About Me
Born and raised in
Tacoma, Washington, I attended several grade schools, as well as Gray and Stewart Junior High Schools. We moved to nearby Vashon Island when I was 14, however, so I attended Vashon Island High School, graduating in 1949. Following a year at the Tacoma Vocational School (now the Bates Technical College), learning to become a radio announcer/engineer, I took my first job at station KIFW in Sitka, Alaska.
The Korean War intervened after seven months in Alaska, however, so I spent two years on active duty with the U.S. Navy Reserve, including one Mediterranean cruise on the U.S.S. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Marriage and employment in radio and television broadcasting (KING, WGAL, KTVW) followed, until I went to work for IBM as a SAGE Field Engineer in 1957. Various positions in programming, management and standards followed until my retirement in 1993.
As a Standards Engineer, I was exceedingly privileged to be able to represent IBM on several character code standards committees, including the U.S. committee responsible for maintenance of the ASCII standard, and the ISO committee responsible for the ISO 8859 family of coding standards. The job unfortunately required extensive travel so I was forced to attend meetings in Rio de Janeiro, Paris, London, Tokyo, etc. Ah, the sacrifices one has to make!
My wonderful wife, Shirley, is from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and we have four grown daughters, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Now living in North Carolina, we still love to travel. My hobbies include stamp collecting, genealogy and singing - barbershop style. And, of course, puttering with my computer.
|
