The story recounts the life of the second son of parents who operate a farm and a country tavern/restaurant in Freudenberg, a small hamlet in eastern Switzerland. The author leaves home at 14 and at 16 is apprenticed as pastry chef; later he serves in the Swiss Army. In 1952 he emigrates to Toledo, Ohio, from where he embarks on a three-year hitch in the US Army. He becomes Instructor at the Army Food Service School in Fort Knox, Kentucky, becomes a US Citizen and a part-time student at the nearby University of Louisville. A mere seven years after arriving in the US and working full-time one year and serving in the US Army for three, he leaves Michigan State University with BA and MBA Degrees (with High Honors) as the ?Outstanding Graduate Student in Marketing for 1959.?
Emil Rechsteiner joins Corning Glass Works; Corning, New York; as Technical Market Analyst. In 1961 he establishes Technology Markets, Inc., New York City, consultants to technology companies, attains nation-wide recognition with report, MASERS and LASERS, A New Market with Enormous Growth Potential. Pioneering market research follows for large and mid-sized technology companies, leading to the CEO's position at Analog Devices, Inc.; Cambridge, Massachusetts; producer of electronic function modules. In 1971 the author forms TDC, later known as ISOREG Corporation, and for twenty years contributed major advances to electrical transformer and computer power equipment technology.
The story is richly imbued with humor, and the book is unsparing in relating setbacks and outright catastrophes, and it tells of a loving family life with a wife of now 43 years and two sons that sustained the author when fate was notbenign. Late in life the author turned to regular political commentary in local newspapers, aiming to return his adopted country to a more peaceful future.