I grew up in Erie, PA, graduated from McDowell High, and attended IUP where I majored in English literature for two years. I left school in search of high adventure that began on Martha's Vineyard, continued through factory work, driving an ice cream truck and bartending.
My adventures ended with four years in the US Navy as an Operations Specialist doing destroyer duty on the USS Jonas Ingram (DD-938) sailing out of Mayport Naval Station, Florida.
In the Navy, my life changed dramatically due to the support and help of many people including a group of kind and honest folks who helped straighten me out. I left the Navy with my thirst for travel and excitement quenched and returned to school to finish a Bachelor of Science at Edinboro University where I majored in Computer Science.
After graduation, I worked in the computer industry for seven years in the Washington, DC area. My work experience was primarily with E-Systems (now Raytheon) and TRW (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 in January, 1990. I have had the opportunity to teach seventeen different courses, three of which I was able to develop and all of which have changed dramatically in my time here. I use the web increasingly in my classes as evidenced by the growing body of pages I am generating. I am, however, skeptical about the web's use as an educational delivery tool. Anyone remember "Educational TV"?
I have been working on my PhD in Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh for a number of years and am "ABD", but I am no longer actively pursuing it. Life has intervened. I still think about finishing the dissertation before I die, although the possibility of a posthumous award is more appealing.
The software that I wrote is terribly outdated...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 live in the small town of Clarion, Clarion County, Pennsylvania with four wonderful women: my fabulous wife, Nancy (nee DiCarlo), and our three gorgeous girls -- Katie, Jamie and Kellie. We enjoy the surrounding countryside and especially enjoy the Clarion River where we often go kayaking.
I've spent countless hours since 1979 running , but seem to be getting slower every year. A great high school level running resource in Pennsylvania is PennTrackXC.com.
Running is great exercise, but if you really want to get fit...
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 9.4 million meters and am trying to reach 10 million. Erging is a demanding and fun sport complete with local racing and world championships. I'm even a member of a virtual rowing team.
Seen somewhere: "the older i get, the older i want to be..."