Barry McCormick:
CLASS OF 1980
Boaz High SchoolClass of 1980
Boaz, AL
University of Alabama - Chemical EngineeringClass of 1985
Tuscaloosa, AL
Crossville High SchoolClass of 1980
Crossville, AL
Crossville Junior High SchoolClass of 1976
Crossville, AL
Crossville Elementary SchoolClass of 1974
Crossville, AL
Barry's Story
After graduating from High School, I went to LSU for 2 semesters, partied like a rock star (translation - drank like mad, screwed around, and made BAD grades due to side interests!!!), and left there to move back home. I went to Gadsden State for 2 years and completed all the pre-engineering classes. While there I married a long time friend, Julie Hanvey. We were married 11 years. She is now deceased from long term problems from her diabetes.
After Gadsden State, Julie and I attended University of Alabama, where I got both my BS and MS in Chemical Engineering. In 1986 I went into the army to get the money to pay for my MS degree. I spent 4 years at Fort Hood, Texas as a 54B, and was in 2nd Armored Division. In 1990 I went back to Tuscaloosa and then finished my degrees.
I accepted a job in Austin Texas and I did Environmental Consulting, and Environmental Engineering for several years. Worked for Lyondell-Citgo Refining in Houston, and then Shell Oil Company in New Orleans. After Julie and I were no longer married, I met and married my current wife of 15 years, Nicole. We met in Houston. I have 4 stepkids, and 4 granddaughters. Never had any kids of my own.
I turned Shell Oil in for falsifying federal records, and was the #9 business news story for 1999 in Louisiana. What happened with the entire Shell Oil issue was all over the papers and has been in several books. Needless to say because I refused to sign a falsified report to the EPA and turned them in, I am still blackballed from the Petrochemical industry. My lawsuit against Shell and the FBI investigation of my former boss ( A. Kirk Menard ) is public record.
As I no longer do Environmental Engineering, and we left New Orleans and moved to Salt Lake City, UT. I own a web hosting and computer consulting company called maildragon.com, and now teach college and do computers for a living.
I am very active in the Open Source Community, and I am a dev/admin on a project called LinuxMCE. It is a total home solution including home automation, media, etc. Like all open source computer products, it is free, and just takes a little digging and work to install it. It can be downloaded from linuxmce.org for those who want a media solution, phone solution, and home automation solution.
I spent 3 years as the Dean of Education for Stevens Henager College, taught Math and Chemistry for Salt Lake Community College, etc. I own a house built in 1911 very near the University of Utah.
My latest vehicle is a 2001 Harley Davidson Road King.
I guess the only things left for me to talk about is people who effected/affected my life in good ways and I would like to thank.
Max Mitchell - math teacher at Crossville. He was always helpful and added to and reinforced my love of math. Th...Expand for more
anks Max.
Wallace Coker - Chemistry teacher at Gadsden State. Wallace acted more like my father than my real father ever did. I worked for him while going to school there, and he opened the world of Chemistry to me. I think he is one of the greatest teachers I have ever had, and when I teach chemistry classes today, I still use his methods of teaching freshman chemistry he taught in his classes in 1981. I will always admire and love Wallace for all the support and help he gave me.
Gloria Gregg - I know this may sound strange, but in high school I was going steady with Sabrina Gregg. Her mother was probably one of the first, if NOT the first person to treat me as an adult and with respect. I didn't realize that until many years later. My parents were always an emotional disaster, and very verbally abusive. I now realize what a nice person she really is, and a few years later when it dawned on my how she was treating me as a person instead of a "can't do nothing right child", it meant a lot to me. I feel I owe her at least one apology, but that is not for here.
Julie Hanvey - I will always love her, even if her family hated me with a passion. She had major medical problems, I did home dialysis on her the entire time I was in Grad School. She got a dual transplant, but lost a leg due to long term diabetes, and spent the last few years of her life in a nursing home. We had a wonderful marriage, and a lot of fun. She was a very cool wife who allowed me to race stock cars in Killeen Texas when I was in the army, loved to go fishing with me. Wish her health would have held on for many, many more years.
Faheem Kazimi - my boss at Lyondell in Houston. What can I say, Faheem is one of the 2 best bosses I have ever had. Wonderful person, great to work for, and I learned a lot from him, not as much environmental stuff, as life and culture items. Faheem is originally from Pakistan, and Muslim. I learned a ton about culture, custons, etc from him. I can honestly say he is one of the nicest people I have ever met.
Carol Gastiger - She was the school President I worked for at Stevens Henager College. I worked for her for over 3.5 years, and at two different campuses. She is a wonderful person, and very giving. I learned a ton about how to run a private college campus from her. She, like Faheem, is someone I would accept a job from almost no questions asked.
HOBBIES
1. My Harley
2. home improvement
3. LinuxMCE
4. IRC technical discussions
5. my dogs
6. babysitting my youngest granddaughter ( 18 months and the most beautiful child ever created )
Enough about me, I need to get to work writing some code. Got a couple of deadlines to finish for a presentation I am giving in August at the Utah Open Source Conference.
Peace, out.
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