Doug was born at a very young age into an Air Force family stationed in New York. His family moved frequently, but fortunately for him, he was always able to find them again.

Doug barely graduated from high school and has since been thrown out of numerous schools in the process of collecting a number of degrees, few of which have any real usefulness. It is highly indicative to note that his completed degrees include a BA in Russian History, an M.Div. in Ministerial Professions, an Ed.S. in Social Studies Education, and a Ph.D. in Education Law. He has worked as an electrician, librarian, horse wrangler, Methodist minister, teacher, instructional designer, systems administrator, and IT manager. He has never been an Indian Chief because the Indians were too smart and having none of that. Both degrees and job history make it clear that he has not decided what he wants to be when he grows up.

Furthermore, the sum total of all his education is to make him an expert at a wide variety of subjects which interest few people other than himself. The extent of his useless knowledge is quite stunning and people work up their courage for days to ask him questions about stuff they can not find out about anywhere else. His high school students often insisted that Wilson on the TV show "Home Improvement" was modeled on him; which he took as a great compliment. You can sometimes find his picture in dictionaries beside the words "eccentric" and "idiosyncrasy." His relationship with friends is based primarily on a satisfying mutual skepticism about each other's sanity. In fact, one of his friends' favorite rituals is considering whether he has grown any odder since the last time they saw him.

The answer is usually "yes."

As a University of Florida undergraduate, Doug played French Horn in the marching band, concert band, and symphony orchestra and was, perhaps, one of the few people who attended every football game for three years while hating football. While failing in his attempt to gain a spot in the School of Forestry, Doug inadvertently earned his bachelor's degree in history. Also while an undergrad, in the Spring and Summer of 1980, Doug lived at University Methodist Church, now Gator Wesley, in the Upper Room Program ... kind of a Methodist version of the Witness Protection Program. He was later condemned to serve as chairman of the board of trustees of that church to oversee a $250,000 renovation; mostly to repair damage done to the church by past generations of Upper Roomers ...

Doug now lives in the country where his nearest neighbor is more than 1/2 mile away, not counting the cows as "neighbors". Suspicion is that this is because he is so ornery that no other place would have him. Inner city neighborhoods have been known to gate themselves to keep him out. Deer and wild turkey regularly ravage his herb garden, while rabbits, raccoons, possums and one hellaciously large armadillo raid his garbage cans. There is a fox that terrorizes his chickens, a large owl that terrorizes the fox, and a hole at the bottom of the sea. His yard is -- sometimes literally -- a swamp, and when it rains a lot, he cannot drive in but must walk 1/4 mile from the main gate; which experience, for some strange reason, he enjoys immensely despite the inconveniences.

His heroes include:

That explains a lot to those who know Doug.

From 1988 to 1997, Doug was a World History teacher in the International Baccalaureate and Major Programs at Eastside High School where he was immensely popular with his students, except for those who did not like him. As for the former category, remember, they were mostly young and inexperienced 9th & 10th graders and much must be forgiven them. Some of his students have since recovered from the trauma.

Doug then worked as a developer of online A. P. Macroeconomics, General Economics, and U.S. Government curricula for the School Board of Alachua County and The Florida High School (as it was then known) in which position he taught himself web,instructional, and graphic design. His online work has been used statewide and nationally by Alachua County and by The Florida High School. He also spent immense amounts of time with FHS in useless and unproductive meetings ... but that's redundant.

The online curricula he designed and developed have won national awards and recognition through the ED's Oasis curriculum competitions. ED's Oasis is now defunct -- a fate which seems to follow in Doug's footprints.

After Alachua County pulled out of the online high school project, Doug spent the 1999-2000 school year tormenting poor, innocent 7th grade Geography students in the Academy of Technology and Gifted Studies at Howard Bishop Middle School. Throughout his 15-year teaching career, his saving grace has been that his teaching style was not yet determined to be child abuse, though it has been known to cause seizures in laboratory animals such as his former high school students. Some of his better students can now be found in prestigious positions such as pushing grocery carts filled with aluminum cans down University Avenue.

Of course, they make more money than he does.

Doug also did online continuing education for teachers through Classroom Connect's Connected University having developed their course on Teaching to Florida's Sunshine State Standards and assisted with courses such as Web Page Basics and Teaching Multiple Intelligences Through Technology. He has also done Internet research as an independent consultant for Florida State University.

Doug's checkered career has also included doing teacher in-service seminars in Economics through the UF Center for Economic Education and in Social Studies Education through the North East Florida Educational Consortium (NEFEC, rhymes with "defect") not to mention undergraduate and graduate courses at the University of Florida in the departments of History, Religion, and Instruction and Curriculum (now Teaching and Learning).

In 2000, Doug was hired by the Office of Academic Technology (then known as the Office of Instructional Resources), as an Instructional Designer/e-Learning specialist to develop online courses and digital course modules. He was also given responsibility for administering UF's WebCT course management system. As an Instructional Designer he provided consultative support, training, and contract assistance for colleges, departments, and faculty seeking to develop online courses for distance education or to support face-to-face classes. Having specialized in web design and development, streaming media technologies and production, as well as Internet interactivity, Doug had a world-wide reach that gave him the opportunity to confuse and distress people at a much wider level than ever before.

As the UF WebCT Administrator [WebCT is now defunct ...], Doug single-handedly supervised the growth of the system from a small handful of users and courses to a campus-wide, mission-critical system by providing support and training for more than 1000 courses and 37,000 user accounts.

In the Spring 2004 Doug was promoted to Manager and charged to create a new unit, e-Learning Support Services, in the Office of Academic Technology, where he immediately found himself having great difficulties dealing with a recalcitrant and unresponsive staff member: himself. After threatening to fire himself or impose other disciplinary action (placing himself on administrative leave was vetoed by upper management), he gradually found himself becoming more cooperative and his managerial activities were able to move more toward strategic planning and development. He now supervises a growing staff of nine full-time and 5-20 part-time employees who continue successfully to support the growth of online technologies at UF now used by 53,000 students and 4,000 instructors.

In Fall 2009, Doug began tormenting faculty, staff, and students (not to mention UF administration) by implementing new, open source software, Sakai, to replace the current course management software. The current system supports more than 12,000 course accounts , 7,500 live sections per term, nearly 4,000 instructors, and more than 53,000 students. Roughly 80% of the student body at UF are now at Doug's whim and mercy and have no clue of their precarious position ... Doug is also researching new technologies for AT and LSS to adopt in its mission of supporting and extending teaching, research, and extension and to allow Doug new and innovate ways to screw up the University.

Doug has also published a number of articles in the areas of technical support for online systems, enhancing communication in online instruction, and the philosophy and ethics of online education [see the "official" CV for citations]. Furthermore, he has done presentations on .

In what pases for spare time, Doug is the campus advisor for Gator Wesley, the United Methodist student ministry at UF. He also plays horn in the Gainesville Community Band. principal horn in the Gainesville Pops, and is in the Tree City Brass Quintet.

Doug is a voracious reader and enjoys music. His favorite book is Walter Miller' A Canticle for Liebowitz. His favorite poem is Invictus by William Henley. His favorite song is Drunken Philosophers by Monty Python and his favorite pieces of music are Howard Hansen’s Symphony #2, the "Romantic," followed closely by Gustav Mahler's Symphony #1, "Titan"He also enjoys listening to Internet Radio, especially Celtic Grove, Radio Rivendell, The Riverbank. and WWOZ (New Orleans). He also enjoys administering his in-home Linux (Ubuntu) computer network and slandering Microsoft defects products.

He is an inveterate heckler and is practicing to be an obnoxious curmudgeon and misanthrope when he grows up. His wife asserts that "curmudgeon" and "misanthrope" have already been achieved but growing up probably never will. After years of extensive reading, he has finally found an ideological soul mate; a twin from whom he was apparently separated at birth.

Doug is adamant that he did not cause the Y2K bug, but only because he didn't think of it in time. He is also not responsible for the 70's -- though he was there, he swears he did not inhale. He also enjoys spam, but never sends it. Usually. He also denies involvement in any major acts of terrorism, though he will confess to routinely violating speed limits as well as frequent licentious thoughts (okay ... *very* frequent). He also chortles gleefully at the thought of his 60,000 victims clients at UF.

The Secret Service has declared Doug's life to be "thoroughly and unrelentingly boring," admitting that when they investigated him three agents had to be hospitalized due to depression and an overdose of ennui. The FBI refuses to comment because they are currently trying to find Doug's records and think they may have been buried along with Jimmy Hoffa.

On the whole, it can be said
that he is depriving a nice little village somewhere
of a perfectly good idiot.

Doug has a long-suffering wife, two beautiful daughters, and an extended family of indeterminate size; all of whom very much need your prayers and/or kind thoughts.

If you just must have the "official" bio, you'll find it here:

A Few Favorite Links: