When I can read my title clear ...

I think that this is where I'm supposed to put information about myself, to let you know what I've been up to since we graduated.

The picture is of me standing on a hill overlooking Nazareth, Israel, in the background.

First, some links where you can read more about me if you want:

My wiki site: http://drjwsimmons.pbwiki.com
My blog: http://drjwsimmons.blogspot.com
My LibraryThing book listing: http://www.librarything.com/home/drjwsimmons
My Delicious bookmarks: http://delicious.com/drjwsimmons
My Twitter page: http://twitter.com/drjwsimmons
Project Euler: http://projecteuler.net has problems to solve with math and computers and thought

I went to Samford University in Birmingham, and graduated in 1974. Then I went on to graduate school in math at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. There, I studied with Dr. Goro Azumaya in ring theory, finishing my master's in 1976 and my Ph. D. in 1982. During the last three years of this, from 1979 to 1982, I taught math at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, IN. For the next six years, I taught math and computer science at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, PA. When I did not get tenure there, I went back to Indiana and started more graduate work in computer science, specializing in programming languages with Dan Friedman. I finished my master's in 1988 and my Ph. D. in 1993.

While in Bloomington, I sang with the choir at All Saints Orthodox Church. I go back up there to sing with them at Pascha (Orthodox Easter) when I can.

I decided to try the "real world" for a while, so I came to Memphis, TN in January 1994 to work for Federal Express as a programmer. I'm still here. Over time, Federal Express became FedEx, and eventually spun off the IT department into FedEx Services in Collierville, TN, where I work now.

Right before I came down to Memphis in October 1993, I met Linda Kovach at an SCA medieval dance group I visited in Bloomington. We carried on a long distance relationship for a while. Then she came down to Memphis and we were married June 22, 1996. You'll enjoy hearing a few details about the wedding. We were married at my church here, McLean Baptist. We were supposed to be married in the chapel, but when we came for the rehearsal, the air conditioning was out and it was 92 degrees in the chapel. The only place in the church that had air conditioning was the choir room! So we set up the choir room and were married there, and had the reception in the room next to it. Linda was downstairs greeting guests as they arrived, and forgot to come up for the ceremony! I had to send the best man to go fetch her while the pianist kept repeating the wedding march. By the way, we used "Mars" from the Planet Suite by Gustav Holst as the wedding march. Yes, I'm sure you're thinking, that sounds like something John would do.

We have no children, but Linda has a son, Chris, who lives in Richmond, IN, where she grew up. We live in an area of Memphis called Midtown in a foursquare house built in 1916.

The main thing in my life is my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm very involved in my church, McLean Baptist, where I'm music director, deacon, adult Sunday School teacher, van driver, and general flunky. We are a church that once was large but has shrunk to almost nothing due to demographic changes. We have a new pastor and are struggling to reestablish ourselves. Your prayers would be appreciated!

For several years, I taught programming part-time at the University of Memphis. They have not called me to teach for the last few years. I love to teach, and just finished teaching an introductory Java programming course at FedEx.

I recently sung on a new recording of a Celtic Mass and chants by Stefan Waligur. We recorded it at St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Memphis. It is supposed to be out by Christmas.

We have a bunch of cats that we feed, some inside and some outside. We have two kittens that we bottle raised, named Sarah and Hilary (remember the election?). Right now Hilary is asleep on my lap, and Sarah is wedged behind my back asleep.

I am a Mason, though I'm not very active in it right now. I still have my menbership in Unity Lodge in Hueytown, as well as Oakville Lodge here.

I'm also a member of the SMOTJ.

I'm into Celtic stuff, especially music. We took our honeymoon in Wales in September 1996 and went to Ireland in 2000. We're involved in the Memphis Scottish Society. And yes, I do have a kilt: two, in fact. The tartans are National Millenium and SMOTJ.

Our last big trip was to Israel in 2006 with Chuck Swindoll. I highly recommend a trip to the Holy Land. It gives you a new perspective on what you read in Scripture.

Oh, yes, we did go on a cruise, our first, in June 2008. The Grand Priory USA of the SMOTJ had their Grand Convent on the cruise, so it was a good excuse.

The only sport I engage in is geocaching. My handle there is OneTemplar. This is a game where people hide containers, called caches, and put the latitude and longitude coordinates on the geocaching web site. You get the coordinates of the cache you want to look for, put them in your GPS unit, follow the GPS to the location, and try to find the cache. Some have trade items, but all have a log that you sign to prove that you found the cache.

Thanks to Sharon Williams Lovoy for pointing this group out to me. I'm looking forward to reconnecting with classmates here.