Having endured familial adversity during my youth inculcated within me a strong sense of ambition to succeed, if partly out of rebellion.  With that began a virtually lifelong history of sustaining and persevering through various adversities, and fearlessly taking on  new and diverse responsibilities.  I was determined to engage myself in as many outside activities as possible. By my sixteenth year, I held leadership positions as violinist in five youth orchestras in the Chicago area, as well as becoming president of Chicago’s most profitable Junior Achievement company, and taking leadership and public speaking courses through that organization. It was just after that year that the family basically fell apart, causing me to leave all those affiliations and become a high school dropout.  I soon took mail room jobs in three major companies, an advertising firm, a stock brokerage house, and a public relations firm. By age eighteen I realized I was not following my heart, and ran away to Ann Arbor hoping somehow to seek enrollment at the University of Michigan. For one semester I dropped in on classes and orchestra rehearsals, afterward meeting with the Dean to share my story and desires. He directed me to their counseling center where I was administered the GED exam, which I passed in the mid- 90s percentile. I received a full tuition scholarship and embarked upon my college education, earning money by playing professionally for the first time in the Toledo Symphony. Restlessness and in some cases poverty (at Juilliard) caused me to transfer to other schools. I held leadership positions (as concertmaster) in several subsequent universities, each time improving my GPA, and eventually attaining a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Arizona. Today I think it is ironic that I attained the DMA, have thirty plus years experience as a university professor, and never actually received a high school diploma. Many years ago I initiated amends to my divorced parents.   Not wishing to provide undue biographical data here, I would like to relate a couple of significant instances of successfully taking on new responsibilities with little or no background. In early childhood I acquired a disease in my right ear which left my hearing quite impaired. In 1984 while pursuing graduate studies at UMass Amherst, I went to an ENT in Northhampton whose surgery removed the disease, but left me with the accumulated hearing loss. While in that city I visited and made a contribution to the Clark School for the Deaf, where I found the students especially endearing. Later at Arizona I was permitted to carry a full minor in Special Education for the Hearing Impaired, taking doctoral level courses, and working at the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind.  While there I wrote a lengthy research paper entitled, “Violin Study” Its  Applications in the Hearing and Speech Habilitation of Hearing Impaired Children.”  The Dean of Spec. Ed..,having read it, was impressed enough to bring it to the attention of of the Arizona Council for Exceptional Children, who invited me to present it at their annual convention.   In 1997 and 1998, I became the first ever New Mexico State University Music Professor to be invited to perform with the world famous Santa Fe Opera Orchestra. My first summer there, I received a call from the then Chair of the NMSU Faculty Senate informing me of a major dispute between the University President and the Board of Regents.  She also informed me that I was the most senior senator, and that university regulations designated that person with the responsibility of conducting a conclusive mediation between the parties. I knew nothing about mediation, but stood among those people and their literally warring attorneys, took some criticism but held my ground.  It took five months to come to an acceptable conclusion, with the president (who was a personal friend of mine) being forced to resign with one year’s severance pay. The result was applauded by the state legislature, the Governor’s office, the university itself, and also made national news. I received a memorial of commendation conferred by the entire senate. I was then allowed to take sufficient time off to prepare an extensive portfolio in support of my application for promotion to full professor, which was granted.   There are numerous similar experiences I could recount, but will refrain.   Now in 2014, in my fifth year of retirement, I truly miss classroom teaching where I engaged many students in lofty discussions, and left a remarkable legacy among most of them. I was able to bring into those discussions many diverse interests, including not just music history and literature, but spirituality, comparative religion, philosophy, art history, astronomy, and particularly aesthetics. Today I look forward to expanding my private teaching studio, and to starting my 23rd consecutive year in the first violin section of the El Paso Symphony Orchestra.  I have looked into possible opportunities to work with hearing impaired children here in Las Cruces, but nothing thus far has panned out. I am quite content here, and not sure of willingness to relocate, unless truly desirable opportunities present themselves.   In conclusion, may I say that I am very proud and honored to be selected for membership in the very prestigious Bristol Who’s Who Registry.