Gallup High School Alumni
Gallup, New Mexico (NM)
Joe Petranovich
Gallup High School
Class of 1966
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JOE'S PROFILE
| First Name | Joe |
| Last Name | Petranovich |
| Graduation Year | Class of 1966 |
| Gender | Male |
| Current Location | Albuquerque, NM |
| Hometown | Gallup |
| Relationship Status | Married |
| About Me | Well, it was time to join. Just finished reading a post from Dottie and thought that was a great way to bring everyone up to speed about yourself. So here goes. After graduation I went to UNM where I spent basically 3 years as a freshman. Lots of parties, drinking and doing everything except pay attention to my classes. Then I enrolled in technical school and received a degree as an Associate Electronic Technician. From there my first job was a startup company called GTE Lenkurt that had moved one of their plants from San Carlos, California. Spent seven years there, where I meet my wife, Carole. We have been married for 46 years. Got married at age 30 and started work at Spartan Electronics where I traveled the U.S. as a field service technician installing and repairing high end telecommunication Equpment. I could only take that for 2 years and joined a company called Recognition Equipment Inc. out of Dallas as a field service engineer what worked on hi-speed optical character recognition equipment. Most of the machines were scanners that read tax returns for the IRS. However, at the age of 32 I came down with Hodgkins Lymphoma Disease. Underwent radiation, which failed after eight months and had to do chemo anyway. Been clean ever since, but my body took a toll from the radiation. Mostly spine and neck lost a lot of muscle loss. I started looking into computer kits in 1977, My first interview after tech school was on the state fairgrounds here in Albuquerque, where the man who interviewed me was Paul Allen (yes from Microsoft). Did not meet Bill as he was asleep under a desk. I asked what this job was and he told me I would be troubleshooting and testing electronic pc boards. I asked what they were for and he told me they were for HOME COMPUTERS. I told him I wasn't interested as I did not think that would catch on and left. The next month that PC was on the cover of PC Electronic Magazine and the rest is history. I just did not see the vision. Could have been Microsoft's first Technician. So, I started to assemble them in our garage and when Carole caught me soldering on our dining room table, she said it was time to get a retail place and start a business. So, we both left our jobs (she was an account at a Johnson and Johnson subsidiary call Ethicon), cashed out our 401K's and got out first place. We called it Computer Corner Inc. We were at that first location for exactly 1000 days and sold 3000 PC's. All assembled by me. We then moved into an old ComputerLand facility at the Wyoming Mall (which is now a big Walmart) and started hiring some people. We got up to 25 employees and had to move again. This time to a location on north San Mateo. At this location we won a contract with Los Alamos labs to furnish them with Compaq computers and peripherals for three years. With the contract we had to have a storefront in Santa Fe. During the build out of that store, I walked in one day and met the electrician who looked familiar to me. It was Billy Conners. From their another move to Menual Blvd for 7 years and finally to the last location at 3101 Menual N.E. We sold the company in 2021 after 38 years in business. Never had to lay anyone off or ever miss a payroll. It was hard. During those years I restored three Cushman Motor scooters, which my brother Steve in Gallup has one, my other brother Bob who lives in Las Vegas, NV as the other one, and I sold the third one. I had a 1994 Harley Heritage Special which I though was the most beautiful piece of machinery I ever saw. Sold it a couple of years ago, just to big and heavy for me now. Then I restored a Mustang Motorcycle like the one that Johnny Howlett had. Now in retirement we moved into our final home in North Albuquerque Acres. Just finished restoring a Vintage 1965 twin engine go-kart, and acquired a real 1965 Shelby Cobra. Just finished restoring a 1965 Cushman Silver Eagle Motor scooter like the one that Walter Shannel had. I can send photos of any of these things if anyone is interested. My last project is a fully functioning Cessna flight simulator using Microsoft Flight Simulator software. Our current pet is a golden doodle. In the past we have had mostly chow chows. Thats it for me. M...(read more) |
Class of 1966 Alumni and Other Nearby Classes
→ Reunite with 11 class of 1966 classmates that have joined.
Jimmie Garnenez
Class of 2000
Brandon Garcia
Class of 1988
Lucinda Hicks
Class of 1985
Elece Newman
Class of 1969
David Dupree
Class of 1966
Cindy Gunter
Class of 1982
Frederick Tom
Class of 1990
Terri Holloway
Class of 1972
Kelly King
Class of 1996
Sherry Hudson
Class of 1974
Priscilla Martin
Class of 1982
Tracey Richards
Class of 1988
Jose Delarosa
Class of 1999
Steven Garcia
Class of 1998
Tim Grijalva
Class of 2001
Herman Barney Jr
Class of 1993
Nicole Bennett
Class of 2007
Sheldon Nickolas
Class of 2011
Laco Cikora
Class of 2003
Leonard None
Class of 1994
Sandra Yazzie
Class of 1994
Leo Montano
Class of 1975
Francis Crank
Class of 2007
Gordon Gordy
Class of 1993
Recent Class of 1966 Reunions
Plan a Class of 1966 Reunion for Free
Classes of 1960's
Invited Classes: All Classes
Date: Jul 04, 2015
Description: The site, further theme is forth coming. Recruiting team members from different years. Contact Robert Nakai @ 5052395353...(read more)