Friederich Klar ( 1730 - 1805 ) last of
Charleston Township, Chester County, Pa.
Fredrick (2nd) Klair ( 1771 - 1857 ) last of Limestone
Road, De.
Jesse Klair ( 1795 - 1873 ) last of Lower Brandywine, Pa.
Hiram Klair ( 1820 - 1873 ) last of Dublin, Md.
Pierson Duncan Klair ( 1845 - 1912 ) last of Dublin, Md.
Hiram ‘Goldie' Goldsborough Klair ( 1876 - 1960 ) last of
Baltimore, Md.
Howard Pierson Klair ( 1906 - 1969 ) last of Boonton Park, NJ.
My Life:- 
I was born at a very early age - at Women’s
Hospital in Baltimore Maryland on 27 August 1932 as Ronald Hiram
Klair. My mother named me Ronald and my middle name was in honor
of my Grandfather ( Hiram Goldsborough Klair ) who paid my
hospital birth bill in-full. We were living at 429 East North
Avenue - one-half block west of Greenmount Avenue and just three
doors east of my Grandfather's residence at 421 East North Avenue.
My brother, Howard Pearson Klair, Jr., had been born 15 months
earlier. Before my Grandfather retired they lived around the
corner on the west side at 1814 Barclay Street, just one-half
block south of North Avenue at the corner of an alley where they
had a neighborhood grocery store at 1816 Barclay Street. My
father was Howard Pierson Klair who had two younger brothers:-
Jesse Goldsborough Klair, deceased, of Baltimore, Maryland
and Albert Hiram Klair now of Indialantic, Florida. My mother was
Elise Jocelyn Pleasants Klair of Lynchburg, Va.
I went to grade
school in Baltimore completing Guilford Elementary School, then
attending Clifton Park Junior High School, and then graduating
from the engineering preparatory "B" course at the
Baltimore Polytechnic Institute (high school). Subsequently, I
graduated from the Johns Hopkins University receiving the degree
of Bachelors of Science in Engineering with a major in Mechanical
Engineering on 13 June of 1961.
I went to work
for the Glenn L. Martin Company, Middle River, Maryland on 28 May
1951. First in Quality Control and about a year and a half later,
I transferred into the Engineering Department. In 1958 the name
of the company was changed to The Martin Company. During my stay
in Maryland I worked on passenger aircraft, military aircraft,
guided missiles, several nuclear programs and a number of space
programs. After marrying Esther Margaret Ice we had two boys,
Ronald Hiram, Jr. and Lawrence Howard, while living in Baltimore.
We moved to Bel Air, Maryland on Valentines Day in 1957 - near
Havre de Grace, Maryland the traditional gathering place for the
Maryland Klair's. While in Maryland, and on the side, I taught
math, drafting, and engineering in the Mathematics and
Engineering Department of Hartford County College where I,
subsequently, became acting Department Head. In February of 1967
I transferred to the Orlando, Florida Division of The Martin
Marietta Corporation.
At the Orlando
Division I worked in Advanced Programs for Air-to-Ground
missiles, and Mono-Rail Systems - including production and
delivery of the mono-rail system for Disney World. During this
period we lived in a house we had built on Lake Butler in
Windermere, Florida - west of Orlando. During this period I
attended Rollins College and received my Master's Degree in
Management Science in May of 1975. Concurrently, I owned and
operated several Shell service stations with my two sons as
managers, operated a real estate brokerage as the broker and
operated my own real estate school at Southern College.
Inaddition, I taught various business, real estate, and math
courses at Southern College and at Rollins College.
In December,
1976 I went to work at Kennedy Space Center on The Space Shuttle
program until I retired 1 January, 1994. During this period I
conducted pre-launch preparations and launch operations as the
Lead Main Propulsion Systems Engineer for the New Orleans
Division of The Martin Marietta Corporation ( now the Lockheed
Martin Corporation ). This included two one year 'tdy' stints to
Vandenburg AFB, Ca. (living in Lompoc, Ca.) and a one year 'tdy'
stint to NASA's Michoud facility in New Orleans (living in the
French Quarter).
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End of Page_________________________________asasa as of August 1998