Maynard C. Claxton

I was born November 19, 1930 in Bethel, Kansas and raised in Bethel and Kansas City, Kansas. I attended the public school system in Kansas City, Kansas through high school. I worked part time during summers and holidays for Western Union as a bicycle messenger. After high school graduation I began full time employment with Western Union Telegraph Company as Commercial Storekeeper and later in the Inside Plant Department where I remained until enlisting in the United States Navy. I attended Naval Electronic School and served in the Far East in Task Force 77 of the 7th fleet and later supervised construction and maintenaance of the U.S. Naval Transmitter facilities in Japan during the Korean conflict.

After discharge from the Navy I resumed work for Western Union as an equipment inspector and attended the University of Missouri where I attained a degree in Engineering. During this time I was involved in converting Western Union to an automatic switching system, then introduction of the first facimile system for nationwide communications. I was then involved in the central office equipment used by Western Union in the first communications sattelite (Westar 1). After this it was determined that due to my construction experience with radio stations and electronics education I became involved in Western Union construction of the first transcontinental microwave system. After completion of the Microwave System, I was assigned to Westar 1 deployment and positioning. An upper management position became available in Outside Construction where until sale of the Western Union Outside Plant to MCI, I held the position of Regional Manager Outside Plant for the 16 state Gulf Divion. Upon purchase of Western Union Outside Plant by MCI, I worked as an Engineering Consultant for MCI until my retirement.

During my overseas assignment in the United States Navy, I attended the University of Tokyo in a Japanese Language School where I met my wife Eiko. We were married in Japan in 1955 and came to the United States at the time of my discharge. We originally returned to Kansas City, Kansas and transferred to Dallas, Texas the weekend the Kennedy assassination took place. We located in Irving and have resided in Irving since that time. We have two children, a son who graduated from UTA and Baylor school of Dentistry and is now practicing in Irving, and a daughter to attended Kilgroe College as a Rangerette, SMU and completed her education at the University of California at Irvine and now resides in California.

Other than the usual activities involved in daily household activities, and being grandparents to three grandaughters and one grandson, I reside, with my Siberian Husky, during the summer months in Colorado in the high mountains where one of my primary means of communications includes computer activities. I have experienced many computer problems throughout the years that without assistance from the members of the Computer Fun Group would have presented a larger problem and taken longer to resolve.