Gee, where to start?

I’m in my 23^rd year at Randolph-Macon College, after finishing my PhD in 1986 (while working part-time as the physics lecture setup person at RPI for 7 years!).  I was department chair for 16 years, stepping aside last year for a long-overdue sabbatical.

I also direct activities at the Keeble Observatory here at R-MC, which has a modest optical telescope and two radio telescopes built as student projects. 

Ashland itself is a small town about 15 miles north of Richmond, where it’s very easy to get involved in Town affairs.  Back in 1999-2000 my wife and I were involved in a grass-roots effort to keep Wal-Mart from coming to Ashland with a store we felt was much too large and out of character with the rest of town.  (You may have seen  a PBS show called “Store Wars” which documented the battle.)  Wal-Mart won their rezoning, but at the cost of having the citizens vote out of office every member of Town Council who voted for it!  In 2004 I ran out of excuses and found myself elected to Town Council … I was re-elected this last spring, and am now serving my second 4-year term.  Let me just note that zoning and street paving may seem about as far as one can get from astrophysics – but it still requires “knowledge and thoroughness” to help run a small town!

Some may recall that I donated a kidney to a colleague in 2000.  Unfortunately, Russ lost the kidney in 2006, and died at the beginning of last summer (which is one reason I was not at Reunion.)

Sylvia and I celebrated our 34^th anniversary last June.  Our older daughter is Amy, who is a high school Latin teacher currently in a discernment process to find out if she’s called to ordained ministry.  Kim, the younger daughter, is an attorney working for the State of Florida as a children’s advocate.  She took her current job after 2½ years in the Public Defender’s office in Ft. Myers. 

There’s more on my web site (address below).