| |
I was born in Livingston, Montana in 1952 and am the second oldest out of four brothers and one sister. I am married to Gayle Harden my wife of thirty-six years and the mother of my two adult children. I am also the grandfather of six wonderful granddaughters ranging in age from seven months to sixteen. So as you can see the white beard does make me look a bit older than I really am. You can also see that once I find a position I am comfortable with I am very dedicated and find no need to search further.
In 1996 and after twenty five years of playing music I decided to change occupations. At the age of forty-four and began a long and steady process to learn web development. For nearly two years I studied everything I could about the Internet and building web sites on my own. In 1998 I began my educational trek that would take the better part nine years. My educational progression would take me to Tacoma Community College, Evergreen State College, and University of Phoenix. During this time I would earn two Associates degrees, a Bachelor of Science degree, the better part of my MBA-TM, and go on to complete a Master of Information Systems degree. These degrees are covered further in the education and resume section of this web site.
|
|
To the left are a couple of pictures of me while I was touring with the Grand Ole Opry in 1979. On the left is a picture of Minnie Pearl and myself and on the right is a picture of Hank Snow, Kelly Foxton, and myself. Both Hank and Minnie are no longer with us but they will always be legends in country music. This was a very special time in my life and I will always cherish the memories. I was also a
professional musician for over 28 years. As a drummer and singer I toured with and opened for many well known country and country rock artists. In 1992 after completing a three month tour to Guam, I decided to stop touring and only play local weekend gigs close to home. This was the time period I started learning how to create web sites. Today my focus is totally on the IT industry. Click the following image to view my very first web site.
Click the image to the left and you can view my very first web site. I named this site "My Favorite Memory of All" after a Merle Haggard song of the same name. I created this site and placed it with Geocities in September of 1998. Geocities has since been bought out by Yahoo and been taken off the web. Geocities.ws has started bringing many of the sites back from old web archives. This web site is a small testimonial to my experiences as a musician for over 25 years.
|
| |
Below is a picture of Gayle (my wife), my granddaughters, and myself. Starting from left to right Chanelle, Cheyenne, Emma, Kirsten, Ashely, and the newest granddaughter Mattie Mae is in Gayles arms. I enjoy spending as much time with the girls as possible but at times it is difficult at best to get them all together at the same time. Below are also a few pictures of Mattie over the past few months...
|
|
|
| |
For the past eight years I have enjoyed portraying the jolly ole elf Santa Claus. I have been Santa at the Tacoma Mall for the past six years and prior to that I was Santa at the South Hill Mall in Puyallup, Wa. Though I enjoy the seasonal position as Santa Claus, I understand that should I find a bonafide full time job offer, which would not allow me a sabbatical for six to seven weeks per year; I would have to cancel my contract for the position of Santa Claus. This should give you a good idea of who I am and how I got to where I am now. I purposely did not touch on my IT employment history I thought I would leave that strictly to the resume section.
|
|
|
