My first job was playing lead guitar in a group called Synthetic Sun and later on Battlecreak at the Lighthouse in Lively in 1967. We got to play in Sudbury, Espanola, Blind River, Massey and Elliot Lake. Mike Tovey, Doug Maclean, Rick Panas and me were the members group although we were enthusiastic about our music we were not that good. I joined Canadian Nickel Company as a field worker in Sudbury, Timmins and Kapuskasing. I got a hernia while up in Kap and I remember getting it repaired just as the news of the death of Lord Montbatten was on the news and I had Dr. Flagherty doing my surgery and I can remember him saying of the IRA those bastards referring to the people responsible for blowing up the boat. I joined INCO  in the sample preparation through Don Phipps in the geological area. I was promoted from that job into recording the samples and their assays into a computer record. All the records consisted of printouts, which were in printed out columns of numbers each column, represented an assay value. I stayed in geology for seven years.

I transferred over to the Copper Cliff smelter where under the tutelage of an engineer, I was responsible for the superstack gas monitoring equipment. When I got there the analyzer was at the bottom of the stack and we had it brought to the 31-meter level, in a new instrument enclosure. My design for the probe I believe is still in use there. We had to design a second system in case the primary system was inoperable. The second system was designed in a co-operative effort using a gas analyzer of a different type than the primary system. In order to make sense of the readings an annubar was installed to give us a measure of draught. Temperature was measured by thermocouples. This gave us a measure in metric tons per day of what was emitted from the stack. It is interesting to note that when I left, the instrument department gained responsibility for maintenance of the superstack.

During my twelve-year tenure with INCO beginning 1971, seven years in geology plus five years in the smelter, I was able to see that computers would play an ever-increasing role in our lives. I thought that working for a living for a large company didn’t agree with me. I resigned from INCO to go into the computer business full time. Looking back that was one of the worst decisions of my life.

While at INCO I became friends with a young engineer named Paul Uguccioni who introduced me to his father Don who became my partner. We were sold on a Victor microcomputer dealership and we thought we were on the way to fame and fortune. From that point on my memory is not clear but I do remember going to California to see the Victor people and not being impressed at what I saw. Victor filed for bankruptcy in the US, we were left holding on to four microcomputers.

I remember going to Ottawa and having something to do with Space Research when I joined Steel Electronics. When I was with Steel I have pictures that show me going to remote lighthouse sites all over Georgian Bay. What we were trying to sell the Federal Government on was having each lighthouse report back to a central command center in Ottawa using our product Scat Pak (Self Contained Acquisition and Transmission Package) to measure the different parameters such as whether or not the light came on when it was supposed to and does it require servicing or a backup light will be turned on. Scat Pak was also capable of providing digital/analog switches a very powerful tool for control. In addition it could measure different values such as temperature and wind speed or direction using an anemometer. Scat Pak was able to transmit those values using a satellite making all those values much more accessible to government.                          

We didn’t sell any of our products to the Federal Government and I left Steel electronics in 1987.

That year saw me go back to INCO not as an employee but rather as a contractor. I had to see how much data Scat Pak could acquire. The way I did it was by putting a current transformer across a load and measuring and plotting the output. The data that came out was a perfect sine wave of electricity telling me that we could sample at a rate greater than two thousand samples per second >2k/sec.  From there I went to work as a general foreman for Dalron Construction in their commercial section.

The work was interesting and challenging right up till the time of my accident on August 15^th 1989. I was in a coma three and half months, I lost the ability to speak and did not know my immediate family and friends when I woke up. It must have particularly hard on my wife and immediate family. From the intensive physical therapy I was getting both at the General Hospital and later on Laurentian Hospital and later on Chedoke McMaster Hospital in Hamilton I saw all the walkers much to my disappointment I was able to see that no one walker suited my needs. I required a walker that would prevent me from falling, a walker that would be strong enough to hold me in a standing position yet flexible enough to sit in.

I enlisted the help of my sons to build a wooden prototype from there we had it made out of square stock steel. We had the straps made to my specifications. I tried the Puddy Walking System for the first time August 1998 and it was all right to be walking again without fear of falling. I used the PWS for just about one year to get the bugs out then I was ready to build the PWS 2 with larger wheels, made out of tubular steel and a new configuration for the front. I have put the PWS 2 on the Internet Http://www.jejpeco.com and I am waiting for results.

In order to proceed to the next level we have to get a patent on the PWS 2. My work is complete on the PWS 2 and now I can concentrate on the PWS 3 or Digital Assisted Walking Network. What we propose is use DAWN to assist people with physical disabilities. Firstly we will concentrate on the lower limbs, what we propose is to use DAWN as an exo-skeleton and to do away with wheelchairs for most of the disabled population. Wearing DAWN a person with physical challenges would be able to walk up/down stairs to get up unassisted from a sitting position and walk. I know this sounds farfetched but I believe the goal is worth it. Wheelchair accessibility is what is keeping me from enjoying going to camp, riding a Greyhound, doing some traveling by train, riding the subway and a host of other activities.

My third attempt at business was too much to handle for me, I declared bankrupcy on January 11, 2002 and filed at Fontaine and Associates. In order to keep whatever brain cells intact I have resolved to become a musician once again. To that end I've purchased a 45 watt Marshall amplifier and a stratocaster (Squire).