8056

 

8056    JA (John/Pole) McCormick

 

 

RMC degree:  BSc (Math & Physics)

 

9-Jun-69		Arrived at CFB Penhold (43-Radar Squadron). First working day as an Officer in the CAF. Assigned as 43 Radar Sqn Telecommunication Operations Officer (TelOpsO)
Jun-71		Departed CFB Penhold, traveled east to CFS Sioux Lookout (39 Radar Squadron) located northwest Ontario, promoted to Captain (one month after most of my 1969 classmates).
Jun-72		Left Sioux Lookout, traveled east to Ottawa where I was seconded to DRB (DREO Ottawa - Shirley Bay) for the reminder of my CAF commitment. Spend majority on my time at Fox Main on the DEW line (Hall Beach) on an experimental Over-the-Horizon Radar Project.
Jan-74		Retired from CAF. Began classes at Carleton. To be eligible for their Master of Engineering Program I am required to take the last semester of 4th year Electrical Engineering.
Fall 76		Graduated from Carleton with a Master of Engineering (Electrical). Began work as a software engineer for Computing Devices of Canada in (Bells Corner).
Fall 77		Five others and I leave Computing Devices and create a small tech company - Dipix Systems Limited.
Fall 80		Resume playing hockey - I play until I am 73 years.
1977-1985		Dipix grows to 140 people, including Gerry Gainer (RMC 69) as Director of Production, I head a 50-person Engineering department.
Spring 83		On Aprils Fools Day Carol McGuire and I begin living together and, in the process, I become stepfather to four hockey-playing boys - John, Anthony, Jason and Mark. (For the next few years Carol and I spend most of our weekends in arenas.)
19-Dec-85		Carol and I marry in a very small civil ceremony.
1-Feb-86		After objecting to relinquishing my position as Vice President Engineering to a crony of the Company's president, I am fired from Dipix - a company I started.
Spring 86		Hired by Doug Smith (RMC 69) as the Technical Director of Alcan's innovative microwaveable food package, MircoMatch.
Summer 86		Carol, Mark, Jason, Anthony (Carol's third son) and I to Oakville (Glen Abbey).
1-Oct-87		Dipix Systems Limited goes under, takes my negotiated severance package with it.
1986-1990		I criss-cross the US and Canada with Smitty promoting MircoMatch.
Spring 90		Doug Smith leaves Alcan, as a result MircoMatch goes south, and six months later I am terminated.
1990/1991		Develop a microwaveable packaging material for which I apply for a US patent.
Spring 91		I sell my microwaveable packing material patent application to a Massachusetts based packaging and metallizing company, Advanced Deposition Technologies (A.D.Tech) run by Glenn Walters.
19-Sep-91		Carol, Mark, and I move to Lakeville MA as I begin working for Advanced Deposition Technologies (A.D.Tech).
Winter 91/92		I play hockey in the US for the first time since 1962/1963 - with a similar impact, big Canadian on a small US pond (frozen).
1991-1994		After working for A.D.Tech a few months I realize that Glenn Walters, the President of A.D. Tech, is a charlatan of the highest order. Having no ethics/morals he attempts to deceive (screw) everyone with whom he deals - suppliers, customers, employees, partners (both life and business), shareholders and bankers.
Jan 94		Carol, Mark, Jason (who joined us in Lakeville), and I are rescued from Lakeville, A.D. Tech and Glenn Walters by Gerry Gainer who is the Chief Operating Officer of Wescam (Waterdown ON), when Gerry offers me the position of Wescam's Engineering Development Manager.
Spring 94		Carol, Mark, Jason, and I gleefully return to our home and native land - Canada - and purchase a house and current home in Aldershot (Burlington).
Summer 94		Glenn Walters attempt to deceive bankers is his undoing. It results in A.D. Tech going under and Mr. Walters spending three years in federal prison for bank fraud.
Fall 95		Gerry disagrees with the President and founder of Wescam on who could best run Wescam and is terminated, I am terminated 15 minutes later.
1994/1995		Developed a device to read the EM 'fingerprint' of paper documents embedded with tiny metallic strands (radar chaff) for Inkode out of Vienna VA, and. Gerry and I attempted to purchase the Canadian rights to the embedded chaff product/process; however, due diligence revealed an existing patent, not held by Inkode, for the chaff 'technique'.
Summer 96		Began working for Kasten Chase - led by Jim Leech (RMC 68) - one of the companies Gerry and I contacted during our search for a Canadian partner for the embedded chaff opportunity.
Spring 2000		Gerry, Smitty, Jack Reid (RMC 69) and I travel to Monterey CA for a week of golf. Proves to be the first of at least 24 annual RMC 69er golf outings.  Currently 16 69ers attend annually, over the years upwards of 30 69ers have participated at least once.
Summer 2004		Kasten Chase who is involved in many interesting and innovative technical projects proves to be a jack of many and a master of none, as a result goes it goes south and I am terminated once again, fortunately, I get my severance package before it goes under.
Fall 2004		Hired by Alt Software, essentially a software body shop with a single product - a GPU (graphics processing unit) driver which exposed an OpenGL interface.
2004 -2011		Became somewhat of an expert in the certification of safety critical airborne software (DO-178B) while managing the development of GPU drivers for cockpit displays.
19-Mar-12		Jumped ship with five others to CoreAVI just before Alt Software mismanaged itself out of business. The five jumpers and I are sued by Alt Software for a Dr. Evil sum of $10,000,000.
2012-2022		Work for CoreAVI in the certification of safety critical software (awarded two US patents) and Engineering management for an enjoyable ten years - by far the best company of my tumultuous career - before retiring on my 75th birthday in 2022.