Let’s Get Acquainted
 Tim and Nancy Schauermann
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ONE PLUS ONE EQUALS ONE
When we are out and about in the community, we are always on the lookout for stories and individuals to feature in our column. While Richard was riding his bike one day he happened across Tim and Nancy while they were working on a wood project in their driveway. He could not help but stop and ask what they were working on. The Schauermanns explained that they were building a bed for one of their grandsons. According to Tim, he is the craftsman with the woodworking skills necessary to complete such a project and Nancy is the visionary. The two talents combined lead to very creative and fascinating results. At the end of this article are photos of some of their projects.
They are challenged to come up with a design and an end product that can be disassembled into several parts in order to transport it to their destination where it is put together. They spend a lot of time at Home Depot and sometimes almost on a daily basis for various wood and paint products necessary to complete the project. Nancy pointed out painting the complete project is very difficult, and they are still learning in that area. If there is any flaw in the construction the paint magnifies it. They have a complete wood shop in a garage and one project finished leads to another.
Nancy was a high school administrator for thirty years. She was in charge of discipline and curriculum. She does not miss cafeteria duty and said it is nice to eat lunch in peace and quiet after twenty years of controlled chaos. She also attended many dances that had to be supervised and lots of sporting events. Tim honed his woodworking skills as a teenager. His father expected his kids to work, and since Tim was the oldest of four sons, his dad gave him projects to work on while he was at work, which would be considered home improvement projects today and Tim muddled through. When he father came home, the mistakes were corrected, and they moved on to something else. Later in life, after meeting Nancy, they built three houses from scratch, remodeled others, and have undertaken several projects within their home here in Sun Lakes. They have built a beautiful custom entertainment center and several pieces of furniture.
Tim began his college career in an engineering school, then transferred to a different college without an engineering program and graduated with a degree in mathematics. He went to work for Boeing after college where they considered him an engineer. During the seven years he worked for Boeing, he was part of a team that was developing a cutting edge computer generated design program. This was in the sixties when a computer was not a household item. He recalls never seeing computers at any time while he was in college. Boeing was leading the pack in computer generated design. They had invested over one million dollars in a computer that would fill a gym. Environment was important to the health of the equipment. The Navy contracted with Boeing to design propellers for their Trident submarine that could not be detected by SONAR. The method of manufacturing propellers was all done by hand. The case would be thicker than what the prop would actually be when completed. Workmen using drills would penetrate the surface at calculated depths and then the excess was ground away. Unfortunately, the end result was anything but smooth which caused the water to roil and create sound. By using the computer to control the machinery, they were able to get curves on the prop to make the metal smooth. The computer could control vertical, horizontal and angular motion of the grinding and drilling machinery, creating a consistently smooth propeller. This technology is used in industry such as automotive design. Their achievement was part of the plot in the movie "Hunt for Red October." The Russian sub could be detected by SONAR, but they could not detect ours, thanks to Boeing and Tim's work. He kiddingly told us that he could reveal this information to us now since it was declassified, otherwise, he would have to kill us. Somehow that doesn't fit his nature.
Once again, we were surprised by this piece of information that sounded extremely interesting. Hearing Tim describe how the computer generated design and machinery worked brought out some of th excitement he felt when he worked on it originally. They had set into motion something we take for granted now. He pointed to his laptop computer and remarked that it was many times faster than what he had worked with at Boeing.
Tim and Nancy enjoy playing bridge and golf. Because of the computer age, Tim is still able to sit on the board of three companies and remain Chairman of the Board of a university. As Tim said, email has changed the world and the way it does business. He conducts business by email and through conference calls. Nancy likes to work on jigsaw puzzles with lots of detail. She does this while she watches television, a true multi-tasker. There does not seem to be any dull moments in this household. They commented on how good it is to keep yourself busy. They are also avid golfers and play most every day. Some of their golf friends from Oregon have purchased homes close by.
We took a look into the wood shop and listened to some of their stories of how they work together as a team. Below is a picture of Tim operating one of the many pieces of equipment housed in the shop.
We hope you enjoy looking at some of their handicraft. We were told they have many other projects in mind including a tree house and a princess castle bed for their youngest grandchild. The family has come to the conclusion that they can build just about anything. As we left, we saw the pavers they had put on the front courtyard. It seems their talents are varied. When you put two people together who have different abilities that complement each other, a goal or project becomes reality. Thus, one plus one equals one.
Editors note: Due to technical difficulties the pictures are not as clear as usual.
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