About me:

I was born in 1963 on K.I. Sawyer Air Force base, the son of a career Air Force officer. As such, I spent much of my youth moving frequently around the country with my parents and two older sisters. My father’s role in military aviation (twice decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross in Viet Nam) heavily influenced my direction into a career in defense aerospace. I excelled in math and science through school and subsequently focused on engineering and graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in Electrical Engineering. After graduation I took my first job working on the military test ranges of Nevada where I lived in the small town of Tonopah. This is where my interest in Archaeology firmly took root. One of my responsibilities was escorting archaeologists from the Desert Research Institute (DRI) around the Tonopah and Tolicha Peak Test Ranges to conduct site surveys and cultural assessments. I learned quite a bit from the variety of folks I worked with. After my ~1.5-year assignment in Nevada, I moved a couple hundred miles to the Naval Weapons Center at China Lake, CA. where I spent the next seventeen years in the Advanced Weapons Lab working in fighter sensors and electronic warfare. It was during my time at China Lake where my interests in the stone age continued to grow. I spent many years volunteering for the base’s public affairs office and the local Maturango Museum leading tours to the massive petroglyph sites in the Coso Mountains that are protected by the Navy. I also learned about significant Paleoindian sites at China Lake, including Clovis, previously studied by Dr. Emma Lou Davis and others. I worked with many archaeologists from the DoD and area universities. It was also early during this time I met my wife, the daughter of a prominent Navy physicist, and together raised two children. After accomplishing everything I wanted to out west I moved back to Texas. I spent the last 18 years of my career at the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works® finally retiring in early 2025 as an Engineering Fellow. During this time, I involved myself in a variety of research activities. I collaborated on several projects with Tony Baker including a presentation at the 2011 SAA convention in Tucson. This analysis was a precursor to Chapter 7 in the 2017 Plainview volume edited by Holliday, Johnson and Knudson. I finished the chapter for publication after Tony’s untimely death. It was also during this time Dr. Mike Collins invited me to be the founding member of the Advisory council for the Gault School of Archaeological Research (GSAR). These were the most intense and informative years for me in my quest for understanding of the earliest American lithic technologies. The knowledge and insights I gained from Mike and everyone else at the GSAR had a greater impact on me than anyone will ever realize. Now in my retirement, I spend my time documenting artifacts of mine with all the associated data, as well as the same from many other individuals I’ve had the pleasure of knowing in my life. My greatest desire is that this adds some small part to the collective knowledge base and helps advance the understanding of the original peopling of the Americas.