About Me

I was born in Dublin, Ireland on Saturday, November 25, 1944. I went to elementary school in Dublin from 1949 to 1952 and then my family moved to Toronto, Canada in July, 1952. I graduated from George Harvey Secondary School (GHSS) in 1965 with a specialty in Industrial Chemistry. At that time GHSS was a  vocational and commercial high school (An example of some of the programs available were machine shop, sheet metal, electronics, auto mechanics, stenography, bookkeeping, and typing) and after graduation I worked at a number of companies as a chemical laboratory technician. In 1968 I was accepted by the University of Guelph as a Mature Student and obtained an B.A. (Hons.) in Philosophy in 1974.

I have had such jobs as factory worker, delivery truck driver, surveyor’s assistant, supply teacher for elementary schools, kitchen assistant in restaurants and security guard, just to name a few.

I am from a police/military/merchant marine type family on the mother’s side. My mother’s father, a Thomas Kenoy, and two uncles, Patrick Mullen and Edward Barrett who were married to two of my mother’s sisters were in the Irish Police and a cousin, an Edward Mullen, who was the son of Patrick Mullen was in the Toronto Police from 1958 to 1983. Edward Barrett got a job as a correctional officer in the Toronto (Don) Jail when he immigrated to Toronto in 1953 and held that job until his death in 1968. One of my mother’s other sisters married a Len Pover who was in the British Merchant Marine.

I am a stutterer (I am not mentioning that to elicit sympathy) and went to speech therapy from October 1962 to December 1964. This turns out to be important because as a result of being a stutterer I have an amateur interest in social science in general and read social science and related articles that appear in books, newspapers and magazines.