About the Author

I was born at home in the middle of the Great Depression, during a time much different from today. I was the sixth of what would eventually become eight children. We were poor, but because almost everyone was poor during the Great Depression, we didn’t feel poor. I had a Tom Sawyer-like childhood near a small village not far from Wichita, Kansas.

Throughout my 89 years, I feel I have learned a great deal about people and life in general. I was four when World War II started and ten when it ended. I was in grade school during World War II, in high school during the Korean War, and in graduate school during the Vietnam War. I later became a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso.

In my 89 years, I’ve had the privilege of traveling to approximately 70 different countries and working in three foreign countries. I’ve taught, worked with, and befriended thousands of people from all over the world. Above all, I have learned to be tolerant of others. Everyone deserves to be judged as an individual, not by their race, nationality, religion, sex, or sexual orientation.

Yes, there are good people and bad people, but each should be judged solely by who they are, not by association. Unlike Will Rogers, who claimed he had never met a man he didn’t like, I haven’t liked everyone I’ve met. I don’t care for bigots, hypocrites, or selfish people with oversized egos. However, I don’t think everyone should be like me. If everyone were alike, the world would be a very boring place.