As I continue with the Life of Paul series, I’m planning some in-between posts about the museum where I am currently working. As background for that I thought it would be appropriate to re-introduce myself to those who may not know me well personally, and as a reminder/reminiscence for those who do. Think of this as a (hopefully) short autobiography.

I am a Colorado native, born in Denver. However, my parents (mainly father) worked in construction support as an “instrument” man, installing gauges and controllers, etc. for various systems and he followed the work where it led him. Therefore, I spent my elementary school years in Long Beach, CA and middle school through college days in Vidor, TX, where my mother was born and raised.

My undergraduate degree was in Secondary Science Education (Lamar University). I worked for 30 years at one high school in a northern suburb of Denver, CO, teaching the earth sciences during the first half of my career and AP Physics + special assignment duties during the second half of my career. I took a one-year sabbatical in the mid-1990s to work on a Masters degree in Geology (Colorado School of Mines) and another sabbatical in the mid-2000s to work on a PhD in Educational Leadership (University of Colorado Denver).

My special assignments during the second half of my teaching career included serving as a technology support person and coach, teacher internship coordinator in conjunction with UCD, and data analyst for the school. I retired in 2013 and took a job with an oil & gas analytics software company as a lead software trainer and worked in that position for 4.5 years.

My wife was born in Cody, WY but grew up in Grand Junction, CO. She relocated to the Denver area to complete her business degree at Metropolitan State College of Denver. After working a few years for an engineering firm she began working as the music secretary at our church (where we met). We were married there in 1985. We served in music ministry together, singing in the choir, playing in the orchestra, and leading worship. During our time in Denver, I served as part-time music minister four times for three different churches. After our two children were born and reached school age, Darlene worked at their elementary school in nutrition services.

We “retired” in 2017 and prepared to travel for a while. We sold our house, bought a motorhome, and set out in May of 2018 to travel across the eastern United States. We visited 33 states over the course of about 18 months.

Darlene experienced some medical difficulties related to her multiple sclerosis and we stopped traveling extensively. During this time I sought employment and worked briefly as a pipeline construction gate guard in Texas and as a park ranger at a flood-control dam in Vermont. I then found a job at the California Trail Interpretive Center in Elko, Nevada which I absolutely LOVED and worked at for three years.

That brings me up to our current status as Florida residents in Kissimmee, FL where I work for a historical society, running their educational programming. My next posts (in-between the Life of Paul series posts) will be focused on that work.

And that’s a quick snapshot of our lives!