I grew up in northwestern Pennsylvania. After high school, I attended college where I majored in English literature and learned to ingest substances that altered my reality. I finally found my drug of choice - the ultimate mind and mood altering substance - alcohol.

This and a combination of other factors led me to leave school after two years in search of high adventure. My quest took me to Martha's Vineyard working in a campground and living next to James Taylor, driving an ice cream truck and learning that rich people don't buy from ice cream trucks, shoveling meat, blood, sawdust and debris into a grinder to make 'beef' patties in a meat-packing plant (briefly), managing a gas station, and continuing through mind-numbing factory work and bartending where I often ended up drinking as much as I served.

My mis-adventures led me to a last-gasp grasp at maintaining some kind of normal life by joining the US Navy, a move that was so illogical at the time that I still am amazed that it saved my life. I became an Operations Specialist doing duty on a Forrest Sherman class destroyer sailing out of Mayport Naval Station, Florida. More importantly for me, my life changed dramatically in the Navy due to the support and help of many, many people including a group of kind and honest folks who helped straighten me out. Some helped me with a hug and some with a kick in the ass; both were essential.


After I left the Navy, the ship that was my home for four years was decommissioned and later sunk by a Mark 48 ADCAP torpedo in a training exercise in 1988. There's some kind of symbolism wrapped up in that, but I still haven't worked it all out yet.

I left the Navy with my thirst for travel and excitement quenched and returned to school where I completed a BS in Computer Science. After graduation, I worked in the computer industry for many years in the Washington, DC area.

My work experience was primarily with   (now Raytheon)   and   (now Grumman)   where we researched and built large systems for various unnamed Government Agencies.

While working, I continued my education at Virginia Tech where I received a Master of Science in Computer Science. I began teaching in Virginia at Northern Virginia Community College where I taught introductory Computer Science part time in the evenings.

I have taught Computer Science full time since coming to Clarion University. I have had the opportunity to teach seventeen different courses, five of which I developed and all of which have changed dramatically in my time here.

I have been pursuing my PhD in Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh for a number of years. I am "ABD", but no longer actively pursuing the degree. Life has intervened. I still think about finishing the dissertation before I die, but I'm exploring the possibility of a posthumous award.

At this point the software that I wrote is terribly outdated. My area of research has been the visualization of software source code. The visualization process should promote a quicker and more complete understanding of the code and its structure which will lead to faster and more precise location of errors when modifying existing software systems.

I've spent countless hours since beginning running in 1979 while still in the Navy, but run a little less every year. Running is great exercise, but if you really want to get fit... try indoor rowing on a rowing ergometer.

The Concept 2 rower is the rower to have. It is used by olympic coaches to help select rowers for their team as well as wanna-be athletes like me. The machine is amazing and the workout is unreal. I've rowed over 20 million meters as of December, 2014.

Erging is a demanding sport complete with local (pittsburgh) racing and world championships (crash-b). An SI article on crash-b racing and and a crash-b video. A video of an indoor rowing race between two olympic athletes is intense. Outdoor rowing is possible locally also at places like Steel City Rowing Club and Three Rivers Rowing.