George Lewis (Lew) Helgeson - 4 (1923)

I put this picture in of the two of us because I didn't want to separate us.

These are pictures of me on the coyote skin rug taken by my mother's brother, Uncle Morty, Lewis Mortimer Lewis.

In 1979 a malignant melanoma was removed from my left forearm. I had five years of treatments and inspections at Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco. These treatments consisted of shots every three months of what they called "Non-Specific Transfer Factor," which I was told, was an extract of white blood cells from donors at the local blood bank. After about two years, they called all of us in and wanted us to sign a new "Release of Responsibility" form. Why? was the usual question, and we were told that because of the relatively newly discovered AIDS problem, they could not guarantee that some of the blood had not come from persons infected with HIV. Lousy News !!! I figured that it was probably better to continue with the treatment series rather than to stop, since the probability of HIV-infected blood was very small.

In 1996 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. My PSA results had risen from about 5.5 to 14.8 in a three month period. I debated several months on what course of action to take and was helped considerably by the information available on the Internet. Our former minister gave me a copy of the May 13, 1996 issue of Fortune Magazine that contained three articles on the subject:

1. "Taking on Prostate Cancer," by Andy Grove, CEO of Intel Corporation, pp 55-72
2. "Still Waiting, Watchfully," by Tom Alexander, page 73, and
3. "The Gender Gap in Cancer Research," by David Stripp, pp 74-76.

The first article is an excellent review of the three normally accepted treatment methods:

1. Surgical removal of the prostate,
2. Radiation treatment of the prostate, and
3. Do nothing, but watch the prostate carefully and act if necessary.

I selected the radiation treatment, the same as Andy Grove.

Elementary Schools in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Montevideo, Minnesota
High School: Denfeld High School, Duluth, Minnesota, graduating in June 1941

College:
First two years at Duluth Junior College finishing in June 1943,
Summer session in 1942 at U. of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Last two years at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, graduating in June 1948 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering
Graduate courses in Richland, Washington in Statistics
Graduate courses in Berkeley, California (UC-Berkeley) in Nuclear Criticality

Father: George Stanley HELGESON - 2 (1892)
Mother: Rose Veletta LEWIS - 3 (1893)

Spouse: Carolyn Margaret NELSON - 113 (1924)

Children: Peter Lewis HELGESON - 114 (1948)
Children: Stephen Andor HELGESON - 115 (1950)
Children: Julie Ann HELGESON - 116 (1954)

I met my wife on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1937, the day we moved to our new home at 911 North Central Avenue, Duluth, Minnesota. Bob Carlson, the kid who lived two houses south of us said:

Bob: "Get your bike and I'll show you around West Duluth."
Lew: "I can't, it's at the front of the moving van."
Bob: "I know where you can borrow a bike, come on!"

So we walked to 1021 North Central Avenue where he introduced me to Carolyn Nelson, who loaned her bike to me. Bob and I traveled all over West Duluth, including skidding on the partially melted ice at the skating rink. Parts of the rink were pure gooey mud, which messed up the bike quite badly. I returned the bike in this filthy condition. On September 8, 1945, she married me to get even!

This is a picture of me with my parents. I was about 3 years old. This was taken when Dad was a Minister in the Epworth Methodist Episcopal Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.	This is our wedding picture. It was taken about two weeks after our wedding. We had driven from Duluth, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington. Uncle Morty was visiting my Mother, his baby sister, along with his wife Edith.