John Spence:
CLASS OF 1976
Brophy College Preparatory SchoolClass of 1976
Phoenix, AZ
University of Phoenix - Information TechnologyClass of 2005
Phoenix, AZ
Arizona State University - ChemistryClass of 1985
Tempe, AZ
Santa Clara University - EngineeringClass of 1981
Santa clara, CA
John's Story
I lived most of my life in Phoenix but now live in South Carolina. I married the first girl who ever invited me to her birthday party. She was celebrating her 5th birthday while I was still only 4 and a half. Her mother recorded on the back of one photo that everyone else brought a present for her but me. After this rocky start, our marriage occurred several decades later, further delayed by the fact I was terrified of her in high school and then went away to university in California (Santa Clara). For her part, she claims I threw rocks at her (age ~9) and withheld her birthday present (age 5), so she was forever justified in believing I was mean.
My education is what I always wanted it to be. I have a superb science/technical background, degrees and work experience in everything from Computers, to Mechanical Engineering, to Chemistry, to Languages (Spanish and Japanese) and I worked my way through the baccalaureate degrees as a cabinetmaker. I have a complete woodshop in the garage and have a 2-year backlog of furniture projects. Most of the cabinetry and furniture in my home I designed and made myself. I'm true to my roots; my one Grandfather was a carpenter and the other was an engineer.
Once I became thoroughly sick of formal education, I went to work for a company that started me on my informal education. My expertise is in a very obscure specialty involving chemical manufacture, mining and extractive metallurgy. For ~15 years I was sent to troubleshoot process problems all over the world (projects in ~9 countries) but managed to vary my route home so that I've traveled in over 20 countries. I learned to work with people across different cultures, languages and time zones. In addition, I had to solve their technical problems or show them how to optimize their processing plant, or provide my expertise in building/starting a new plant. I successfully expanded the existing business into new foreign markets (Mexico and Australia) and assisted in the technical development of the business into new areas. I've published and presented scientific papers at international conferences in organometallic chemistry and extractive metallurgy and have co-authored a technical book. I loved the wor...Expand for more
k but it took 15 years for me to become thoroughly tired of the incessant travel. I decided to change jobs. The deciding event was a project in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile where I was stuck for four months. When I escaped back to the US I took a job offer from a former client and settled down to working at a copper mine east of Phoenix so I could be home every night. I tracked, analyzed and built computer and mathematical models of complex process streams. It's number crunching to a degree that you have to be weird to find interesting. Travel, applied research and technical projects were my real education but I still regard the travel as the most important part.
A few years ago I decided to become an engineering consultant. This was partly to escape the 140 mile/day commute to the mine I did for 3 years. My wife finished her PhD in Education at ASU and inspired (also read as "harassed") me to use the flexibility in the consulting business to pursue 2 areas that I felt were lacks in my life. I decided to go back to school for a Masters (MSCIS) and I decided to write a historical novel. The MSCIS was finished in 2005 but the novel has been delayed by our move to South Carolina. My wife is now a tenure track Associate Professor at USC.
We were both AZ natives who never thought we'd live east of the Mississippi. It's been a wonderful move and my only regret was selling my 30-foot sailboat berthed in San Diego. (I'm looking for a replacement) I've sailed for 25 years and I love to sail in storms and eventually want to retire and sail around the world. My wife saw "Perfect Storm" and doesn't want to ever leave the harbor again. We'll see...
Incidentally, my Grandfather who was an (electrical) engineer also worked for a copper mine (in Ibaraki Japan). Before he became an engineer, he also studied languages and was a shipmaster because he loved the sea. I never knew him and never knew any of this until a year ago. My carpenter Grandfather spoke four languages and taught the love of woodworking to my Father (4 languages) who taught it to me (3 languages). I have a grand daughter who loves to sail and is learning Spanish in school. I wonder how far any of us really are from our roots?
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