Bio - Jack Hickey

Jack Hickey was born in Valley Stream, Long Island, New York, May 23, 1934. He attended St. Boniface Parochial School through 8th grade. He attended Sewanhaka High School(Class of '52) where he experienced the harsh realities of life.

After graduation, Mr. Hickey worked briefly in the grocery business as a stock clerk.

In 1953, at the age of 20, Jack joined the U.S. Navy for a four year stint. Jack Hickey is a product of the Navy Electronics School (Great Lakes NTC class of '54). He received accelerated OJT in shipboard electronics maintenance and operation, while serving aboard the U.S.S Otterstetter (DER - radar picket ship) out of Newport Rhode Island.

In 1957, Jack Hickey completed his Navy service in Long Beach, California. A few years later, he bought his first house in Hawthorne.  It was there that he planted his roots and started a family.

Jack used his acquired skills for instrument calibration and test at (Hoffman Electronics-Los Angeles), repair (Sperry-El Segundo), and as a lab instructor for AirForce students (Hughes Aircraft-Hawthorne).

In 1960, Jack Hickey joined the TRW/STL Physics Research Labs in El Segundo, providing instrumentation support for a team of 5 PhD researchers. It was at TRW/STL that John J. Hickey received the first of his 28 patents. Jack's activities at TRW/STL centered around a high speed image converter camera, used for photographing Time Resolved Spectra of Ruby Laser Emissions (using a Fabry-Perot interferometer), exploding wires, Theta Pinch(Fusion) experiments, nuclear events, laser range-gated imaging systems, etc. He built Scintillation type neutron detectors, using fast, large area photomultiplier tubes.

In 1962, STL Products/TRW Instruments was formed to commercialize the products of the Lab, and Mr. Hickey served as Chief Electronics Engineer. He developed plug-in modules providing the Image Converter Camera with framing and streak modes of operation from the nanosecond to the millisecond range. Other notable products developed included a Precision Time Delay Generator with optical triggering, a 50,000 degree(K) Continuum Radiation Source, and a Nanosecond Spectral Source (Deuterium lamp) for fluorescent decay analysis.

In 1964, Mr. Hickey put on his political hat and led a REFERENDUM effort resulting in 2/1 voter rejection of the City of Hawthorne's Urban Renewal Ordnance. Of major concern, was the questionable use of eminent domain to build a shopping center. Jack's presentation skills were developed in this campaign.

In 1965, Mr. Hickey was recruited by the firm of Beckman & Whitley/TechOps West in Sunnyvale. He moved his family to Redwood City, in an area now officially called Emerald Hills, where he currently resides. While with TechOps, Jack acquired patents for two transverse mode electro-optic modulators(200 MHz bandwidth) for use in a high speed laser recording system.

In 1967, John J. Hickey operated as Nano Optronics, producing Precision Time Delay units for Optics Technology Inc.(OTI). Shortly thereafter, Jack became Chief Electronics Engineer at OTI, later acquiring the title of Laser Scientist. While with OTI, Jack provided engineering support for the company's Q-switched Ruby Laser, Laser Retinal Photo-coagulator and High Speed Detector. Jack led the development of a catheterized, fiber-optic "in-vivo" oximeter using a pair of pulsed infrared emitting diodes(IRED's) in a bifurcated system. Mr. Hickey also developed and delivered a Dual Optical Dosimeter, with flexible fiber-optic probes, for monitoring during laser opthalmic surgery.

In 1970, Jack Hickey joined Zenith Radio Research in Menlo Park. At Zenith, he developed an FM optical communication system for hearing impaired children in classrooms, using intensity modulated fluorescent lamps and a 100 KHz carrier. A pair of 20 Watt UV lamps, chosen for fast decay time, were sufficient to provide coverage of the classroom. A small, inexpensive vacuum photodiode replaced the RF front-end of the special hearing aids used in the original system.

In 1972, Mr. Hickey was recruited by Hugle Industries (which later became Unicorp), a semiconductor processing equipment manufacturer, as Chief Electronic Engineer . He incorporated a quartz rod/fiber-optic replacement for the optics in the Raytek pyrometer temperature control system. Jack set up and operated customer training courses for equipment maintenance, and provided field service to customers in the U.S. and Europe.

In 1976, Mr. Hickey joined a Swiss Consortium in West Germany as a consultant to provide training in electronic design, fabrication and assembly, in a turnkey operation.

In 1977 John J. Hickey operated as Nano-Optronics, providing support to the semi-conductor industry(Hewlett Packard, Intel, National Semiconductor and Varian Associates) by incorporating fiber-optics into optical-pyrometry systems of epitaxial reactors.

In 1979/80, Jack Hickey was sponsor and author of the Performance Voucher Initiative, a proposed Constitutional Amendment in California. Jack presented his proposal on radio and TV talk shows around the state, and obtained the endorsement of Milton Friedman. His proposal stimulated interest as far away as Australia and the Netherlands.

In 1980, Mr. Hickey joined Dalmo Victor(DV) as Research Scientist and Electro-optic Group Leader. Jack took charge of an outside contract for development of a 2GHz acousto-optic(AO) spectrum analyzer incorporating Bragg Cells and instituted changes to a seriously flawed design. Hickey directed development of transducer design software for Bragg Cells. He led RD&E efforts for parallel processing, hybrid detector assemblies. Jack also evaluated a number of RETICON and Fairchild CCD detector arrays for use in the system and developed a 100 element fiber-optic array for converting a 1x100 linear array to a 10x10 area array to provide input to an ITT 100 element proximity focused, MCP intensified, photodiode array.
    Mr. Hickey hired an AO consultant from Stanford to support a proposal effort for development of a 4 GHz Bandwidth Bragg Cell Receiver for use in EW systems This proposal incorporated Image Intensified Electron Bombarded Silicon(EBS) detector arrays and mode-locked, frequency-doubled GaAlAs lasers. Other vendors in the proposal were brought in to make joint presentations to the customer.
    Mr. Hickey performed research on direct modulation of semiconductor lasers at frequencies up to 20 GHz, for use in fiber optic systems. Jack developed an OTDR to quantify fiber reflections as low as 0.001% and developed techniques for reducing reflections. This research established DV as a leader in the technology with a major government contract.
    He designed passive microwave circuits using Touchstone software, to provide 50 ohm interfaces to low impedance lasers and high impedance photodiodes yielding flat response across a 10 GHz bandwidth in a 1 Km fiber-optic link. A Kaptron Heliospec 2000 was used to monitor modulated laser spectrum in response to external stimuli. Jack also characterized a silicon avalanche photo diode (APD) for microwave performance out to 8 GHz.

In 1982, Jack Hickey was a candidate for U.S. Senate in the Republican Primary, seeking to replace the retiring Sen. S.I. Hayakawa.

In 1984, Jack was the Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, running against Dem. Tom Lantos. He received the endorsement of Dr. Edward Teller and the San Mateo Times. While working full time at DV, Mr. Hickey was able to garner 29% of the vote. Prior to his departure from Dalmo Victor in August of 1989, John J. Hickey held the title of Senior Research Scientist.

Since that time, Jack has spent his time honing his late-blooming computer skills, and applying them to real world problems.

Post 1989 - Ad Hoc Political Activities

In 1991, Jack Hickey led the campaign which defeated Measure A in San Mateo County.

In 1992, he defeated local school bond and parcel tax measures, while running for State Assembly.

In 1993, Jack was a major contributor to the signature gathering effort for the "Parental Choice in Education" Initiative.

Mr. Hickey's Computer Skills

Jack's first computer was a Radio Shack Color Computer, followed by an Atari ST(both Motorola 68xxx). He had two Atari 1040ST computers at Dalmo Victor. His Atari TT Computer, used in the 1991 campaign, is still in use.

In the mid 90's, Mr. Hickey moved to the Apple Macintosh platform, acquiring considerable of the operating system and hardware.

Mr. Hickey is skilled in the use of Spreadsheet, CAD, DTP, Paint programs, Databases, OCR, Language translation, Word processor, Internet, Compression and other utilities, etc. His primary system is a Pentium II/300MHz w/video digitizer, Syquest 230MB and 1.5 GB removable cartridge drives and a CDR drive.  Mr. Hickey is an expert in digital photography.

Using his equipment, Mr. Hickey has accumulated data from many sources, including:

Jack Hickey continues to press for legislation requiring ALL government bodies to provide public data in electronic format where it exists. Using his Desktop Publishing Software, he has created Proposals, Campaign Literature(with photo-endorsements), photo-ads, etc.

Jack also did the layout and printing for a 124 page Writ of Certiorari, for a friend, in the format required by the U.S. Supreme Court.

 

Education

Besides extensive OJT, and college equivalent status from USAFI in the Navy, Mr. Hickey attended classes in California Community Colleges. These included Medical Electronics and Proposal Writing. His proposal for a high-tech alternative to the gruesome defibrillators used in hospitals won him an "A" in the course and triggered interest by Palo Alto V.A Hospital., Jack also studied Economics, Calculus, and Physics. Dalmo Victor awarded Hickey an honorary BS degree.

John J. "Jack" Hickey
243 Ferndale Way
Redwood City, California 94062
(650)368-5722 jackhick@cwnet.com