User:Kirby Urner

My dad, Dr. Jack Urner, was an urban-regional planner and took his nuclear family (me the older brother) all over the world. Mom, Carol, served as Quaker activist and community organizer (but not missionary) in the countries we moved through: Italy (dad worked in Libya); Philippines; Bangladesh; Bhutan; Lesotho, and of course the USA. From them, I inherited a bias towards big picture thinking, with the instincts of an agitator.

My focus at Princeton (Class of 1980) was philosophy, Dr. Rorty a thesis adviser, and after completing my undergraduate training I decided more life experience outside the Ivory Tower would lead to forging a stronger philosophy. In making this life choice, I hear echoes of Walter Kaufmann, an opinionated teacher, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, the focus of my thesis, as both were disillusioned with academic brands of philo.

As a high school math teacher (other subjects too) at an elite private Catholic academy for young women, in Jersey City, I started tackling the quasi-utopian pragmatic and refreshingly worldly philosophy of Buckminster Fuller (American Transcendentalist) and get to know his people (including Dr. Fuller himself). His publishers were all conveniently nearby in Manhattan, where I'd later get a job with McGraw-Hill.

These studies later led me to develop my computer graphics skills, whereas programming more generally, mostly for nonprofits, became the basis of my public service career, especially once I'd moved back to Portland, Oregon (where dad first practiced city planning) and starting raising a family of my own.

I was looking forward to hypertext and networking in the early 1980s, and have continued to maintain web content since the beginning of the graphical browser. You can find out lots more about me if you search.

Hubs:

• Blogs, Other resources
• Digital Mathematics: Heuristics for Teachers
• Grunch dot net (http only)
• 4D Solutions, A Pioneer in Open Source (click logo)
• Oregon Curriculum Network