John Potter Herndon – 50th Reunion Essay

John Potter Herndon

9234 SE Grace Circle

Happy Valley, OR 97086

potterherndon@aya.yale.edu

503-788-3090

Spouse(s): Terry H. Herndon (1983)

Education: Rutgers, MBA, 1973

Career: P.E. (Chemical), process engineer 1969-2011

Avocations: Volunteer GED tutor, fitness, reading, movie viewing, environmental protection/sustainability, rock music listening, NPR listening, science

College: Saybrook

I just reread my too-long 25th reunion essay and was surprised and disappointed to find no mention of climate change, now the most serious problem facing our species and many others. It seems like more than 25 years since I made climate change denial an automatic disqualifier for any public-office candidate. I’m glad to see Yale becoming greener. Our home rooftop solar panels generate a little more electricity than we consume in the course of a year. Needing the air conditioner just three to four days per year and having a natural gas furnace help. On the other hand the panels must hibernate during the seven rainy months of the year. We may need a couple more panels once we switch to all-electric cars. We fled Atlanta for Portland, Oregon, when I retired in 2011 and my wife/gardener Terry had finally had enough heat, humidity, sunscreen and mosquitoes.

On Good Friday Eve 1994—less than a year after I wrote the 25th reunion essay—I was laid off for the second time in my 42-year career. Too loyal, I guess. The third and last layoff came in 2003. Maybe it’s easier to land a new job when one is still employed. I’ll never know, but I am sure having “Yale” on my résumé made job hunting relatively painless. Had I begun networking while still at Yale the chore probably would have been almost fun. At least my third and last employer—Lockwood Greene Engineers/CH2M HILL—hired me back after two months. I was there 17 years altogether. One year in I realized I should have stopped working in chemical plants about 5 years earlier. Way more variety in an engineering firm: designing a Splenda plant one year and designing/operating a Tamiflu plant the next. In the end I chose my retirement date.

Surely, by the time I crank out my 75th reunion essay we’ll have: a national carbon tax, Medicare for all (with dental, vision, and hearing), no more than half the current national defense budget, real nationwide gun control, universal paid medical leave, one or more female past US presidents….