Cape May to Santa Fe: 1948 to now. The long way around.
What follows is a life told in eras. Not a resume — those flatten everything into bullet points and strip out the weather, the wrong turns, and the people who mattered. This is the fuller version: what I was doing, what I was thinking, and what I understand now that I didn't then. Start anywhere. The timeline holds it together.
ERA 1 Pre-Navy — Cape May, New Jersey (1955–1966)
I grew up with the Atlantic Ocean at the end of every street. First job at age-7 delivering Western Union telegrams. Sold the Cape May Star & Wave for 7¢ (2.5¢ profit each), and had a job every summer (and sometimes after school), from Cape Pharmacy stock boy to Amoco attendant to Plumber Helper to Glass Factory union worker. Small town, good schools, formative years spent on the water before I knew the water would define most of my adult life. The seeds of everything — curiosity, stubbornness, an early comfort with technology — were planted here.
ERA 3 Officer Active Duty (1973–1985)
Commissioned as an Ensign and never looked back. Sea tours on USS Forrestal and USS Nimitz — a nuclear carrier, built from scratch, first in its class, with all the chaos that implies. Then Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey for an MSEE in Digital Systems. Then the shift from shipboard operations to systems engineering. Ten years that built the professional foundation everything else rests on. I have the fitness reports to prove most of it.
ERA 2 Navy Enlisted + College (1967–1972)
I enlisted at 19 and the Navy immediately sent me school: Basic Electricity; Interior Communication, and ultimately to nuclear power training. Six years that covered everything from E-1 to E-5, and somehow — while wearing a uniform every Wednesday (yes, in the midst of anti-war protests — obtaining a BS in Computer Science (with High Honors) at NC State in 1973. The enlisted years taught me how organizations actually work, which turned out to be more useful than anything I learned in a classroom.
Each era has its own section with the events, photos, and stories. Use the navigation links at the top, or just pick the era that interests you most and start reading.
ERA 5 GS-15, NAVSEA (2000–2017)
The capstone federal career. Program Director and Cybersecurity Officer for Naval Sea Systems Command — the organization that builds, buys, and sustains the Navy's ships and combat systems. Seventeen years at the senior civilian equivalent of a Navy Captain, working problems that mattered at a national scale. I retired in 2017 having done more than I expected and enjoyed more than I admitted at the time. Yeah, 49-continuous years with USNavy sailors, officers, and civilians. Loved every minute working with these mission-centric professionals.
ERA 4 Navy Reserve + Entrepreneur (1986–2003)
Two careers running in parallel for nearly two decades. By day — and many weekends — I was building and running small businesses: IT consulting, healthcare systems, medical practice management. By nights and drill weekends I was climbing the Reserve ladder toward Captain. The combination made me a better officer and a more pragmatic businessman. Neither track would have been as good without the other.
ERA 6 Retirement — Santa Fe (2017–present)
Now in Santa Fe at 7,250 with front porch views of Ski Santa Fe at 11,000 ft. The light is different here, and the oceans too far. I spend my time on artificial intelligence (been following it since a graduate course at NC State in 1973 — yes, really), some golf - including a simulator at home, road trips to every National Park I can reach in my EV, and this website. That image on the left is my last Roadtrip to the Eastern Canadian Provinces before our Cape May Hess Clan Family Reunion in Atlantic City.
The examined life turns out to be worth examining. And certainly fun reminiscing.