Retirement
Gates: What you are doing in your retirement and how you are enjoying it?
Heart: I think that how you like your retirement is partly a function of how it comes about. If you end up leaving unhappy or feeling that something bad has happened, you probably don't like it as much. I ended up on a high. I had a wonderful few years there. My piece of the company had made a lot of money. I had people that I was really fond of there. They were nice to me when I left. So because of all that, I came out of there pretty happy.
I've been following a few spin-offs; I've been putting a little energy into BBN/GTE; and I just got back from almost two weeks of skiing in Utah. I'm having a fine retirement, and I'm not doing anything in particular.
Gates: Do you wish you were still involved?
Heart: You know, I don't know how to answer. When I retired two and a half years ago it was the exactly perfect thing to do because BBN had a new chief executive and the chief executive had the audacity to want to run the company. While one can't blame him for that, I was kind of there with the second steering wheel and mine not fully connected to the axle. So it was a perfect time to leave, and I was 65 anyway. I don't have the slightest regret.
I had two enormous rockets that I ended up riding. Being at Whirlwind in the early 50s was also an extraordinary experience. So having that experience twice, having it once at Whirlwind and then again with the ARPANET, I don't think I have any complaints.
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