Don Lusk Books, Poems with a Purpose, Lessons from the Dead

Biography

Don Lusk graduated from Marquette University with a degree in chemistry and did graduate work at Michigan and Loyola Universities. Before retirement he worked for several large companies over a 35 year career in chemical and materials research. He authored some 20 patents and 5 technical papers in polymer chemistry, ceramic coatings, metal powders and plastics technology. His best work was developing a model to predict the life of plastics during exposure to pressurized hot water. The multi-plate settling system he developed purified inorganic suspensions 100 times faster than gravity settling, and won an engineering award in 1968. His most unusual invention was the "Incredible Edible", a digestible plastic for the dairy industry. The most satisfying patent he developed was a unique way to improve corrosion protection with semi-permeable coatings; it helped maintain his research career in the face of corporate downsizing.

Don began creative writing as a boy by drawing weekly comic books that were distributed to friends. He was the neighborhood story teller and helped calm cranky children with tales of talking rabbits and comic cats. He wrote on the high school and college newspapers, and his feature article, "Big Bertha Booms Again", was picked up by several campus newspapers where this monster drum was part of their marching bands. He was a member of the Ozaukee Writers’ Club and attended writing classes at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has prepared articles for the Milwaukee Journal ("A Great Sport: The Marquette Tennis Classic"), Milwaukee Technical College’s Magazine ("Feeling the Pain of Computers") and The Ozaukee Writer’s Club Workshop ("The Restless Robot"). His most widely read work is the degrading tale of Poly Olefin’s undoing by hot Mr. Waters in "The Journal of Polymer-Plastics Technology", innocently enough titled, "Degradation Mechanisms of Olefin Plastics in Hot Water".

Don’s love of books and writing blossomed into an addiction for poetry late in life as trials beset him. Both his infirmed parents came to live with him in his small home. Crowding and their daily medical care was a constant strain on his entire family. Corporate downsizing resulted in the demotion and firing of many older engineers and posed a constant threat to his job. His unique patent for anode coatings to control corrosion, developed with only minimal resources and a strong spiritual orientation, saved his job, and enabled him to achieve a secure retirement. In spite of the stress connected with them, these trials helped him achieve his dream to write worthwhile books, showing that hardship, patiently endured with a strong faith, can lead to a better life.

Since retirement Don has home published three books besides Lessons from the Dead. His second volume of poetry for non poem people, The Listening Spirit, also echoes spiritual themes. The Best of Us is a group of poems and essays dedicated to his good friend, John Joyce, who died unexpectedly in 1995. Star Study contains poems and essays about science and philosophy. He is presently working on a book of short stories, Golf Lessons, about the spiritual side of the game, and is planning a book detailing the experience he’s gained publishing his works (Writing Insights) to help would-be authors see their words in print. He hopes to continue his novel Witches' Council begun in 1980 but stalled by person and professional problems, and would like to do a popular science book about the art of invention and his experiences in industrial research.