Jose Maria Lacambra Loizu

A Charmed Life: a Memoir Jose Maria Lacambra Loizu

Born of Basque parents in the Philippines during the early Thirties, his schooling was disrupted during WWII, allowing him to wreak havoc with the loathed Japanese Occupation Army. Jac Chambliss, one of his American liberators, was to later become his father-in-law. After the war, he moved to his parents' home in Pamplona, Spain, where he ran the bulls during San Fermin. At 17, he went to work for a Shipping Company in Bilbao, served in Africa in an Army outfit attached to the Spanish Foreign Legion and subsequently went to Paris to study Humanities at the Sorbonne. He came to the States and attended Gettysburg College, majoring in Physics. During his Sophomore year, he was named Editor in Chief of the College's Literary Magazine. He married Ann Chambliss during his Senior year and graduated with Honors. He subsequently earned a Ph. D. in Nuclear Physics from Duke University, where three of his children were born, two to become future physicians and one an accomplished painter. After acquiring his US citizenship, he settled in Orlando Fl., to work for an Aerospace Firm designing missiles and defense systems such as SDI, the Strategic Defense Initiatives program. He retired 30 years later and now travels extensively, indulging in writing, golf, and babysitting for eight lovely grandchildren.