Personal Bio
I was born January 2, 1967 in Bayshore, NY (on the Island) but moved shortly thereafter to the Buffalo, NY area. I lived in the city of Buffalo and attended a private "free" school (Cause School) for 1st through 3rd grades. Then I attented Buffalo public school for one year.
Since I was nine, my parents have lived in the small rural community of Springville, NY about 30 miles south of Buffalo. I graduated from Springville Griffith Institute High School in 1984. In high school my major distractions were the Swimming team (4 year letter winner) and skiing at the local ski area: Kissing Bridge. In addition, I graduated with honors and was president of the local chapter of the National Honor Society
I attended Cornell University and majored in Meteorology. I have been fascinated by the weather since I was a kid and this fascination continues through today. I became a HUGE Cornell ice hockey fan after attending my very first game at Lynah Rink during freshman year. I also started to skate more and more and eventually I became the mascot (skating Bear) for the hockey team in my Junior and Senior years. For more informationa about Cornell Hockey check out my Cornell Hockey Page. Other than that, my major diversions at college consisted of hanging around with a core group of friends (about a dozen) that I still stay in contact with. My senior year I was president of the local chapter of the American Meteorological Society.
Immediately after college, I married Darcy (nee Smith), also class of '88, on July 9, 1988 and we moved to the Washington D.C. area where she had a job. After a year of working for the AAA National Headquaters I got my first meteorology job at NMC (now called NCEP) as an intern in the Aviation branch of the Operations Division. This work was rewarding, but difficult because it involved rotating shifts. Together with my continued desire to become a professor of Atmospheric Science, the long hours brought me back to graduate school at the University of Albany in the Fall of 1991.
I finished my Master's degree in the Fall of 1995 and am currently working on my PhD. For additional information about my research see the section about my Acacemic life. My whole life changed dramatically when my son Jerrett was born on February 27, 1993. For the better I might add. He's now almost 5 and is not much of a toddler any more. Instead, he's looking and acting more like a kid. He loves hockey (he better), books, trucks and trains and playing on our home computer (a MAC IIsi). A year ago my second child ,a daughter Leah Rose, was born, on January 9th 1997. My life has changed yet again. For the better I might add. Leah is quite gregarious and much more adventurous than Jerrett was at her age. I've got a few pictures of Leah and the rest of us. Click here to see them.
My current interests include Web surfing and home brewing. Unfortunately, I haven't done much of the latter in quite some time. Well that's a pretty good synopsis. 31 years squeezed into 4-5 paragraphs.
Back to Eric's Homepage.
Last update: Jan 28, 1998