James Bruce Lyttle
After retiring from a career in academia, I completed a Master of Education (to keep brain cells moving) and started wondering how wisdom might be disseminated. I'm comfortable straddling borders between emotions and abstract ideas on the one hand, and detailed technical specifications on the other.
"SHOW BIZ"
It all started far from the lecture hall. Born in North Bay, Ontario, I put off college to "play in a band." That meant a decade crisscrossing Canada in a van, studying music theory by correspondence through the Berklee College of Music, and writing charts for my own and other bands. Later, I designed lighting for more than three dozen Toronto theatre productions. I loved the challenge of translating artistic sentiments into complex wiring diagrams and/or musical notation.
ACADEMIA
When disco came along, I left full-time performing to work on the Canadian government's Telidon project - a precursor to the Internet - playing music strictly as a "weekend warrior." I finally resumed my education, earning a B.A. in philosophy and economics and then a case-method MBA. What really excited me, though, was working at a DeVry Institute of Technology. The experience of teaching adults sent me back for a Ph.D., qualifying me to go and work at American universities. I spent the remainder of my working years teaching graduate and undergraduate courses.
RETIREMENT
I have tried to put theory into practice through civic and community work with groups like Minnesota Mensa, Lake Superior Freethinkers, the Clan Little Society, and the Duluth Charter Commission. I occasionally teach night classes through the Duluth Public Schools (ISD 709). I have the Dharm name Single Breath from Korean Zen master Samu Sunim. I am the helicopter parent of a teenage daughter who likes to ski and skate and draw. I still write songs and sing them into computer software in the basement. But my long-term plan is just to leave some money for my dependents and become fertilizer for the local ecosystem.