Kenny's Heroes - Past and Present

[Kenny Richards]

Thomas Edison

One of my first ever hero's was Thomas Edison. I can remember in grade school finding every book available in the library about him and reading them all multiple times. Edison is known for creating the first practical light bulb, but most people don't know he actually invented hundreds of other things over his lifetime.  (personally he held more than a thousand patients) Beside the lightbulb, he also invented what we know as a power companies today, motion pictures and multiple technologies critical for telecommunications. For me he was the guy that continually dreamed up new things and made them. I know many of my professional successes come from wanting to be like him. I was so happy when I received my own first patent, it was a boyhood dream coming true.

 

Sir. Isaac Newton

My second hero is similar to the first, someone whom had a big impact on me when going to school. When I was in college, I became fascinated with Isaac Newton while studying about satellites and how to track there orbits. When people think of Newton, most think about his work around motion (Newton's three laws of motion defined in his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica) or his work on gravity (the apple moment). But he actually did so many other fascinating things, including developing the principles of Calculus. (well, much debate on whether Newton developed it first or Leibniz)  For me it was his amazing ability to look at everyday things and see them at completely different levels. He studied how light waves work, how sound travels through different mediums and invented the first practical reflecting telescope. Much of my job is nothing more than breaking problems down to smaller pieces and asking questions about each one. This way of thinking about the world is something I attribute to Newton.

 

Isaac Richards

My third hero is my son Isaac, who has impacted my life in so many amazing ways. He challenges me on a daily basis to be the best example possible, to answer questions in a meaningful way and to consider the world through the eyes of a little boy all over again. He can be the most caring and giving person. We recently had the discussion about why people stand on the side of the road and ask for money/donations. After explaining it to him, he began collecting all the loose change in the vehicle so he could giving it to them. He told me, “it feels good to give to others and help them.” This is something he now does every time he sees someone asking for donations.

 

Grandpa Casey

My next hero is my Grandpa Casey, which was my mom’s father. I really only had one grandfather when growing up, my dad’s father had passed away before I was born. Grandpa Casey was always around for as long as I can remember. He had retired from the Army, after having served during WWII. He lived really close to us, so we were always visiting him or having him out for dinner. I learned a great deal about what honor and patriotism means from him. I also learned from him that the Dallas Cowboys are the greatest football team. 

 

Willie Brown

This isn’t the famous blues guitar player, but an engineer at the first computer company I worked at when I was going to college. Willie was a mostly self taught hardware and software engineer, who had an amazing ability to come up with simple and practical solutions to really tough problems. I learned much of my electronics debugging skills from him, he also taught me to stop being afraid about taking something apart because I might not be able to put it back together. He would always tell me that if someone put it together once, you can put it together a second time.