What else is there to this person?

Family

Education

Career history

• My grad school career involved a lot of traveling. I did my dissertation on "The Postglacial Vegetational History of the Argolid Peninsula, Greece." This necessitated several trips to Greece (1971, 1973, and 1979). Kathy went with me on the 1979 trip.

• Off and on, between 1970 and 1982, I made my living doing photography, drafting, and other graphic arts things in a biology lab. I'm not exactly passionate about the arts, but I'm a visual person and graphics are a part of my life. Here are a few images that are on my mind these days.

• After supporting ourselves on soft money for three years (Kathy doing genetics research, I as a paleoecologist counting fossil pollen grains) I "got into computers" with then-Bloomington Academic Computing Services.

• I was a mainframe programmer for a while, but in 1982 got interested in the IBM PC and moved to the Small Computer Support Group. I became manager of that group in 1983.

• The next year, with Dan DeHayes and John Smith, I started ACCESS, IU's moral equivalent of a computer store.

• Time passed and the IU computer center's name changed to University Computing Services. In 1987 I joined the UCS Publications Group, first as Technical Communications Administrator, then adding managerial duties in 1991. This was an ideal job, paying me to exercise my passions for technology and writing.

• In October 1994 I was made one of three UCS Senior Managers for Public Services.

• In July 1996 I was appointed director of the Montana State University Information Technology Center. In July 2000 I became Executive Director for Information Services and Chief Information Officer. I left Montana State University in June 2006.

• In July 2006 I became a Fellow of the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research. See my current professional homepage for more information about that.

Avocations

• I read. Here's my current recreational reading list.

• I'm an avid cyclist, though lately my riding is nearly all commuting to and from work (eight miles each way). I now ride a 1999 Cannondale F600 mountain bike and a 1994 Trek 2200 road bike.

  Until March 1995 I rode a 1974 Schwinn LeTour (with modern components) that once belonged to the brother of a friend. Said brother was lost over the side of a glacier during a solo climb of Denali (Mt. McKinley) in Alaska. It was a good bike. I sold it in the summer of 1999, but remember it fondly.

• I also like trees, mountains, and wildflowers.

• For 10 years (1985-1994) I was a member or officer of the Board of Trustees of the Indiana Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. After a mandatory year off the board I was nominated for another term, which began in September 1995. TNC is a great conservation organization focused on preserving the diversity of living things through protection of habitat.

• I wouldn't call myself a (or an) historian, but I like to look at old stuff. If you do too, take a peek at this Pictorial Tour of the IU Bloomington Campus -- Circa 1940. It's based on some photos in a post card-like packet given to me several years ago by colleague Tom Zeller.

• I have one creeeeeeeepy story to tell.

• I'm inexplicably drawn to empty cigar boxes, tea tins, and other cleverly designed containers that remain attractive and useful after their original purposes have been met.

• Sort of along the lines of the item above, I was for several years interested in the—sport?—of letterboxing. A follow-on to that activity was geocaching, which adds the requirement to use a GPS receiver. My enthusiasm for both pursuits has waned considerably, though I am still happy to confer about them with interested parties. If any.

• Lately I have been following the life and works of one of Bozeman, Montana's least-known former residents, Mr. Marek Shemanski.