On October 4th, 1957, the Soviet Union launched a sattellite called Sputnik. It was a signal transmitter in a basketball sized shell. It shocked the U.S. millitary to realize that the Russians were ahead of us in the Space Race with all of its millitary implications. 

One minor side effect of this launch was to excite the imagination of a relatively poor student attending what was then Sam Houston Jr. High School. It was this event that got me interested in school for the first time. Grades improved from C's to A's and I finally got to college at WTSU (now WTAMU). I graduated with a degree in chemistry (so that I could design rocket fuels). Eventually, I went on to obtain a Masters Degree in Chemistry and a Masters Degree in Engineering from Texas Tech University. 

I found work following graduation at SPS (Southwestern Public Service, now part of Xcel Energy). After 30 years of interesting and fulfilling work, Dr. Wetzel at Amarillo College convinced me to teach what I had learned. And that is how I got here!