ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ VOCABULARY FLASH CARDS LIBRARIAN-WEBMASTER I worked for 38 years as a County of Los Angeles Public Reference Librarian. The following link shows a picture of me at the reference desk of the Gardena Public Library along with the official statement presented by the New York Times newspaper when I received their Librarianship Award in December 2004 in recognition of providing outstanding public library service: GO TO PICTURE: Picture of the New York Times Librarian Award Announcement I had many professional responsibilities as the Community Library Manager of the Holly Park Library for 8 years, from May 1970 to August 1978, and as a Reference Librarian at three other libraries in the South Bay, Hawthorne, Gardena, and the Carson Regional Library, from September 1978 to June 2008, where I served several diverse multicultural communities. I helped people from all over the world find relevant information in the library or on the Internet or get answers to their information and entertainment questions on a daily basis. I earned a unique cross-discipline Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Philosophy in 1961 and minors in Chemistry, History and Anthropology. In 1970, I received a Master of Library Science (MLS) degree in Library Science (accredited by the American Library Association) with an emphasis on both the history of science and youth activities services. Both degrees were from the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. My academic background also included two years of undergraduate study in chemistry and chemical engineering at the University of Alaska (Fairbanks) from 1957-1959; and one year of studying theology and religious education at the interdenominational Pacific School of Religion seminary in Berkeley, California, in 1961-1962; and two years of masters graduate study in Family Life Education and Counseling with a major emphasis on psychology and research methods at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, in 1961-1963. Prior to earning an MLS library degree in the spring of 1970, I worked as a bookmobile driver and librarian's assistant in Salem, Oregon, for 44-months from 1964-1968, serving a suburban community with many stops in diverse socio-economic neighborhoods and shopping centers. When Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, I decided to go back to graduate school and fight for civil rights through the weapon of non-violence using the strategy of education to produce social change rather than killing enemies. I learned self-reliance and how to be prepared for anything by being a Boy Scout in Oregon until 1957 and as an Explorer Scout leader in Alaska until 1959, enjoying the many campouts and overnight hikes in both Oregon and Alaska. Also, I was a member in the 1950s of two Congregational Churches in the city of Portland, Oregon, and the suburb of Cedar Mill Park, near Portland, and the Congregational Church in Eugene, Oregon, from 1959 to 1961. After finishing my undergraduate degree at the University of Oregon in Eugene, I became a member of the Salem Unitarian Church for several years while living in Salem, Oregon, and working as driver and assistant-librarian on a unique suburban bookmobile. After returning to the University of Oregon in Eugene, to earn my MLS degree in 1968-1970, I became a member of the American Humanist Association in the early 1970s. I have remained a dedicated Humanist ever since then. I enjoy reading the inspiring articles published in the Humanist Magazine and I am involved in helping the national organization grow along with many other secular affiliates who promote liberal international humanistic social action around the world. Altogether, my university education, public library career, family relationships, and contact with influential Humanists for more than half a century (both in person and through the reading of their books and articles), have influenced my thinking and inspired me to continue to organize relevant useful information for the inquiring minds of people who believe in the value of lifelong self-directed education. This website is an example of that fervent desire and passion to enlighten others to the power and joy of self-reliance and empathic collaboration. In the 1970s, I attended many annual Humanist Summer Institute weekend seminars in Los Gatos, California, which featured great Humanist thinkers such as Paul Kurtz, Lester Kirkendall, Roderick Gorney, the Morain's, Art Jackson, and many others. Along with all the great philosophers and psychologists of history, I have been inspired most by Erich Fromm, Carl Rogers, Gordon Allport, Bertrand Russell, Noam Chomsky, Steven Pinker, and most recently the 2002 Nobel Prize Winner, Eric Kandel, who appears as narrator and contributor to the monthly Charlie Rose PBS TV special "Brain Seminars," which provides a forum for bringing together state-of-the-art brain researchers to discuss the latest brain research findings. I was married at a family wedding ceremony with the great Humanist leader and educator, Dr. Lester Kirkendall, a professor from Oregon State University. He was Humanist of the Year in 1988 and remains a major mentor in my life. He officiated at my home wedding ceremony in the living room of my inlaws. I have been married for the past 48 years to a former 5th grade elementary school teacher, who taught in Oregon, and who later became a guitar teacher in California. We have a son who plays lead guitar and pedal steel guitar and who likes power pop rock and jazz and country music, and plays in many bands and does studio recording. INSTANTLY RETURN TO: SELF-LIBERATION MASTER INDEX