Michael's Life Story Michael was born in Illinois (1961), attended Catholic grade school (Champaign, then Philo Illinois), Unity High School (Tolono Illinois), and a couple of years at the University of Illinois before joining the Air Force in 1985. Michael served as an electronic warfare specialist at Mountain Home Idaho, before attending the Defense Language Institute in Monterey California. After graduating the Russian linguist program with honors, Michael and his new wife Kathleen, spent two years in Germany. After a little more than seven years in the service, Michael returned to Illinois where he worked for Norfolk Southern Railway then the US Postal Service. Michael now works for Hewlett Packard in Corvallis Oregon where he has lived for nearly ten years. While working full-time, he completed an accounting degree from Oregon State University, where he graduated cum laude in 1999. He then attended Willamette University, for an accelerated MBA from the Atkinson Graduate School of Management, where he graduate in 2000 magna cum laude. Michael has been married to Kathleen for 17 years with two children, Stephan 15, and Emily 13. Michael plays tuba in community band, enjoys mountain bike riding, and would like to go fishing if he had more time.
Education in detail;
Military service in detail;
Previous Governmental Experience;
Personal Narrative; I was born to middle class/working class parents James and Carol Smith in August of 1961, in Champaign Illinois. My father was a struggling businessman who ran a fledgling fishing lure company into bankruptcy when I was 15, while my mother, a registered nurse, worked nights to make ends meet. The eldest of three children, I attended catholic grade schools in Champaign Illinois, then Philo Illinois, before attending Unity High School in Tolono Illinois, where I attained a reasonably good education, and fairly mediocre grades. Upon high school graduation, I gained admission to the music education program at the University of Illinois, where I envisioned a career as a high school band director. My college years were a struggle and minimally productive at best. I was a music education (piano) major, working nights at a local hospital pharmacy, and playing tuba in the UI Marching Illini. I found that I enjoyed playing in the marching band, drinking beer, and general laziness over studies and after several years in and out of school I decided to join the Air Force for training in electronics. The structure and focus of the Air Force turned my life around. I attended electronics school at Lowry AFB in Denver for nearly a year from mid ‘85 to early ‘86, learning basic electronics and avionics systems. I graduated with honors and was assigned to Mountain Home AFB where I worked on the electronics jamming equipment of the EF-111. I was assigned to deployments to England, the Philippines, and South Korea, and was named Maintenance Professional of the Year for 1986. I applied for retraining as a Russian linguist and in March of 1989, began the language course at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey California. We arrived in Germany in August of 1990, with Kathleen about 4 months pregnant, along with the news of Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. We immediately fell into local German culture where we both played in a local “oom-pah” band, and Kathleen played cello with the local orchestra. As preparations for the first gulf war grew, I was continually reassured that they didn’t need Russian intelligence analysts in the gulf. Our son Stephan was born just several days after Christmas of 1990, and our unit was hurriedly summoned to the gulf about 3 days later. Since I was relatively new to the detachment, and not fully trained and qualified on our intelligence systems, I was not selected for deployment, but was instead put in charge of procuring the various mobility gear needed by our detachment. I wrangled tents, cots, body armor, M16s, etc., and I’m somewhat proud of the minor swindle I accomplished in attaining two new deuce and a half trucks for deployment. The fleet manager who “loaned” them to me wasn’t happy, but I figured you don’t send people to the dessert with dilapidated transportation while there are perfectly good new trucks sitting in Germany. By 1992, the ongoing contraction of the Soviet empire was making my job of Russian linguist increasingly irrelevant so I petitioned for early discharge with the intent of resuming my education. I left the Air Force in August of 1992. After several months of looking for work, and running up too much credit card debt, I was hired as a lineman for Norfolk Southern Railway. Started in January of ‘93 on a territory that ran form Detroit to Kansas City. The work alternated between digging ditches (trenching phone cables through railyards) and climbing microwave towers. Thankfully it was only a 4×10 workweek. We bought a big old farmhouse in Garrett Illinois sitting on an acre of land. My daughter Emily was born in Fall ‘93. After a couple of months the “mayor” recruited me to serve as village trustee. The village had government-backed loan funds to put in city water. As water lines were installed and tower erected in ‘94, I spent most village meetings arguing with the contractor about missed deadlines. Had to resign board in Summer ‘94, but I got the job of meter reader for $1/meter. $75 for about 2 hours work – not bad. I was hired on as an electronics tech for US Postal Service in Summer ‘94. No more ditch digging for the RR, but working evening shift. Eventual goal of USPS job was to transfer to Pacific Northwest, and in ‘96 the opportunity arose to take a position in Eugene Oregon. The move had to come out of our own pocket, so we loaded everything in a big Ryder truck and hit the wagon trail. We arrived in Eugene in April of ‘96 and scrambled to find an apartment and a storage unit. I started my new position at the Eugene mail handling facility working the night shift while Kathleen settled the kids into a routine. Thankfully I was only to work the night shift for about 4 months. My brother was working for Hewlett Packard in Corvallis Oregon, and through contacts made at a backyard BBQ, I was soon recruited to work as a technician in the wafer manufacturing fab. For the next eight months I commuted from Eugene to Corvallis, but at least I was on the day shift, albeit weekends. One of the prime attractions of HP for me was the generous tuition assistance program. After moving to Corvallis in ‘97, my first goal was to get back into school and finish the accounting degree I had begun in the service. For the next couple of years I worked a full-time weekend scheduled (12hr shifts Fri, Sat, Sun, and alternating Mon), while attending OSU with a full academic load. I graduated with honors (cum laude, and Beta Gamma Sigma) in June ‘99, just in time for my high school 20th reunion that summer. What I may have lacked in speed, I hope I made up for in persistence.  In the meantime, I had moved from a technician position at HP, to a supervisory role. I was still working weekends, but a bit more flexible noon-midnight time slot. I wanted to continue my education with an MBA, but HP’s tuition assistance program faltered somewhat. Luckily enough I had an excellent score on the GMAT test and the Atkinson school at Willamette University offered me a full scholarship and acceptance into their accelerated program. I graduated from the Atkinson Graduate School of Management, at Willamette University with honors (magna cum laude) in May 2000. I soon moved into the marketing group at HP as a long-term worldwide ink demand forecaster.
During this time in Corvallis, the rest of the family settled in nicely. Corvallis is a great town to raise a family. Stephan and Emily both attended Jefferson elementary school about three blocks from where we lived. Kathleen worked a stint with the State of Oregon as a case worker for the state’s welfare to work program. She eventually left the state to work with the local youth symphony association as an elementary strings teacher. She enrolled back to school in 1999 to finish her music education degree and finished her MAT in 2003. With everything apparently running smoothly, I had the bright idea to rock the boat – I took a work assignment to HP’s site in Ireland. We sold the house, the cars, and most of the household to take what we thought would be at least a two-year adventure to Leixlip (just outside Dublin), Ireland. Kathleen and I had thoroughly enjoyed our time in Germany when I was in the service, and we were convinced it would be a great exposure for the kids to experience a difference culture and see the world. As with many great plans, it’s the unintended consequences that provide the challenges. We moved to Ireland in June ‘03.
more later… |
It was there, while playing in the Monterey Community Band, that I met my future wife Kathleen Murphy, who was playing trombone. While my studies progressed, our friendship developed and we married in November of 1989 in Carmel California. After graduation from language school in February of 1990, we spent several months in San Angelo Texas, where I attended intelligence training, then I began my assignment to Germany.
As I mentioned before, Corvallis is an incredible place to raise a family. Ireland (at least Lucan/Leixlip) was not. The limited parks are filthy and full of petty thuggery (broken glass and drunken teenagers). The schools are rigid and autocratic (A, E, I, O, and U are the vowels, and don’t get cheeky and suggest “Y”, no matter that they spell tire; “tyre”). Pools, libraries, and kids’ programs are hard to find. The cultural differences were frequently comic – a school carnival had a bottle of whiskey as a raffle prize, and the teachers frequently use the “F” word in conversation to the students. (“Look at these test scores; you’re all so ‘f***ing’ stupid.”) We did have some great times, and the kids look back on it now as a fun adventure. We took many side trips around the countryside and a couple of jaunts to England, Scotland, and Wales. But it became apparent that the family couldn’t serve out the entire two-year job assignment, so we returned to Corvallis in June of ‘04.