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I was born in the Phillipines while my Father was in the Air Force near  where just a few years ago Mt. Pinatubo erupted . While still in the Service, we eventually moved to Seville, Spain where my memory begins and my brother Scott Kolins was born. Now he's a comic book artist.

 When we moved back to the States in 1969 we lived in Wisconsin and eventually moved to Steven's Point where i went to High School and College. My majors in college were Physics and Philosophy and i minored in Math and Psychology. I also worked in the planetarium and observatory for three of my five years there. In my last year there i also declared my faith in Baha'u'llah, the Founder of the Baha'i Faith.

 Then i moved to Raleigh NC to pursue graduate school in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Eventually i worked under Dr. Karen Johnston on my thesis examining how physics was taught, and how it might be better taught. During this time I also was elected to the Baha'i Spiritual Assembly of Raleigh where I eventually served as Treasurer, and assisted in a number of activities including our participation in local Earth Day Observances. It was also in Raleigh where i met and married my wife Sally Jamir who was then a VISTA volunteer assisting small communities get and preserve clean water. For several years she was the Director of Janus Farms Institute which was devoted to promulgating sustainable agricultural practises, especially among disadvantaged women and their families. You can also find her mentioned at a Old CFSA Conference and A George Moses Horton events, and The 1995 ABS Ag. Seminar Page Since then her interests in organic agriculture include SEWWOOF.

 After graduating from NCSU i pursued what options were before me and eventually worked as a bagel baker (having failed to find a teaching position before bills began to mount too highly.) I also found employment as a reader for a testing organization where a large room of people would read 2-400 papers a day and grade them. I sometimes refer to it like poor-man's telepathy. I got to read what hundreds and hundreds of people thought about some subjects. In amongst this i was able to work part-time at Central Carolina Community College at the Siler City and Pittsboro campuses as a computer instructor. Then i worked as a techinician in a groundwater pollution consultant company (about half as a field technician and half as a computer guru/CAD worker.)

 All along since High School, computers have been at various places in my life. (See Triumph of the Nerds for more information on computer history.) I recall in that class working on a PDP8 and seeing TRS-80s. In College I worked on PC-Compatables (made by AT&T if i recall right.) When I moved to Raleigh a Baha'i freind gave me an old PC compatable and i started down the road to learning everything i could in my spare time. I actually saw some of the early messages about the development of the WWW coming out of CERN. I also made regular contact with folks among the BBSes and their Networks and made many freinds there. Eventually that computer died but not after i had made numerous changes to it, even discovering features of it the prior owner didn't know of. My Father then gifted me with a new computer and i began my struggles with Windows class machines. Eventually it required an upgrade and the popularity of the internet required me getting savy on some of those issues from the guts of Windows pov. Then a Baha'i friend let me know of a position as a technical assistant and that's how I got working in School Systems! Since then i've also had to deal with plenty of Macs from many ages and I really must say I am VERY IMPRESSED! Far more reliable, far more user friendly, far easier to upkeep.

 Some of the social issues Sally and I are involved in are Sustainable Agriculture, Racial harmony, Human Virtues, World Peace, Native peoples like the Cherokee, and Interfaith understanding. We ussually go to both the NC Zoo in Asheboro and the Pittsboro Street Fair, but we have also gone to New York, both the Coast and Mountains of North Carolina, Louise Gregory Institute in South Carolina, and Florida. The latest things was an international adoption of our beloved daughter from Ukraine!

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