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A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME
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A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME
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WHO AM I, AND HOW AM I RELATED TO BLILEY TECHNOLGIES IN ERIE?
Those are good questions. I will try to tell you a bit about myself without bragging.
My father, Frank Dawson Bliley, was the founder of the Bliley Electric Company back in 1930. He died in 1955 when I was nine years old. He was a bigger-than-life person from everyone I met in life that knew him. As a young teenager, I decided to follow in my father’s footsteps by becoming a licensed radio amateur at the age of 14. Then, later pursuing an electric engineering course of study. The only problem was, I was more interest in personal communications than designing radio/electronic circuits.
During my high school and early college years, I worked summers on Bliley’s production line and engineering departments. Later at the age of 21, I left college to enlist in the U.S. Coast Guard and served four years as an electronics technician from 1967 to 1971.
Following my Coast Guard service, I returned to college and received a degree in speech communications from Edinboro College near Erie, my hometown. My dream was now to become a lecturer on nature travels around the world. That dream never was realized, but I did find meaningful work.
My career passed through fields related to radio and electronics with positions in audio and video equipment sales, technical training and development, technical writing and freelance Web designer. In 2001, I received and unsolicited offer by the management team of Bliley Technologies to redesign the company’s Web site. Wow! What a pleasant surprise. I accepted their offer and served for three years as its creator and Web master.
I became well acquainted with the company history when preparing to write an in-depth history in 1982, and later independently creating a Bliley Electric history site in 2000. Through the years, I accumulated a comprehensive archive of the company’s activities covering the early years from 1930 to 1955. Most the items were gifts from old and current employees of the company.
The family ownership of the company continued from 1930 to 1998 when it was sold to a private investor, Roger Richards. It remains in his hands to this date and after 85 years, continues to focus on the business of designing, manufacturing quality crystal frequency control devices from discrete crystals to packaged oscillators.
In 2016, I was invited once again to contribute to the company by writing short stories about the company’s early years. I welcomed this opportunity to tell some of my favorite stories from the archives to new audience through the BTI Web site blog. We agreed that some would be serious historical articles, and some just trivia and fun facts.
My thanks to the current management of Bliley Technologies for the opportunity to once again support your efforts! It is an honor.
Chuck
SOME EXISTING STORIES ABOUT THE BLILEY ELECRTRIC COMPANY
- Bliley Electric Company: The Early Years 1930–1955 —This is an online comprehensive version of the history booklet I wrote in 1982.
- Biographical Profile of Founder, Frank Dawson Bliley—Here is a collection of fun facts and stories related to my father.
- Letter Home—December 1929—If you wanted to know why my father wanted to start his own business, read this letter and draw you own conclusions.
DRAFT 2—DECEMBER 9, 2016