Like the protagonist in W. Somerset Maugham’s short story, “The Verger”, my professional career path has been directed by a series of failures followed by lucky breaks. After graduating high school, my affinity for science and computer programming led to a bachelor’s degree in engineering (with a certificate in computer science) from the University of Hartford. My first failure occurred immediately after graduating college – instead of following my chosen career path into the field of microprocessors, I let a recruiter talk me into taking a job in Automatic Test Equipment – a relatively new field of engineering at the time. This led to something of a dead-end job in an old company working on technology which, at the time, was already several decades old. After several years of that, I had had enough and decided to make my second failure – signing on with a startup whose product was test equipment for microwave devices, a technology about which I knew close to nothing. I lasted only a year there but my familiarity with automated test equipment made me attractive to an integrated circuits company in New Hampshire who needed engineers to design test equipment for their power management devices. After about a decade, though, that company realized that my ideas about the future of production test were incompatible with its desire to make a profit and they laid me off at the first opportunity. The combination of skills I had acquired to this point made me attractive as an applications engineer for a major manufacturer of semiconductor test equipment in the Boston area, a position in which I excelled, picking up other skills such as teaching and interfacing with customers. After another decade, my familiarity with this company’s test equipment made me attractive to a major semiconductor manufacturer in the Boston area and so I changed jobs once again. It took a little bit longer for this company to realize that my ideas about the future of test engineering were incompatible with their desire to make a profit but it did happen so, before they could find an opportunity to lay me off, I switched companies and now work for a New Hampshire company which produces devices for the automotive industry. I am hoping that my next failure will result in them offering me an early retirement package.

I do not believe, though, that a person is defined solely by how he or she makes money. I shall therefore list here those events in my life which I believe have define me: I learned to fly an airplane; I hiked the Appalachian Trail; I climbed to the summit of Grand Teton; I have glissaded down a glacier; I have run technical conferences; I have been Vice Chairman of Programs for my local Boy Scout district; I am currently an Assistant District Commissioner for my local Boy Scouts of America council and in that role I am proud to have helped create Scouts BSA troops for girls; I have chaired my town’s budget committee for more years than I can remember; I have an interest in cooking and antiques. I believe that is the summation of who I am.