Roland Eugene Wiench

In my own words:

Born on Sept. 4, 1936 on Friday at 11:45 AM, I came out facing North in Dickinson, North Dakota, in the hospital 400 feet from our home. Made it home for lunch at 12 noon.

My father, an electrical engineer, took me down to his electrical laboratory (I called it a dungeon). At the age of 8, he taught me basic electricity. My first project was a dog repellant that was placed in the garden. As a dog came into the garden, I turned on a switch that tickled his feet at a real low voltage. The dog stood up on his two back feet and tiptoed through the tulips, dancing the jitterbug. Later, I made an overhead electrical trolley using an erector set with the clotheslines as the conductors. I forgot to turn off the power and the laundry lady did the jitterbug too.

I attended St. Patrick’s grade school and Assumption Abbey high school in North Dakota. I also attended the College of Great Falls, Montana.

I enlisted in the Navy in 1955 as flight, radar controller, and navigator for carriers in the Atlantic. After studying aviation electronics engineering, I worked for Boeing Aircraft in Great Falls. Meanwhile I was employed as an electrical technician, then electrical supervisor at MANG (Montana Air National Guard).

After serving in The Navy, USAF, and MANG I was honorably discharged as Master Sergeant in 1989.

In 1976 I received a grant and a prototype electric car from Electric Fuel Propulsion of Troy, Michigan. Since 1989 I have worked on the science of improvement of the electrical vehicle.

While Roland remained a bachelor, many nieces and nephews survive. To some he was an Uncle and to others, because he lived with us during our childhood, Roland was an Uncle-Brother. Roland was predeceased by parents Frank and Clementine Wiench; brothers and their wives: Francis (Marilyn) Wiench and Alcuin (Annie) Wiench; sisters and their husbands: Bernice (Paul) Wilhelm and Beatrice Hall.

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