BUCKNUM FAMILY

The Bucknum family that I grew up with has grown apart. My father Walter Bucknum was a veteran of the Korean War and he was discharged honorably at the rank of Sergeant in the early 1950's. The U.S. Army recruited him for Officer Candidate School but he declined the invitation. He was stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland after he left Korea. After the Army service he worked during the day and went to Temple University at night and earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration by 1959. He used the GI Bill to fund his education. He worked for years in NJ at Radio Corporation of America (RCA) as a member of the staff of a military project to build sophisticated antennas for Navy Ships. After years with RCA the contract was taken over by General Electric (GE) and my father worked for several more years as staff with GE Navy Systems. Admittedly he was middle management all of his career....except he may have been upper middle management at another company he worked at called TRW. At one point he was offered a career with IBM in the Hudson River Valley but he declined the offer. Walter Bucknum was not working class Roald he was white collar and middle management. My Uncle Elwood was a machinist by trade and was working class. Elwood was the father of Maryann Bucknum (an accomplished writer of women's issues) and Tom Bucknum (a lawyer and top executive) and Barbara Bucknum (the wife of millionaire businessman Philip Lanctot) and 3 other children. Maryann and Tom and Barbara are my first cousins and all 3 are millionaires. Uncle Elwood served in the Pacific Theatre during WWII in the SeeBee's which is part of the Marines. Even though they are my family, and we have the same grandparents, they have rejected Walter Bucknum and his family years ago as not really being part of their family. I also have another relative, Joseph W. Bucknum, who is we just found out my half Uncle. He was a machinist and working class too. He worked for many years as the manager of the machine shop at Princeton University....He was there when nobody knew who John Nash was and I think Joe probably knew about Nash when he worked at Princeton. Uncle Joe served in the Navy in WWII and like Elwood he was honorably discharged. The MM dumbbell piece I sent to my father in the glossy RSC journal issue was based upon the work of F.A. Cotton who was also a Temple University graduate....from about the same time. I forgot to tell my father that detail.