About Me and King Street Church

My wife, Wini, and I joined King Street Church in the spring of 1980, shortly before the church’s sesquicentennial and seven years after we moved to Danbury from Wheaton, Illinois. Besides a welcoming pastor and congregation, we liked the relaxed and informal style of worship and the faith principles we found in the United Church of Christ.

In the 25 years since joining, I have served as a trustee, stewardship committee member, house committee (building and grounds) chair, treasurer, and moderator. I have ushered and been liturgist occasionally, and help with the annual church fair as parking organizer/greeter (what else is a Parker to do?) and public-address technician.

From its rural beginnings to this day, King Street Church has depended heavily on volunteerism and member participation, which gives a strong sense of togetherness and belonging. While we seem increasingly to pay for needed services instead of donating them, that spirit is still here.

More About Me

Trained in physics at Baylor and Harvard, I have done basic research, industrial research and development, and work as an Air Force officer:

• At Argonne National Laboratory in 1969, I weighed different species of uranium atoms in moon rock. Because their mass distribution proved similar to that of terrestrial uranium, my work added support to the argument that the moon was originally part of our own planet -- a theory that is generally accepted today.
   
• At Sperry Products here in Danbury, I led an engineering group that developed instruments for strength-testing jet engines, bridges, spacecraft, and nuclear reactor vessels without destroying them. We did this with ultrasound, X rays, and something called "eddy currents," which I'm happy to explain to anyone who will listen.
   
• One thing I can't explain is the Top Secret work I did for two years at the Pentagon. Otherwise, as they say, I'd have to kill you!

My Pentagon tour was one of the most exciting of my career. Washington is beautiful at cherry-blossom time, and the Kennedy inauguration was fascinating.

For ten years before my retirement in 1998, I also taught high-school science in Wolcott, Connecticut.

Today, I help seniors learn to use computers and the Internet at the Danbury Senior Center. I'm also a volunteer at the John J. McCarthy Observatory, located on the grounds of nearby New Milford High School. I lead the observatory's local outreach and "Astronomy To Go" programs, which send guest educators to lecture at schools and other institutions in our region.

Wini and I have been far luckier than two people who moved 1,000 miles from home in pursuit of education and physics jobs deserve to be. Our three daughters, six grandchildren, and first great-grandchild all live in Connecticut towns -- Danbury, Watertown, and Trumbull.