I am now in my third career as a member of the academic community and scholar in my field, rather than contemplating retirement.
My undergraduate degree was in Economics from the University of Delaware. After graduation, I joined the United States Air Force, serving nine years as an active duty officer including a tour of duty in Vietnam. During my active duty years, I attended Southern Methodist University, earning a Master of Science degree in Systems Engineering, where I learned computer technology. I recently earned my Ph. D. at Northcentral University in Business. My doctoral dissertation was Evaluating Property Tax Equity Implications of Capping Assessment Increases: Evidence from Florida.
When I left USAF active duty, I became a software entrepreneur, founding the small business that eventually became ProVal Corporation, acquired by a public company in 1999. During my entrepreneurial years, I also served the country during the Cold War years as a member of the Ohio Air National Guard, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1991.
During my 27 years as a software architect and entrepreneur, I specialized in software to improve local government operations, but also developed and implemented business application software for manufacturers and distributors. The local government software that I designed and developed is now used in more than 300 local government jurisdictions in North America. The most widely used software is the ProVal® computer assisted mass appraisal (CAMA) product, which is used by jurisdictions to appraise about 10 million real property parcels annually for tax assessment.
I entered the Northcentral University doctoral program in 2004, but continued to work as a part-time consulting application software architect with Manatron, Inc., in addition to my academic pursuits. I began work on my dissertation in 2005 and finished in early 2008.
My academic hero is Peter F. Drucker, who made significant contributions to the body of management knowledge until the last year of his long life.