Who I Am
I hold the title of Principal Engineer and work as a project engineer (design) on the integrated active thermal control (ATC) system for the International Space Station (ISS). The ATC is one of three distributed systems on the ISS -- the other two are the Command & Data Handling (C&DH), and the electrical power system (EPS). All three must work for the successful operation of the station. My responsibilities include design and integration of the active thermal control system, performing risk assessments, analyzing technical issues and making recommendations, and preparing and making presentations for senior management. A great deal of my work is as a trouble-shooter of hardware malfunctions and performing research for resolution. I enjoy failure investigation and providing resolution to minimize risk to the program.

What I like best about my job is working with the thermal control system hardware and solving various problems to ensure that we have a viable safe system on-orbit for our crewmembers. I function a great deal as a troubleshooter for the team, so I remain very busy each day. What I like least is the amount of time that is necessarily spent sitting in meetings.

The company my father worked for was Allegheny Ballistics Laboratory, (located near Cumberland, Maryland) operated by Hercules, Inc., for the U.S. Navy. This facility developed the propulsion system (motor) for the Polaris, Poseidon, Sprint, Minuteman, and many other missiles. A large number of engineers lived in my town, and several were family friends that influenced me starting at age six.

My next door neighbor, a chemical engineer, and my family used to watch the night sky to view the satellite ECHO travel across the night sky. I was fascinated by our beginnings in space utilization, so, therefore, I became very excited by science and space exploration. Fortunately, I had many fine public school teachers that encouraged me to work very hard.

A great experience I remember was being selected (as one of three students in the sixth grade class) to watch and track John Glenn's progress during his three orbits of the earth. Our elementary school had only one television set, so for most of the school day, the three of us plotted his progress and reported to the principal, whom in turn announced it over the PA (public address system) to the school.

As a youth, I liked to read Isaac Asimov books and anything dealing with Mars. I wanted to be a military jet pilot. I was terribly disappointed when, in the ninth grade, I had to wear glasses.

1. Public high school mathematics teacher for seven years before returning to college to obtain my mechanical engineering degree;
2. Civilian engineer for the Naval Nuclear Program (I worked in the reactor compartment of submarines and carriers);
3. And now, over nine years on the active thermal control system of the International Space Station.

I live in Friendswood, Texas (about 8 miles from Johnson Space Center and approximately 20 miles southeast of Houston, Texas). I have been married for almost 24 years. My wife, Linda, and I met at West Virginia University. She is a dietitian by profession but has not worked outside of the home since our first child, Erin, was born almost 20 years ago. Linda is extremely supportive of the space program, and we share most interests, including our fascination with science fiction, Star Trek, X - Files, aeronautics, hot-air balloons, and gliders.

Our daughter, Erin, is almost 20 and will be a sophomore at Texas A&M (College Station, Texas) this coming year. She plans on being a science teacher for grades K-9 in the public schools.

Our son, Patrick, is 14 and will be a ninth grader. He is an excellent tennis player and spends three to four hours each day on the court. He will be playing for the high school team this coming year. Besides tennis, Patrick is fascinated by highly accurate paper airplanes and spends time each week working with the White Wings kit planes. He also enjoys Sony Playstation® games and is looking forward to the new Sony Playstation® II.

We have one pet, a mostly Siamese cat, by the name of 'Lil Bit. She has an annoying habit of waking my wife or I up between 4:00 and 5:30 a.m. each morning to play or be fed sliced turkey. We are extremely attached to her and are constantly amused by her playing.

My family enjoys sightseeing together in the various states that we have lived in -- Texas history is truly amazing.

I prepared for my career by taking as many mathematics and science classes as the public schools in Romney offered. Additionally, I was very fortunate in having parents and teachers who were very supportive of my interests, including some of the strange chemistry experiments I did with a few resulting explosions.

My parents were most influential with instilling in me a desire to learn and earn a college education (which they had always wanted for themselves but were unable to attain). Secondly, two extremely fine teachers in high school -- the mathematics teacher and the Latin/American history teacher -- had quite an influence on me. The mathematics teacher allowed me to work at my own pace, which meant for my last two years of high school mathematics I sat in the back of the room and worked through programmed higher mathematics books. I exceeded the normal credits by doubling up on what I took during the first two years of high school. The Latin/American history teacher directed me to read various novels, biographies, classics, and science fiction during the summer and report back to her each week when I went to mow her lawn.