In December of 1958, Reginald Tillotson, president of Tillotson Construction Co., was working on a project in Kansas City, Mo. and was apparently a guest in the office of another company when he invited his youngest son, Michael, to make the 185-mile journey from Omaha and join the team.

Besides the purpose he expressed, it’s interesting to note the intentional jokey misspellings in a midcentury-comix style of writing, namely, “wouldend” for “wouldn’t” and “ketch” for “catch.”

Dear Mike;

I am working here in Beggs office and sure didn’t intend to ask you to do anything I wouldend do in wanting you to come here and help Tom out on these drawings. He really needs the help and any time you want to pack your bag and ketch the train down and go to work here it is OK with me.

I would appreciate it as it will free me to do the things I need to do and I know Tom would rather have you than me as I don’t know a 1-H from a 4-H pencil, etc. He saw what you did here on that sketch for Carrier, Okla. and was satisfied. His son is teaching here at the Finlay Engineering school here and you might want to look into the situation. Tom is the best elevator engineer I have met and has Wayne Skinner beat a thousand miles. You wouldn’t get better schooling.

Your Dad

P.S. You can come home week ends.

The “Beggs office” that Reginald refers to was probably Beggs Engineering, and more is to be learned about that concern and its relationship to Tillotson Construction Co. For now, though, the major takeaway is Reginald’s genial paternal tone and his droll way of praising and encouraging his son.

About five months before this letter, Mike was a passenger in a bad car accident with my father driving, my mother and I in the backseat, all of us flying out of a tiny little convertible, a Nash Metropolitan, in the night on a country road.

According to my mother Mary Catherine, who was Mike’s older sister, he suffered a fractured shoulder and, in consequence, lost his wrestling scholarship at University of Nebraska. From fragmented sources, we piece together the rest of his story. In 1959 and 1960, Mike served in the army. He then returned to Lincoln and attained a bachelor’s degree in education. No career as a schoolteacher or coach followed. Nor a career at Tillotson Construction Co.–it went out of business after Reginald’s death in 1960.

Mike had learned his carpentry skills building formwork for elevators, and it led to his long career as a carpenter.