Informal Biography
I manage the HowToAdapt.com, Eskimo Escapades, and drctn.org web sites. I am on the Board of Directors for the Eskimo Escapades Foundation and the Knox County Disability Resource Center which is a Center for Independent Living. (CIL) Both are 501(c)3 non-profit entities. I scanned and MSword reformatted the book "Educating Families of the head Injured" by Dana S. DeBoskey, Jeffrey S. Hecht, and Connie J. Calub. I authored several online high school mathematics presentations about Ncubes. They can be found at the mathforum.org/t2t/ library. I was a Software engineer at Shoulders Corporation in Oak Ridge, Tennessee for a year ending in November, 2001. For twenty-six years before that, I worked as a computer programmer in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) creating web pages, working on critical databases and providing computer support for the Fusion Energy Division. I designed the initial ORNL Saturday Academy of Computing and Mathematics (SACAM) program for area high school students and gave three hour presentations to its students throughout SACAM's seven year run. I was presented an LMES Technical Operations award for SACAM in 1992.
I held numerous positions in the 60,000 member Digital Equipment Computer User's
Society (DECUS) for fifteen years, including:
President of the Smoky Mountain Area User's Group (SMAUG),
Local User Group (LUG) Coordinator for a ten state area,
Leader in the Artificial Intelligence Special Interest Group (AISIG),
Member of the DECUS US Chapter board of directors and
Vice President of the DECUS US Chapter in 1990.
For many years I played the cello in the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra and many local
string ensembles.
I was a VP in the Kingston Jaycees which won top National
honors way back in 1976.
I graduated from Murray State University in 1974 with a BS in Computing Science
with minors in physics and math and am a member of the Sigma Pi Sigma honor society.
I spent four years in the US Navy as an Electronics Technician and am a Vietnam veteran.
I grew up in Holland, Michigan and marched with the Holland High School Band in wooden shoes.
Other interests include hiking, biking, swimming, and a long-term love affair with hang gliding.
My wife, Betsy is my most special interest.
Change is rarely easy and some changes are more difficult than others. In January of 2001 I sustained a spinal cord injury (SCI) that left me paralyzed from the waist down. I consider myself as being Highly Inconvenienced (rather than handicapped) and I do what I can to minimize the injury's impact on me and my family while adapting to the changes that it dictates. Surprisingly, the injury introduced me to a whole new world of wonderful, talented people and I have learned many new skills and pockets of knowledge including accessible programming for the web.