Born in 1940’s, son of a tool & die shop owner.  As a child, always enjoyed mechanical things – taking things apart, making various items.  Built two boats before graduating from high school.  Enjoyed model airplane building/flying and boating, particularly sailing.  Studied engineering and chose to become a tool & die maker.  Made a few guitars in my early 20s using unconventional methods.  Joined a small firm involved in large diesel engine remanufacture in an engineering capacity where I had the freedom and resources to work primarily to enhance the manufacturing methods via novel and innovative processes as well as innovative tool design and manufacture.  Retired in 2005.  I am still a tinkerer, innovator, and experimenter and find myself constantly busy and sometimes find myself spending more time conjuring up some device to do a job than it would have taken to do it the "normal" way.  My son has coined a word for some of the gadgets - "Dadgets."  There are few hobbies/activities which don't interest me and working with many different materials and tools has given me a broad spectrum of experiences from which to chose.  I’ve heard it said that an expert can be defined by one who has made a vast number of mistakes in a very narrow field.  I think we learn from pushing the envelope and daring to try something unproven.  Failures come with the territory as does success.  My advice - if you want fresh and sometimes breakthrough ideas on how to do something, ask someone who's experience is in a totally unrelated field - preferably with no experience in what you're about at all.  You may be amazed at what the fresh perspective yields.

BACK TO HOME PAGE  Violins / Fiddles