Robert is a brilliant man. He’s up in his 70’s now, but is known for helping to design various parts of NASA’s moon lander, satellites, and more. He assisted in the design of Winchester Hard Drives (most common hard drive in use until solid state). Robert had developed a rare skill and became an expert at it. His title was “Tool and Dye Maker.” Very few people exist that can do what Robert can when it comes to his field.
Robert tells stories of his younger years. He fondly remembers hunting through the neighborhood curbside trash for treasures of broken record players and similar. He would fix the broken items and then resell them back to their owners. He talks about how when they would drag race their cars, they would have to reshape the tires. He has these and many more important fond memories.
When it comes to school, though, you can see Robert’s whole body shudder. It was next to impossible for him. He would struggle through hours of miserable existence in school only to come home and spend another 2-3 hours being tutored. The family tried various tutors trying to find someone who could teach Robert how to read. It didn’t help the situation any that Robert’s own mother was a teacher.
He eventually caught on, but is still a slow reader and still can’t spell well. His wife edits everything for him as not even a spellchecker catches everything. He speaks longingly of being able to read for more than a few minutes without feeling overwhelmed. He desires to read fiction or books outside of his field of expertise, but feels he doesn’t have the time at this point in his life to learn a new method of reading.