Interview with Avraham Y Anouchi
How do you feel about your family, now that you’re an adult?
I can’t complain. My only son is a surgeon. I have four grandchildren. After losing my first wife to cancer, I built my new life with my present wife, whose five grandchildren call me grandfather.
What do you want from life?
Nothing more than I already have.
If you were granted three wishes, what would you ask for?
Health and enough time to write a master family tree for posterity.
What three things would you take to have in a Desert Island?
Books, a computer and my wife.
What, in the outside world, is preventing you from getting it?
I don’t want to be in a desert island.
How do you fall in love? At first sight? Over a long period?
It’s history. I just fell in love.
What parts of loving come easy for you? Hard?
I’m not a psychiatrist. I am an engineer.
How do you decide if you can trust someone? Experience with others? with this person? First impressions? Intuition? Do you test the person somehow? Or are you just generally disposed to trust or not to trust?
I am fortunate to have learned how to evaluate people I meet. I don’t rely on intuition. I carry a conversation and measure a new person by his or her responses.
When you walk into a room, what do you notice first? Second?
People and their facial expressions.
Describe yourself to me.
I am six feet in height weighing 180 Lbs. I am physically active and maintain my health by eating fish most of the time.
Is one sense more highly developed than another?
I wear glasses. I am hearing impaired and use hearing aids. I use captioning when I watch television. I go out to see movies only if they are in a foreign language with subtitles.
Did you turn out the way you expected? The way your parents predicted?
I don’t think my parents ever imagined that I would wind up in Harvard. I am satisfied with my education and with my professional accomplishments.
What really moves you, or touches you to the soul?
My passion for Israel.
What’s the one thing you have always wanted to do but didn’t/couldn’t/wouldn’t? What would happen if you did do it?
I wanted to trace my family tree as far back as its source in Toledo Spain before the expulsion of Jews in 1492. I succeeded to reach only as far back as 1790 even after spending two days in the Madrid archives of Jewish History and in a day at the University of Aix-en-Provence archives of French Jews outside France.
What do you consider are your strengths?
Ability to learn, analyze and design new things. I hold five patents.
What do you consider are your weaknesses?
Patience. I have trouble when I deal with people who are very slow.
What is one physical attribute you are proud of?
I was winner in high school sports. Nobody could beat me in High Jumps and 100-Meter races.
What one physical attribute would you change?
I would be ecstatic with good hearing
What do you consider your special talent?
Ability to learn, analyze and design new things. I hold five patents.
What are you most proud of about your life?
Serving as Vice President of a large Corporation and founding my own corporation.
Describe your ideal mate.
That would require to describe my ideal mate who lost her battle to cancer and my present wife who fills my life.
What are you most afraid of?
Anti-Semitism.
If you could be an animal, what would it be? (You can adapt this question to fit the character ie/make it what kind of car, plant, whatever.)
I don’t want to be an animal. God created humans to make them different from animals by enabling them to speak, think and create a beautiful world. Why would anyone want to be an animal? I certainly don’t want to be a car or a plant. I want to be creative.
Avraham Anouchi is an author, engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur. He grew up in Israel dreaming of studying engineering at the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa. He earned his engineering degrees in the United States, but left his heart in Haifa. He is a former Vice President in United Technologies Corporation. He is now the president and founder of a high technology engineering company.
Website: http://www.Anouchibooks.com
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/AviYoel
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/
Goodreads author page: https://www.goodreads.com/