Growing up in a little town outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I started taking piano lessons when I was in the third grade.

Switched to Trombone in middle school through High School. Marching band (the point of the M), Pep Band (played at basketball games), Stage Band (annual variety show), etc. Music was fun, but was not my calling.

Attended Purdue (Electrical Engineering major) from 1975-79. Joined Delta Upsilon Fraternity where a good percentage of the brothers were members of the Purdue Glee Club. That got me hooked on singing. Regularly serenading all the best sorority houses…and the girls would come out in droves to hear the men of DeltaU. What fun that was. Competed annually in a University Sing competition for the best chorus (one fraternity, one sorority). DeltaU was always near the top of that competition.

Continued singing after graduation by joining church choirs. Headed to University of Illinois for a Masters degree in engineering (complements of Bell Labs -- my first employer!). Joined Wesley United Methodist church choir. Director was head of music program at UofI. Pretty intense repertoire for that gig. Managed to survive singing second tenor (aka lead) and surprised most of the music majors in that choir.

Spent the next few years in Indianapolis working for Bell Labs. Joined Lawrence United Methodist Church choir. Started a choral ensemble of four men and four women to sing special programs. That was awesome! Played trombone at Easter and Christmas in a quartet. (less inspiring!)

A job at Commodore in West Chester brought me to PA in 1984. Joined the choir at the United Methodist Church in West Chester. Wonderful organ and lovely acoustics at that old church in downtown West Chester. I got to be quite the international globe trotter with work, which took a toll on my spare time to be an active member of the choir.

I pretty much put my music on hold for the next 20 some years. Then just recently, Greg Berlin, with whom I worked at Commodore, mentioned to my wife that he was singing barbershop with the Mainliners. My wife thought it would be great if I could get back into singing. So I gave it a try. Been hooked ever since.

Learned all the tracks for the 2009 Christmas show and auditioned in January to formally join the Mainliners. Become Rookie of the year my first year and elected Chapter President at the same time. Named Barbershopper of the year in 2013 and received the Directors Award for Excellence in 2014.

I started singing with my first quartet in 2010, named The Partimers with Tom Peck, Jerry Schwebel and John Fielding. Joined a second competitive quartet when they lost their Bari called Late Entry with Rich Matusewicz, Gary Covert and Mike Ziegler. We won Atlantic Division Novice quartet our first year out. In fact we retired that trophy. (BTW, there is no trophy for that!)

Been to Harmony University twice 2011 and 2012. Joined the Atlantic Harmony Brigade in 2012. Wow. That was an amazing experience. Can't get enough.

MY DAY JOB

I’m currently President and Founder of Porter Digital Signage, a consulting company specializing in “Digital Signage”. Perhaps you’ve seen the screen on the gas pumps at Sunoco? That’s my handiwork. Perhaps you’ve seen the large roadside LED billboards from Lamar? That’s me. Perhaps you’ve been to the Wells Fargo Center? That’s me. http://www.porterdigitalsignage.com

MY OTHER INTERESTS

When I was in college, I was a coop student at Eastman Kodak in Rochester, NY. I really got into photography back then. I have a B&W darkroom at home (that I‘m ashamed to say I don‘t use much now.)

Golf. Got a late start here. Wandering through BJ‘s one day a set of $99 clubs fell into my cart. I was 49 at the time. Never had played. But heck…even geezers can play golf. How hard can this be? It might even be good exercise. Wow did I get hooked.

We own a vacation home in southwest Florida. Don’t get to spend enough time there. How soon before I can retire? I guess my youngest is still in school. Hummm… Looks like I’m here for another few years. Darn.

We’ve had some pretty awesome vacations (many thanks to frequent flyer miles). Alaska Cruise, Mediterranean Cruise, Norwegian Fjord Cruise, Hawaii at Xmas (three times), UK, France, Germany, Costa Rica (awesome zip lining) and Panama.

Running Spartan Races...yes, this old man has turned into a gym rat. I'm in the best shape of my life, and I compete in these obstacle races each summer. Crawling in the mud under barbed wire? Check. Rope climb? Check. Monkey bars? Check? Spear Throw? Check. Warped wall? Check. Fire jump? Check. What fun. Out of 5000 participants, I finished 6th place in my age group my first time out. Whoo Hoo! Showed those millenials a thing or two! HA!

MY EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT

BSEE Purdue University 1975-1979 MSEE University of Illinois 1980-1981 Bell Labs (Indianapolis) 1980-1984 Commodore (West Chester) 1984-1994 Scala (Exton) 1994-2011 Porter Digital Signage (Downingtown) 2011-present

LANGUAGES AND TRAVELS

Some fluency in German. Know a few words in Norwegian.

Played golf in Mumbia, Shanghai, Netherlands, Germany, Panama. Still looking to get to Scotland some day. Have also traveled to Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, throughout western Europe, Argentina, Mexico, Costa Rica and a variety of islands in the Caribbean. Oh yeah…Canada too, but that doesn‘t count ‘cause it‘s connected!