Ever changing as I'm still trying to decide what I want to do in life. A university student wanted to do his graduation project in cinamatography on our Sugar Shot project but switched to a bio on me that you can watch instead of reading what I wrote below... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LydYQdaYwHA&list=FLgE9yxooDx1UwelAT7Xu7gQ&index=15 Started out as a paper boy, car wash, Air Force, forklift driver, truck driver, 7-11 cashier, Green Giant cannery line worker, USPS mail carrier, REI salesperson, prospector, toxic waste consultant, EMT, National Park Ranger, teacher, firefighter/engine driver, sheriff department Search and Rescue/training officer, and some others I can't think of right now. Presently a CAL-FIRE licensed rocketry pyro operator and teaching rocketry at Desert JSHS at Edwards Air Force Base. But this is about rocketry. Brushed aside my dinosaur toys when I saw the roll out of the X-15 and the TV show 'Men Into Space (1959). All we had for instruction was the school World Book Encyclopedia and what we saw on TV. My dad worked at General Dynamics on the Terrier, Standard missile and Redeye but thought rockets are for the government, not kids (I had a October Sky relationship with my dad). Our rockets were black powder, gun powder, ZnS, sugar, match heads, etc...basically whatever we could scrounge up. First liquid attempt was with black lacquer paint for fuel...the tank over pressurized and blew the bulkhead in my Mom's kitchen and ended rockets for a year. When I discovered during the Gemini program that I was too tall to be an astronaut I went back to dinosaurs and volcanoes and got my degree in geology where I was to dig fossils for universities and walk on active volcanoes...guess I'm just a pyro at heart because I also worked as a volunteer firefighter from 1984-2002. Also volunteered with the sheriff department for search and rescue and today do rocket search and rescue for teams that have trouble locating their rockets. Became a science teacher from 1988 to 2007 and had a rocketry program in all but my first two years of teaching. This included advising and mentoring teams for TARC and getting NAR/Tripoli certified . A few months after I 'retired' from teaching I missed working with students so much that I got involved with volunteering as a mentor for university aerospace teams doing competitions (NASA USLI, ESRA IREC, FAR competitions, etc). When you volunteer, everyone wants your help. Got involved with IREC when I encouraged a couple schools I was mentoring to compete when IREC was still launching in Utah. The first year at the Spaceport, one of the teams I was working with was in the first volley on the first day and Tony talked me into working the solid pads, something I've done everyday since that first day at Spaceport. I was on track to get my Level 3 when one of my TAPs, Eric Gates, was killed. I put that off and when one of the IREC teams I was mentoring in Utah needed a M motor I gave it to them since I was now launching larger experimental motors with Sugar Shot to Space at the FAR facility where you don't need NAR or TRA certification to launch. I maintain my L-2 because NASA requires team members to be at least L-2. I ended up buying a commercial Aerotech M-impulse motor to get my level-3 since Tripoli requires it to continue as a mentor/FoR for teams. I've been on teams launching R and S impulse rockets and have personally made two successful 12" solid propellant motors and motors for a few TV shows... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHUsGFGhfmk Believe it or not, I was actually able to salvage some of those motors and fire them again successfully. Currently I'm the director of Sugar Shot to Space with the goal of reaching 100km with sugar propellant. After we do that, I'll be going back to LOX motors of different types. I am also the founder and prefect of the Tripoli Friends or Amateur Rocketry prefecture, now terminated by the TRA board for ? reasons. This year I helped get the SpacePort Company started by building and launching four rockets for them on a platform in the Gulf of Mexico, first commercial rocket launches in US waters. This is my 64th year doing experimental amateur rocketry. When I die, I hope to finally reach space even if just my ashes with a little help from my friends.