A Brief Biography

I was born October 4, 1963 in Roseau, Minnesota, USA. I never lived that far North. After a month I was shuttled off to college in Tennessee where I lived for two years (and learned to talk).

Mom and Dad met at Oak Hills Bible Institute (now Oak Hills Christian College) in Bemidji, Minnesota. They were married -- and so, I was.

Dad went on to Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee (just north of Chattanooga), where he earned a teaching degree. After that, Dad taught school for two years in Illinois. We lived in Port Byron, Illinois, right on the Mississippi River. How I loved to watch the barges and trains go by! After two years, Dad became a preacher. We moved back to Northern Minnesota (you know, the source of the Mississippi -- really)!

I lived in Lake George, Minnesota. I consider that place my home. Not so much the people, although many of them are dear friends still; many of them have moved away. It was the endless forest, the lakes, the peaceful place of my childhood. My back yard was a million acres of state forest. I am thankful for a place to consider home. The most memorable vacation (although I was small) was a trip my family, accompanied by my Uncle Dennis Carlson and his family, took to Ely, Minnesota. We borrowed my Grandpa's tent (World War II Army vintage) and headed out. The weather did not cooperate very well during our trip. We enjoyed lots of rain, and one tornado. As three of the adults held down a corner of the tent and my Uncle the center pole, I alternated between the remaining corner, and assisting on the pole. We survived. The trip is forever etched in my memory! Dad was the pastor of the Lake George Bible Chapel four years.

We moved to Cottonwood, Minnesota. Farming country, down where thinking about Laura Ingalls Wilder doesn't seem so odd. She lived just a little further East.... I remember the biggest blizzard of my lifetime in Cottonwood. The house was buried. We could walk from the snow drift to the roof. The two cars in the front yard were completely buried too. We also went on several neat vacations while we lived in Cottonwood. My Uncle Dennis and family accompanied us on several cool weekend trips. On longer trips we visited the Black Hills, Niagara Falls, and Fall Creek Falls (Tennessee). We also made our annual trips to my Grandma Watts' house to be with family and celebrate Christmas.

Just when you think things are going to be the same forever, it's time to move on. Dad was the pastor of the Cottonwood (now) Evangelical Free Church three years.

Moving from Cottonwood was very hard for me. While living in Cottonwood I developed several friendships that were very important to me. The announcement that we were moving came as a complete surprise.

But move we did. To Hillsdale, Illinois, just eight miles from Port Byron. Dad planned long before, that he would preach seven years and then teach seven years; alternating between both. Since he had connections in Illinois, and we had lived there before, it seemed a reasonable choice to go back and continue his teaching there.

The move was not so bad after all. I was now at the age when girls started to look interesting. There clearly were more here, than there were back in the small town in Minnesota.

I took a paper route almost immediately. The income helped me buy the fun things I thought I needed. It also encouraged my already present tendency to spend whatever I have. I also started working with my Dad. Dad, aside from being a preacher and retired teacher, also supplements his income with carpentry and construction. I learned especially well how to shingle. I also made the good decision to save some of my income in a then high interest (12.00 & 15.75 percent) Certificate of Deposit (CD).

I had the hardest time understanding the difference between guys and girls (sometime you should ask me about all of my exploits....). Perhaps it was the desire to attract a certain girl that caused so much difficulty. It was expensive. I failed.

During this time I ventured out on my first (and so far only) bike ride across Iowa. Unfortunately, I trained for hard riding, but not for heat. I picked the hottest day of the year to start out on the longest day of my life.

Riding from town to town (watering hole to watering hole), I found the will to continue fading with each stop. My trusty radio (my only companion that day) told me it was 105 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade. But the highway has no shade. The sensation of blasts of hot air blowing in my face caused serious bouts with nausea throughout the day. Finally, when the temperature didn't drop below 80 degrees (even at midnight) I decided not to continue the trip.

After finishing high school at the Quad Cities Baptist Academy (it no longer exists, really), I had to decide on college.

Examining my options, I investigated the School of the Ozarks, Branson, Missouri (actually, there was a very special girl who was also considering the School of the Ozarks. Neither of us went there), LeTourneau College (now University -- I really like the life story of the founder R.G. LeTourneau as told in his autobiography Mover of Men and Mountains), and Moody Bible Institute, before deciding to go to Oak Hills Christian College (that's right, the same one my parents went to). Mom and Dad wanted me to attend at least one year of Bible school before going on to other things. I agreed and then stayed for two.

At Oak Hills, I met Jayne Downing and decided she is a neat lady! After I graduated (Jayne was one year ahead of me), we were married (using that high interest CD money). Then on to more schooling.

My next stop on the education train was Bemidji State University. Although BSU is not a large school, I am glad I made the choice to attend there. I spent a great deal of time learning the VMS Operating System. I joined (briefly) a group of guys writing a text based Adventure game at school. During my Senior year, my favorite class was Operating Systems II. In the class (of ten weeks) I, with Jon Wold, designed and implemented a not-too-shabby operating system called DmDos. Considering the short period of time in which the project was built, it was a significant accomplishment. Jon and I worked together reasonably well. He and I seem to prefer to focus on the other's weak spots. While Jon was intently writing piles and piles of code, I was intently getting the picky details, like making the operating system boot from a diskette, done. We earned (IMHO) an A in the class.

My English professor recommended me for an English Emphasis, that I regretfully did not pursue. Had I thought more about it, the English Emphasis would have benefited me a great deal later. My writing exploits might have been significantly more interesting too.

After college I accepted a job with Erie Foods International. I worked in the data processing department for one year. During that time I learned something about the IBM System/34, MAPICS, RPG II, product scheduling and tracking, ocean cargo transportation, product availability forecasting and the food ingredients business. The position was actually supposed to be short term. When I went out looking for work, I interviewed at a company (using IBM System/38 computers) within ten miles of Byron, Illinois. Might have been interesting to live in a town by my own name in Illinois! But no. I decided to pursue bigger things.

Jon Wold accepted a position with IBM in Rochester, Minnesota. When I was looking for work, Jon suggested I send my Resume to IBM. After two attempts, I achieved an interview with IBM! Meanwhile, I received a job offer...a small company in Davenport, Iowa offered me a position at reduced salary. In the attempt to accept the better offer, I asked that company to wait a week for my answer. During that week, IBM offered me a job.

Coincidentally (partly), I bought a house in Byron, Minnesota after looking seriously for a place to rent and discovering the cost to be the same as buying a house. The price in Byron was about $10,000 cheaper than Rochester prices at the time.

I accepted a job in PC Support/400. My primary focus was the PC Support/400 Organizer for OS/2. The code I wrote was designed to work intimately with the Workstation Feature program. It was a great learning experience. On the project, I learned Modula-2, and the OS/2 operating system. Turns out that Jon Wold was the guru on the Organizer project....

Time for new things seems to come fairly often in the life of a programmer. My next project was Facsimile Support/400. Working on the fax project for nearly five years I learned the C programming language and deepened my understanding of the OS/2 operating system. I also learned some of the details involved in Group 3 facsimile communications. My job involved interfacing between the AS/400 host computer and the Personal Computer facsimile adapter. This included understanding image processing, conversion and printing because the Facsimile Support/400 product attaches the facsimile controller as a printer to the AS/400 system.

Again I moved on. This time to Client Access/400; the group formerly named PC Support/400. Again I worked with Jon Wold. He asked me to come over to the Client Access/400 group and work on an enhancement to the Windows 3.1 client he wanted to do. It was difficult going from an experienced expert in the Facsimile Support/400 world, to a complete Novice in the Client Access/400 group. Jon was the Guru of Shared Folders for Windows 3.1. He continually drove me to distraction by focusing on the assembly language output of his tools (a very valuable skill - that I don't claim to have).

Next we took on the assignment of digging Client Access/400 out of a sticky spot with Wide Area Network (WAN) code that had serious quality problems. Using previous Modula-2 and C programming language experience, I ported the WAN code from Modula-2 to C. Jon focused on converting the ported C code to Windows 3.1 VxD code. The project solved many problems with the existing WAN code and made many customers happy.

After the Windows 3.1 WAN project, the focus was turned to Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT. Another big player, Java, appeared. I have been working in Java and C++ trying to create an environment in which both languages coexist peacefully.

I was asked to work on a product called iSeries Navigator. I worked on this project for over 5 years learning the intricacies of an infrastructure that was designed by multiple developers and created by a huge team.

I worked over seventeen years with IBM. I consider myself a Personal Computer programmer. I have lots of experience dealing with multitasking operating systems such as OS/2, Microsoft Windows and Linux.

Another aspect of the job has been a great deal of customer support. I enjoy talking with people and helping them solve the problems they have. Facsimile Support/400 offered me the chance to deeply understand a product, and then support it. iSeries Navigator gave me the chance to support a product I didn't yet fully understand. Both experiences helped me gain an appreciation for the thoughts and feelings of my customers.

March 10-13, 2006 I took classes to become a Certfied Real Estate Specialist with the Robert Allen Institute. My current emphasis is on Real Estate Rehab projects.

If you wish to take a look at my Resume, we might be able to do some work together.

There are clearly more details in this sketch that I could have included. I will probably add some details in the future. Thanks for taking a peek!

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