I am a retired Virginia Department of Transportation Geologist with a life long interest in rocks, minerals, and gems. I have collected in Virginia, (many published discoveries), North Carolina, and New Jersey (Franklin Zinc mines). I have written for the Lynchburg Gem and Mineral Society, USFG, and the Austrian Faceters Guild. Such titles as “Scratches from the Master Lap” and the “Beale/Woolley Depth of Cut Indicator” of which I am the co-inventor, can be Googled. Look forward to the current projects: “What is a Mineral” and “Igneous, Hot Stuff” about to be published. They will ‘knock your socks off’.

I am a Citroen car enthusiast having maintained 15 pre-owned 1955-75 DS Citroens (the first modern automobile) in the past 50 years. I am the author of “Back to the Future” found in “Citroenvie”, (Spring 2010) Citroen Car Club of Canada newsletters, listing the history and (first time in English?) 180 novel features that current manufacturers copy. See: “The Beale/Woolley Depth of Cut Indicator, a Short History” from the USFG ‘Franklin Faceters Frolic’ lectures.