Early years

On a snowy Sunday on November 27, 1921, Selma and Matthew Leyde welcomed their third child, a son they named Warren Leroy. He joined two older sisters: Alice Claire, age 12, and Grace Elizabeth, age 10. A career railroad man, Matthew was a conductor for the Milwaukee railroad in Cle Elum, WA, where the family had settled in 1912. Selma was an avid gardener; in the summer their South Cle Elum home sat within a lush jungle of colorful perennials.

School & Hobbies

From an early age, Dad loved to tinker with mechanical and electrical gadgets, setting up a shop in his parents' garage. One of his favorite pastimes as a teen was operating his ham radio.

His other passion was the outdoors. The rural town of Cle Elum offered Dad tremendous opportunities to camp in the forests; hike, climb, and ski on the mountains; and swim and boat on the lakes and rivers. On occasion he combined his two hobbies: he used his amateur radio skills to aid in search-and-rescue operations on Mt. Rainier.

Dad graduated from Cle Elum High School, the Class of 1939. Despite his aptitude for engineering, he didn't immediately enroll in college. He chose to spend a year doing odd jobs around Cle Elum, including helping his uncle, Al Nicholson, on his Swauk homestead. Al was married to Warren's aunt Frieda (Selma's sister). Dad admired Al's pioneer "can-do" independence, and spent many happy days on the Nicholson's farm.

In the fall of 1940, Dad began college at the University of Washington in Seattle. He went Greek and joined the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. Of course, he planned to major in electrical engineering.

To help pay for school, Dad spent the summer after his freshman year manning a fire lookout, Gobbler's Knob, in Mount Rainier National Park. The Seattle Times featured him in a long article!

World War II & the Navy

Dad's university career took an unexpected detour, however, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the United States entered World War Two. Dad, like so many young men of his generation, immediately enlisted in one of the armed forces. He chose the United States Navy.

Because of his aptitude for engineering, Dad was recruited to the Navy's Naval Technical Training Center at Naval Station Treasure Island in San Francisco, CA. He trained in Communications and Radar Systems.

Kodiak Naval Air Station, AK

Following his training, Dad was stationed in Kodiak, Alaska, until 1943.

University of Minnesota, MN

In 1945 Dad finally obtained his electrical engineering degree, graduating from the University of Minnesota under the Navy's V-12 program.

Notre Dame University, IN

His next stop was Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana, where he completed Midshipmen's School and became an officer in the United States Naval Reserves.

The Post-War Years

After receiving his officer's commission, Dad was stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, for a few months. But the war was over, and in 1946 he was discharged from active duty.

He returned to Seattle, planning to get his Master's Degree at the University of Washington. After two quarters of study, however, he abandoned that course. He and a fraternity brother jumped into a green '35 Ford and headed up the Alcan highway to try their luck in the gold fields of Alaska.

Of course they didn't find any gold! Instead they spent the summer of 1947 in a small fishing village where Dad found a job with the local cannery, maintaining its mechanical equipment.

After his Alaskan adventure, Dad's first engineering job was with Westinghouse Electric in Baltimore, Maryland.

In his free time, he took flying lessons and earned his private pilot's license. He bought a small Taylorcraft airplane for $250, and in the summer of 1949 flew it across country to Seattle and back, getting spectacular views of national parks and monuments. And dams.

A native Northwesterner, Dad didn't want to live on the East Coast. In 1950, he took a job with the Boeing Airplane Company and returned to Seattle. He continued to work with radar systems, and also designed and developed the supersonic Bomarc missle.

Back home in the mountains, he reveled in his favorite pastimes: hiking, camping, and skiing.

Marriage & Honeymoon

For a few months, Dad dated Wilma Berg, a stewardess with Northwest Orient Airlines. Then he met her sister, Karen, and the rest, as they say, is history. He and Mom married on May 31, 1953, at Lake Burien Presbyterian Church in Burien, Washington.

For their honeymoon they drove Dad's sporty red Chrysler convertible down the Pacific coast, and then inland through the southwest. They camped in national parks and visited historic sites. And dams.

Afterwards the newlyweds settled into their new house in Burien. Dad had inherited his mother's green thumb, and with Mom set about creating a garden filled with colorful trees, shrubs and flowers.

A brilliant career

Boeing recognized and rewarded talent; in 1956, Dad received Boeing's first Engineer of the Year award for his work on an automatic radar control unit. He shook hands with then Washington State senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson!

Dad left Boeing in 1960 and went to work for the Honeywell Company. His work focused on advanced radar systems, culminating in the development of a lightweight pulse radar altimeter. This instrument significantly increased the safety of both commercial and military airplanes.

In 1964, Dad started his first company, Pacific Technology, Inc., or PTI for short. The company designed and developed a broad range products, fueling Dad's engineering ingenuity.

Due to internal conflicts, Dad left PTI in 1978, but quickly formed a new company, Elcom, Inc. He was the sole design engineer, a welcome change after so many years in large companies. But he wasn't alone; Mom became his executive administrator and right-hand woman!

A major Elcom client was Belgium-based Ordibel. Dad and Mom traveled to Europe for the first time in 1978 when they attended a trade show.

Elcom also provided summer jobs for all the kids. Kent especially shared Dad's knack for engineering, while Anne struggled to remember the difference between a resistor and a capacitor.

Dad ended his career with more than 20 patents, testimony to his innovative design skills.

By 1986, when Dad and Mom closed Elcom, they had earned their retirement!

Thanks for reading! For more family stories and pictures, including genealogy research, stay tuned for updates on the Leyde-Berg website.