Lindsey Wilson College brought me to Columbia from Western Arkansas to teach math classes in August 1989. I decided to teach at the college level after determining that junior high students really ought to have a prison warden and/or a drill sergeant for a teacher.

Outside the classroom, I like to do things literally outside whenever possible -- construction work, yard work or riding my motorcycle. Merging skills learned in helping my granddad build houses and my dad do auto body work, high-end custom cabinet building has become a side-line occupation for me -- a trade that uses a lot of math.

My interests in the field of mathematics are strictly on the practical. Theoretical mathematics is a good thing, but not something in which I am interested. As for computations, I think a student ought to pride him- or herself in using a calculator and/or a computer as little as possible.