Contents

• About Me

• About My Education

• About My Job

• About My Interests

• E-Mail Me

• My Favorite Links

• Leave A Comment

About Me

I was born August 21, 1956 in Childress, Texas to Arthur B. Taff, Jr. and the former Billie Taylor, the third child of the family and first-born son. In 1957 the family moved from Childress to the Dallas area (thank God!), eventually ending up in the little hamlet of Lancaster, where I grew up. My oldest sister, Cindy, died at the young age of 23 from complications of asthma. My big sister, Trudy, lives in New Jersey with her four daughters Meghan, Kirstin, Erin, and Logan. In 1962, my little brother Steve (not so little any more!) came on the scene. He currently lives in Dallas. I have lived and worked in the Dallas area for most of my life, except for a brief year in Indianapolis in 1993. I love to travel and see new places, but there's no place like home and family.

I am currently married to the very lovely and amazing Lynnette Lakey, from Fort Worth, Texas. She is the bright star in my life! We met on-line on Yahoo Personals in August of 1997 and were married two years later! Ain't technology wonderful? We are the quintessential Internet love story! We moved back to the Lancaster area soon after we were married and currently live just off of Nokomis Road south of Lancaster, on two beautiful acres with our four dogs and Mozart, the mysterious little cockatiel bird.

My dad, Art, passed away recently at the good old age of 81 after a long and full life. You can take a look at his memorial page here.

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I attended the Lancaster school system and was a member of the 1974 graduating class of Lancaster High School (yikes, that's a long time ago now!). I began my university career in 1974, starting at Texas Tech University (1974-1975), then the University of Texas at Arlington (1975-1976), and finally winding up at the University of Texas at Dallas, where I graduated with a B. S. degree in Biology(1976-1978). After graduation, I attended the graduate school of Biology at the University of Texas at Arlington (1978-1979), then the following year (1980) attended the University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas, where I received a B.S. in Medical Technology. I spent 5 years as a MT(ASCP) registered medical laboratory technologist, first with the Dallas Medical and Surgical Clinic, then with the Wadley Blood Center (now Blood Care) in Dallas.

In 1986, I returned to school yet again, this time attending Control Data Institute, where I studied Computer Programming. After finishing my studies there, I began my software engineering career at FootAction, USA, using COBOL on Texas Instruments hardware.

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I have been employed by Covance,Inc., the premier contract research organization in the pharmaceutical industry, since 1996 as a Senior Level Applications Programmer and Laboratory Information Systems Specialist, responsible for the maintenance and development of the Antrim© laboratory system. Covance is headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey and has offices around the globe. I work out of the Indianapolis facility, and was the first person at Covance to telecommute - I work out of my home in Lancaster and connect to the office using a modem. It is a wonderful way to work! I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about telecommuting, so e-mail me if you would like more information.

I have spent most of my career in and around the medical laboratory profession in one form or another, first as a registered Medical Technologist (ASCP), then with various software companies that specialized in medical laboratory software. I started my medical laboratory software career with Rubicon Corporation in 1988, and from there went to Covance, Inc. (then SciCor) in 1993, then on to Antrim Corporation, then back to Covance, where I am today.

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About My Interests

I love to travel, love the beach and snow skiiing, and have been all over the world, from Europe to the Fiji Islands and many points in between. I spent four months in 1996 living in Geneva, Switzerland, working for the Covance office there. Favorite countries are Ireland and Scotland (home of my ancestors). Favorite city is Paris, without a doubt.

I love to scuba dive, and try to get down to Cozumel, Mexico as often as possible! I have been certified with PADI since 1995, and currently have an Advanced certification.

Check out my photo album for some favorite photos.

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A Short List of My Favorites

Maybe these will give you an idea of who I am...

Favorite country: Scotland, with Ireland a close second.

Favorite city: Paris

Favorite beach resort: St. Martin, FWI. Where Lynnette and I spent our honeymoon!

Favorite place: The steps leading up to the Cathedral de Sacre Cour, Montmarte, Paris.

Favorite dining experience: Believe it or not, at the Ardfillayne Hotel in Dunoon, Scotland. A small 7-room hotel run by a lovely couple, both chefs, the husband trained in Spain and the wife trained in France. You can imagine what the food must have been like...

Favorite painting: Portait of Madame Barbe de Rimsky-Korsakov, by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1864. Musee d'Orsay, Paris. I don't normally go for portraits, but there's something about this one, and something about the girl, that kept me coming back to it...

Favorite piece of music: Pictures At an Exhibition, Mussorgsky.

Favorite novel: The Magus, John Fowles.

Favorite non-fiction book: The Turning Point, Fritjof Capra.

Favorite movie: Harold and Maude.

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Last revised: January 03, 2004.