I used to be a TV guy. I worked at UTA Engineering Television as a Technical Director running Master Control and sometimes driving cameras in studio classrooms. In four years, I learned a lot of Engineering without having to do the math involved in Random Signals & Noise, Statistical Signal Processing, or Electromagnetic Interference & Compatibility (EMI/EMC). My “mean old boss” he jokingly called himself became a Father Figure to me at a time in my life when I needed it, then he was a trusted mentor – which he still is – and now a more than three decade lifelong friend. That is Uncle Dave, who stood with me at my wedding.
Uncle Dave brought me along to Friday Night Football as an adopted Band Dad, a role that I have been proud to serve for my own kids. It was there that I met my future wife. He also introduced me to Rotary and taught me about service to the community and how to apply Rotary’s Four Way Test, which is now The Stage Four Way Test:
- Is it the TRUTH?
- Is it FAIR to all concerned?
- Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
- Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Even more than including me as a member of his peers in the community and later his own family, he challenged me to learn and pushed me to grow. One summer we got a Sun SPARC-4, which should date myself. Uncle Dave handed me a Unix book, Learning Perl, and an HTML guide and asked me to write a department website. From there I learned to code, write scripts, grep, sed, & awk.
I also learned some hard lessons about the misuse of the root password. When I crashed the machine, Uncle Dave made me rebuild it. When I screwed up Uncle Dave had my back, publicly, every single time. Now I would get a new one afterwards, but he taught me how to be a leader and gave me life lessons in loyalty. He also taught me DIRT FT: Do It Right The First Time, and how to think like an Engineer, which he is.
My experience learning the web, different internet protocols, and coding led me to the summer job at the ISP where I went to work for Mama. Mama is what we called her, and she called my partner and I “her boys”. For seven years we were a family responsible for handling internet abuse OF and abuse ON the net. Mama taught me how to write and enforce policy. Mama turned a summer job into a career going on for three decades. I never did coach a down of football, but I did find my way into the classroom as a security awareness instructor and as an adjunct professor at my alma mater where Mama encouraged me to pursue a Masters in Information Assurance and to join industry organizations and InfraGard.
There are many things we did that I am proud of including mentor law enforcement at the local, state, and federal levels on internet issues and teaching them that crimes committed online may seem different, but they are solved through the same shoe leather detective work. Many of the things we did I am not at liberty to or not able to discuss. I can only say that the horrors of the world often cross the digital divide and back propagating into nightmares that never end. It took a family to process it all.
Mama passed away several years ago and sadly we did not learn about it until a year later due to Covid. But I will always remember her freckled cheeks, her laughter, the tone of her voice when I screwed up, and our long phone conversations through the years even after we stopped working together. Just like Uncle Dave, Mama always supported her boys publicly, every time, without fail. I will forever miss her, but I am thankful to have had her play such a vital role in my life.
Uncle Dave and Mama shaped my career and my life. Uncle Dave was more than a boss—he was a mentor and father figure who taught me coding, leadership, and the value of loyalty and community. He helped me grow into the person I am today as a professional, husband, and dad. Mama took a summer job and turned it into a 30-year career in Information Assurance. She showed me how to stand by people, build a team, and keep going through tough times. Together, they gave me the skills and support I needed to succeed, and their influence still guides me in everything I do—proof that a good life and career come from the people who stand with you.