Publisher's Synopsis
Biography of Samuel D. Ogden: Born in 1911, Sam grows up on a farm in central Virginia and plays on a baseball team with his older twin brothers. He is the middle child of a family between two sets of twins and feels unloved because his parents wanted a girl as their third child. After high school, he and his older twin brothers receive scholarships to play baseball at college. After the first year, their parents decide they cannot afford to support all three sons in college at the same time due to the economic depression. The Struggling Years: The three brothers make a pact that the one who finds the best job will pay for the other two brothers to finish college. Then the other two will pay for the remaining brother to finish college. Sam gets the best job and goes to work in the coal mines of West Virginia. While there he studies electricity and becomes fascinated with the applications of electrical theory. He marries his hometown sweetheart, but the coal mine closes in 1938, and they move back to their hometown of Altavista, Virginia. He did not get to go back to college because of the Great Depression, and struggles to find work, but eventually gets hired by an electric power company. The Company and Business Years: Sam and his wife have twin sons and move to northern Virginia, close to his new job. When war breaks out, he is transferred to the naval ship building area of Hampton Roads, Virginia and is given a military defermen because of his electrical expertise. He gets demoted after the end of World War II as soldiers are returning to work and he doesn't have a college degree. He leaves the power company to pursue his dream of owning his own business and starts out by working for a local appliance dealer. He and his family move back to their hometown of Altavista, Virginia, by way of Birmingham, Alabama, and he becomes the owner of an electrical and appliance business. He encourages his twin sons to earn college degrees since he never finished college. Th
