Craig Pickett

Someone, whom I have always held a tremendous amount of respect for is my father, Craig Pickett. This man, the donar or my surname, is perhaps one of the most brilliant people I know in many regards. Though he may be a little lacking in the social realm, he certainly compensates for that with his mechanical and theoretical knowledge of numerous things. I respect him deeply, as he grew up on a farm, performing strenuous chores all day, and then thriving in school. From these meager beginnings he was able to get into college and then he worked his way through. He eventually earned his Bachelor’s of Engineering from DeVry University, and went on to work at MacDonald Douglas, helping to build the Gemini Space Project. After this, he got a technician position at Los Alamos National Laboratory (where the Atomic bomb was first devoloped), and eventually left New Mexico to work at Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado on the Space Shuttle, among other projects. Because of all of these things, and his knack to be able to fix most anything I believe he is brilliant, and I sometimes half in jest call him both a nuclear scientist (because of his work at Los Alamos) and a rocket scientist (because of his work at MacDonald Douglas, and Ball). Of course his work doesn’t really explain everything about him.

My father’s personality is certainly that of an engineer, if ever I met one, meaning he has brilliance in his field and mathematically and mechanically shines like no one else I have seen. Socially and in the realm of current events, however; my father is somewhat lacking. He has no sense of any music past the mid 1970's and until about two years ago when one would ask him to name some modern musician he would inevitably include MC Hammer, often mentioned first thing. He is always a bit awkward when interacting with new people, unless of course the new person tries to meet him on his level. He tries to be social and open, but simply lacks the interest to really get involved in conversations, so inevitably about ten minutes after a subject is mentioned, discussed, and finished, he will bring it up because he is unaware that it is no longer on the table. We all still love him anyway, but it can be quite frustrating and more so amusing to watch this happen. When too many people are around, it is quite evident that he is uncomfortable with the situation and will explode in annoyance at the slightest thing. But, in spite of his troubles in this regard, he is perhaps one of the most generous souls I know, and very obviously cares about his family very deeply and will do anything possible to help any of them in need. He certainly has his faults and failings, but in my estimation he is a great and highly respectable man in most regards, and I am ever glad to have him in my life, as I am all my family

Check out some pictures of him here.