- Department: Industrial Eng/Operations
- University: Cal Poly-Pomona
- Location: California
I was born and raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles. When I was nine years old I attended Vacation Bible School at a baptist church in Norwalk, CA. I have been a Christian ever since. I had the pleasure of watching my parents and siblings also become Christians over the following years. I always liked school, so going to school and eventually becoming a professor made sense to me. I liked math and science so my first career was as an Industrial Engineer for General Motors. I loved being an engineer and was an engineering supervisor when they closed the plant in 1982 and laid us all off. By the grace of God I ended up with a tenure-track position at Cal Poly Pomona and am now in my 28th year of teaching! I love teaching and hope to be doing it in some measure as long as the Lord grants me the opportunity. I went back to school and got my second M.S. degree in 1988 and my doctorate in 2002. My advice to everyone is to never stop learning and growing. I have been blessed with a wonderful family. Judy is my wife of 35 years and we have four children. Our youngest, Debi, is 23 and has Down Syndrome. I will make a statement that God uses children to teach lessons to parents. But he uses special needs children to teach in special ways. Debi and I love to go to Disneyland together and she also loves gymnastics, bowling, movies, dancing and music. Once of my favorite lessons from Debi involves my baldness One day I asked her, "What happened to Daddy's hair?" She responded, "Daddy's bangs are cut way back!" After a good laugh I reflected on that her perspective and view of reality is much different than ours. I fear that our human perspectives of reality are just as far off from God's perspective. We need to always be trying to understand things from God's perspective. One of my passions is to backpack for at least one week in the Sierras every summer with my son and our friends. It is so nice to experience God's creation and take some time to clear the mind of everyday problems and clutter. Over the years I have connected with a lot of Christian students. In some cases they were struggling with issues and we were able to talk through things. I always enjoyed making those connections. My door is open if someone wants to talk about their faith.
Friends describe me
Friendly
My hobbies
Hiking & backpacking, outdoor cooking, dining out, WWII history
Best advice I ever received
1. Take notes and read 30 minutes/day. 2. Develop a personal mission statement. 3. Give 10% and save 10%.
My undergrad alma mater
Kettering University, Flint, MI
My worst subject in school
Thermodynamics
In college I drove
1968 Red Volkswagen Beetle
If I weren't a professor, I would
be an archeologist or forest ranger
Favorite books
The Autobiography of Booker T. Washington, Atlas Shrugged, Lord of the Rings, First Things First
Favorite movies
Sergeant York, Raiders of the Lost Ark
Favorite city
London
Favorite coffee
Sumatra