From 1960 to 1966 I under studied my father, Raymond O`Banion Jr., in graphic arts. He taught me character form and spacing, the pallet and color mixing, layout, as well as brush cleaning. He seemed to have me concentrate on brush cleaning so I certainly know how to clean brushes.
I signed up on July 17, 1966 with the United States Marine Corps and in basic I received high marks on the IQ tests (135), so they sent me to several schools. I attended Basic Electronics 15 wks, Radar Fundamentals 7 wks., and Tactical Data Systems Analog Repair 14 wks,at San Deigo and 29 Palms, CA. I also received my GED certificate. I received my discharge Nov 4, 1969 under Honorable Conditions.
When I got home jobs were scarce, so I tried school. A disaster with a GPA of 1.93 in Business Computing at Chabot College, Hayward CA. In 1971, I received an offer to go to Albuquerque NM and work for Singer Business Machines as a tech. By 1974, I had risen to the position of senior tech and Jr. QA engineer. I also attended school. Again a disaster, with a GPA of 1.3 in Electronic Engineering at UNM, Albuquerque NM. Altogether I work as a Jr. QA Engineer or Engineering tech for Singer Business Machines(Albuquerque, NM), Qume Printers (Hayward, CA), Dyna Byte (Brisbane, CA), Data Stream (South San Francisco, CA), and Star Closed Circuit TV (San Francisco, CA) from 1971 to 1980. My duties were mostly system maintenance and test equipment design and construction. I also worked with a senor engineer on proto type construction a Data Stream.
By 1981, my schizophrenia was full blown and I spent the next nine years in the California Metal Health System. There I learned to cope with life and except my disability. With the help of the 12-step program, Cognitive therapy, and my desire, I regained my freedom and sanity to again try school in 1990. The GPA shows the difference. I had a GPA of 3.82 in Computer Science at San Francisco City College, San Francisco, CA. from 1990 through 1991.
Late in 1991, my father became ill and my second wife and I move to Albuquerque NM to help him and my mother, and there I attended TVI of Albuquerque, NM with a GPA of 3.0. Having a 10-year hole in my resume made jobs scarce and I could not get one. In 1992 my father died, and we moved back to California in 1993. I was able to get work as a driver and did light delivery and dispatch (courier) work from 1993 to 1998 with several companies, but school got moved to a back burner.
In 1998, my wife and I moved to Wynnewood, Ok, we were divorced in 1999, and I moved to OKC, OK. I had lost my vehicle do to my mother`s accident, and with no car and the poor resume there were no jobs. I got tired of sitting around on disability and had got over my divorce, so in 2007 I started school again and graduated from OSU-OKC in May 2010 with a GPA of 3.9 and again in 2011 with a 4.0 an over all of 3.4 with an AAS degree in Technical Communications in Web design with emphases on illistration/media and an AAS degree in Computer Information Systems.
Anne my second wife died in 2008 just after I had bought a home for her in OKC. I retired in Jan. 2015, sold my home, bought a used Nissan Rouge and moved to Washington State. I lived in the Rouge for five months. Dominos allowed me to work while living in the car and that income got the apartment. With the apartment I can now see if those degrees will pay of.
