I always knew I wanted to go into the sciences and, after taking AP Chem with Dr. Beck, I knew it would be chemistry.  I went to Pitt – commuted all four years and worked at Isaly’s on Washington Road scooping ice cream and slicing baked ham in the evenings and weekends during school and throughout the summers. 

I always had a certain wanderlust so, as soon as I graduated but before taking a career job, I hitchhiked around the country during the summer of ’76 – a great experience in the bicentennial year. 

Back to the real world, I took a job with U.S. Steel Chemicals at their Neville Island plant for a short stint, then moved to what is now CONSOL Energy’s R&D group in South Park, PA, where I am still to this day running a small research group working on energy and environmental technologies and policy. 

I got married in 1978; we bought a house in Bethel Park and then one in Sunset Hills in 1986.  I bought the same house a second time when we got divorced in 1998, and I still live there.  The best aspect of my marriage was that it produced my four kids; a daughter and three sons, aged 28 to 22.  My four kids and many, many of my nephews and nieces graduated from Mt. Lebo High, and I now have a great-nephew going there.  My daughter is married, lives in the ‘Burgh, and has a 2-year-old boy named Sly, and a daughter, due in August.  My oldest son, a chemistry teacher at South Allegheny is getting married in August.  My second son is a pharmacology grad student at Emory University in Atlanta.  The youngest is in the nursing program at CCAC and still lives at home with me. 

I love my job – it satisfies my curiosity and wanderlust and allows me to work with a lot of smart people.  I have been fortunate to have travelled around most of the U.S. and much of the world.  I’ve been dating a beautify lady from Mission Hills for some years.  I still try to play basketball; I run (slowly and mixed with walking now!), and enjoy biking on the Pittsburgh area’s great trail system and on the streets. 

Looking forward to seeing everybody!