I’ve had a varied career. Following nearly eight years in the military, I worked as a civilian contractor for the NASA for another six years, then for three years on a Navy anti-submarine warfare program. I went from talking to airplanes to tracking satellites to looking for subs! For one 12-year period, beginning about 1970, I lived outside the US for nine years.
Returning to the US, and moving to California, in the early 1980s, I wrote curriculum for a range of technical and non-technical subjects. That led to more teaching, and, eventually an executive director and a vice-president role in proprietory education. One of my jobs was teaching English as a Second Language to immigrants to the US. I did that for 15 years in the classroom, and for another five years, online, and it was probably the most satisfying job I ever had, even though I often was in a classroom up to 15 hours a day. It is where I met my wife. No, I didn’t rob the cradle. It was adult education. That was over 35 years ago, and we have now been married for 34 years (2024) and now live in Mexico.
In 1994, I was vice president of Marketing for a school group, when I decided to strike out on my own. With a partner, we founded a marketing and communication agency, quickly landed a telecommunications company, and by 1997 had won the Estrella Award as Small Business of the Year, by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Additionally, I won the Aurora Gold Award for Excellence in the Film and Video Industries, for a TV commercial that I produced, in ’97. A few years later, my partner and I decided to go our separate ways, so it looked like a good time to change careers, again.
Photography has been my hobby since 1971. For many years (25), I shot weddings on the weekends. No one ever came to my office to get married, so when I decided to close the ad agency offices, I thought wedding photography would be a business that I could run from home. For the last 20 years, before I retired, photography occupied nearly every waking moment. It has continued to be an important part of my life, although I am now, mostly, seen walking the streets, and no one is paying me. 
I have difficulty sitting still, with no project to work on. While I am no longer opening schools, building satellite tracking stations, or running an ad agency, my mind continues to function. Consequently, I have returned to that satisfying job that I mentioned earlier: Teaching English as a Second (Foreign) Language.
No, I am not teaching at a brick-and-mortar school. Parking is not an issue. I am teaching people who wish to acquire English, in a private, 1-to-1, online setting. I am teaching and coaching my students, one at a time, on their computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Thank you for being here — and for reading this far! 🙂 🙂
To request a FREE English Placement (level) Test, send your email to me. I will send a link to the test, usually within 24 hours.