I was born in, and have always lived in New York. Not the City, mind you, out in the suburbs of Long Island. From the time I was very young, I was always interested in electronics and mechanics. Whether I was mounting the lawnmower engine on my bicycle, building strange and often dangerous contraptions from wood, metal, and spare parts, or generally taking apart anything I could get my hands on, it was widely known early on that a technical education was sorely needed. My pre-teens were filled with minibikes, hockey, and the amazing first ever available home computers. I spent every available hour in front of the tube, and even before I entered high school, I I had mastered what at the time was college level programming (Now, its considered ancient history). It would have been no surprise to anyone if I had gone to college to study Computer Science. To throw them all off balance, I instead chose the study of Electrical Engineering (with a minor in Computer Science).
I found out two important things in college. The first is that learning how to do something was much harder that just doing it and figuring it out along the way. I like my way better. The second thing I found out was that scuba diving was even more amazing than I had imagined. Despite the first thing, I managed to get a degree in Electrical Engineering with a concentration in Computer Engineering (the electronic design of computer systems) along with a minor in Computer Science from the State University of NY at Stony Brook. Thanks to the second thing, I unlocked a long dormant passion.
From my early youth, I was mystified and captivated, as were so many, by the images delivered to the world by Jacques Cousteau. But what really put a fire in my belly was the lure of shipwrecks. I remember vividly watching Peter Gimbel's documentary on the search of the Andrea Doria. It wasn't even the lure of treasure. It was more the search of the unknown. Little did I know that the greatest shipwreck playground in the world was just outside my back door. At the age of 17, in 1986, I became a certified scuba diver, and was first introduced to real live shipwreck diving. Since that time I have worked on and off for seven years as a mate on some of the local diving vessels in New York. In June of 1990 I finally realized my personal goal, and dove the Andrea Doria. To date I have done over 1000 decompression dives in the North Atlantic, primarily in the waters south of New York and east of New Jersey. I am a certified as an instructor for Open Water Diving, Wreck Diving, Deep Diving, Nitrox Diving, and Rebreather Diving. My current projects include becoming certified as a Tri-Mix instructor, a re-visit to the Andrea Doria, and diving the Monitor, a Civil War Ironclad in 260 feet of water. For more information on Diving, see my Diving Page.
When I left college, times were tough for Electrical Engineers, especially on Long Island. Grumman had closed down, leaving thousands of highly experienced engineers looking for any jobs they could get. My chances fresh out of school of landing an EE job against that competition were slim. Perhaps if I had a degree from MIT, I would have stood a fighting chance. Instead, I turned back to my knowledge of computers. I took a job working for a data communications company designing and implementing a worldwide network of enhanced facsimile services servers. The job broadened my horizons, with assignments in Mexico, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. All that travel began to wear on my endurance as well as my marriage, so I decided to settle back home working for a small networking company. After almost three years, that just wasn't working out well. I went back to working for a much bigger company, and partnered with my friends on the side to build a small networking company that treated their customers and did business the way we all wanted to...with honesty, integrity, and genuine concern for the success of our clients.
Today, I still live in Long Island with my wife Jane of seven years, and my cats, Oreo and Doublestuff (See my Family Page). I work for the third largest software company in the world as a System Architect doing design/development. My current assignment is the development of software to enable new types of services in the Information Technology arena. Additionally, I am a partner and the VP of Operations in our small but growing network services firm providing computer network sales, services, and support for small and medium sized companies. I still teach scuba diving from beginner to advanced, dive regularly during the spring, summer, and fall, and take apart whatever I can get my hands on. As an adult, I turned out to be just a bigger version of the child I once was. My toys are more sophisticated (see my Motorcycle Page and my RC Helicopter Page), but I still spend plenty of time taking my things apart. The only real difference is that now I have much better tools, and I can usually put it back together again.
