A BRIEF AUTOBIOGRAPHY

            I grew up around Chattanooga, Tennessee - we actually lived just across the state line in Ringgold, Georgia. My parents still live there. I have two brothers and a sister. We attended church at the Rossville Church of Christ, in Rossville, GA. My parents still attend there, and my father is an elder at the congregation. I attended Boyd-Buchanan School, a small private school associated with the Churches of Christ. As a kid, my favorite sport was wrestling. I actually began wrestling when I was in the fourth grade and continued through my senior year of high school. I graduated from Boyd-Buchanan in 1987.

            After high school, I enrolled at Freed-Hardeman College - it was still FHC at the time. As an undergraduate, I majored in Mathematics. I had almost all my math courses under Drs. Allen Walker and Pat Evans. While at FHC, I was involved in the honors program, serving as an officer each year: freshman representative, vice-chairman, chairman, and then southern regional representative. For the first two years, I was a member of Tri-Zeta social club. In my junior year I was a part of the group that began Chi-Beta-Chi social club - I served as the men's vice-president that first year. I was also a member of the Sonshine Singers for three years. The four years I spent at Freed-Hardeman were wonderful. Another student enrolled at FHC in the fall of 1987, Jennifer Segars. She was from Greenwood, MS. She was also in the honors program and also joined the Sonshine Singers. In the summer of 1988, Jenny and I traveled along with some other Sonshine Singers and Dr. Winston Harless to Grand Cayman for a mission trip. It was on that trip that Jenny and I became "an item". We dated for the next three years and were married on May 11th, 1991, one week after we graduated from Freed-Hardeman University.

             After graduating from FHU and getting married, Jenny and I both began graduate studies at Vanderbilt University. Jenny had been accepted into the Law School, and I had been accepted into the Graduate School to pursue a degree in Mathematics. We lived in the Nashville area for the next eight years. Jenny received her JD in May of 1994, passed the Tennessee Bar Exam that summer, and took a full time position at a law firm in town. I was awarded a master's degree in Mathematics from Vanderbilt in 1993 and continued as a full-time student until 1996. During the '96-'97 academic year I taught part-time at Ezell-Harding high school. In 1997 I accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Belmont University. I taught there for two years. During that two year period, I completed my dissertation and received a PhD in Mathematics from Vanderbilt in 1998. The years we spent in Nashville were as wonderful as the years we spent in college at Freed-Hardeman. During our time in Nashville, we were a part of the Bellevue Church of Christ. We made many new friends and had loads of fun as a young couple (having no children for the first five years of marriage was a good thing). Also while living in Nashville, we were blessed with the first two of our three children. Matthew was born in 1997 and Caleb in 1999.

            In 1999, I was offered a job at Freed-Hardeman University. Jenny and I had always thought about coming back to FHU some day. So we decided to accept the position, and I began teaching at my alma mater in the fall of that year. Since coming back to FHU, we have become a part of the Bethel Springs Church of Christ. Jenny and I happily welcomed into our family our third child, Lucy, in 2001. I have much for which to be thankful: I have a beautiful wife (beautiful in many ways), three wonderful children, and many more blessings. I am truly rich (though I have little money), and I know whom I have to thank for all that is good in my life (James 1:17).

            Lately, most of my professional time has been spent teaching and doing administrative work. I have little time for research - my primary area of research has been mathematical biology though I enjoy learning mathematics from a variety of areas. My hobbies include most sports. I play golf and racquetball as often as I can. I also enjoy softball and basketball. I like some card/computer games - mostly those with strategy involved. I enjoy reading; but mostly things like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings… yes, these are books and not just movies…I like the movies too. I'm a big dessert person - especially chocolate, and I fancy myself as a decent cook (I've been told before that I'd make some lucky woman a good wife).