I received in those few seconds was 180 Rads, or a total of 3,600 Rads in the four weeks. Compare that with the maximum allowable annual exposure for industrial workers of only 5 Rads !
In July I had what is called "High Dose Rate Seed Therapy." This consists of placing 18 plastic needles into the prostate using guidance from ultrasound and fluoroscopy. They were inserted from below in the region between the scrotum and the anus. It sounds much worse that it really was. After insertion, an X-ray was taken and along with the ultrasound information, the course of exposure was determined. A very small (1-mm right cylinder - imagine a piece of lead from a draftsman's pencil that is no longer than it is in diameter), highly intense radioactive source (of 192-iridium) was placed in each of the 18 tubes and moved throughout the prostate in 5-mm increments. This was all done by a computerized "robot" that moved the radioactive source from position to position and from tube to tube. The whole process took about 20 minutes. That was Thursday. I was taken to a hospital room for an overnight stay and the process was repeated on Friday morning. About noon, Carolyn picked me up and brought me home. This whole process was repeated two weeks later, so I finished with all treatments on July 25, 1966.
The next part is the recovery stage. For those of you who may have had radiation treatments, you know that the radiation makes you quite tired, and I was no different. I had hoped that I would be able to fly back to Duluth for the reunion, but I just can't risk the potential problems (bowel and urine control) yet. The oncologist said that by November or December I shall be "as good as new." In fact, he said that I will be like a 19-year old - and Carolyn, my bride of 51 years on September 8, 1996, is ready to leave home !!!
Now, what have I done with my life? As many of you know, after high school I attended two years at Duluth Junior College (DJC) plus one summer session at University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. In June 1943 I was called to active duty in the U.S. Army. I had joined the Enlisted Reserve Corps so that hopefully I could finish college before I was called to active duty. No luck !! The Army interviewer at Fort Snelling asked me about my education (among other things). I told him that in my Physics class Miss Seipel (is that spelled correctly?) had given me extra credit experiments. For one of them I built an X-ray tube and replicated Roentgen's classical experiment with the key on a covered photographic plate. When the interviewer heard about this, he said, "Great, you are a natural for the Medics. We'll assign you to the X-ray
department!!!" And that is where I eventually wound up.
After basic training at Camp Barkeley, Texas, I was sent in November 1943 to a STAR unit at Camp Maxey at Paris, Texas, to wait for other students to go to an ASTP college for my Junior and Senior years. I never went because in March 1944 the ASTP program was being disbanded because "Ike" needed more soldiers for the invasion of the Continent. This is when I was sent to the 192nd General Hospital back at Camp Barkeley. It was during my "pre-overseas" furlough that Carolyn traveled (by troop train) to Seattle (my parents had moved there) and we were engaged during that holiday. Following the furlough, I was shipped to England in April 1944 to participate in setting up the hospital and be ready for patients right after D-Day (June 6, 1944).
Having had two years of college was both an asset and a detriment for me. An asset because I could absorb my X-ray training quite easily - a detriment because, unfortunately, when Col. Anderson said "Private Helgeson, do this, please," I would generally come back with "Yes, but why, sir?" I spent quite a few days on KP because the officers didn't appreciate my "curiosity."
After VE day our hospital was shipped back to the USA. I had enough "points" for immediate discharge, but because I was an X-ray technician (I was now "PFC" because they had to promote you to PFC if you had been overseas a year or more), I was called "essential" and was assigned to the Station Hospital at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. (I did take time on returning to the US to marry Carolyn Nelson on September 8, 1945. She was a year behind me and played the pipe organ routinely for high school convocations, a tall Swede.) I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the radiologist at Camp McCoy was Dr. Robert Scanlon, who had been the roommate of my DJC Chemistry lab-partner, John Thomas. From that point on it wasn't "Private Helgeson" or "Captain Scanlon," but Lew and Bob. He promoted me to Sargent (three stripes) and promised that if I would stay in for six more months, I would be a Tech-Sargent, but that was not for me. So, in April 1946 I was once again a civilian.
Some of you will remember that my father was the minister at Central Avenue Methodist Church (and I know that two of you are celebrating your 55th anniversary because when I was there for our 50th reunion, you reminded my that my Dad had married you in June 1941). My parents had moved to Seattle in July or August 1944, so I now had two legal residences, Washington and Minnesota. Since my parents had a basement apartment and they were willing for Carolyn and me to live there rent free, we moved to Seattle and both of us finished our education at the University of Washington, Carolyn graduating in June 1947 (because she got a year ahead of me while I was in the Army) and I in June 1948.
In February 1948 the interviewers from many corporations came to see if they could find some good employees. I was to graduate in Chemical Engineering. The interviewer from General Electric at the Hanford Atomic Products Operation asked me about my army experiences. When I told him that I had been an X-ray technician, his eyes lit up and he said "Wonderful, you will be a natural for our Health Physics (meaning Radiation Protection) group." I took the job at a salary of $60.48 per week; the seven other Chemical Engineers were hired at $59.25 per week. It just shows you what prior experience will do for you!!!
I stayed at Hanford for eight and a half years. I had a series of exciting jobs - a "get-your-hands dirty technician" while I learned about radiation safety, a shift engineer for all of the reactors, supervisor of the Health Physics Instrument Calibration facility, and finally , a "Super-Sleuth solving the difficult radiation protection problems in the Chemical Separations Department. "But after such a long time, and having a security clearance that allowed me to have access to production information, I asked myself "Why are we still making plutonium? We have plenty of weapons." So I asked for a transfer into the peaceful applications of nuclear energy. That is what brought me to Pleasanton, California, where I worked at the Vallecitos Atomic Laboratory for another 8 years, having the responsibility for the entire technical phase of the radiation protection problems, another real nice job.
I left GE in September 1964 to join small company (California Nuclear) involved in radioactive waste disposal. While I was there I build a device called a "whole body counter." This was a device that measured the radioactivity coming from inside your body. It was mounted in a 30-foot trailer and moved from place to place by a big diesel tractor. I thought it was going to be a real money maker because in 3 months I made a profit of $50.10, or at least I did by my method of accounting. But the accountants, who know about depreciation< said that it was going to be a money loosing proposition and that I should abandon the project. To me, that was the same as saying "cut out your heart." So, I quit and on February 15, 1966, I was either un-employed or I was an entrepreneur. I guess it was the latter because on February 15th, 1997 we shall celebrate our 31st year as Helgeson Scientific Services.
We frequently hear that your goals should always be farther away than your reach. When I started the company I was the sales person, the truck driver, the technician, the analyst, the report writer, and the bookkeeper. I enjoyed traveling around the United States providing this service. Well, let me tell you what happened. We expanded as the nuclear industry found out that they could get answers about internal depositions of radioactive materials in 15 minutes compared to waiting 2-4 weeks for the results of urine analyses. We installed equipment in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janiero, Pakistan, Korea, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy and Spain. I have traveled around the world 14 times and Carolyn has been with me on seven of those trips. (On our first trip we took Stephen and Julie, our second and third children - Peter, our first, was in the Navy.) Our company is regarded as the best one in the world for the quality of our equipment and our service. On my 70th birthday I resigned as President and turned that job over to a fellow who started with me one year after I started the company. Now I have the title of CEO, Chairman of the Board of Directors, but the best title is Director of Research and Development. Those of you who remember me probably wonder how I ever could manage the business of a company, and you were right - I am much more interested in the technical problems than I am in running a business. And that is one of the reasons I like my job so much!!!
As I said earlier, Carolyn and I were married on September 8, 1945. When I was finally discharged from the army, we bought a 1935 Plymouth two-door sedan and a 21-foot long homemade house trailer. We loaded all our earthly possessions in it and took off for Seattle. We tried three times to go over the mountain pass just west of Rapid City, South Dakota, but couldn't make it because we burned out the clutch. The highway department people helped us get turned around and we went back to Rapid City, found a place to park the trailer, and a garage to fix the car. That evening we walked to a restaurant and then to a movie theater for relaxation. When we returned to the trailer, we thought that perhaps the electric power had been turned off because the trailer was dark. Unfortunately, that wasn't the reason. When we left for supper, we had left our 6-month old puppy in the trailer with a kerosene wick heater turned on as low as it would go so the puppy could keep warm and so would we when we returned. The reason the trailer appeared dark was because the heater had started to smoke badly and everything was covered with black, oily soot. Carolyn and I were wearing army fatigues and all of our clothes, including her beautiful white wedding dress, were covered with this soot. The windows were also covered - that is why the trailer appeared dark. Carolyn was ready to return to Duluth by any possible means. She didn't, however.
The place where we were parked had tourist cabins also and the owners felt sorry for us and gave us one. We nursed the puppy back to life and finally got a good night's sleep. The car was repaired, we cleaned up the trailer as best we could, and continued our trip to Seattle, finally arriving 3 weeks after we left Duluth.
As I said earlier, we stayed in my parent's basement apartment when we first arrived in Seattle. They also owned a 60 by 300 foot lot in the Lake City district of Seattle, a lot as wild as it was 100 years ago. Dad said that if we furnished the labor, he would furnish the materials to build a small house, so in July 1946 we started construction, assisted by an "old" retired carpenter (70 years of age). By the time the Fall Semester started, we were inside with no running water, no inside toilet, no inside walls (just exposed rough-cut 2x4's). We could look from our bedroom through the bathroom into the kitchen. Not much, but we were happy. Carolyn started her last year of schooling, majoring in Music (what else?) and I started my Junior year in Chemical Engineering. During the Christmas holidays we got running water inside the house and during the Easter holidays we got an inside toilet!!! No more running outside to the outhouse in the Seattle mists and/or rain. We lived on the GI Bill of $90 per month plus the proceeds from one war bond. We drove a beat-up 1929 Chevy sedan with wood framing that was partly decayed to the point that we had to tie the passenger door shut. (We had sold the Plymouth when we arrived in Seattle because it was on its last legs.) The Chevy wouldn't start with a starter but if you could coast it downhill, no problem, so we always parked it where we could get a good coasting start.
All during our time at the University of Washington Carolyn was the organist and choir director at the Keystone Congregational Church in Seattle. You will see as this story unfolds that we are "church tramps," that is, we attend where Carolyn plays.
Our firstborn, Peter, was born on May 16, 1948,just before I graduated from the U. of W. He is now 48 years old - it doesn't seem possible!!! We moved to Richland, Washington, right after graduation and lived in a house trailer in North Richland until just before Christmas 1948 when we were assigned a 3-bedroom house. What a relief!!!
Peter spent 6 years in the US Navy as an electronic technician, spending time in Naha, Okinawa, Thailand, and Barber Point, Hawaii. I was fortunate to be at his graduation from a one-year training course in Aircraft Electronics at Memphis, Tennessee. The Commanding Officer told me at the graduation ceremonies that Pete had come within 0.01 points of being the all-time high scorer. Pete was the one who repaired the black boxes after the other technicians decided that the black box was the cause of the problem. He attended Chabot Junior College in Hayward, California, and San Jose State College. He has never married but has a "significant other" with whom he has been living for about 10 years. He lives in Pleasanton, also, and is in charge of Electronic R&D for our company.
While in Richland, Carolyn was the organist and choir director at the South Side United Protestant Church (affiliated with the American Baptist Church) for 2 years and at Richland Lutheran Church (affiliated with Evangelical Lutheran Church) for 6 and a half years.
We moved from Richland to Pleasanton, California, in November 1956, after spending Thanksgiving with Ruby and Gordon Pappas and their family. Gordon was from Central High but Ruby Ann Mattson Pappas graduated in 1940 from Denfeld. She, too, was an organist for high school convocations.
Carolyn was hired almost immediately (January 1957) as the Choir Director-Organist at the Pleasanton Community Presbyterian Church, a position she held for 27 years. (Do you see what I mean by "church tramps"? Congregational, Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and remember that she came from the Swedish Mission Covenant Church on 59th and I came from the Methodist tradition.)
I became heavily involved in church work - was ordained an Elder, served on the Session as Clerk of Session, and sang in the choir. When it came time to consider building a new church (because Pleasanton was growing rapidly) I was cochairman of the Building Committee for the first phase of Educational Buildings (about 1962) and when we felt it was time for a completely new church, I was the Chairman of the Building Committee. We had a budget of $530,000 and when the building was finished the total cost was $535,000, so we did a good job of staying very close to budget.
When Carolyn retired from the church music program in 1986, we both took life easier with respect to church activities. We bought a Coachmen RV ( converted Chevy Van) this last January and have enjoyed it, except this prostate cancer has kept us from using in since June.
People ask me when I'm going to retire. I reply "I re-tired last month when I put four new radials on my car." That's re-tirement for me. Why quit working at something that you enjoy so much?
That's all (in fact, it's too much). If you ever come to California, give us a call and come visit. Or look us up on the Internet. Here are the pertinent facts:
Carolyn and Lew Helgeson
872 Abbie Street
Pleasanton, California 94566-7502
Home Phone: (925) 846-2971
Office Phone: (925) 846-3453
Cellular Phone: (925) 928-7474
Fax: (925) 846-8042
email: lewhelgeson@helge.com
Web Page: http://www.helge.com