I was born in Highland Park, Michigan in 1944. At the time my father was in England with the 8th Army Air Corps. 100th Bomb Group B17 Squadron stationed in Norwich. He was their engineer specializing in the Norton Bombsight. My mother was living with my Grandmother Stone and my Aunt Dulce in a large home on McLane Ave in Detroit. My Grandfather, Dr. Dayton Stone, once Chief Surgeon at Highland Park General had died years earlier. My Dad's mother, Grandma Lee, lived not far away with Dad's little sister, my Aunt Margie.

Sometime after Dad came home, we moved to Lansing where he worked at Oldsmobile. We lived on Pine Street in a second floor flat in a three floor house that must have been someone's mansion once. It was there or rather in a neighbors garden that I found my first hot pepper and recall the religious experience which has made me forever fond of spicy foods. My sister Andrea was born while we lived there.

Before I was five, Mom and Dad got the first house of their own on Kelsey.

After a couple of years, we moved back to Detroit, to 19441 Sunderland on the northwest side of town, where Andrea and I went to nearby Pitcher School.

When I finished sixth grade, we moved to our California Ranch style house on Shallowbrook in Bloomfield Hills. The house was built on a concrete slab without the usual midwest basement. Tile floors get really cold in the winter. I spent seventh through twelfth grades at Bloomfield Hills HS, now called Andover HS, and graduated in 1961. My interests in the sciences, mineralogy, geology, and astronomy were sparked there and at nearby Cranbrook Institute of Science where I became a member spending Saturdays in its library or planetarium. Cranbrook Institute of Science is part of the Cranbrook Academy, a private college prep school built on the grounds of the old Booth estate. It is very English in nature with beautiful gardens and a house featured in an A&E network show, America's Palaces. They have a very distinguished art institute and museum as well with many of Marshall Fredericks' sculptures. We recommend it as a place to visit in Michigan.

In the fall of 1961, I went to the University of Michigan to study Physics and had an abortive first semester culminating in withdrawal. The two most depressing incidents were my high-school friend's suicide and my girlfriend's withdrawal from school. I just didn't bounce back well and at U of M falling behind was terminal.

The next fall I went to Alma College where I was going to study Philosophy. Although I met many good friends there, I still was in trouble with my adjustment to college, failed to do the job in the spring and was dropped. Among the distractions which diverted my studies were interests in mysticism, political action, and pacifism. While at Alma I joined the Student Peace Union and the War Resistors League. We engaged in some protest actions against the situations in Cuba and Vietnam. That was time when Buddhist monks were committing suicide in protest of the Diem regime

That summer, my crazy summer, I moved to a room in Detroit near the Wayne State campus and worked for Hudson's store in Dearborn. I had met Susan and her sister Pat via an activist friend Ron who I had met at Alma. We did a number of things together and I became strongly attached to Susan and moved west to San Jose, California, to be near her at Santa Clara University.

In San Jose I began working for the Insurance Company of North America where I continued until my move back to Michigan after working myself up from mail boy to printer. Kennedy's assassination in November was particularly hard for me producing very conflicting feelings. I had protested his administration's actions in Vietnam and his perpetuation of the embargo of Cuba. Still, I felt he was much better than the alternatives considering his social agenda.

While in San Jose, I became a pre-flower child becoming involved with the folk music and blues scene at the OffStage where I got to know some interesting talents including Jerry Garcia, Paul Kantor, and Jorma Kaukonen in their nascent pre-Dead and pre-Airplane days. I even bought at guitar and took some lessons from Kaukonen. Perhaps, I should have continued with that.

My interest and beliefs in pacifism grew as I became more involved with the peace movement joining the Fellowship of Reconciliation and meeting Shorty Collins, the pacifist chaplain at San Jose State. I became a registered Conscientious Objector with my Michigan Draft Board.

Returning to Michigan in '65 to do alternate service as a CO in Ann Arbor, I worked at the University of Michigan Hospital in the kitchen. Eventually, I moved to a factotum position as assistant to the Mental Health Research Institute Director's Administrative Assistant. Peter Headly gave me a break and got me started in programming. More details of that are in my career pages.

More importantly, MHRI is where I met Linda. We were married in '69.

Linda was born and raised in San Francisco and we were glad to move back to California in '70 after experiencing one of Michigan's worse years for weather. We lived in an apartment in the Twin Peaks Castro Valley area nearby her parents' home. She worked in purchasing for Saint Joseph's Hospital and I worked downtown in the business district for a new computer firm. I had been planning to work with Peter Headly in a medical billing systems start-up that never got started because he was killed in an accident riding his BMW R-50 on the Trans-Canandian Highway.

Another friend from Michigan, John Seely-Brown, had moved to Laguna Beach to teach at UCI after getting his Ph.D. at U of M. He helped me get restarted on an education by persuading Dr. Julian Feldman, the Chairman of the Information and Computer Science Department of UCI, to give me a chance through the UC academic renewal program. Linda and I moved to Costa Mesa in '71 so I could attend UCI.

Things went well for a while and I really enjoyed UCI where I went for a couple of years working part time for Dr. Nick Colby and as a consultant to Ted Koziatek, a Financial Advisor in Tustin. Then Linda had our son Sam in '73 and I had to get a full time job with Educational Data Systems and school took a back seat. I finally gave up on getting through UCI and began my life as a full time worker and part time student taking evening courses at Orange Coast College to fill in some professional needs.

While in Costa Mesa we got Tasha a reddish blond Afghan hound. She was a wonderful baby and we bred her to a champion belonging to Pat Ide. Out of the liter of six, we ended up with two we couldn't part with. Charlie (aka Huzzah Antares) and Lummie (aka Huzzah Equilla) whose call name is after a loveable creature character in Heinlein's Star Beast. They were good strong dogs that did well in matches but were never campaigned for real points. Charlie could have been a contender.

After getting my AA at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, I completed my BS in Computer Science in '92 and my Masters in Computer Science in June '99 at CSU Fullerton. I owe a lot to Dr. David Falconer for shepherding me through the MS after contributing a lot of assistance while I worked on the BS.

We still live in the nice house in Mission Viejo that we bought new in '79. Although we have enjoyed it here, we are looking forward to relocating when I find a new job.

After loosing our three Afghans to complications of old age, Linda brought home Shadow, an blue brindle Afghan rescued from the condemned in a shelter. He was the most remarkable afghan we have ever seen and we loved him greatly. Our next dog, should there be one, will probably be a Soft-coated Wheaton. Although, once you've had an Afghan, it is hard to imagine another breed. Yet, I sometimes think a Saluki would be nice too.

We are now down to Sam's desert tortoise Oscar. He's not too much bother except for the burrowing during the fall. It is convenient that he hibernates from late October to early April. Just sleeps in a box in the garage and hisses if disturbed. He will probably still be alive when Sam's kids are old. Wish dogs could live nearly that long.

I last worked as Senior Software Engineer for Integrated Test Solutions in Irvine; but, business got bad and the owner relocated to Lake Havasu in Arizona after laying off the few of us who were left.

Going back to school at Saddleback College, I am updating my skill set with the technology that seems to be in demand (eCommerce, XHTML, PERL, JavaScript, XML, Java, SQL, and CGI). I hope the fates bring a new job quickly.

Linda works as floral designer and manager of the floral department of the Von's in San Juan Capistrano.