Welcome

I'm certain I'm not the first to say "Welcome to Converse." Still, let me say "Welcome." I, along with Witney Fisher, will be your instructors for the Converse 101 course. I wanted to tell you a bit about myself before the semester gets started. This academic year will be my 23rd at Converse where I am an Associate Professor of Economics. I am a native of Duncan, SC, and a graduate of Furman University with a BA in Economics. After graduating from Furman, I spent three months at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, at my Officer Basic Course for the US Army. The next five years were spent with a small, local, community bank where I held various positions before deciding to return to school. I enrolled and completed a Master's program in Economics at Clemson University. My first teaching assignment was at Furman for one year and then at UNC-Charlotte, also on a one-year contract. My family and I then spent three years in Columbia, SC, while I completed my Ph.D. degree in Economics at the University of South Carolina. I arrived on the Converse campus in the Fall of 1986 and have been here ever since.

Most of my classes are in the economics area, though I also teach statistics and occasionally a finance course. One of my favorite parts of the academic year is the January Term which allows me to do things a bit differently. For many of the last 14 years, I have either led or participated in Study Travel programs during the January Term and its predecessor, Winter Term. During this time, students take one course and faculty have a chance to offer "non-traditional" courses. This past January, Professor Jensen, from the Biology Department, and I collaborated on a course to study Eco-tourism in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. Our group of 15 students spent 18 days in Ecuador talking about a number of issues related to ecotourism. Prof. Jensen would talk about the biology, botany, ecology, etc. of the area while I would talk about the economics of the area. We spent two days in class before we left for Quito, Ecuador, and then another two days in class after we returned. In addition to studying the area, we also had a great time. We climbed volcanoes, hiked in the rain forest, dodged volcano eruptions, swam with sea lions, and a few (but not me) bungee jumped off a bridge. We all managed to survive and return to Converse in one piece. If you have not thought of studying abroad, I trust that you will reconsider; it is one of the three regrets that I have about my undergraduate years at Furman. It can be a life-changing experience.

My wife, Sally, and I will soon celebrate our 31st anniversary. We have three children, a son Will, and twin daughters, Leigh and Rebecca. We also have one grandson, 2-year old Kyle, and will soon have a granddaughter, tentatively named Hannah.

I haven't quite finished, so come back later for some additional stuff.

It is now later and I wanted to finish up. As you may have gathered from our in-class exercise on Tuesday, one of my favorite things to do is to travel. Unfortunately, I don't get to do as much as I would like. Jan Term has allowed me to visit many places that I would never have seen otherwise. India, Russia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Morocco, London, Italy, Amsterdam, Brussels, Chile, Peru, and Ecuador are included in my Jan Term visits. I always return to the U.S. with a greater appreciation of life in the U.S. and I also have a better understanding of events and peoples of the world. I am currently planning a trip to Peru this Jan Term, so if you are interested, please let me know.

My other avocations are not nearly as exciting, but they are still enjoyable. Golf is more than just a four-letter word, and several years ago I started officiating football at the high school level and below. So on a Friday night, if you go back to visit your high school football game, one of the strip-shirts on the field may be me.