James E. Smith, PhD is a retired university professor with forty-five-plus years of career experience as a practicing engineer and educator. This career, an easily recognizable façade, is overshado...view moreJames E. Smith, PhD is a retired university professor with forty-five-plus years of career experience as a practicing engineer and educator. This career, an easily recognizable façade, is overshadowed by his seven decades of living and experiencing life, often outside of his control or choice, which is the subject of this latest book in the Life’s Little Lessons series. It is the interactions with others and the environment we all live in coupled with the many choices that we are required, or choose, to make that establish who we are and who we will become as we walk this path through life.
During his professional career, he has taken on the roles of engineer, corporate consultant, research center director, and professor. While these professional roles have satisfied his need to stay connected to his engineering profession, it is the maturing nature of experience where life takes on meaningful expression. Thus, the acts associated with living allow us to learn in a more meaningful way and to provide to others the results of those experiences. The contents of this book reflect some of those experiences. Some were used in classroom situations and others were prepared for friends and colleagues. Many more were written as an aid in understanding life’s little mysteries.
Currently, during his infrequent downtimes, he is especially active in chasing after grandchildren and the operation of a “gentleman’s” farm where he and his wife look after deer and wild turkey plus an occasional meandering bear. Their four children visit at will but are particularly attentive when they need to borrow something or wish to leave their offspring to their parents’ designs. The four children he and his wife raised survived and flourished, so it is assumed that as grandparents they can handle the next generation hopefully as well, as inexpensive babysitters. This, again, may become part of another Life’s Little Lessons for the future, if we the older generation survive the energetic set of munchkins left to our designs. Grandkids are such a blessing, and grandparents frequently look forward to their visits, but they often feel the same way with their departures.view less