A Brief "Bio"

Like many Arizonans, I was transplanted here from the midwest (Chicago) when I was 4 years old. Raised in Scottsdale, I graduated from Scottsdale High School in 1973. My family moved to the west side of the "Valley of the Sun" during my senior year, and I wound up going to Glendale Community College as a result. I took my first college level geology classes from J. Robert Thompson. I decided that I liked geology, and went on to earn a bachelors degree from Northern Arizona University in 1979. Upon graduating from NAU, I went to work for a highly unusual company that had acquired (mineral specimen) collecting rights with many of the large mining companies in Arizona (Phelps Dodge, Kennecott). Though not very monetarily rewarding for the miners, I got to live and work at many world famous old mining sites like the Red Cloud Mine, and the Grand Reef Mine, and others over a period of about 3 years. After that, I took on the responsibility of managing the world famous Stewart Lithia Mine in San Diego County, California, where we mined the sought after "Hot Pink" tourmaline. In 1983, I moved eastward of the Continental Divide (something I swore I'd never do!), and took on another mining project, a quartz crystal mine in Mt. Ida, Arkansas, and lived in the Ouachita mountains for 5 years. I missed the open spaces of the Southwest, and in 1989, I returned to Arizona to take this Science Lab Technician job at GCC (full circle!). The opportunity to teach introductory geology lab classes (GLG 103) came about shortly afterward, and I have found this to be a very satisfying, enjoyable and rewarding experience.

 

Things I like to do? Well, obviously I like Minerals and Rocks - they're all over my house and my office!

 

Whitewater rafting, camping, touring, and shopping antique stores are some of the things my wife Renee (together 26 years and counting!) and I enjoy the most.

 

Music is another passion, playing guitar and other instruments with my friends occurs on a regular basis. In fact, we have a small band consisting of fellow GCC geology faculty - Gary Calderone on Rythym guitar, Guy Ivester on Bass guitar (husband of geology instructor Betsy Ivester at Scottsdale Community College), Bill Engstrom (another geologist who works for ADEQ) on percussion, and myself playing Lead guitar, mandolin, guitjo, wooden flutes, diggeridoo,Tibetan bowls, Mouth harp, keyboards - whatever I can get my hands on! We call ourselves "The Mass Wasters" - an "inside" joke name, taken from geological processes! We mainly play Grateful Dead, Neil Young, Bob Dylan and some of our own stuff - and, it's all just for fun!!

 

 

 

URL: http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/appliedscience/wmjweb/whoami.html

Last update: Tuesday July 15 2008