Open Category for Whatever you want to tell about yourself:
May 4th, 1968 Martha Oliphant and David Hastings continued their formerly separate journeys through life for one together. A half century later we continued that journey with hikes through the western islands of Ireland. In between, life happened with all the usual stuff. With good fortune, life will continue to happen, but that future story is for another time. This tale is about those in-between 50 years.
Yup, we graduated from Swarthmore a month after getting married and started summer jobs in New York state, David began graduate school at Duke University in the Fall while Martha taught kindergarten at Caroline Friends School. The draft board decided working for NATO on estuary ecology in Beaufort, N.C. was a suitable alternative service. Sons Brian and Alexander were born. Martha taught first grade. David caught turtles and crabs. When our service to The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was complete, David finished his degree in the biophysics of tropical marine algae. We packed up the family and moved to Denmark to study shark rectal glands. The kids started kindergarten. Our time in Denmark served as a great education into civilized living. It was and likely still is a society dedicated to self reflection and the proper way of doing anything and everything.
We cherish those years.
On returning to the States, David began his career doing research on ion transport in kidneys; teaching nursing, medical and graduate students at the University of South Dakota. There Martha obtained her credentials for teaching Latin and Greek at the high school level. We welcomed another son and set out to raise free-range kids on the prairie. Things were going well. The kids were approaching high school age, it was time to shut down the free-range program. We returned to Duke for a spell. Martha taught Latin. David studied the quaternary structure of renal (Na+,K+)-APTase.
One of David's former graduate students urged him to explore a career in applied physiology and join him at Biotronik in Oregon. We made the move and it has been a very rewarding 30 years. At Biotronik we developed, designed, manufactured, and clinically evaluated implantable pacemakers, defibrillators, and physiological monitors, which improved the quality of life for millions of persons world wide.
Meanwhile, the three boys grew up, graduated from colleges (Claremont Mckenna, Princeton and Swarthmore) and went into businesses for themselves. They said “Sorry Mon & Dad, the academic pay scale is too low and the physics instruments are too noisy.” They carved niches for themselves in the gaming industry: Insomniac Games, Inkling Games and many other gaming and writing endeavors. In recent years, they have each started families of their own.
However we are ahead of our story. The boys were gone, we were faced with another probable 25 productive years. We chose to rear a daughter by adoption. After the last son graduated from Swarthmore, we welcomed a very high energy daughter into our lives. That daughter graduates from High School the same weekend as our Swarthmore reunion. For her this is a very big moment. It is the time when she can say good-bye to the high school curriculum and focus on the important stuff: design and business curricula. Please accept our apologies for skipping the 50th reunion.
Life marches on. We are downsizing and simplifying our lives and very much looking forward to life's next adventures.
David Hastings and Martha Oliphant Hastings
