I grew up in Winter Haven, FL and received degrees in Physics from Florida State University. After a short stint as an infrared astronomer in Massachusetts I spent 31 years in government service in a variety of technical and executive positions for NASA (the Cape, Electronics Research Center, Space Station Program, Goddard Space Flight Center), the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Energy.

After retiring from NASA in 1996 I worked for nearly four years as the Information Technology Architect for the Fairfax County VA school district. My wife Anne and I moved back to Florida in late 1999 to help care for aging relatives and were lucky enough to settle in Ocala. We have one daughter who lives in California and is a software tester for a small Silicon Valley company.

My introduction to the personal computer world was with an Apple IIe purchased in the mid-80's. It pains me to think that this computer cost me more than my latest MacPro tower! After a couple of years I purchased a PC so that I could run the recently released spreadsheet program -- VisiCalc. I stuck w/ PCs for many years but decided to make the switch back to the Apple world several years ago when the Mac was released with the intel chip. Since there are several Windows programs that I still need the Mac, running Windows 7 under Fusion, provides me with the best of both worlds.

I have been involved with web activities of various sorts since the late 1980s, but didn't get serious about learning web development until my second retirement. Since moving to Ocala I have created web sites for a couple of schools, a local charity, other local organizations, and several personal sites. In 2006 I started teaching a basic web design class in CFCC's Continuing Education Department. Most of what I know I learned by reading, analyzing the work of experts in the field, and lots of trial and error (lots of errors). My other interests are photography, reading, and providing technical support to my extended family. I also hold (along with two other people) a weekly "open lab" at the public library where patrons can get computer and software help.

My current computer lash-up includes a MacPro, a 13" MacbookPro, my wife's Mac mini, an iBook, and various printers, scanners, and external drives. My most-used applications include Pages, Keynote, Word, Excel, Photoshop Elements, MacJournal, DevonThinkPro, and bbEdit, but I have many other programs that make my computing life enjoyable.