The perfect background for Supervisor of Elections

• I understand that it is not the voting technology, it is the management of the voting process that produces election results that will satisfy the public's need for accountability in accuracy, timeliness, and transparency. Elections must not only be fair, they must be perceived to be fair. The office of Supervisor of Elections must not only be trustworthy the office must be perceived as trustworthy.

• Most of my profession career has been devoted to advancing the state-of-the-art for highly reliable computing hardware for severe environments. Now I want to bring our elections office up to state-of-the-art in election management. I can make our Elections Office a model for Best Practices. Accountability, Transparency, and Trustworthiness where conflicts of interest, partisanship, and poor judgment have no place.

• I have an in-depth understanding of all voting systems technologies. I understand the equipments, the systems and the applications, their strengths and their limitations. I will not be dependent on Voting Equipment Vendors for Election Support.
  
• I understand how to maintain configuration control of both computer hardware and computer software. It was part of professional life for many years.

• I know how to maintain a chain of custody for ballots and other election records. As part of my design, development, and test of equipment and systems vital to the national defense I have been maintaining records of access to classified documents for close to 40 years. The purpose for maintaining a chain of custody for classified material is to assure that unauthorized people do not have access. The purpose for maintaining a chain of custody for your ballots and other election records is to assure that they retain their integrity while allowing anyone to witness them.

• I know how to recruit and manage a computer an information technology literate professional staff and their support team. I know how to write and negotiate contracts for very complex items and services as well as for seemingly simple items like special paper and ink for printing ballots and pens for marking ballots . I have a Masters degree in Business Administration and many years of management experience.

• I understand and appreciate best election management practices. I am a member of the committee that advises the Election Assistance Commission on Electronic Voting Technology issues.

Educational Background

• Bay County High School
  Panama City, Florida
  College Prep, emphasis on English and Mathematics
• Georgia Tech
  Atlanta, Georgia
  Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering emphasis on Electronics and Communications
• Florida Institute of Technology
  Melbourne, Florida
  Studies in Electrical Engineering emphasis on Computer Design
• Florida Institute of Technology
  Melbourne, Florida
  Master of Business Administration (MBA) with an emphasis in Government Contract Administration and Procurement
• Numerous short courses on Technology and Management

Notable Management Experience

• Project Engineer, Honeywell
  Advanced Computer Development
• Project Engineer E-Systems (now Raytheon)
  Telecommunications Printers
• President & CEO, Siliconexion, Inc.

Community Involvement

• Chair, Life Members, Florida West Coast section
  Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
• Former Chairperson
  Tampa Bay Chapter
  Association for Computing Machinery
• Former Chairperson &
  Currently Vice Chairperson
  Tampa Bay
  IEEE Computer Society
• Founder & Director
  Programmable Logic Users Group
• Sierra Club - Energy Committee and Membership Data Base Management.
• Founding Member and Director - Florida Democratic Party Netroots Coalition
• Member IEEE Standards Committee
• Member of the Standards Coordinating Committee on Electronic Voting Systems (SCC38)
• Member of the Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) Foundation, . I am a GBS survivor and I help other GBS victims understand the Syndrome and its effects by example.
• Life member Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW)

I grew up in rural Northwest Florida where I received an excellent free public school education under the direction of an elected superintendent of education. I will forever be indebted to the taxpayers of Bay County for that gift. God knows that my father, with a family of ten, did not earn enough to pay a lot of taxes, so yes, it was a gift.

My father was at first a small farmer and later an electrician who helped build World War II liberty ships at the local ship yard. He was a long-time member of IBEW local 621. I was briefly a member of that local as an apprentice electrician installing large pumps at a paper mill.

At age nineteen and during the Korean War, I joined the US Navy where I received a year of the world's best training as an electronics technician. I served an additional three years on an aircraft carrier, the USS Philippine Seas (CVA 47), where our primary mission was to keep track of Russian submarines in the Northern Pacific Ocean. The USS Philippine Seas was the last of the Essex-class aircraft carriers. It had a straight deck and was just less than 1,000 feet long. It was commissioned in August of 1945 and did not see action until the Korean War. In the meantime, the carrier served the nation as Admiral Byrd's flagship on his first expedition to the South Pole.

After completing my active duty military service, I attended Georgia Tech with help from the Korean War Veterans Bill of Rights, and worked full-time as chief engineer at Atlanta's only classical music station, WGKA. I had passed the Federal Communications Commission first class operator license exam while on active Navy duty. The job not only helped pay for my tuition, but also introduced me to the joy of classical music which I continue to enjoy. I also served in the Atlanta Naval Reserve and taught basic electronics to new recruits.

I was on a summer Naval Reserve training cruise to Havana, Cuba, just before Castro kidnapped three American sailors and held them for ranson.

I completed my bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering in 1961, and began a rewarding professional career as an electronics design engineer. I was then the only member of my extended family to earn a college degree.

Wife

My wife, Robbie, and I were married in the chapel at St Marks Methodist Church, in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1960 during my junior year at Georgia Tech. Robbie is a graduate of Berry College in Mount Berry, Georgia. She grew up in rural North West Georgia. Her father was once a School Board Member. We were well blessed in that we were able and she was willing to be a full time stay-at-home mother. Our children's later success is mostly to her credit, and through the importance which we placed on their education.

We have three children and two grandchildren. All of our children graduated from Oakhurst Elementary, Seminole Middle, and Seminole High Schools in Pinellas County.

Children

Bill, our oldest, enlisted in the US Army upon graduation from Seminole High and became a Russian language signals intelligence specialist. He had taken two years of Latin at Seminole High School and had acquired a talent for foreign languages. His unit was assigned to defend the nation at the Fulda Gap in West Germany during the Cold War. After the Army, Bill graduated from St Petersburg Junior College and then the University of Florida with a major in Real Estate Finance. He is currently an executive in the City of Jacksonville Planning Department and is responsible for the Geographical Information System.

John, upon graduation from Seminole High, attended the University of Florida where he received BA and MA degrees in Economics. He is currently an executive for an Internet banking firm in Miami.

Jennifer, upon graduation from Seminole High School, attended Emory University in Atlanta where she completed a BA double major in English and Political Science. She then attended Florida State University where she obtained a Masters Degree in Public Administration at the Askew School. She currently works for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Grandchildren

Our grandson, Max, age 8, attends a public school in Miami. His mother is the daughter of Cuban immigrants.

Our granddaughter, Laura Mae, at age 21 months, is just adorable. Her mother is a naturalized citizen and was born in Bogota, Colombia. She graduated from St Petersburg High School and St Petersburg Junior College, attended the University of Florida and the University of North Florida where she obtained a BA in Caribbean Studies.