The 90’s

The mid 90’s brought some complications to the HFSC. As the reputation of the HFSC grew, and as  members of the HFSC rose in the Honeywell organization, women co-workers began to ask about participating in the HFSC trips. This obviously presented a problem of having single women on a ski trip with a combination of single and married men. How would the wives of the married HFSC men react to women participating? Not well, you can be assured! The women co-workers argued the annual ski trip gave men an opportunity to mix and mingle with Honeywell executives and other managers, thus providing career opportunities denied to the women. The most vocal women were three of the Division’s staff lawyers, and they hinted strongly at discrimination.

The question of women participation came to a head during the December, 1996 Breckenridge trip. The three female attorneys came on the trip after Markos Tambakeras mandated that women should have the right to attend. Tambakeras was VP/GM of Industrial Automation at the time so almost all the HFSC members and the women wanting to attend worked for Tambakeras. Tensions were high in the group and emotions came to a head in the giant hot tub at Beaver Run Resort where the group was staying. John Kaminsky, a fourth member of the Division staff lawyers, was a long time HFSC member and also on the trip. John and other senior members of HFSC privately met to discuss the situation. John advised the group that it would be best to disband the HFSC rather than risk legal action by the three women attorneys. So, the HFSC shut down the annual trips after the 1996 Breckenridge trip.

Over the following eight years, no HFSC trips were held, however during that time, Honeywell was acquired by Allied Signal resulting in many people leaving Honeywell, including HFSC members. Several members also retired during this time. So, in late 2003, the time was right to re-load and re-start the HFSC trips. A trip to Vail was scheduled in Jan, 2004 and 11 HFSC members attended.

Fortunately, up to this point no one has ever been seriously injured. Lowell Stein did break a finger on his only trip, but that was the worst injury. However, we have sadly lost Butch Wells and John Kaminsky. We have had several sons of HFSC members on the trips, including Todd Lawrence, Randy Hawkins, Kevin Bogle, and Jon Rottier. Kevin came on the Telluride trip after a long absence, and showed he could run with the big dogs. Jon Rottier will attend the 35^th Anniversary trip after a long absence, and I’m sure we will have trouble keeping up with Jon. That’s quite a change from when Jon participated in the 10^th Anniversary trip when he was about 14 years old.