Biography: Employment

Eckert's first true employment (apart from newspaper delivery) was at age 10 (1941), when he worked two hours after school each day cleaning a doctor's office near his home in Chicago. From that point on he was almost constantly employed, but at a wide variety of jobs which, between 1941 and the time when he became a full time free lance writer (1960), included (alphabetically):

airboat operator, aircraft assemblyline worker, apiarist, associate editor of corporate house organ, archery instructor, auto mechanic, bowling pin-setter, bread truck deliveryman, bus driver, chauffeur, chemicals apprentice, chief clerk, city fire fighter, columnist, commercial artist, court reporter, dairy farmer, dishwasher, ditch-digger, dock worker, editor of weekly military newspaper, exploration, fishing guide, fossil collector, fur trapper, furnace installation, gardener, gemstone faceter, golf caddy, graphics technician, greeting card writer, heavy equipment operator, lapidary, licensed private detective, museum biological collector, newspaper feature writer, oil line rider, outdoor editor, photographer, plastics technician, police reporter, postman, poultry farmer, ranch hand, residential handyman, salesman, screen-door builder, short order cook, sign painter, smorgasbord chef, snake hunter, stock clerk, taxi driver, treasure hunter, truck driver, upholsterer, etc.