Forced to endure the dictatorship of Nazi Germany throughout his childhood years, Dieter Froehling left his German homeland for the United States with his wife and children in 1957 at the age of 25. He couldn't stand political regimes ripping apart the country he was born in and decided to pack up and leave.

"Germany was bombed out and cut up. The future didn't look too bright," said Froehling.

He didn't find himself lost in a new country for very long. For the 77-year-old, finding a job in his field of the "high-tech industry" as well as a home for his family was an almost automatic process. He found quality employment with the Marine Corps within a week.

"I found the best job like that," said Froehling.

He moved to Milwaukee for the first 4½ years to work as a high-tech engineer for a research department. He said he was later recruited to work for the Harvard Observatory and a NASA project to design an instrument to measure the surface temperature of the moon -- years before the United States landed on it. For the limited commute to work, he moved from Milwaukee to Billerica, Mass.

"I had the education and the skills," said Froehling.

He was also fluent in the English language by the time he graduated from high school. In Germany, English and Latin classes were taken every day -- just the same as biology and zoology. He says the education programs in Germany are of higher quality compared to American school systems.

"Graduating from high school there is the equivalent of two years of college here," said Froehling.

But Froehling didn't spend all his life in a lab. He is a family man as well as a scientist.

He has fathered three children and currently lives with one of his sons in Seabrook.

After his wife died, he left Massachusetts because of high property taxes and a feeling that Massachusetts was becoming too constrictive.

"I'm a firm believer in freedom. Massachusetts is becoming a socialist state. I like it here," said Froehling.

HANGING OUT WITH
Dieter Froehling, 77
Seabrook CVS
Monday Feb. 26, 3:30 p.m.