AMA #33 DAVEINOP

Hi all! I'm Dave. I'm a recently-turned 69 year old Hokie, Class of '77. Came to TKP for French's thoughts on football and stayed for the fishing, golfing, and other threads.

I'm married, now 40 years. Mrs. Dave (who is the best) and I have two children. Our son (36), his wife, and our new granddaughter (who is also the best) moved from Winston Salem to Houston just in time to be impacted by Beryl. And our daughter (32) and her boyfriend live near here in Jacksonville. The "op" in "daveinop" stands for Orange Park, FL , which is where we were when I started getting on various VT chat boards. We currently reside in St Augustine.

About me...I was born in Chapel Hill, NC. My parents were depression era folks from a rural town in southern Illinois...their parents had small farms and various side jobs to make ends meet. Unlike many of their peers in the 1940's, my parents both went to college and both got their masters degrees. My dad was the first graduate student in the wildlife management program at SIU-Carbondale. My mom was a math whiz; creative, confident, musically gifted, and generous. She was working on her doctorate in math when I came along and interrupted things. I can trace many of my values, personality traits/quirks, and interests to both of them.

Growing up we (I also have a younger sister and brother) moved around a good bit. I the 1950's, my dad worked for state game and fish agencies in NH and NC. In 1960 he was hired by what is now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (spoiler, you will hear of this agency again) which required him to move around in order to move up. I went to 4 elementary schools, two junior highs, first 3 years of HS in northern Va (Fairfax); and graduated HS in suburban Portland OR. While dad was moving up the org chart, my mom taught school, counseled students, and/or sang in choirs in all of those places.

I was an introvert and slow to make friends so the moves were pretty tough. I don't really have a home town and can't name more than a handful of people I graduated HS with in Oregon. I knew nothing about VT when we lived in Virginia but several of my friends in NOVA were going there so I applied and was accepted...I would at least know a few people. First sporting event I ever saw involving VT was the NIT final...had no idea they were in it, just happened to catch the second half on TV. When my mom and I flew east to check out VT for orientation, I instantly fell in love with the place. Two months later I flew east with 2 suitcases and a box and moved into 310 Vawter.

Like some others, school had come easy for me so when I got to VT I had zero study habits. I also had a horrible roommate; he was older, heavy into drugs, and I stayed away from him and the dorm room as much as possible. Played LOTS of penny poker with the guys on the floor and my Fr GPA was awful. Second year began a turnaround; I had a great roomie on a physics scholarship (so he HAD to study). By my 3rd year I learned how to take good notes and study, and I managed to graduate with decent grades.

I had started out as a history major (thinking I might be an environmental lawyer...all that legislation had passed while I was in HS) but the degree had a foreign language requirement and that was a bridge too far for me; I just didn't have the interest or discipline to get there. So I switched over to biology and took every elective I could find related to wildlife, fisheries, and ecology. I had gone to college in a rebellious mode (particularly resenting the move to OR) and that I wouldn't do what my dad did. But then it was like, "who am I kidding, I like that stuff!"

Following VT, I went to graduate school in the wildlife management program at LSU for 2 years. In 1979, I was hired (mostly on name recognition) by the USFWS as a field biologist in Lafayette, La.

Just like VT, I started out my professional career slowly until I got my footing. As a biologist, I was never an expert at really anything; but I am a decent common sense ecologist (Dr. Giles' Systems Ecology class was boring to most...I loved it, made perfect sense!). That served me very well doing impact assessments of wetland development permits and Corps of Engineers civil works projects (I did assessments on some of the projects that ultimately failed...no surprise...in Katrina).

But also turns out I'm pretty good at developing and implementing public natural resource conservation policies, and not awful at running organizations. In 1985, my wife and I (oh yeah, I got married in 1984) moved from Lafayette to Annapolis where I was commuting to agency HQ in DC (and she was commuting to the Old Post Office building). The DC job was a unique rotational position where I staffed out budget initiatives, refined technical procedures, and drafted policies in different subdivisions of the program I worked in. It was also a huge opportunity to get visibility in front of upper leadership and in 1988 I was made Field Supervisor for east and coastal Texas located in Houston. It's a job title I would have until I retired 24 years, 11 months and 3 weeks later.

We absolutely loved Houston. Great people. Our office crew was like family and our two children were born there. But by 1996 we, as an office, had done everything I could think of, so it was either go back to DC or find another field job. Frankly, I resented all the moves we made while my dad chased his career and I was looking for a place where our kids could put down some roots; and I wouldn't have ridiculous travel demands. So in 1996, we moved to Jacksonville where I was supervisor for central and north FL. Professionally it was the same title but the subject matter was completely different and I was recharged. It was endangered species issues 24/7 and I was over the manatee, sea turtle, and FL panther recovery programs (and a few dozen other species). We had a great crew and did some very good things.

After I retired, the agency contracted with me for almost another decade to mentor and troubleshoot. In all, it was a very good gig for over 4 decades.

Switching gears to personal interests, I'm either really into something or I'm not interested at all. There is little in between. My hobbies are fishing (light tackle inshore saltwater); golf (been playing off and on since my teens); and playing bass guitar (took it up later in life). I also enjoy cooking.

Fishing...my dad gave me a fly rod when I was 7. I loved catching fish then; I love it now. It is as relaxing as it gets. There are probably 15 rods/reels on the wall in the garage. My wife says they all look the same. I can assure you they are NOT the same...even though they do, in fact, look the same. The boxes and bags of lures are also not the same...duh.

Golf: I think I like golf because I don't have to run fast, be real strong, or get run over. I played a lot of sports growing up but not at any noticeable level. I was always a year or two behind (see a trend?). In golf, I'm self-taught; only half a handful of lessons later on in life (they didn't take at all). In 2010, I was down to about a 4 hcp; then a series of injures put the clubs away (I have shitty tendons...most all of them). Started up again around the pandemic and am inching my way back to respectability.

Bass/music: Took up bass when golf went away. Also self-taught (I played brass instruments in HS so music isn't foreign), I play in a couple of pop/rock cover bands. Am I into it? I have 3 custom made basses/art pieces on the wall next to where I'm sitting right now.

Cooking: Nothing sophisticated but I'm competitively good at a few Cajun classics and I also like to mess with the grill. Many years around great cooks in south Louisiana and Texas was a good thing. My wife is an outstanding baker. She takes great care measuring stuff; I do not.

To close, I have no big surprises to announce or curveballs to throw. Wife and I have built/bought a new house every time we moved; that was fun. And we do have a 12 year old tabby cat...you guessed it, she's the best.

Ask me anything!