Don & Sandy Vaughan

Don was born in Long Beach.  At the age of one, his parents built a home in Rancho Palos Verdes where they remained all through Don’s school years and still reside today.  Don’s father worked as an auto mechanic and auto parts dealer and his mom was a homemaker.  Don has a younger sister, Claudia, who is currently caring for their parents.  Don went to Palos Verdes elementary schools, but at the time there was no junior high or high school there, so he was bused to San Pedro for his later school years.  In high school, he became interested in electronics as well as photography.  After graduation, he attended Harbor College where he became the campus photographer and did a lot of the publicity photos for the school, including ball games, etc.  He even had a couple of his photos picked up by API. Don went to work for NCR (the old National Cash Register company that was then converting to a computer company) but after a couple of years was drafted in the Army.  The Army sent him to Missouri to be a computer operator (which effectively consisted of punch cards – no real computer work).  While he was in the Army he began flight lessons.  But as luck would have it, he met a girl and decided he could either afford to get married or continue flying and marriage won out.  When he got out of the Army, he planned to take his 90 days to relax, but NCR found out he was back and came knocking at the door, so his time off disappeared and he remained with NCR for a total of 41 years, including credit for his Army time.  Don spent a number of years in Southern California with the company both in electronics and communications before transferring to Dallas for the final part of his career.
Don has one son, Mark, now 36.  Mark went to Caltech for his undergraduate work in Electrical engineering and then went to graduate school at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.  While at Cornell Mark earned his PhD and met his lovely wife, Cristin.  Mark and Cristin now live in Cupertino.  Once they moved to the Silicon Valley, Cristin earned her PhD in Marine Biology from UC Santa Cruz.  They have two lovely daughters, Elena now 2 years old and newborn, Megan. Don resumed flying while his son was in school and bought his own plane, a Cessna 172 in 1983, which he flew for 21 years before finally selling it in Texas before he left to retire in California. Sandy was born in Chicago and grew up in Wheaton, Il.  In her early 20’s she moved to Los Angeles and started her career working in the Thrift Industry.  Her parents later retired in the San Diego area but her older brother Ted and his family remain in the Midwest.  Sandy ended up working for NCR in Southern California, primarily customizing and implementing software.  She worked for NCR for 27 years and at the same time completed college, earning a business degree from Pepperdine University. Don and Sandy met while both working for NCR.  It wasn’t until after they both transferred to Dallas, some 15 years later that they married and settled in Texas where they both remained till retirement in 2002.  They moved out to the San Diego area to help care for Sandy’s Mom for awhile before finding and settling in Blacklake. Aside from friends and family – especially those two beautiful and fun granddaughters – they have two loves in their lives.  The first one is “Hugs”, their Ragdoll cat.  The other love is traveling. Sandy has been traveling since she was in her early 20s.  And since Don and Sandy have been married they have been to the Caribbean, Mexico, and Alaska on cruises; England, France, Australia and New Zealand with friends; a great train trip through western Canada and a couple of adventure trips, one a photographic trip to Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa, and just last year to the Galapagos Islands and Machu Picchu.  The fun hasn’t stopped yet.  They plan another cruise this fall including Greece, Italy, Romania, Turkey and Alexandria, Egypt.  In January 2007 they already have plans for a trip to Antarctica and the Chilean Fjords!  So many people to meet and places to see –so little time. Along with all the wonderful new friends they have made here in Blacklake, they can’t think of a better retirement unless they can find time to learn how to golf!  Of course, that’s after all the other activities they are already involved in, including Gyros, Swim Club (Sandy is on the Board), Nipomo Newcomers, and various other social activities.