Kim's EducationWhile my father was attending University of Nevada, Reno for his PhD in Atmospheric Physics, I attended the "Child Development Lab" - a preschool on the UNR campus. I recall riding tricycles around a cement loop and painting. We lived at 1521 Hillside Drive, facing the Planetarium. While it was being built they installed a time-lapsed camera on our roof that captured the construction (and I'm still trying to obtain that from UNR Archives).
UNR Child Development LabI have several memories of my time here at age 3, such as painting and riding trikes around the circle. But I don't find any photos of me. This is a photo of Jay, who was two years behind me, and his friend Robert Darney. I believe that is our gray Travelall in the back left. 
In fact Jay's first magic performance was at this location. When I was in 3rd grad and Jay was in 1st grade we got this set of magic tricks from Chex Cereal. We returned to the pre-school and gave a magic show. I remember every one of the items in this photo and what they did!
Orvis Ring Elementary SchoolIn 1963 I enrolled in kindergarten at Orvis Ring Elementary School a few blocks south of UNR - Seventh between Record and Evans streets. While I was attending the homes between UNR and the school were being bulldozed to build what is now I-80 through Reno, between Virginia Street and Wells Avenue. (Before I-80 opened that traffic went through Reno on 4th street.) Orvis Ring was one of four "Spanish Quartet" schools built in Reno around 1910. It was destroyed in the late 1970's and I don't find any photos. Below are photos of similar school "Mount Rose" that is still operating:
From kindergarten through 6th grade I walked over a mile to the school. But it was an adventure because we discovered several interesting routes through the UNR campus, and knew where to find drinking fountains in buildings. Google Earth link to Former Orvis Ring
Orvis Ring teachers:
First through Sixth grade I was a minority because most of the students were bused in from the Indian Reservation out towards Wells Avenue, near where MGM/Ballys hotel is today. One time walking home with in 4th grade John Shields went out on the frozen Manzanita Pond in UNR. He was jumping to show us how safe the ice was - and he fell through! About five seconds later he popped up and by a miracle he was able to scramble back onto the ice. Below is my kindergarten class photo. Fortunately my mother had me provide the her the names and she wrote them on the back, and sorry I couldn't tell the black girls apart. David Kelly lived nearby. We walked to school together nearly every day and were best friends. When Star Trek was popular in 4th and 5th grade Lee Heiman (now a patent attorney in DC) would play "Star Trek" during recess. Diane Stockford below my photo and I went to different schools from first grade until high school. In my senior year of H.S. she became my first "real" girlfriend. This was the afternoon session. So half of my subsequent classmates are not here. (At the time I thought Joy, Nancy, and Dani were cute - and my taste has not changed! I remember once I hit Nancy and was immediately yanked in the air from behind by the teacher.) Click HERE for high-res image
In 5th and 6th grade I was on the Safety Patrol, which stopped traffic at crosswalks. In 6th grade I was the captain, with the task of walking around the school to assure that everyone was behaving at their stations. Participants were given a show pass:
Around third grade I started reading Peanuts paperbacks, collecting several
through 6th grade.
Along with my brother and sister, we were occasionally enrolled in after school classes at the YWCA, which we'd reach by walking along the train track. We took course like art, pottery, French, and trampoline. Between 5th and 6th grade Lee Heiman and I took a 2 week summer course titled "Fossils to Rockets." The first week we took a field trip to dig for fossils near Verdi, and in the final days we built and launched Estes model Rockets - they still sell the "Alpha" model that we built. But now they use plastic. We had to cut and shape balsa wood for the fins. (There was some other science stuff in the middle that is less memorable.)
Orvis Ring 6th grade class
Swope Junior High SchoolIn 1970 we moved to south-west Reno. I attended Swope (now named "Swope Middle School" for 7th and 8th grade. Here are met a new set of friends that followed through high school. I got a paper route after school delivering the Reno Evening Gazette to 30 houses for about $30 per month. (photo of Aztec and mascot) Swope Instructors I especially recall:
Reno High School
I was working in restaurants after school:
My interest at the time was motorcycles - and then my 1968 Dodge Charger. PAGES FROM 1976 RHS YEARBOOK HERE As far as academics, I was a slacker (don't be confused by the right-side "citizenship" grades):
Even when I graduated I had no idea "what I wanted to be." In my senior year I took flying lessons, passed FAA written, and soloed. But becoming a pilot was a long haul of getting license, instrument, commercial, being instructor... In spite of my low grades, I scored high on my ACT exam: 99 percentile in math and 90 percentile in English. (front page, back page). But the "world of work" on the back page was not close to any careers (although it is close to the software career path that I finally took).
When I graduated Diane Stockford was my girlfriend. She was right below me in our kindergarten photo (above), but I didn't see her again until my senior year of high-school - and only then because she used to come to Sambos where I was a cook with her sister and sister's boyfriend Mark Forbes. One time Diane was waiting to pay at the register and no waitresses were around so I rang her up and asked "Weren't you in my kindergarten class?" I think she said "what?" But eventually we met up at school.
Diane and Kim - graduation day - in front of Diane's house (on 7th street) and her 1975 Toyota pick-up
Sister Sandy, Kim, and Diane
This is the only photo of my HS graduation that I know of - (that isn't a "chip" on my shoulder) For the 6 months after graduation I worked well above minimum wage as a chef at John Ascuaga's Nugget in Sparks, NV. But in December when they asked for volunteers for layoff, I took it. I knew I had better options while others were trying to raise a family. I moved in with my father in Sacramento, got a factory job at Formica, and enrolled at American River College.
American River CollegeIn my first semester at ARC I chose Drafting as a major. There were no computer CAD back then - it was pencils. The instructor kept saying "the Engineer will tell you..." so I decided I'd rather be the Engineer. But in second semester I washed out in the math. (I was attending part-time Tuesday-Thursday because I was working 7am-7pm Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at Formica.)
I did a past life regression with him, and saw an innocent man being hanged, I was yelling to stop it, but everyone was cheering it on. After two years I had competed one year at ARC. But I could not take Formica anymore. The formaldehyde fumes were messing up my sinuses, I had strained my back and it would not recover, and I had been bumped to night shift. In June I resigned Formica and moved back to Reno for a year to unwind. I worked that summer driving a Peterbilt water truck for WES construction. We did roads and during the last month I worked on the condos just on the Nevada side of Tahoe north shore. I got laid off in October but through my sister's boyfriend I quickly got a job doing welding and rebar wiring for Jensen Precast in Sparks, NV. (I still see their trucks on the road.) I also worked weekends as a cook at Marie Calendars. But I knew this was temporary. I enrolled at ARC the next fall, and my grandparents in Roseville allowed me to live with them for that school-year so that I could attend full-time without working. This was the first time I had attended school without working since the eight grade. I competed a 19 unit semester with "highest honors" and graduated with honors. In 1985 I returned part time to complete lower division for BS Computer Science, and received an A in every course through 1988 - I have over 120 units at ARC:
I was hired after graduation as an Electronic Test Technician for Signetics. The position was in Sacramento, but while the new facility was being built we were to work in Santa Clara for about a month. Then there was a labor strike that delayed the building. I didn't mind living at the Ambassador Inn in Santa Clara, rent and meals covered by per diem, June through November 1981. I shared a room with co-worker Darren Byrd. About this time the IBM PC came out and about a year later the technicians had one that they could share. I learned Turbo Pascal 1.0 and took any programming assignment that came along, such as a simple DB to track board certifications, or controlling hardware to automate test equipment. Finally I found something I liked to do. I had promised myself that if I could get though the Calculus I would quit and complete my BS computer science as a full-time student. Stephanie was born March 1987. I resigned Signetics August 1987, took 21 units of lower division, then transferred to CSUS in spring 1988.
California State University - SacramentoSeveral times during the 1980's I had wondered around CSUS to get a feel for it. I had been studying the catalog, so I was ready. During those visits it seemed so peaceful. But during senior project and O/S classes it was not serene at all. There was no Internet back then, so I spent many hours in the library reading magazines, or just surfing the isles:
Aside from some summer courses, all of the classes were computer-related. This was my best education experience. January through August 1989 I did a co-op at Hewlett-Packard, which was a great experience. (It also worked out since Stephen was born May 1989, and I needed medical insurance.) I have good memories of all the instructors at CSUS, and many of the classmates. Here is a partial document of a CPU Simulation Project (PDF) we did in Csc 142 "Computer Architecture" class. I took a job as a student tutor. But when I went to sign up to get paid I was presented with an "Oath of Allegiance" swearing to "defend the constitution against all enemies." I asked "what would constitute an enemy, and what power and authority would I have to defend it? Could I resort to violence? No one could answer so I declined to sign it:
I graduated at the top of the class, Magna Cum Laude. 
Post Graduate StudiesWhile working at Hewlett-Packard in 1998 I took an Oracle and Java course at
Sierra College. In 2003 I took the LSAT but have since decided that law school
is not in the cards. With the Internet and multi-media, the computer field gets
more interesting each year. |
I attended Reno High 9th grade through 12th grade.
This is my ninth grade class photo (age 14).
About that time Hewlett-Packard announced groundbreaking on a huge facility,
with talk of Intel and NEC coming too. Therefore in the second year I changed my
major to Electronic Computer technology. One instructor, Lawrence Rodrigues, was
into "new-age healing." He encouraged meditation and visualization prior to
exams and on his influence 
Professor
Bob Fritz allowed me to challenge his "Intro to data processing" course
in spring 1987 - critical otherwise I could not have taken the courses I
did in the fall. In April 2001 he fell overboard in while boating with a
friend, drowning in Folsom Lake.
