Jim Buxton

Jim Buxton has enjoyed a varied career. His interest in amateur radio and studies at Portland State College led to service in the National Guard and an electronics position at Tektronix. He developed an expertise in ultra-high vacuum (much ado about nothing), using mass spectroscopy to answer cathode ray tube (CRT) production questions, notably discovering the composition and amount of the residual gasses in finished CRTs. In a quest to discover life outside the corporate world, he owned and operated a sawmill, repaired chainsaws for loggers and, as a machinist, wrote computer numerical control (CNC) programs for computer-controlled milling machines. He was a purchaser and a bookkeeper for a steel fabrication company and, before his retirement, computerized and networked a rural school district. Although retired, he is currently keeping books for the Upper Nehalem Watershed Council and continues a 35-year watch of West Oregon Electric Coop, occasionally writing articles for the Vernonia Independent newspaper. He has had a lifelong interest in physics, astronomy and the outdoors. He has four children: three grown daughters, and a son who is currently in college. He and his wife Cici reside in the Coast Range of northwest Oregon near Vernonia.