AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Autobiographies always seem to be in chronological order from birth to present and give data details. I’d like to start with where I am today and see the threads that brought me here. The first detail is that I am a contrarian. Someone of my age (60s) and living in the South (Richmond, VA) I should be a conservative. However, my views lean more liberal. These are probably throwbacks to my teenage years in the 60s. Even though I graduated from a private high school school Collegiate School, I did not come from a wealthy family but we were ‘well off.’ From high school I went to a Baptist college deeper in the south, Furman University in Greenville, SC. Of course I wasn’t Baptist and the stolid southern culture should have tempered me to a conservative lifestyle. But I was a member of the famous class of ’69 and the cultural revolution of the 60s had an impact on me. Furthermore, I was a Drama student so I was exposed to many forward thinking and Bohemian-like ideas and people.
Against the backdrop of Vietnam, I decided to go into teaching as a way of avoiding the draft. Along the way I got married and my first daughter was born soon after I started my first job teaching school. My draft avoidance idea did not work and by 1971 I was drafted into the military where I was an Armorer. Later I moved in the Public Information Office (PIO) where I prepared radio press releases and voiced slide shows (yes with slide projectors) for the AG. After my active service, a college friend hired me to work at a small radio station he owned. After two years, he bought another radio station and asked me to become a partner and manage that station. The same month that I became a radio entrepreneur, my second daughter was born! Bad economy threatened the station so I moved back to Virginia, this time to the Shenandoah Valley and worked at several radio stations. I became somewhat bored and decided to work on a Master’s of Education at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA.
Soon after I received my MEd, I moved to Northern Virginia where I worked at a radio station outside of Washington. Several years later I began to work at Westwood One, a major national syndicator of radio programming and owner of the Mutual Broadcasting and System and later the NBC and CBS Radio Networks. There I worked with captivating personalities who represented both ends of the political spectrum: Larry King and Pat Buchanan, Casey Kasem and G. Gordon Liddy, Don & Mike, liberals and conservatives. Spurred on by my growing interest in education and communication I began to work on a PhD in Public Communication at the University of Maryland and I began to teach at Northern Virginia Community College as an Adjunct Instructor. In the late 90s Westwood One was bought by another owner who downsized and I found myself out of a job and only a dissertation away from the PhD. I chose to move back to Richmond and, along with some of my old high school buddies, bought a radio station in Ashland, VA. I also began teaching at several colleges around the Richmond area before getting a job teaching at the University of Richmond. In 2007 I was promoted to Assistant Professor and later to Professor. After being asked to teach an online course I was less than satisfied with the limited ‘training’ that the school offered so I began taking classes at the University of Maryland University College to obtain a Master’s in Distance Education in Technology.
So here I am, a 60-something year old liberal drama freak. My wife Bev and I love spending time at our second home on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. As I continue to teach I am fascinated by the unfolding possibilities of educational venues. Can't wait to see the world in 2070!
Against the backdrop of Vietnam, I decided to go into teaching as a way of avoiding the draft. Along the way I got married and my first daughter was born soon after I started my first job teaching school. My draft avoidance idea did not work and by 1971 I was drafted into the military where I was an Armorer. Later I moved in the Public Information Office (PIO) where I prepared radio press releases and voiced slide shows (yes with slide projectors) for the AG. After my active service, a college friend hired me to work at a small radio station he owned. After two years, he bought another radio station and asked me to become a partner and manage that station. The same month that I became a radio entrepreneur, my second daughter was born! Bad economy threatened the station so I moved back to Virginia, this time to the Shenandoah Valley and worked at several radio stations. I became somewhat bored and decided to work on a Master’s of Education at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA.
Soon after I received my MEd, I moved to Northern Virginia where I worked at a radio station outside of Washington. Several years later I began to work at Westwood One, a major national syndicator of radio programming and owner of the Mutual Broadcasting and System and later the NBC and CBS Radio Networks. There I worked with captivating personalities who represented both ends of the political spectrum: Larry King and Pat Buchanan, Casey Kasem and G. Gordon Liddy, Don & Mike, liberals and conservatives. Spurred on by my growing interest in education and communication I began to work on a PhD in Public Communication at the University of Maryland and I began to teach at Northern Virginia Community College as an Adjunct Instructor. In the late 90s Westwood One was bought by another owner who downsized and I found myself out of a job and only a dissertation away from the PhD. I chose to move back to Richmond and, along with some of my old high school buddies, bought a radio station in Ashland, VA. I also began teaching at several colleges around the Richmond area before getting a job teaching at the University of Richmond. In 2007 I was promoted to Assistant Professor and later to Professor. After being asked to teach an online course I was less than satisfied with the limited ‘training’ that the school offered so I began taking classes at the University of Maryland University College to obtain a Master’s in Distance Education in Technology.
So here I am, a 60-something year old liberal drama freak. My wife Bev and I love spending time at our second home on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. As I continue to teach I am fascinated by the unfolding possibilities of educational venues. Can't wait to see the world in 2070!