About Bill Volhein

William Thomas Volhein 1968-Present
⁃ Born in Wichita KS
⁃ Son of Thomas Kent Volhein and Candace Leah Small
⁃ Brother of Jay David Gilbert and Sarah Kristen Gilbert
⁃ Grandson of Tom Small
⁃ Step son of Linda Volhein
⁃ Step brother of Lori Pinkerton
⁃ Father of Autumn Skye Volhein
⁃ Currently living in Avondale AZ
 
Biography (Auto)
Born of a musician and an artist, conceived during the summer of love, it is obvious I am the offspring of Boomers… making me early Gen-X. Almost immediately after birth I was traveling around the country with my parents. My father was a musician for hire and very skilled, so we travelled extensively around the midwest and east coast. My first memories were of band practice and road trips. All of them fond memories.

My parents separated when I was 5 and I moved by to Kansas with my mother. We lived with my mothers sister Sheila in Oak Park Kansas and I attended Pawnee Elementary for kindergarten, and by the end of school my mother was remarried. We moved to Prairie Village Kansas and I attended Corinth Elementary from 1st to 5th grade.

By then it was time for a change of pace, so I moved to Phoenix arizona in 1979 to live with my father. I attended Aire Libre Elementary for 6th grade, Greenway Middle School for 7th and 8th grade, then Paradise Valley High School.

After my junior year, I took my GED and started college at Fort Hayes State University as a music education major. My first semester was during the summer and at that time met some roommates at the Sigma Phi Epsilon house. The fall semester I was a pledge for that house and school began. I lasted a year before I ran out of money and joined the United States Navy.

USN boot camp started February 2nd, 1987 in Great Lakes Naval Training Center, and finished 8 weeks later. After graduation I was sent to Millington Tennessee to begin my formal education in aviation electronics. After graduation from Basic Electricity & Electronics school, I immediately started school for my craft, Aviation Electrician School. I graduated late in 87 and accepted orders to Sigonella Sicily at the Sigonella Naval Air Station.

Once arriving on base, I was assigned Temporary Assignment Duty to the Ground Support Department where I worked mechanically on large aviation support vehicles. After 6 months, I was permanently assign to my true department… Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department. It was here that I worked in my craft for the remainder of my tenure.

After my initial 4 years of active duty, I chose to leave the military in pursuit of civilian life. I processed out at San Diego Naval Base, and moved back to what I considered home, Phoenix Arizona.

Upon release from the military, I temporarily stayed with my father and step mother. After six months I found the search for employment difficult, so I packed my bags and moved to where I was born, which strangely enough, was the aviation capital of the world, Wichita Kansas.

Wichita in the corporate home of Beechcraft, Cesena, Boeing, LearJet as well as several smaller airplane parts manufactures. My grandfather was one of the founding members of Beechcraft, so his influence was the driving force in my first civilian aviation job. In late 1991 I was hired by Beechcraft as an avionics technician for the T-1A Jayhawk. I learned fast however the rules of engagement with a large union workforce.

Within months the company did their annual “lay everyone off before the holidays” routine. That way they do not have to pay holiday benefits. After the holiday, I was offered a slot in sheet metal mechanics school. After graduation the top 2% were offered full time positions at the company. I was fortunate to be one of those people.

I spent the next year in the sheet metal division at Beechcraft. It was a great job, but I was soon lured away by a position more suited to my love of electronics. Avionics Installer for LearJet.

I spent the next 2 years in Final Assembly constructing the wiring and electronic components of the 60 Model LearJet. I gained quite a bit of experience in this position, and felt it was time to move back home to Phoenix for another shot at the work force.

Once back home, I accepted a position with Speed Fam on the electronics team that created the first Chemical Mechanical Planarization robots for Intel wafer fab. This was a fine job, but I kept my eyes on the market to get back into aerospace. This was also the time I started website development on my own. This activity was my new love. The World Wide Web was the new frontier and my new obsession. After a year, I found a great position with Honeywell Satellite Systems Operations.

While at Honeywell SSO, I mainly worked on gyroscope testing and final creation for the GlobalStar satellites, and antenna arrays for the International Space Station. This was the pinnacle of my aerospace career, yet I was obsessed with my new passion for web development. I made one more stop in my current career before moving to the web entirely.

I was lured away from Honeywell by a very lucrative contract offer by Orbital Sciences to build the propulsion systems for the Pegasus rocket, a payload projectile launched from an L1011 close to the stratosphere that puts satellites into orbit. Thinking of the money, which was almost twice what I was making at the time. I jumped at the chance, and it was a career ending move.

While going through 7 day thermal testing cycles, I incorrectly programmed the chamber, causing the temperature to drop to sub-zero. The result was 1.3 million dollars in damage to the component. I resigned immediately, and realized it was time for a change. I move into web development full time.

My first development job was with a wonderful little company called RSmart Inc. It was there I designed the interface for the Course Applicability System (CAS), which is still in use today by several universities across the nation. Upon the completion of CAS, I built the inter face for the Child Nutrition Program (CNP) for the USDA. In the mid to late 90’s, internet money was growing on trees, and I was a top paid consultant for some of the biggest firms in the world, but it didn’t last long…

When the internet bubble exploded, I realized what I wanted more than anything was an employer that could offer me a home. I was incredibly fortunate that I found one on the first shot.

Currently I am employed by Village Voice Media and have been for over 7 years. My employer has always been stable, fair, forward thinking and gainful. I’m proud of the company’s stability in hard times and strides forward in good times… more life to come…