Bob's World
About The Author
Robert Allan Ochs
Robert Allan Ochs, better known as “Bob” to his family and friends, is a jack of all trades. At 12 years old, his father took him under his wing to teach him his carpenter’s trade. Working with him throughout the summer months and occasionally on weekends during the school year, he graduated from high school with the skills of a journeyman carpenter. Capable of earning a journeyman’s wage and establishing himself in the trade, he opted to accept an appointment by his congressman to the United States Merchant Marine Academy instead. During the second semester of his freshman year, he was assigned to a cargo ship as part of his on-the-job training. What he discovered was a world that he did not recognize and went within himself to ascertain whether his decision to become a sailor was the path he should follow. What initially seemed like an adventure, he soon found that much of his downtime would be confined to life around harbors which were inundated with many bars and brothels. Home became a cabin on the ship.
When his sea training was completed, he decided to make a change. He resigned from the academy, returned to his parent’s home, and started working as a framing carpenter during the summer. He attended college again the next year, married his high school sweetheart, helped his new wife fulfill her college aspirations, and eventually enlisted in the Air Force. After seeing his aptitude scores, the Air Force recruiter directed him to a highly specialized job in the Air Force Security Service.
About The Author
Robert Allan Ochs
When his term of enlistment ended, he used the GI Bill benefits to return to college where he earned a degree in civil engineering. After graduation, he established a 30-year career with the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center (OC-ALC) as a multidisciplined engineer where he earned many accolades and awards on projects with high visibility that got attention from the Air Force’s Strategic Air Command and Congress. His work was highlighted in the highly acclaimed magazines Aviation Week and Space Technology and Modern Machine Shop.
With this acclaim, he was recruited by the University of Oklahoma as an adjunct professor in partnership with OC-ALC to help improve the curriculum for their introductory design engineering course to gain ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) certification. He was able to teach part-time simultaneously with his full-time job on a flexible schedule.
Once eligible for an early retirement with a pension, Bob left OC-ALC to build both speculative and custom high-end houses. As the economy waned, he shifted gears to become a certified high school teacher. He was hired by the local technology center whose classroom was in the local public high school. He taught both freshmen and sophomores in the Introduction to Engineering Design and the Principles of Engineering courses. Under his tutelage, his classes grew from 12 students during the initial year to full capacity in the following and succeeding years. With his recommendations, most of his students went on to earn degrees in engineering and build successful careers in the engineering disciplines of their choice.
With a career that spans 50 years, he has been a journeyman carpenter, an adventurous seaman, an aerospace, mechanical, civil, and manufacturing engineer, a home builder, a respected university adjunct professor, and a popular high school teacher. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1972 to the office of priest and in 1983 to the office of elder in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1985 he was set apart as the pastor of the Norman, Oklahoma, congregation.
He speaks four languages, has lived in a foreign country, and has traveled to many more. He has had such diverse experiences as being part of an archaeological dig at the ruins of Corinth, Greece, surviving a hurricane in the North Atlantic, traipsing through the jungles of Yucatan to partially uncovered Mayan ruins, and escaping the pursuit of enemy aircraft with the intent to shoot down his air crew’s plane. He is steeped in physics, chemistry, metaphysics, and the cosmology of the world of spirit. He has many stories to share. And now, he shares these stories as an author who can translate the teachings of Jesus into the language of science.