I have been at Broome Community College for 35 years now teaching Physics, Physical Science and Engineering Science courses.
 

I went to Siena College for two years, then two years at SUNY Buffalo where I got a BA in Physics. Next, I got my MS in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
 

I studied Physics because I wanted to understand why and how things happen. I studied Astronomy because I always marveled at the stars and I wanted to learn about the Universe. (I still feel a sense of awe on a clear night in the country, when I look up at the stars.) Astronomy, at the graduate level, is a study of the physics of stars. When I first came to BCC, in the late 1960's and early 70's I studied some Geology and Geo-physics to round out the details of the place where we live. You can consider Geology to be a close up view of that special object in the Solar System that we call home - the Earth.
 

I have really enjoyed teaching in a community college. It has allowed me to continue to learn new things all the time. There have been big discoveries in Astronomy and Geology in the past 35 years. Thirty-five years ago Plate Tectonics and Sea Floor Spreading turned Geology on its head. We have discovered the "Black Hole" and now find them all over the place. These have been exciting things to learn and help explain to students. I have also had the opportunity to teach topics that did not exist when I was a college student. These include computer programming in Pascal and C++ (and FORTRAN and BASIC) as well as microprocessors and computer controlled data acquisition (GPIB).
 

I am married and have two kids. I like to downhill ski, bicycle, hike and do most other outdoor activities. My favorite vacations are to ski areas and National Parks.
 

My teaching has allowed me to go to some places that I would never have been able to otherwise. I have taken courses or research seminars during the summer that allowed me to hike on an active lava flow in Hawaii, camp for 5 weeks on a glacier in the Yukon and spend six weeks at the Nuclear Facilities in Oak Ridge. Another summer I was able to spend a few days at the Green Bank Radio Telescope Observatory.  In 1991 I was able to drive down to southern Baja California (Mexico) to see the total eclipse of the Sun.  Each one of these has had something to do with what I have taught. I guess this is all part of the "lifelong learning" that we tell our students to be prepared for. I also tell my students to prepare for a job that they will enjoy doing. It is a lot more interesting that way.