I was born and grew up in Southeast Missouri where most of my family lived and now live. I attended primary and secondary school in Bloomfield and Dexter. After attending two years at SEMO State at Cape Girardeau majoring in Business Administration I joined the US Navy where I graduated from Basic Propulsion Engineering, Machinest Mate "A", Naval Nuclear Power School, and Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Technician Training. After my tour of duty in the Navy, operating, maintaining, troubleshooting, and repairing HVACR equipment aboard the USS W.S. Sims, I attended the University of Missouri at Rolla (now the Missouri University of Science and Technology) majoring in Mechanical Engineering while working at Central Hardware part time to supplement my Veteran's college benefits and help pay my expenses.
I then moved to the California where I initially worked for a contractor as a pipe fitter at the Chevron refinery in Richmond and the Phillips 66 refinery in Rodeo and then for Ace Hardware in Pinole and then as a Refrigeration Service Engineer at Melin's Commercial Refrigeration where I was a member of RSES, after saving enough to go back to college I continued my University education in Mechanical Engineering at California Polytechnic University at San Louis Obispo and San Francisco State University and worked in more energy related jobs as a sales engineer for TempCo Equipment company (a regional HVAC manufacturers representative) and Taco Inc (a national hydronics system equipment manufacturer). I then worked for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (operated by the University of California Office of the President Laboratory Management Office for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science) for over twenty years as a Professional Mechanical Engineer (CA license) and retired as a Staff Energy Management Engineer having worked in the Facilities Division as a Mechanical Engineer.
Prior to leaving "the Lab" I was a member of the DOE award winning In-House Energy Management (IHEM) team that won various awards for identifying and implementing energy efficiency and reduction measures in various building and process systems including; lighting & controls, motors and drives, HVAC equipment, Energy Management and Controls Systems (EMCS) installation, Operations and Maintenance (O and M) procedure and process improvements, and process equipment and systems retrofits. I now have retired my registration as a Professional Mechanical Engineer in the State of California.
After retiring from "the Lab" and doing some independent consulting work in California for a San Francisco Bay Area developer and the U.S. EPA I moved back to Southeast Missouri (SEMO) to be near my family and become reacquainted with my roots. I'm continuing my research to get to know "the lay of the land" here in SEMO as it relates to energy supplies and demands; especially as they relate to energy efficiency (identifying existing conditions and improvement opportunities) in Thermal Systems associated with Power supply, distribution, storage, and use.
