How do you go from running a family restaurant to running a nuclear power plant? Very slowly, with years of training and experience in between. It’s the story of Max’s life before we knew him in the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
Then came the Navy from 1957 to 1963, and back to help his ailing father and to take over the restaurant he loved. He was sixteen years in the restaurant business, and when it finally ended he was devastated. Married to Camille and the father of two children, he was out of work for a year and a half. He found a low-level job at the Public Service Electric and Gas nuclear power plant in Salem, N.J. and turned it into an amazing 22-year career. .
By the time he retired, Max had trained, studied and held every vital position in the Salem plant. He had turned the dials that controlled the high-pressure generators; he had lifted the rods, he had supervised the disposal of radioactive equipment, and he had worked twelve-hour shifts as a normal day. He helped to build and operate two other nuclear power plants in the area, and he eventually became a co-owner representative for PSE&G.
Fast forward to Naples in 2004. He was taking the navigation course offered by Flotilla 96 in preparation for a daring trip with his brother from Seattle up through Canada and Glacier Bay on a 24-foot Alaskan Sea Sport. His instructor, John Marshall, spotted him as a valuable recruit for the Auxiliary and soon signed him up. |
| Max with John Marshall |
