John Spears:  

Look me up on Facebook! Life Well, I'm basically your all-American, Ohio-born, Southern transplanted, God-fearing, open-wheeled, engineer-techno-nut. I have a healthy dose of interest in just about anything that runs, from Computers to Indycars to Sailboats to Ships. My favorite movies are Patton, The Road Warrior, The Matrix, Once Upon a Time in America, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Heavy Metal, Mystery Science Theater 3000, and the X-Men. I have a Marine Engineering background and enjoy keeping up with science, but also have interest in Biblical Archeology, Films, Swimming, and the rock group Rush. Computers and Gaming: My first PC was a TI-99-4a. The first game I played was Zork, the all text, DOS version way back in, what was it, 1982 or so? I taught myself BASIC on a TRS-80 Model I and recommended IBM PCs for my school to buy when I was 16 since I was one of the few to know anything about PCs back in '83. Since then, even though I'm more or less a mechanical engineer, I've learned CAD, DBase, Foxpro, Novell Netware, Wordperfect, MS Office, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Livemotion, GoLive, Visual Basic .NET, SQL 2000, yada, yada, yada. I've built at least ten PCs starting with a 486. All my "favorite" PC games are the ones I've finished; I like mostly first person shooters and puzzles. Workplace Born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1966 and raised between New Jersey and rural Virginia, John has straddled industries and traditions while striving for focused education and personal growth. The son of a Lutheran minister and high school educator, he attended an Episcopal all-boys school. Its curriculum allowed him access to a range of interests, such as computers and architectural drafting. He also learned how to sail, sparking his interest in the Maritime community. Graduating at the top of the class in 1984, John was accepted to the United States Merchant Marine Academy. During his sea year periods, he sailed as a cadet on four merchant ships. In 1988 he graduated with a B.S. in Marine Engineering and a Coast Guard license as a Third Assistant Engineer. Hoping to avoid a desk job, John took his first job as an operating engineer on various research vessels in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, eventually becoming the First Assistant Engineer on the NOAA Ship Whiting. He was accepted into NOAA's dive program and upon completion in 1990 became a certified diver. Choosing to work ashore in 1991 after meeting his future wife, Joy, he marketed his engineering background with self-taught database skills to land a job with INS, Inc., the Maritime Administration's logistics support contractor. During h...Expand for more