I attended SRJC from 1965 to 1967 and transferred to UC Berkeley where I graduated with a BA in Astronomy in 1969. I was accepted into graduate school at the University of Arizona, Tucson. I received my Ph.D. in Astronomy in 1975.
But on one of my first days at the UofA campus, I met Jackie, who came to a night dance with her sister and attending the university. Jackie worked for the city of Tucson and was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen or met; it was love at first sight (for me!). She was separated and had a two-year old son Richard when we met. I pursued her until we married in 1973, at which time I was leaving the university, because of lack of funding, to take a faculty position at Sierra Nevada College, Incline Village, Nevada. After two very difficult years there, I finished my degree, and continued to teach and direct their observatory.
To back-track a bit, during my senior year at Berkeley and my first year of graduate study, I had applied for conscientious objector status with the Draft Board. They automatically rejected my application but I fought it all the way and finally was granted that status. I was waiting to be drafted into the medical corp when the first draft lottery took place and I drew the number 306, virtually guaranteeing that I would not be called up. Shortly thereafter, I was diagnosed with ulcers, which then made me physically unfit to serve in any capacity. This allowed me to stay in graduate school.
In 1978, I accepted a position at Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO after not being able to find any positions in California due mostly to Prop. 13, which had cut back funding a great deal. I went through the academic ranks in Missouri, becoming a tenured, full professor. Jackie attended the university and majored in nursing. Richard completed high school. I continued to do research, traveling to observatories in Chile and Arizona. In 1985, I accepted a summer position directing the Summer Science Program in Ojai, CA and this reminded us how much we missed the West and our families. So in 1986, when Richard graduated from high school, I accepted a visiting position at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo for two years. However, Jackie and I put our house up for sale and moved everything to California.
In 1988, I accepted the position of Department Chair of Physics at California State University, San Bernardino and have been here ever since. I chaired the Department for 9 years, went back to full-time teaching for a few years and then took the position as Coordinator of Liberal Studies in 2001. I directed the Summer Science Program for 11 years, getting grants to improve the diversity of its students. I also wrote astronomy educational materials for Prentice Hall for over 10 years and did other writing in astronomy education but gave up doing research. I am still a faculty member of Physics and am directing a project to build a campus observatory, with a budget of about $1.6 million, of which we have raised over half from the Keck Foundation and local contributions.
Our son Richard has been married twice and given us 5 grandsons. He seems stuck on having boys! He joined us in California in 1987, worked various jobs until becoming a sheriff's deputy in San Bernardino County for the past 10 years, and also completed his BA degree. Our oldest grandson, Nick, is now entering his sophomore year in high school, taking mostly honors classes and is on the water polo and swim teams. Andrew was accepted into a highly selective junior high school for Fall term and is an all-around excellent student, too.
Jackie remains very busy administering her late (biological) father's estate, which has been very complicated, and taking care of all other family matters including her mother and (step) father in Tucson. We are now raising two basset hounds, Bosley and Vanna, who are about 15 months old, big, very friendly and active. They are show dogs so we learning to show them but mostly we enjoy them as our dear pets and companions. Jackie and I enjoy foods (I like to cook), wines, jazz, reading and the quiet outdoors of the California coast.
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