The Villages - January 2018 - 42

Before They Were Villagers
Dean McGee
Software Product
develoPment engineer
Dean McGee never stopped playing with toys. In fact, he
made a career of it. As a software product development engineer, he worked with the latest technology to bring new
products to the market.
But in layman's terms - he played with robots.
Industrial robots, that is. When programmed for the job,
the robots performed tasks such as meticulously painting
cars.
"People just aren't capable of such precision," McGee
said.
During his 28-year career with a world leader in industrial robotics, McGee got his hands on hosts of interesting
projects.
"I think I had one of the most fun and exciting jobs in
the adult toy store," he said, "although it was plenty stressful at times."
McGee worked in various facets of engineering and automation. He wrote code, demonstrated products and communicated with customers in the field.
"The company culture was good and I was fortunate to
have great managers," he said.
His company focused on spot welding, arc welding and
painting, and automating robots for manufacturing tasks.
"My area was in high-accuracy robots, and before
that I worked in robot calibration," he said.
In the early days of his career, McGee's company
was a joint venture, requiring he travel from his workplace in Rochester, Michigan, to the foot of Mount Fuji,
Japan, to attend business meetings and training sessions. Fanuc has since merged all of its operations to
become a single company whose annual revenue exceeds $1 billion.
"I am amazed at the way technology has evolved over the years," McGee said.
Being involved with innovation was a thrill, but being married to his job had a
downside - retirement.
"I started to wonder what
I would do. Who would I
spend my time with?" McGee
said.
42

JANUARY 2018

So he turned to technology once more.
"I found my wife, Nancy, online," he said. "We were a
good match and we hit it off right away. Then, Nancy retired on a Thursday and I retired on a Friday in 2013. By
Monday, we were in The Villages. I had been researching
low-crime areas where we could live. We golfed for a while
and then got into other things."
Now happy in his Village of Collier home, McGee shows
off a pair of 3-D printers humming in the background, their
axes moving fastidiously while filament oozes from tiny nozzles onto the print beds. Still tinkering with robots, McGee
has found a tribe of technology buffs to "play" with. The
Hands-On Tech Club meets Thursday evenings at Rohan
Recreation Center.
"It's kind of related to what I did, but now it's
just for fun," McGee said. "The beautiful thing
about The Villages is, there's no such thing as
stress here."- By Rica Lewis



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Villages - January 2018

Contents
The Villages - January 2018 - Cover1
The Villages - January 2018 - Contents
The Villages - January 2018 - 1
The Villages - January 2018 - 2
The Villages - January 2018 - 3
The Villages - January 2018 - 4
The Villages - January 2018 - 5
The Villages - January 2018 - 6
The Villages - January 2018 - 7
The Villages - January 2018 - 8
The Villages - January 2018 - 9
The Villages - January 2018 - 10
The Villages - January 2018 - 11
The Villages - January 2018 - 12
The Villages - January 2018 - 13
The Villages - January 2018 - 14
The Villages - January 2018 - 15
The Villages - January 2018 - 16
The Villages - January 2018 - 17
The Villages - January 2018 - 18
The Villages - January 2018 - 19
The Villages - January 2018 - 20
The Villages - January 2018 - 21
The Villages - January 2018 - 22
The Villages - January 2018 - 23
The Villages - January 2018 - 24
The Villages - January 2018 - 25
The Villages - January 2018 - 26
The Villages - January 2018 - 27
The Villages - January 2018 - 28
The Villages - January 2018 - 29
The Villages - January 2018 - 30
The Villages - January 2018 - 31
The Villages - January 2018 - 32
The Villages - January 2018 - 33
The Villages - January 2018 - 34
The Villages - January 2018 - 35
The Villages - January 2018 - 36
The Villages - January 2018 - 37
The Villages - January 2018 - 38
The Villages - January 2018 - 39
The Villages - January 2018 - 40
The Villages - January 2018 - 41
The Villages - January 2018 - 42
The Villages - January 2018 - 43
The Villages - January 2018 - 44
The Villages - January 2018 - 45
The Villages - January 2018 - 46
The Villages - January 2018 - 47
The Villages - January 2018 - 48
The Villages - January 2018 - 49
The Villages - January 2018 - 50
The Villages - January 2018 - 51
The Villages - January 2018 - 52
The Villages - January 2018 - 53
The Villages - January 2018 - 54
The Villages - January 2018 - 55
The Villages - January 2018 - 56
The Villages - January 2018 - 57
The Villages - January 2018 - 58
The Villages - January 2018 - 59
The Villages - January 2018 - 60
The Villages - January 2018 - Cover3
The Villages - January 2018 - Cover4
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