Toby Terranova:
CLASS OF 1969
Woodbridge High SchoolClass of 1969
Woodbridge, NJ
University of Southern California - ChemistryClass of 1979
Los angeles, CA
Carnegie Mellon UniversityClass of 1973
Pittsburgh, PA
Toby's Story
Life
After graduating from Woodbridge Sr. High, I went to college in Pittsburgh at Carnegie-Mellon U as a Chemistry major. Stayed there 1.5 years and blew it off for Southern California. Went to USC (Univ. of Southerm Cal) in fall of 1971 and got a B.S. in Chemistry in 1974. I married while in LA and had 1 son, got an MS from USC in 1979. Did some of my graduate work at JPL (Jet Propulsion Lab) in Pasadena. Was divorced and came back East. Got my first real paying job at Ciba-Geigy Corp. in Ardsley , NY (Westchester County) in 1980 as a wet bench synthetic chemist making drug candidates. Married a girl from Massachusetts in 1981 who decided to go back without me. Met the Lord in April of 1982 and went from atheist to Theist (never thought I'd be one of those "born agains" - such is the power of God!). Became an independent computer consultant from 1988-1991 working for Hoechst - Celanese in Madison, NJ and Uniroyal Chemical in Middlebury CT. Lost my business during Alan Greenspan's first recession of 1991. Had a series of odd jobs in computers in Orlando, FL (gee I wish I could live there) area and Upstate NY. Was consulting for an agency in Westbury, CT. (1997) when I was put on an IBM project in Harrison, NY. I was hired by IBM in 1998 and have been there since, outsourced to Pfizer Inc. in Peapack, NJ. I build my own computers, cruise around in a 35th Anniversary Mustang GT and I'm watiting for my ship to come in on the stock market (yea right. . . Alan Greenspan screwed me again!). Contact me: 845-807-8382 =Toby=
School
Was a nerd in HS, now I am a propeller-head big time. There has to be a self-help group for people like me somewhere.
College
CMU was weird in 1969. Psyc...Expand for more
h faculty would get high on LSD and play croquet on the Quad. SAE frat welded a streetcar to the tracks with Thermite one day. Frat pledges constantly had to get naked and sit in the fountain in front of the girls dorm. Pittsburgh was cold and overcast. 1969 was first year that Carnegie Institute of Technology and Mellon Institute merged. Blood and guts in the hallway as faculty would fight each other for dwindling spots in the new University. Irony: Now one of the best computer departments in the country but I never took a computer course while there.
Blew CMU off for SoCal. Looked like a school you would see on TV (because there were always TV cameras on campus shooting for some program or commercial!). Weather was great, location needed improvement. Faculty were weird (but it was Chemistry, so it's O.K. - NOT). Best part was some Graduate work I did at JPL. Cal Tech has (had?) a great library. Got my Masters in Chem. and left that desert city for the "civilization" of Westchester County, NY.
Workplace
After losing my computer consulting business in 1991 (Thank you Alan Greenspan!), I did a series of odd computer jobs as I tried to relocate to Orlando. Hey anyone have a job for me there? Came back to NYC area and was working for a consulting agency in Westbury, CT. They got me on an OS/2 to Win95 conversion project at the IBM facility in Harrison, NY. That lasted 6 months and they put me on executive support at 1133 Westchester Ave. in White Plains for another 6 months. They hired me at the end of 1998 and put me on an outsourced contract for Pharmacia Corp (Celebrex, Nicotrol, Detrol fame). I have been doing small projects for them ever since (phew. . .time for a change).
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