|
|
||
|
|
About Me
I was born in 1945 in Buffalo, New York where my father designed fighter planes for Curtis-Wright Aviation. After the war we moved to Clarion, a town of 6,000 located among great forests and small farms in northwestern Pennsylvania. I went to kindergarten at Clarion State Teachers College, grade school at Immaculate Conception School and high school at C-L High School. We kids claimed, with some justification, that C-L stood for Cattle & Livestock. During my youth I was an avid Boy Scout and eventually, after earning 48 merit badges, made the rank of Eagle Scout. All of those merit badges gave me a wealth of interests and minor talents which help and hinder me to this day. Deep, deep inside I am still that Boy Scout in pursuit of the latest merit badge --- except now I make up my own. I went to college at Penn State in 1963, just as the Beatles burst upon the scene. I did poorly at first, but got better and finished quite strongly to earn a BS in Business Statistics in 1967. Along the way I drifted into a bohemian way of life, started playing acoustic guitar, and spent a summer in England visiting the natives of Carnaby Street. After graduation, I joined the Army just ahead of the draft and spent the next two years in freezing swamps in Missouri, dust storms in Oklahoma, and in the fetid jungles of Vietnam. In Nam, I used FADAC (Field Artillery Digital Automatic Computer) to lob 105mm artillery rounds out into the night, and got VC mortar fire thrown back at me in return. In 1969, I mustered out of the Army and moved to New York City where I did drudge work at an insurance company by day, and reveled in my freedom at night. I lived in the SOHO section of Manhattan and was surrounded by the hippie revolution at its height. This made a nice change from two years of army life. In 1970, I returned to Penn State to pursue a masters degree and in 1972 received a MS in Management Science. I have never worked a day in that field, but the courses that involved computers kindled an interest which has ever since been how I have earned my living. From 1972 to 1975, I worked as a tech rep for Burroughs Corporation, a manufacturer of mainframe computers at that time. I spent my early years with them learning how to maintain a giant B6700 at the Philadelphia Electric Company in downtown Philadelphia. This was just after the big blackouts of the early 70’s and the purpose of the machine was to prevent such catastrophes from happening again. The computer had to be up 100% of the time and by immersing myself in the task of making this happen, I eventually came to a good understanding of how computers work. During the later years of my stint with Burroughs, I spent more and more time teaching others about the B6700 and its various programming languages like ALGOL, ESPOL, SimScript and APL. I also move around much more, working on machines at Drexel, Philco-Ford and the University of Delaware. From 1975 to 1979, I was the Manager of Instructional Services at the University of Delaware. Here I managed the academic computing facilities of the University, taught occasional computer and programming courses, and sometimes traveled to give speeches on various aspects of academic computing. During these years I also met and married my wife Pam, who was then earning her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology at the University. From 1980 to 1985, I was Director of the Computer Center at Clarion University of Pennsylvania --- a new name, but the same school where I went to kindergarten so many years ago. I helped replace old IBM and Sperry computers with DEC machines while at the University. I also managed the introduction of microcomputers and communications networks on campus and taught Continuing Education classes on computer related topics. Pam and I renovated an old Victorian house, had a son we named Pete, and traveled the world in search of interesting adventures. In the early 1980’s, I started to develop a software program for interior designers and by 1984 was selling this through ads placed in national computer magazines. In 1986, I quit my daytime job and started Hufnagel Software. For years, I sold my software package, called ROOMER, to interior designers. In the early 90's I refocused ROOMER toward the less crowded area of event planning. In 1996 I rewrote my masterpiece as a pure Windows program and renamed it PartyCAD 2000. This is a niche product but enjoys something of a following among party rental firms, event planners and caterers. I have also, over the years, written educational software as learning tools for my son. You can find shareware versions of this stuff on other pages on this website. When my son approached Scouting age, I became involved with the Boy Scouts again, eventually becoming Scoutmaster of the local troop. I fell into the habit of writing up our adventures for the local paper, and the entire collection is online if you are interested. This continued until Pete too became an Eagle Scout and went away to Penn State as a Computer Science major. Every year I come out with a new and improved version of PartyCAD, but I set summers aside to do something different. Last year I wrote a novel called Buck's Loot which combined my interest in the outdoors, Boy Scouts and the history of the Clarion area. It was great fun, and I may do another.
This very day the last of the snow is melting,
the sun is shining and spring is in the air. Another summer is not
too far off, and I am curious to see what I will do with it this
time. |
|
