Archives for November 2013

How long have you been at SMCM?
13 years

What path led you to St. Mary’s?
I graduated from SMCM in 1987. My wife also went to SMCM. After graduating, we moved back to Annapolis. I worked for a government contractor. We provided IT and support services to the military. My wife grew up on a farm in St. Mary’s County and we thought it would be a great place to raise a family, so we moved back to the county in 2000.

What do you do by day?
Like most people who work here, a lot more than my “position description.” I focus primarily on providing technology support in the computer labs and classrooms. I also utilize systems management tools that allow us to remotely install and patch software on campus computers. I try to make our department more efficient by automating certain tasks that previously required someone to physically come to your computer.

What do you do with your evenings/weekends?
We live on a farm and have four kids (17, 14, 12 and 9). When we are not racing to one of the kids’ soccer games or band practices, we are usually outside doing something. I like to sail, fish and crab a bit during the warmer months. We also have horses, but my wife is the one who rides. I like to ride dirt bikes. I have yet to be kicked or bitten by a dirt bike!

What is your favorite off-campus lunch spot?
Courtney’s

What would colleagues be surprised to find out about you?
There is really nothing too interesting or surprising about me; maybe that I was an English major when I was a student at SMCM. Unfortunately,I was more interested in windsurfing than Chaucer. I wasn’t a great student, but I managed to squeak by.

What is the most interesting/surprising job you’ve ever had?
After college, I didn’t know what I
wanted to do. I took a job as a teaching assistant at an elementary school. I worked with kids who had physical and cognitive disabilities. This was during the late 1980’s so we were just starting to get some adaptive computer equipment that made it easier for these students to read, write and communicate. It was probably the most rewarding job I ever had.

How long have you been at SMCM?
7 years

What path led you to St. Mary’s?
I moved back to the area in 2006. I previously left a position at the University of Delaware and wanted to continue working in a college environment.

What do you do by day?
Early mornings are spent in Goodpaster Hall cleaning and setting up bathrooms and office spaces for the day-to-day building operations. In the late mornings I go to Dorchester Hall to clean the dorms for residents.

What do you do with your evenings/weekends?
They are mostly spent with grandchildren. I have five (ages 12, 10, 4, 2, and 17 months) and I, along with their aunt–my oldest daughter, help provide the daily care of them. I’m not a once-a-year or once-a-month grandma, I’m an EVERY day ‘Grandma! Grandma!’

What is your favorite off-campus lunch spot?
Olive Garden—I LOVE their salad. The vegetables are so crisp and of course the salad dressing really makes it wonderful.

What would colleagues be surprised to find out about you?
I think I’m pretty much an open book with not many surprises.

What is the most interesting/surprising job you’ve ever had?
Executive Secretary for the Department of Multi-systemic Therapy of Psychotherapeutic Services, Inc. in Dover, Delaware. They provided behavioral counseling for children ages 6-21. As the executive secretary I also got to transcribe notes from the doctors’ sessions—it was very interesting. It was only a part-time and a temporary position but I loved that job and I think the experience of seeing what all those children went through helped me in raising my grandchildren, which was a challenge at first with so many of the babies close in age, but it’s so worth it to provide them a better life.