JON TRAUDT Jon Traudt

Sutton Public Schools, Sutton, NE

Sutton Public Schools, Sutton NE

Since graduation: 1. Attended Univ. of Nebraska where I founded a book drive that provided free books for impoverished schools in foreign countries. Dwight Eisenhower asked People-to-People programs at other colleges in the USA to follow our example. 2. Convinced taxi companies in New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington D.C., etc. to begin using bullet-proof shields to protect drivers from being shot by criminals in the back seat. 3. Married Beverly Higgins in 1962. 4. Designed buildings, wind turbines, broadcast monitoring and control equipment, radon mitigation systems, air pressure monitoring and control equipment, etc. 5. Served UNL and UNO as an Adjunct instructor for energy efficiency and renewable energy systems. 6. Led national wind turbine testing and certification program for U.S. Department of Energy. 7. Won EPA's international innovative radon mitigation competition. 8. Invented air pressure monitors for use in: a. Hospitals to meet CDC's recommendations for preventing the spread of airborne microbes. and b. In buildings to mitigate radon and prevent back-drafting of chimneys. 9. Currently a research assistant for scientists who have identified how ubiquitous indoor-and-outdoor airborne pollutants enter and progressively harm our cardiovascular, immune, respiratory, and central nervous systems. I developed practical methods to minimize indoor exposure to toxic chemicals and radioactive particles that increase the odds of developing dementia, cancer, COPD, etc. Details are available on request. 10. Maintaining a strong and growing appreciation for being a member of Lincoln High's class of 1959 and for still being married to Bev.

In the LHS library, I read a funny story about an Australian sheep herder who drove a Rolls Royce limousine. The punch line was that he preferred using a limousine because it had a glass partition behind the front seat that prevented sheep from licking his neck as they were driven to market. About a week after reading that story, the New York Times published a story about taxi drivers in New York being shot dead and robbed by passengers in the back seat. I wrote to the NYPD, suggesting clear bullet-proof partitions to protect the drivers. NYPD Captain James Crow replied with a letter and confirmed that he passed the suggestion on to the NY cab drivers. Within a year, the bullet-proof partitions resulted in lowering the average number of taxi drivers killed from more than 5 to less than 2 per week. In 1965, NY City mandated the partitions in all taxis. NOTE: One of the reasons that Chicago’s cab drivers went on strike during the 1968 Democratic convention was to demand bullet-proof partitions installed in their cabs.