Grew up in Ponca City; youngest of five children; graduated high school in 1977 .  Went to O.U. from 1977 – 1982. Had six different declared majors until I finally ended up in Geophysics. I  figured they got paid big bucks for exploding dynamite and playing with seismic wavelets on the computer.  Met a beautiful, intelligent, and practical  O.S.U. redhead at Eskimo Joe’s in Stillwater in February of 1980.

Graduated from O.U. with a B.S. in  Geophysics in 1982. Worked for Atlantic Richfield Oil Company (now called BP Amoco) in Dallas as an Exploration Geophysicist from 1982 – 1985. Made more money than I knew what to do with.  Lived in a luxurious apartment, drove a top of the line sports car, ate out at the finest restaurants, traveled all over North America, wore the finest clothes . . . but . . . something was missing.  I felt unfulfilled in my job. I was on the verge of a promotion and had to make a career decision . . . Decided I didn’t want to stare at a computer screen and add to the bank of an already very rich oil company the rest of my life. Took an educational leave of absence from ARCO,  married my Eskimo Joes red haired sweetheart, and moved back to Norman in 1985 to pursue a long time desire to teach science. Took one year of graduate school at O.U. to obtain my science teaching certificate and received my Science Education degree from O.U. in the Spring of 1986.

Cashed in my ARCO stock and finally cut the cord for good to the corporate world that summer and began teaching Chemistry and GPS at NHS in fall 1986.   Completed my Masters in Science Education at O.U.  in 1993. I have taught  GPS (4 years), Chemistry (12 years), Accelerated Chemistry (8 years),  AP Chemistry II (2 years) , AP Chemistry III (1 year), Physics (15 years), AP Physics B (1 year), AP Physics C (11 years).

My wife and I have two sons: Evan, who is a  senior at UCO, and Jacob who is an senior at NHS. We have a miniature Red Piebald Dachshund named Pepper.  I  truly believe in what I do and am totally committed to improving your view of the universe as much as possible in our short time together. I say short, but I remain in contact with my students for many years after they graduate.

I remain committed to the Four Agreements: I will strive to be impeccable in my word, I will take nothing personally since the source always speaks through the fog of their own filtered idea of reality.  I will assume nothing about a new student who walks into my classroom or an adult I meet.

I realize that I will inevitably fall short of these first three agreements on a regular basis, but will always try to remain aware enough to use them as instruments to keep digging deeper to uncover the cluttered up layers that bury the bedrock core of what makes me me.

How’s that for a lifelong challenge?