Biography

My higher education was in music earning my BA and BS from the Chicago Conservatory College and PhD from The Vienna Academy of Music in Vienna, Austria. I have taught at universities including Chicago Conservatory College, Columbia College and Northeastern University for 8 years. Teaching and leadership have always been abilities that are very natural to me. I have taught high school through graduate school and am just as comfortable with children as with adults.

Business

I broke into the computer industry in it's heyday in 1978. Those were the days of enormous mainframe systems which had all information punched on cards! I was able to learn programming languages very easily and was fortunate enough to create my own computer software development company, Chicago Computing Company, which I grew from nothing to a successful corporation. I learned sound business practices and led a group of 45 employees for 23 years. During my business career, I was active as a community leader and was elected president of the Skokie Rotary where I innovated many improvements and polished my public speaking skills. I sold my company in 1999 to actively pursue my dive instructor career.

Scuba Systems

I worked at Scuba Systems, Skokie, Illinois as a manager, sales person and instructor for 2½ years. I thrived in that environment, creating new and profitable programs, leading trips and teaching all levels of scuba from Seal Team to Trimix. I learned about the entire industry including instruction, sales, marketing, advertising, travel, customer relations, equipment repair, retail store management and employee relations. While there, I created a very successful dive club, produced a tec program, started a direct mail campaign, enhanced sales, organized class schedules and instruction staff, managed the computer network, standardized procedures, promoted travel, led trips and helped maintain the facility.

Dive Experience

I am a SCUBA omnivore; I will dive in any type of water be it warm ocean reef diving through ice diving. I am able to dive caves and deep wrecks. Much of my diving has been in the Great Lakes and south Florida but I have traveled extensively seeking out the best diving I can find. I enjoy creating videos and strive to make them as professional looking as possible. I have led dive trips to exotic locations and always produce a trip video for the divers. I enjoy giving travel presentations to promote dive travel and through those efforts, eventually lead trips with students and other divers.

Teaching

My SCUBA teaching career has been varied and rewarding since I became an instructor. I have pursued every aspect of dive education and have enjoyed the instructor-student relationship and will continue to teach for the rest of my life. I also enjoy teaching specialties exploring the areas of interest that appeal to the inquisitive student. After all, no matter what style of diving, diving should always be safe and fun! I believe I can instill the same level of professionalism as well as imparting my infectious enthusiasm to prospective instructors. I always want to demonstrate and instill my care and awe for the living environment and respect for wrecks and their artifacts. My attitude is always positive and never condescending nor arrogant. I wish to continue to teach, motivate and inspire students of all levels and always excel as a credit to the dive community.

Dive Summary as of June 2, 2010:

Total dives to date - 5591

Deepest dive - 411'

Countries visited - 28

Wrecks Dove - 433

Coldest Air Temp - 1º F

Warmest Air Temp - 100º F

Coldest Water Temp - 32º F

Warmest Water Temp - 89º F

Semi-Closed Rebreather Dives - 76

Closed Circuit Rebreather Dives - 161

Cave Dives -1071

Trimix Dives - 1797

Manufacturer Trained Service Technician

Apeks

Bauer

Dacor

Dräger

DUI

Mares

PSI

Poseidon

SeaQuest

ScubaPro

Tusa

Zeagle

Favorite Dives (This is hard!)

Acapulco

Akumal

Andrea Doria

Australia

Bahamas

Belize

Bonne Terre Mines

Catalina Island

Cay Sal Banks

Cayman Islands

Cozumel

Eagles Nest Cave

Florida caves

Florida wrecks

Ginnie Springs

Galapagos

Guam

Hawaii

Honduras

Lake Huron

Lake Michigan

Lake Superior

Los Roques

Micronesia

Palau

Papua New Guinea

Puerto Vallarta

Red Sea

Roatan

St. Claire River

Seattle

Turks. Caymans

Utila

Vancouver Island

Venezuela

Whitefish Point

Yap

Zihuatanejo

On my List to see

Cocos

Cuba

Chuuck

Fiji

Indonesia

Greek Islands

Maldives

New Zealand

Philippines

Scotland

Seychelles

South Africa

Tahiti

Viet Nam

Languages

Fluent in English and pretty good German, I get by in Spanish

Computer Languages - 7

Activities I enjoy outside of diving

Opera, symphony, plays, movies, photography, videography, video editing, studying new technologies, electronics, swimming, bicycling, tinkering with dive gear, oceanic and inland lakes conservation studies, promoting SCUBA. I also enjoy writing articles about diving and I write short stories.

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