| Who is Mr. Wathen? |
On My Mama's Lap --- 1951 |
My Years in the Nest
I was born in 1951 in Buffalo, New York. My father was the plant manager at the American Standard factory in Buffalo. My mother was a domestic engineer at suburban home in Buffalo. I have four brothers and one sister. None of them are teachers!
We moved around quite a bit during the fifties. My father was always getting transferred. He decided in 1958 he had had enough so he quit American Standard and setup a law practice in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. There I attended a parochial schools, tried my hand at all types of music,loved history,and didn't really care too much for math. I graduated from Trinity High School in 1969.
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Long Hair and All That Stuff - 1970 |
The Wandering Years
My First college years were at the University of Kentucky. I entered as an undecided major. Stayed that way for quite a while. The picture at the left if just days before the campus was closed and school let out early because of the Vietnam War protests that were sweeping the campuses.
When I returned to school I tried my hand at music education. I played piano,clarinet, and the radio (before Ipods). Every summer I had to beat a path out of town because I suffered from severe asthma (before the miracle drugs came into existence). The times I refused to leave, then I would end up in the hospital. I seemed that I could breath pretty good if I made summer residence in Colorado..Aspen Musical Festival.
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1974 - On Stage, in the tent at the Aspen Music Festival, second from the right |
It's Music I Love
Aspen fired my passion for music. It was there that I got the idea to connect with music in a different way by becoming a piano technician. Following my first summer working at Aspen on the tech crew, I enrolled in a piano technology schoo: Western Iowa Tech in Sioux City, Iowa. I returned to Aspen and worked as a piano technician until 1979. In 1983 I took a position at the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati that lasted for 15 years. I also had a position with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra from 1991 - 1998. This kept me well connected with the music I loved.
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The Family and My Reeducation
One of the great advantages of working at UC was free tution. I availed myself of this opportunity and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics in 1998. I studied physics, abstract algebra, differential equations, and Fourier analysis. While I was studying physics, I became interested in the motion of piano strings that led to a patent for a New and Improved String Arrangement for Stringed Instruments. It made quite a stir! You can find this on pianos all over Cincinnati from CCM to SCPA.
I met my wife in 1980 shortly after moving to Cincinnati. She is a school librarian at Walnut Hills. I have two daughters Emily, who attends Walnut and Alice who attends Clark. Everyone in our family plays and studies music except the guinea pigs, Benjy and Nosie.
Find out More about my Invention. |
