Editor's note: After concluding his studies at Northrop, Eugene Kimling became a consulting engineer, frequently changing jobs to pursue better opportunities. He met and married his wife, Nelline, in California, and they had three children, Joseph,…

"In 1939, I was eleven years old, and our family happened to be vacationing in the Carpathian Mountains... Life seemed absolutely beautiful. I splashed in a brook, and I just thought the future was full of promise. Somehow in the middle of…