Craig Collins' Portfolio R. Craig Collins > Web Page Design > Portfolio > Auto-Biography

Auto-Biography© R. Craig Collins, 1997,2005/15

Auto Biography is not the story of a car...

The basics:

Continuing on

Craig: 1 mo Craig:  7 moCraig: 7 Craig: 8Craig: FreshmanCraig: SophomoreCraig: 2000Craig:  Now Craig now

I was raised by a troop of apes... wait that was someone else... Actually I was born to Robert Claude Collins (Bob or R.C.) and Eunice Howellyn Smith Collins (Lyn) in El Paso, Texas just weeks after the US launched its first satellite, Explorer I… so I am truly a product of the space age, or truly a space cadet, depending on your point of view.

My father was a former parachutist in the Army, learning to fly private aircraft at the time, and worked for a company involved in the then new field of electronic office equipment. My mother was about to graduate with her History degree from Texas Western College. About a year later my brother Glenn joined me, and then about the time Kennedy was elected, my brother Steve joined us, and we moved to Houston.

Later, moved back to El Paso, had a life, and attended UTEP... got a job in management, and decided to go back to school so I could teach...

When I graduated from UTEP with my BBA in Computer Information Systems, I had already co-written 5 college text books on computing, and was president of every major honor society (okay only three). I was named one of the top ten seniors in a school with 17,000 students, graduated with honors and honors program certification, and I received UTEP's highest award, Men of Mines.

The day classes ended, I left my produce job, and we all moved to Central Texas to allow me to pursue my graduate degrees (there are none in my field at UTEP). I started at Texas State Technical College teaching computer literacy, operating systems, applications, the Internet, before being promoted to assistant department chair. From there I took over as program chair for the digital media department, and added writing, graphics, and animation to my vita.

When I received my Masters degree in Computer Education and Cognitive Systems, the time was ripe to move on from TSTC, and I found a great job with CORD (the Center for Occupational Research and Design) writing curricula material and running the website for their joint effort with NAF (National Academy Foundation) called AOIT (Academy of Information Technology) as I began my PhD in Educational Computing, and began teaching part time at Cedar Valley College and the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. After completing the curriculum project at CORD, I went to work for my high school English teacher, who was now the president of CEI, Creative Education Institute to work in tech support, testing software, and developing a distance support framework.

But I missed full time teaching, so when an opening at Temple College opened up, there I was.

Well, that's where I am today. Stay turned to see how it turns out from here!

More coming soon