Buford "Bud" McAlister - Class of 1949

Buford "Bud" McAlister and his wife Jean

After graduating from FUHS, I started attending school in Los Angeles which was interrupted after the first year by a stint in the Air Force during the Korean War. Upon discharge, I went to work for North American Aviation in the Electronics Research and Development Labs. I was involved in such programs as the Navajo, Hounddog, Saturn, Apollo, Space Shuttle, GPS Navigation Satellite and a couple of unmentionables.

I first married while in the Air Force. Married Rema Farnsworth (class of '50). We had four boys: Charles (lives in Portland, Oregon), Michael J. (Los Angeles), Stephen (Chandler, AZ) and Thomas (Richmond Heights, Bay area). In 1965 I married my current wife, Jean. She has a boy, Michael R. (Buena Park) and a girl, Rhonda (Los Banos). We lived in Buena Park until our retirement.

I retired in '87 and Jean retired in '88 from Lucky Stores where she was an Administrative Assistant in the Engineering Dept. Immediately after retiring, we sold our house to one of our kids and hit the road full time in our RV. Saw most of the States and Canada during the next four years. Also did some traveling in Europe, England and Scotland, Malaysia, Alaska and Hawaii.

We finally settled down again in a very small town northwest of Redding, CA. We lived on Lewiston Lake buried deep in the pine trees and mountains of the "Trinity Alps"....a far cry from So. Cal. since the entire county has just 16,000 population. Our little "Shangri-La".

We moved here to Porterville in 1997.