Dr. Robert Oman

• 06/18/2010- Robert Oman - Extract from Bob's Facebook page- "I am currently living in Singapore where I am building and maintaining several web sites, editing scientific papers, working on new projects including blogs on 'Effectively Studying Physics and Mathematics', and 'Nature's Constants: Clues to the future'."


• 08/16/2010- Bob Oman - Earlier Bob wrote that he was living and working in Singapore. He just finished an important project with his son Dan (writing the physics portion of the Barron's MCAT prep guide) and has found time to bring us up to date on his past early history and on his new experience living in Asia.
  
  "I have been communicating with Dave Leary and we both enjoy remembering some good times. Though there are certain things I would liked to have been different the times and place where we grew up was pretty good."
  
  Working in Easton - "My first job other than working in the family business which I did from an early age was working at the airport. Because I was too young to get a work permit I was paid in flying time (instruction) which was great because most of the instructors were former military pilots. Got quite an education there as well as learning about flying. Since I was part of the team I got treated better than the students. Years after that experience I wondered at the wisdom of employing former pilots who could not get flying jobs to teach former GIs how to fly so they in turn couldn't get flying jobs. Something about the way government does things that I just didn't understand - still don't. When I got older I got $0.25 per hour which eventually rose higher. I worked there until the GI program trailed off about my second year at Northeastern." "You and Dave both talk about small schools versus big schools. I never had that much concern. It didn't seem to matter to me whether it was Northeastern or Brown. I enjoyed both and learned a lot in both. The first thing I learned at Northeastern was how far behind I was coming from Oliver Ames. It took me literally years to catch up in certain subjects. After graduating Northeastern and when on active duty I had prescribed time for remedial study each week. At Northeastern I met some pretty sharp people, and at Brown I met some really sharp people, students I mean. And there were good teachers and losers in both places in about the same proportion. Also there were about the same proportion that really cared about giving you the best they could. I never regret the hard work. I learned French and German sufficiently well to read original work in each language. In one job I had, the literature was nearly all in German so this did me well. Same is true for the companies or academic institutions I worked for - small or large seemed to make no difference to me."
  
  "I did some really interesting things in the military particularly as a reservist first as a company commander in an infantry division (during my years at Brown) and then when I got assigned as a mobilization designee, that is someone the secretary of defense could call at his discretion and he did. It never bothered me that a Ph. D. student in physics at Brown was an infantry company commander. The CG of the division was head of the English department and I saw him regularly at the faculty club. I got sick of their manufactured crises and resigned about two years before potential retirement. One of the dumber things I have done. Not enough space for the entire list. Both the general and my advisor had been in OSS in WWII. Brown had more than its share of former OSS people. For years I was aggressively recruited by CIA. I finally got away from that by resigning from every professional organization and returning all letters from them marked deceased. They finally got the message."
  
  Living in Singapore - "We are here as Long Term Visitors. You can become a Permanent Resident or even a citizen if you want. Singapore is agressively recruiting outsiders. The SS and other income or pension checks are a problem. The scheme I use is direct deposit to a US bank and then I write a check on the account and give it to DBS, aka Dumbest Bank in Singapore, and three to four weeks later the funds appear in my Singapore account. Someone is making money on my float. It took 5 DBS people to endorse a check I wrote for aircon work and conclude they could not accept the check because I wrote AC for aircon. Next month they rejected a check because I did not put bars on the top of X in six - I kid you not. Expats here have their checks sent to the embassy, but picking them up is a pain. People who have renounced US citizenship get their checks with 30% withheld. They say it is better to pay the 30% and invest in Asia. I'm not convinced. With the dollar falling, we get a little less each month. My Japanese client does not want to pay me in Yen or Sing dollars so I am stuck with payment in US dollars."
  
  "The language is a whole other tangle of worms. The official language of Singapore is English and if you listen to the PM or other ministers and a few others they do speak English. The street language is something quite different. The cab drivers and tradesmen you meet rarely speak English. It is required at every school that students take English but with the rule against hiring native English speakers the language ends up below marginal for most people. We do a little teaching, and high school seniors cannot carry on an even poor conversation in English. I mean you can't understand a word they are saying. When I talk with my aircon guy I repeat everything back to him in the hopes that we get the date and time he is coming straight. Most of the time it works, but it is a pain. Go to a market or a restaurant and you will often not find anyone who speaks any English. Universal language HA! The most popular language is Malay followed by Mandarin and Hindi and another that escapes me at the moment. On the driver test the questions are written so poorly that Expats cannot pass the test because they cannot understand the questions. The newspapers are mostly in English but the English edition of the Tokyo times is possibly written better than the Straits Times. The Japanese like to make up compound words and sometimes they don't come out communicating real well."
  
  "The food here is excellent though not cheap. When beef comes from Australia it is expensive, but remember it is not filled with the growth hormones which you in the US get. The produce is great and inexpensive. Eating out is usually not bad. Booze which I do not partake of is very expensive - three time the price in the US. Plenty of good Italian restaurants, though my friend Luigi only recommends about three on the island. Microbreweries are common and there is a great one with associated restaurant run by Americans. Loud and on the river but OK now and then. When we host visiting US sailors we usually take them there. The Brown alumni club meets there. Oh, yes I single handedly increased the Brown club membership by 17%."
  
  "Doing business and keeping your profit is very good in Singapore. The US is one of the few countries that taxes money earned as interest or return on investment. Not here in Singapore. They know how to tax, but the taxes are not onerous as they are in the US. Setting up a business is relatively easy and inexpensive."
  
  "Thanks again for keeping up the site. As you all get a little older (Notice I did not include myself it that category.) I find that reminders of some good times count a lot."


• 09/08/2010- Robert Oman - Bob reports: "I'll be thinking of you this weekend when you are all in Mystic. Mystic is a great place to visit and I'm sure you all will enjoy it. Give my best wishes to everyone at the reunion.
  
  A small bottle of bourbon in Singapore is around $50.00 US. In Australia that same bottle is about $15.00 US. We bought some in Australia for my sister-in-law who was going to visit this fall. She is now not coming because of the continuing downturn in the US economy. For a couple thousand bucks you can come over and drink Kentucky bourbon brought in from Australia, and look out over the more than 100 ships waiting to enter the busiest port on the planet.
  Best regards to all,     Bob"


• 08/31/2011- Robert Oman- On the good news front, Judy and I recently toured in Europe with the high point being meeting with my Austrian cousin in Vienna. We share a great, great,... grandfather , Lucas Oman born c1700 in Valromana which is now an independent region at the corner of Italy, Austria and Slovenia. Though we had communicated since 2004 we did not start sharing pictures until near the time we met. The family resembelance is very strong. Friends kept looking closely at me and saying: "You look so much like Robert's father." His name is Robert Ernst Oman.


• 06/07/2012 - Bob Oman- "I am in Shanghai now and there are cars here marked SHANGHAI GM. There are also cars from Ford and Chrysler. US cars are not well represented. My informal survey would suggest VW, Toyota, KIA and Mitsubishi. About the cars being made in China, it is government policy. If you want to sell cars or airplanes or I'm sure most things, some of the product must me made in China. The tails of Boeings and Airbusses are all made in China. You make it here or our airlines cannot buy from you. The Chinese are buying US high sulfur coal. I see it in the pollution and feel it in my eyes. Don't bother to pack sunglasses for Shanghai!" Bob


• 04/04/2013- Letter to the Class From Judy Oman- Dear Harold, I found your address in Bob's change of address file. You seem to keep track of the Oliver Ames graduates, so enclosed in a copy of Bob's death notice. He had undiagnosed adrenocarcinoma, and passed away on 9 February. We left Singapore in January after both of us having ill health for the past 6 months. I never did get accustomed to the Singapore weather or germs. And he complained of "back problems" and sought out 3 different Singapore doctors. A cat-scan in the U.S. revealed tumors in his liver and left kidney. When we were able to attend your class reunions, we always had a great time. Your reunions were better than my Taunton Hogh School get-togethers. Our son Daniel and wife Caroline will be in Florida in June for a Memorial Service, but they will continue to reside in Singapore where they have established a tutoring school. Poor medical services aren't the only field where they need help in Singapore. Education is really bad in Math, Science and English. Bob developed the math program and I did the Englisn program. Dan obviouly did the science curriculum. Best regards, Judy Oman. The address is : Oman, 201 Isle Drive, St. Pete Beach, Fl 33706. Judy included a printout of an article that appeared in the Tampa Bay Times on 23 Feb 2013 about Bob's reknown work in Physics that benefited NASA and the moon landing programs.       View article and photos.
  
  Also read more about Bob's life and work in the Our Class> Careers section-