Personal Bio
Part 1: The Beginning
(Life in Chicago Through Kindergarden)
I was born in Chicago, at Cook County Hospital on a Wednesday morning's winter day.
For you ER fans, it is the hospital the show is based upon. I was
the last of three sons to my parents (aka the baby, even though I always hated that
term.) Shortly after, my parents moved to the great metropolis of Tinley Park, which
at the time, was a farm community in Will County, south of Chicago. Now Tinley
Park is a fully grown suburb of Chicago. My greatest memories of Tinley Park
were in no particular order:
- Tinley Park was a small tight-knit community where everybody knew everybody else.
Therefore it was hard to do something wrong and not have your parents find out before
you got home!
- Cold dark winters. I remember waiting for the school bus to never come while
freezing my butt off outside. After a few weeks of this, the lady on the corner
would let us kids wait inside her doorstep for the bus. That was a great relief.
- Going on the train to downtown Chicago and looking over the Chicago River from my
dad's office on Wacker Drive. It was a long way down from there.
- John Kennedy's assasination. (OK I show a little of my age.) It stopped
the world, which for a little kid, was earth-shaking. John, Jr. saluting his
father's casket as it was pulled by, is still a very clear memory.
- Trying to row a boat at one of the lakes in Wisconsin when I was 4 years old.
It just did not work well. My effort brought a laugh to everyone in the boat.
After a few minutes -- and moving nowhere, I gave up and passed the oars back.
But I tried! That was the only weekend I could remember when my parents and
I were the only ones on that trip. My brothers must have been in Alabama visiting
my grandparents at the time.
OK I am a Chicago Cubs
fan (even though I was living in the south-side).
 I
will  explain
why I prefer the Cubs to the Sox a little later. I also follow
the Chicago Bears. They were the first professional sports teams I caught
my interested. My interst in the Cubs regenerated when Harry Caray took over
as the announcer for the Cubs. He became the voice of the cubs. We all
miss his line "it could be... it is... a home run." As for College Football,
it was the University of Alabama (Roll Tide!) which was my father's alma mater.
Bear Bryant was The coach at Alabama.
The Wonder Years
(Growing Up In Gladstone, MO)
In the mid 1960's my parents moved to Gladstone, MO,
 a
suburb in the north side of Kansas City. From there,
 I
went to Meadowbrook Elementary (G1-6) , Antioch Junior High, and finally Oak Park
High School. During this time of my life, I became a Kansas City Royals fan after the Kansas City A's left town
for Oakland. Since the Royals and the White Sox were in the same division,
I lost interest in following the White Sox. My passion for the Cubs was unchanged.
I also became an avid Kansas City
Chiefs fan. It was great to see the Chiefs win a Super Bowl, and the
Royals win a World Series.
For most of the years, I ran around with a small group of friends. During
this time, many world wide events change my opinion on life. One of these
was man walking on the moon, and coming home afterward. Another event was
the President of the United States resigning in disgrace.
I could probably go on with everything else, but that is not what I am trying to
present here. The point of this time was how I got interested in Science and
Technology. That really got started in Junior High and really got going in
High School. It was there that I chose to go into Engineering in College,
and I took as much prepatory classes in High School to get ready for Engineering.
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