Donald Dubois


Donald Dubois		Trade Craft
	History
Why do I live on Dubois Road? Because Donald Dubois's parents were the first people to live in this area's latest incarnation, so the road is named after them. I don't recall when I first met Don. I think I knocked on his door soon after I built my house. And then I became interested in him after he showed me his shop, filled with industrial lathes and milling machines. At that time he was in his mid-80's and still pushing finished projects out the door. When I met him for this interview he was in his mid-90's, and still pushing finished projects out the door. Part of Don's uniqueness stems from there being few nonagenarians with the clarity and enthusiasm of a teenager, but it's more than that. Don has always been a dreamer, and a loner. He still drives, cares for his house, his shop, and his garden. He does the yard work on a couple of acres, and attends to his wife Bessie; all by himself as far as I can tell. It must be lonely to be both so young and so old at the same time. Afterward: Donald Dubois died on October 25th, 2014. He was 100.
Interview Excerpts	Read the full interview :
"Then I got interested in building gliders, man-size gliders that I could operate, cause on my grandmother’s farm, where I lived, she had a hill there of about a 30º grade. So I’d pick up this glider and get running, and jump off the edge and glide down to the bottom. Sometimes successfully, sometimes not… It seemed like such a wonderful idea, that you could build a wing, that you could take off and go down the hill. And of course, being that young, a lot of the practical side just went out the window!… "The exciting part was coming up with new ideas… You have an idea and in your mind it’s beautiful, and you get it on paper, and from paper you go to the actual machining, and the building, and then right there, like they say, you’re back to the drawing board! (laughs) That is exciting… "I don’t know how much the younger people absorb from TV, and the newspapers and whatnot … whether they’re interested in it and get that much into it, but if they are, then just thinking for themselves is the most important thing in the world. Because what’s being focused on them, on all of us, is a misguided picture of what it’s really like up there. It’s really a sad thing that we’re getting such a cock-eyed view of the world… "When the time comes to exit this life it’s a good idea to go with the smallest possible amount of evil baggage. A person would be well advised not to load yourself up with a lot of stuff you’ve got to account for. A young person can start working on that right away."
Links
link to patent # 4,098,526 at http:// www.uspto.gov

"Then I got interested in building gliders, man-size gliders that I could operate, cause on my grandmother’s farm, where I lived, she had a hill there of about a 30º grade. So I’d pick up this glider and get running, and jump off the edge and glide down to the bottom. Sometimes successfully, sometimes not… It seemed like such a wonderful idea, that you could build a wing, that you could take off and go down the hill. And of course, being that young, a lot of the practical side just went out the window!…

"The exciting part was coming up with new ideas… You have an idea and in your mind it’s beautiful, and you get it on paper, and from paper you go to the actual machining, and the building, and then right there, like they say, you’re back to the drawing board! (laughs) That is exciting…

"I don’t know how much the younger people absorb from TV, and the newspapers and whatnot … whether they’re interested in it and get that much into it, but if they are, then just thinking for themselves is the most important thing in the world. Because what’s being focused on them, on all of us, is a misguided picture of what it’s really like up there. It’s really a sad thing that we’re getting such a cock-eyed view of the world…

"When the time comes to exit this life it’s a good idea to go with the smallest possible amount of evil baggage. A person would be well advised not to load yourself up with a lot of stuff you’ve got to account for. A young person can start working on that right away."