Name:

History and Pictures

Wow! The form asks ‘What have you been doing for the last 40 years?’ This will take some thought…..

I went to Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia after I left you all in 1965 and majored in fraternity life instead of the engineering courses I was supposed to be taking….both Drexel and my father were not very pleased with that major so I didn’t actually stay there very long….but I did learn a few new drinking games!

My next major growth opportunity came along in the form of an all expense paid visit to Southeast Asia courtesy of the US Army where I spent 2 tours of duty in Vietnam….that cleared my head of the fraternity house lifestyle in short order! I returned home just in time to catch the tail end of the 60’s hippie period and after nearly 3 years of Army discipline I jumped at the chance to let it all hang out for awhile. Went back to Philly, grew the long hair and a beard, wore tied dyed shirts, went to Led Zeppelin concerts and even smoked a little pot…but I never inhaled! Sorry, no pictures have survived from that period….

Finally found something that I enjoyed….and was actually pretty good at….when I went to Control Data Institute back in Pittsburgh and learned how to program computers. I had a few early jobs for companies where I honed my skills….including Cyclops Steel in Mt. Lebanon. Then, on my 30th birthday, I decided I was not very good at working for someone else (which may not be a surprise to some of you) and started my own company….Benson Consulting. I lived and worked in the Pittsburgh area for almost 10 years writing software and managing that little group of talented misfits. I closed the company after growing weary of being a caregiver for 12 other people and went back to being a solo contract programmer….much simpler, more lucrative and lest stressful!

I lucked into a German software package called SAP in 1993 and became one of the first people in the US who actually understood how it worked after managing the system installation for a company in Washington, PA. That launched the roller coaster I have been on for the past 12 years of traveling around the world and in parts of the US working on implementations of that software for some pretty interesting clients. I am sort of retired now (still doing some part-time SAP consulting for IBM from my back deck) and living on what is called the Northern Neck of Virginia (at the mouth of the Potomac River where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay). Life is good these days!

My personal life during the early years was kinda like a bad country western medley….Your Cheatin’ Heart, Achey Breaky Heart……you get the idea! I did manage to have a lovely daughter named Amanda who is now married, living in Winston-Salem, NC and who just gave birth to my first grandchild (Genevieve) last summer. I was also very lucky to get to raise 2 wonderful step-daughters for a number of years, Alexa and Alyssa. Lys just had a baby boy, Caleb, on Friday, January 13th…hope that’s not a bad omen for the little guy!

In 1993 my life song turned into ‘You are the Sunshine of my Life’ (not sure that’s country western, but that’s what happened) when I met and married my lovely Patty Meriel! When I asked her to marry me she said, ‘Sure…can I have a puppy?’ So, we got 2 standard poodle puppies (Alfie and Teddy) and the four of us shared the SAP adventure, living and working in Korea and China and lots of cities around the US and Europe for 10 years. Alfie and Teddy are gone now but our new puppies Bai and JiZhou are enjoying life here on the water with us. We are loving the quiet lifestyle here…fishing, sailing, gardening and generally living life well!

Hope you enjoy the photos I have included of some of our adventures! We would love to welcome any of you to our home here in what we call Heron Cove to catch up on what has been happening to you for the past 40 years!

Click here to see Dale's pictures!

Click here to see Dale's Whale Trip, March 2006