After graduation from Deering and his father’s transfer out west, Leland set aside his hopes of studying at MIT and entered the electrical engineering program at the University of Southern California. Jobs at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and General Electric’s Computer Division working on satellite tracking and magnetic and optical character readers convinced him to start his own company. In 1976, he launched Hanchett Entry Systems (HES), which manufactures access control devices.  Hanchett’s name is on 36 patents. HES products are installed in thousands of buildings worldwide – in Moscow hotels, military buildings in Hawaii, and inside the National Security Agency headquarters in Maryland. “Being on the door to the inner sanctum at the NSA was great advertising,” he laughed.

After selling HES in 1998, Leland found himself at a crossroads. His wife's health was deteriorating. When she passed, he turned to researching energy recapture for HES and writing about local history. His love of history was inspired by his Deering High School teacher, Miss Ring. “We’d have long chats about her plans to spend the summer in someone’s attic reading letters from the Civil War era, written by soldiers down south. She was the one who got me started on history,” he said.  Miss Ring would likely be pleased that he has authored ten local history books about places he’s called home—Arizona, Montana, and Maine.  Another favorite teacher was Mr. Long, who taught physics. Mr. Long had been a mentor whose encouragement had lasted through Leland’s Master's Degree program.    

In 2007, fifty-two years after graduation, Leland Hanchett returned to Maine to celebrate turning 70 with his Deering High School classmates. Curious about what had happened with his high school sweetheart, Susanne Koengeter, he dropped by her sister Monica’s house in Falmouth.  The Hanchett and Koengeter families had been neighbors on Martin’s Point; both fathers worked at the Marine Hospital. Lee and Susanne dated throughout his senior year but parted that summer when his father was reassigned to a hospital in Arizona. 

Leland’s visit prompted Monica to email her sister, who’d lived in Germany for over 40 years. When Leland returned to his Montana home, he found an email from Susanne in his inbox. They emailed back and forth for a few weeks, and then Susanne booked a ticket to spend time with him and his family for Thanksgiving. After decades apart, they still had a lot in common, and Susanne returned to stay by Valentine’s Day 2008. They built a house in Maine in 2009 and now live a short distance from Monica and her family. 

The Man Behind the Revolution -- Security Today

https://securitytoday.com/Articles/2014/06/01/The-Man-Behind-the-Revolution.aspx

Pinerim Publishing

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