Professional Problem Solver

A Professional Problem Solver

Every morning, Ed Flounders starts his day off with a crossword puzzle and a cryptogram. Ed loves exercising his brain and sharpening his problem-solving skills.

“Solving a good problem is like eating a filet mignon steak,” Ed, a resident of Masonic Village at Lafayette Hill, said. “It’s so satisfying. It’s like a gorgeous meal.”

Solving problems is no problem, and nothing new, for Ed. He’s made a career out of it by working in a variety of engineering and business fields throughout his life. If people ask, he’d say he was an engineer.

“You could also say I was a rocket scientist. People make jokes about how it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to do something, but I was literally one,” Ed said.

Ed began his career by obtaining a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Penn State University and a master’s from Lehigh University. He was the first in his family to graduate from college, and he took a variety of courses while there.

“If you’re an engineer, you’ve got your nose into it all. I wanted to learn as much as I could about everything,” Ed said.

Ed certainly did get his nose into it all, working with everything from chemicals to computers. While studying at Lehigh University, he met his wife, Cathy, and they got married shortly after.

“I used to take classes from 7 to 10 p.m., and one day after class let out early, I went over to a spot in Allentown, and Cathy and some of her girlfriends were there,” Ed said. “When I saw her, I knew that was it.” Ed and Cathy spent their lives together in the local area and raised two daughters. Ed said he’s been fortunate to “carve a career out of the area” with the abundance of positions he’s had.

Part of his career was working on basic oxygen furnaces, which convert hot metal into steel. The process works by combining molten pig iron and steel scrap and blowing pure oxygen to oxidize to steel.

“It used to take 14 hours to make steel. Now, in 30 minutes, there’s as much steel made as it took in 14 hours,” Ed said.

Ed also explored cryogenics, which involves researching and working with the effects of very low temperatures. He had the opportunity to produce liquid nitrogen, conduct calculations and do research for a spaceplane.

Additionally, he delved into computers and worked with a Librascope General Precision computer, the first computer used for engineers and educators. He said during his career, he watched computers progress “faster and faster.”

“I wrote my first program and code before there even were computers,” Ed said. “We used to do thousands of calculations on a calculator.”

Ed was able to apply his computer skills when he got a job at Honeywell working with Kellogg’s cereals. In this role, he ran calculations and used precise computer settings to fill cereal boxes with the correct amount of cereal.

Eventually, Ed transitioned into the business side of production and worked in purchasing and managing for three companies. He also wrote programs to match invoices with orders at FMC Corporation and had his own electronic data interchange consulting business.

Throughout his career, he had numerous other positions. Regardless of the role, Ed was able to thrive easily because of the plethora of skills and experiences he gained.

“I spoke 30 languages,” Ed said. “I could speak Fortran, which is a scientific language, and COBOL, which is a business language.”

Ed has been a resident at Masonic Village at Lafayette Hill for almost three years now and said he “enjoys it very much.” Part of the time Ed spent at Masonic Village was with Cathy, who just recently passed away. Ed said he’s thankful for the 58 years of love they shared.

“Cathy and I enjoyed traveling a lot, and I miss her very much,” Ed said. He said though Cathy wasn’t an engineer, she was very intelligent and worked as a dental hygienist.

“I don’t even know anything about the human body, other than I have a heartbeat,” Ed joked.

Ed doesn’t consider himself present-day “tech savvy” either, but he’s still interested in science, specifically solar power. He continues to further educate himself by reading a lot of science magazines from Penn State University and Lehigh University.

When he’s not reading about science, he’s most likely thinking about it.

“I like to play pool here with my friends, and when I’m playing, I think about the different angles of how I can hit the ball and such because I’m an engineer,” Ed said.

Ed also finds projects to do around his apartment and items to fix at his daughter’s house regularly. He said he is his daughter’s “go-to” for problem solving and coming up with creative solutions.

Whatever the occasion may be, Ed’s knowledge and excitement for science is never in short supply and is always useful. Ed said he’s looking for more individuals at Masonic Village at Lafayette Hill to share this enthusiasm with, too.

“Being an engineer is being able to look at something and comprehend what’s going on. It’s thinking about three or four ways to do something,” Ed said. “If plan A doesn’t work, try plan B. If plan B doesn’t work, try plan C. You just have to keep trying until you find the best solution.”

By Katy Shero, public relations associate/intern