It took me a while to learn how to learn in college. In my junior year at Humboldt State University (Forestry), I finally got it! Some years later after I graduated with my Ph.D. from Arizona State University (Ecology), I visited Hiiitop HS, and walked into the Principal's office (Fred Mahoney). I knew him well; he lived across the street from me, and his wife was my 5th grade teacher. He said, "What year was it you graduated"? I replied that is in 1960. He said, "Ah yes, that was the year that some student went up to UC Berkeley, and flunked out. The State of Calilfornia jerked our accredidation for a year after that". Actually, it was several students that flunked out that year ... I was one of them. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I stumbled out, and I never did tell Fred that I was at least partly responsible for the loss the accedidation for a year. Years later, Sue Herney, Secretary of our class, assured me that I alone was not responsible for the action. Buy hey, it is still a humorous story. I first told that story to a bunch of entering freshmen at Malone University in Canton, OH in 1973, as my most embarrasing moment.

In spite of my stumbles, I went on to become a college professor, ecological researcher, and a consulting environmental scientist. I was invited by the Russian Academy of Science in 1993 to help with a 3-week onsite ecological assessment of oil and gas production operations all over northern Siberia, I am the author of 3 books (e.g. Handbook of Statistical Analysis & Data Mining Applications, winner of the Prose Award from the Association of American Publishers for the best writing in a Math book in 2009), I serve on the CHIST-ERA funding proposal board (the research funding arm of the European Union).

Currently, I am retired in Santa Barbara (sort of; I still consult). I continue to serve as an online instructor for UC Irvine in Data Mining; I serve on the Academic Affairs Board of Providence Christian College in Pasadena, and I serve as a Chaplain at the Santa Barbara County Jail.