About Me...
Well, since you asked (though some of this is covered elsewhere)…
- Born and raised in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
- 1980 graduate of North Carolina State University, with postgraduate studies in Ancient Near Eastern History
- Have a couple of younger brothers
- Have a brilliant and beautiful daughter, who is a terrific Veterinarian
- Have lived in numerous places, including Winston-Salem, North Carolina (duh); Little Rock, Arkansas; Rancho Cucamonga, California; and Charleston, South Carolina
- Worked in a wide variety of businesses and vocations, from part-time in the best hobby shop in town to selling shoes to managing a major department store men’s department store to managing a ceiling fan store to working my way up through the ranks of the country’s largest lamp manufacturer to managing a beverage equipment company to managing a structural insulated panel company to general managing the best restaurant in town to working with a title company… you get the idea – but I have always run my own graphics, publishing, and website design firm (check out the Artwork link above)
- Always far too critical of other people’s grammar, spelling, and pronunciation – a trait drilled into me by my father – it was/is like fingernails on a chalkboard to both of us
- Devoutly espouse the use of the Oxford comma, and remain an advocate for continuing the teaching of cursive handwriting in schools
- Currently:
- Executive Director of The American College of Heraldry (the what? – click the link, or, more importantly, click the Heraldry link above), handle its website, and edit/publish its journal, The Armiger’s News
- Director of The International Sister Fidelma Society (click the link), handle its website, and edit/publish its journal, The Brehon
- Written a few nonfiction books in my time that will hopefully be of use to someone, someday (look under the Books link)
- The only charity to which I donate anything is The Alzheimer’s Association in memory of my late mother
- Tried to live my life by a motto I came up with in my late teens: Melior Nullo, Nullus Melior (I am better than no man, but no man is my better) – essentially, humble pride
Oh, and how big a geek was/am I?
In my early teens I started a Star Trek Fan Club called S.T.A.R. (Star Trek Association for Revival – a national club of which mine was an affiliate) Winston-Salem. We had only a few meetings, showed film clips gleaned (by Gene Roddenberry) from the cutting room floor (and sold by Roddenberry as individual cells in small bulk assorted packets for about $1.00) – can’t even imagine what they would cost today – but I still got ’em!
So, how big a Trekker was/am I?
- In my fan club days, I printed and mailed a bi-monthly newsletter (my first ever publication! – printed on a mimeograph machine – yes, purple ink – and typed on carbons that meant if you screwed one up halfway through the page, you threw it out and started over – no digital stuff back them, kiddos…) titled Ship’s Status (below). It included very short bits of news where you could find them (no Google), short stories by fan members, and even (rudimentary) drawings by me.
- In 1973 or 1974, Gene Roddenberry was doing the college circuit lecturing/promoting a revival of Star Trek (Star Trek The Motion Picture would not come out for several years), carrying along with him the now easily-viewable (on YouTube) Blooper Reel. When I went to see him when he spoke at Wake Forest University, and we all started watching the blooper reel (me, a kid among lots of “adult” college students), someone came from “behind the curtain” and asked me to come with them. I was escorted behind said curtain, only to meet Gene Roddenberry himself. He knew of all the fan club locations and so knew my name (HE KNEW MY NAME!!) and we sat and chatted until he had to go back after the end of the blooper reel. I fed on that for weeks… Naturally, I begged for his autograph, which he signed in the front leaves of the newly mass-market Star Trek Concordance. What a coup!
- As a result of meeting Roddenberry, the local newspaper ran a story (with horrible picture) of me [above]… “Boy????” meets Space Show Creator???
- Several years on, I was a freshman at NC State University, and Leonard Nimoy(!) was scheduled to speak. Naturally, I got a ticket, and after the talk he was gracious enough to talk to individual fans. When my turn came, and I told him I worked with the Star Trek Welcommittee (a group of national fans who were sent about a dozen fan letters/questions, along with postage and envelopes with which to reply, based on our “superior knowledge” of the series – we were Star Trek’s earliest Google!), he kindly granted me an “interview” – and yes, I got his autograph on the same page of the book as Roddenberry…
- A couple of years later, while working at my tiny desk as Graphics Editor in the offices of a great metropolitan newspaper (wait, wrong series)… that is, the university newspaper (The Technician), a fellow staffer walked in, followed closely behind by James Doohan(!). I had no idea he was on campus. I didn’t have my Concordance, and so grabbed the nearest scrap of paper and pen and mumbled sheepishly for an autograph, to which he agreed.
- Then, many several years later, I met George Takei at a mini-convention in Little Rock. While posing for a photo together (which I can never find) we talked about the series, and especially the animated series.
- At another mini-con in Little Rock, a met and briefly spoke with Marina Sirtis.
- The last Star Trek actor I met was Brent Spiner. I had taken my young teen daughter to her first – of two – San Diego Comic-Cons, and we got on an escalator between mid-floors (tall ceilings). As we got the mid-level, an elevator opposite from us and out walk Spiner with his “handlers.” My daughter immediately recognized him, and said “Dad, that’s the bad guy from Master of Disguise” (a really crap Dana Carvey flick). I politely turned to Spiner, introduced myself, and then told him what my daughter had said. His response: “Ah, some of my finest work.” (His villain had a reliable and annoying bodily expulsion whenever he laughed, in that evil way evil guys do)
THAT’S how big a Trekker I was/am… if YOU are one as well, and want to read the entire, massive 12-issue run of this historical record, CLICK HERE…
Want more? Delve deeper into the links above…