Lee A. Bissonnette

Lee A. Bissonnette graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and from the University of Phoenix with a Masters in Business Administration. She lives in Clarkston, Michigan with her son, daughter and husband of 30 years.

I was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1959. At the age of 3, my parents moved to Fargo, North Dakota, where I lived with my older brother, younger sister, our parents and Golden Retriever, Duchess. Our neighborhood was filled with kids of every age and my brother, sister and I ran around our neighborhood playing army with all of our friends. We watched the black and white TV memorized by the Mercury and Apollo Missions into space and the moon. After I had finished third grade, we moved to Shoreview, Minnesota, a northern suburb of St. Paul.

I started 4th grade at St. Odelia School. My brother and sister and I were walkers. There was no bus pickup if you lived within one mile of the school. We walked through the neighborhood yards, cutting across the ice skating rink in the winter to and from school every day. Walking in the fall was great until the cold winds started to blow down from the north. By Thanksgiving we were walking across frozen grass and a few inches of snow. In January, the temperatures plummeted to highs of -10°F with one to two feet of snow covering the ground. By spring, the snow melted and the ground turned to mud. We had to leave our shoes in the garage as you could not beat enough mud off them to bring them in the house.

I spent the summers “up north” at the cabin outside of Akeley, MN with my family. We went swimming, fishing and sailing on the lake in homemade rafts. Nothing was better than fresh pan fried sunfish and potatoes for Saturday morning breakfast and sitting on the dock looking up at the Milky Way stretching out across the night sky as you swat mosquitoes by the handfuls.

I went to Derham Hall High School in St. Paul. We rode city buses to get there until my brother turned sixteen and could drive us each day. My love of science and math came from a determined group of nuns that worked hard so their young women would succeed in life. My love of literature came from my parents who always had us reading “Great Books” and Mrs. Docken, my Shakespeare teacher in High School.

After graduating High School in 1977, I went to the University of Minnesota, Institute of Technology into Chemical Engineering. At the end of 1980, I changed majors to Mechanical Engineering as I could work on my own car engine. (Dad insisted we know about the cars we drove and how to take care of them.) I graduated from Mechanical Engineering in 1982 and started my professional career in Engineering.

I was transferred between Chanhassen Minnesota and Southfield Michigan for several years before I changed companies and went to Lafayette Indiana to work and attend graduate School in Industrial Engineering at Purdue University. I met my husband in Lafayette Indiana and we were married one year later in 1987. Our first baby was a Golden Retriever we named Ginger.

In 1994, we moved to Clarkston Michigan with a new baby boy and new engineering jobs in the automotive industry. Our second child, a girl, arrived as we were becoming Michiganders, going “up north” for the weekends in the summer.

In September of 2001, I sat riveted to the TV watching the New York City twin towers ablaze with fire, crumbling before us. The Pentagon was burning and a fourth plane crashed by the brave souls not willing to hurt others when they could stop it. Sadness gripped the nation and the world and I started to write adventurous stories of hope and courage – where good can overcome evil when people trust each other and work together.

Now several years later, I am one of thousands of laid off automotive engineers due to COVID19 restructuring. With time on my hands, I have posted links to my first 5 books in the George Hawkins Space Camper book series on the Facebook and LinkedIn marketplace.

I also speak on writing, motivation for 1-12 grade students, and career development “being a presence in the work place” for adults. And I have nearly completed the 7th book in the George Hawkins Space Camper series and I am ready to publish the 6th book in the series.