Charles Durrin III

Ancestors

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Biography

Charles was the second child of Charles Sterling and Milda Marquette (Kothmann) Durrin Junior. He was born days after his father returned from a six-month tour of duty in South Korea during the Korean Conflict.

The family lived in the town of Ingram running a dry cleaning business and then, in 1956-57, lived for one year in Temple, Texas. While there, his father worked as a part time preacher in the small nearby town Heidenheimer and as an insurance salesman in Temple.

The family moved to Kerrville to operate the dry cleaning business that had been established by his father.

Charles attended Kerrville public schools, where he became an All-American trombone player, the Texas State Champion of Boys Persuasive Speaking, an award-winning debater, and President of the Science Club, among other accomplishments.

At age five, he began helping in the dry cleaning business by sweeping floors and sewing buttons on clothes. Beginning in 1963 (age 11), he worked outside of the family business each summer. His jobs included work as a wool stomper, a restaurant bus boy, a restaurant waiter, and as a trombone player in a local theater. Wool production was widespread around Kerrville. The job of a wool stomper was to climb up on an eight-foot-tall wooden stand that had a circular hole in the top. He/she would use a large needle to attach a large burlap bag in the rim of the hole. The stomper then crawls into the bag and people toss wool into the bag on top of the stomper while the stomper compresses the wool by stepping on it, attempting to get as much wool into the bag as possible. The side benefit was that the stomper would have luxuriously soft skin and shoes because wool is the source of lanolin, which was used in skin creams and cosmetics.

Upon graduation from Tivy High School (Kerrville), he attended Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas on academic and marching band scholarship. He was the deputy Drum Major. In 1974 he was in a bad automobile accident and could not return to school. He returned home to recover and managed a private dinner club (a membership only private club) that had live Big Band entertainment nightly. Living at home, he saved money and when he had sufficient resources he moved to Austin to attend the University of Texas, studying mathematics and computer science, graduating with B.S. and M.A. degrees.

He went to work for Lockheed in Sunnyvale, California, where he worked on various classified projects. Because of the high cost on housing and living in the area, he moved to Fort Worth, Texas, to work for General Dynamics Corporation on advance strike fighter analysis. After a year, he moved to Austin, rejoining the Lockheed Corporation. After leading a trouble shooting Tiger Team that significantly increased the developmental Tomahawk Weapon Control System performance, he was promoted to Chief Engineer, and, subsequently, Program Manager for various projects with activities both in the United States and Europe. He also led the Battle Management portion of the Lockheed pursuit of the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD, now “Terminal High Altitude Area Defense”) which Lockheed won.

While living in Austin, he met and married the former Veronica Louise (Potter) Cook, who was living with her sister in the house next door to Charles. They have no children.

When Lockheed Martin merged with the Martin Marietta Corporation, forming Lockheed Martin, the Austin facility was closed and Charles transferred to the corporation’s facility in Huntsville, Alabama, Veronica had family living in the area and that served as the basis for choosing Huntsville over other Lockheed Martin locations. He became Program Manager for the THAAD Battle Management System, involving the large-scale production of complex software and hardware. He was later promoted to Director of Missile Defense Battle Management Programs with oversight of five different contracts within Lockheed Martin as well as research and development.

He retired at age 55 in May 2007 but was called back as a consultant to support additional new business pursuits.

He continues to live in the Huntsville, Alabama, area. He plays competitive bridge at the North American level, practices piano, and travels for fun and adventure.

Sources

• First-hand information. Entered by Charles Durrin.