: About Me

I was born in New Haven, CT in 1940. My home was in a nearby small town called Branford which is on the coast of Long Island Sound. It was a charming town small enough where most people knew you and your business. Since I moved away, I miss that kind of familiarity.

I am the youngest of 4 siblings, a sister and two brothers. My father owned a meat market and mother worked in a shirt factory. I worked in the meat market when I was old enough and then during summers while I was in college.

While growing up my interests were wide. These included boy scouts, fencing, fife and drum corps, fishing, and walking in the woods. Of these, my major involvement was the drum corps. I played the snare drum in a colonial style drum corps where the uniform was of the Revolutionary War. These are popular in New England and you can't attend a parade without seeing one. It was a good activity to keep a teenager occupied.

Finally I went off to college at The University of Connecticut where I studied and played, maybe not in right proportion. My major was botany. When I graduated I was accepted into the university's graduate program in botany. I completed a masters and doctorate to the amazement of some people.

I married while still in graduate school to a divorcee with 2 small children. My doctoral professor thought it was the end of my academic endeavor. However, I received a doctoral fellowship which supported us until I finished.

We spent a year on a postdoctoral fellowship at The University of Texas in Austin. This was a very productive period for me. I was able to publish a number of research articles.

I was then hired by the Brockport campus of the State University of New York in the department of Biological Sciences where I remained for 30 years until my retirement. I was able to publish more and was promoted to full professor.

After 15 years of teaching I became assistant dean of the School of Letters and Sciences, then associate vice president of academic affairs, then dean of the School of Letters and Sciences. I retired from that position in 1998.

In the meantime my children have been married, divorced, and remarried. Right now we have two divorced, one of them remarried, two never married. But, we did get a granddaughter out of it and not from a married one.

Now, we are residents of New Hampshire but spend six months in Florida. My wife has always been a gardener and now she can enjoy it for 12 months of the year. Our place in NH is a log home on a dirt road in a heavily wooded area of a small town. We love it!

A friend of mine encouraged me to try making things out of birch bark the way he was doing.. Since he was selling his items in the Adirondacks and since I never saw anything like it in NH, I decided to try it. I began making picture frames, mirrors, lamps, and signs and was able to sell them in NH.

That's my story in a nutshell, although a large one.

Bob McLean 2/9/08

Travel > Europe Travel Diaries Travel experiences: Italy

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A Wonderful Week In Beautiful Tuscany We planned our trip to Tuscany for early September 2006. Rates are less expensive after Sept.1 and the weather is still good. It was done entirely through the internet and everything worked out with no surprises. The Euro at that time was $1.19, a bargain to today's value of about $1.48. Another way to look at it is that $1 will convert to .67 cents. We were able to get a villa that met our needs. There were five in our group so the ideal villa would have 3 bedrooms and 3 baths. We found a villa that looked beautiful, was the right size for us and not ...

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