The founder- Matt was always interested in technology and electronics. Just after the time he started school, the embers lit and started to burn. He was naturally curious about how electronics work. Matt had a Realistic brand radio (see page 39, bottom right corner of the Radio Shack catalog for an estimation of what it looked like). These radios were a great way to entertain yourself or a small group. Plenty of the models allowed you to record live radio to a cassette tape, or you could just record from the integrated microphone.

This integrated mic was one of Matt’s favorite features. He discovered (as did many kids) to his delight that if you speak through a running fan that your voice sounds like a robot. Many many audio recordings were made by he and his siblings.

Any time Matt would find broken electronics- out came the tools. Matt would dissect each device whether it be an old radio, vacuum cleaner, cassette player or video game console… he would take it apart, look for broken pieces and try to fix it. That drive to make things whole again stuck with him.

In his late teens, he earned his driver’s license. And everyone knows cars are a big expense. Being a teenager with no degrees yet, he couldn’t command much of a salary working at the local grocery store as a bagger or auto parts store a couple doors down. So when his vehicle broke, he learned how to fix that too. He will forever be grateful to the neighbor that tought him auto repair. Tony Theis is an amazing person and will never ever be forgotten by Matt or many many others.