James Myron Smith:
CLASS OF 1974
Laurel High SchoolClass of 1974
Laurel, MD
Naples High SchoolClass of 1974
Naples, FL
Laurel Junior High SchoolClass of 1971
Laurel, MD
James Myron's Story
6/25/2019
where to Start eh? first off anyone putting the effort into a lengthy bio make sure you write it in word pad or a local app instead of directly here... I made the mistake of not doing so the first time around and lost everything I had written (this edit box gives you 20,000 characters to work with!)
Okay... so let me get started... first off I didn't exactly graduate from Laurel Sr High School... I moved my senior year to Naples, FL and so actually graduated from Naples High School... upon graduating I immediately b-lined it back to Laurel to see all my old buds graduate (we graduated 2 weeks earlier at Naples High than Laurel Sr High did). In fact I remember Angela Hart '75 telling me 'you didn't graduate' at one of the graduation parties I went to (I was trying to convince her to kiss me for graduating - no luck!).
After high school I worked for a couple years . I lived in my Grandma Smith's house near the corner of Brooklyn Bridge and Bond Mill. But after several years of working several blue collar jobs I decided I was going to go back to school. I applied to U of MD, College Park and was accepted fall '76. I had never really planned to go to college in high school and so hadn't concentrated too much on academics in high school. Combined with my previous lack of interest in attending college the choice to major in engineering, I was a bit behind academically when I started so I had a lot of catching up to do , this was especially apparent mathematics wise. I took light credit loads and concentrated on doing well rather than rushing through. I also took a winter semester off and spent it in Colorado working and skiing (I had the ski bug for a while there). I graduated in Aug '82, at the time the country was in a recession so Job prospects were less than stellar. Rather than dwell on the lousy job market I decided to take a trip around the country. I fixed up an old '73 Volkswagen van I picked up for a song and outfitted it with a very comfortable fold out bed, propane heater and a complete set of curtains for privacy. Just prior to Christmas I had it ready to go, so I headed south down to Naples to stop in on family for the holidays. I then trekked upward through the Florida panhandle and ov...Expand for more
er to Hereford Texas where I visited my sister (Debra Smith '71) who was working her first job out of law school. From there I headed across the Southwest and landed in LA. I hung out in Westwood Village (just below UCLA) for 3 or 4 months. I really loved LA hence why I hung out there for so long. At some point I decided to head back to Maryland, along the way I stopped in to visit the Gregg family (Kimberly '75, Pamela '76, AC not sure what year). I had dated Pamela the summer before she left for Davidson College. She was now in Medical School at UNC. in fall of '83 I started graduate school at NC State University and lived in the Raleigh, NC area graduating and then working there until 1988 attaining a MS in Engineering / Computer Science COOP degree. During that time I did a 9 month Co-op stint with IBM in Kingston, NY. In '88 I moved down to Boca Raton, FL to work on OS/2 for IBM. I married an Ohioan girl who I met in Boca Raton in Nov '89. We moved to Seattle in '92 when I got the bug to go back to school again. Unfortunately the program I was pursuing at U of Wash had no funding for grad students and I decided to opt out and go back to work instead of attending.
My marriage failed in 2000 and I took a dream job in Atlanta that summer. Unfortunately later that winter, the dot com bust / tech melt down occurred and I ended up out of a job. No point in staying in Atlanta so I headed back to Seattle. I have three boys. They are all grown and currently (2019) in their mid to late twenties.
Lived and Worked in Seattle for all but 9 months out of the last 27 years. But I never bought another house there after my marriage snafu. With the cost of housing in the Seattle area going through the roof I started to look at other areas. Last summer (2018) I spent 3 weeks checking out the housing scene in Detroit and decided to buy a house. Moved to Detroit in Oct 2018. Not sure what further adventures may lie ahead for me, Only time will tell..
Don't hesitate contacting me, I'm happy to hear from pretty much anyone I've ever known even folks I knew all the way back in my days in Laurel. If you've made it this far then you deserve a way to get in touch with me - go to jmyrons dot com and click on my resume for info
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