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This was taken at Arlington, Minnesota, during warmups on August 9, 1997.

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Quick Links-  Vintage race car  Model Building  Digital Art

Our household now consists of just Jeanie and I.  All of our kids are married and living in their own houses.  Our daughter Karen and her husband live in the area, so we do get to see our Grandson Chris.  Our two sons, Bob and Scott, are married and living in Chicago and St. Loius, respectively.

Until recently I was a physicist working at an industrial research laboratory. I took an early retirement, and I'm trying to become a full time freelance writer. For a page on my professional work, go to professional page . I may, next year, return to formal schooling to study history of technology.  This will also be the subject of much of my writing.

Well, as much as I like my work, I know it is really a way for me to pay for my hobbies. I have way too many hobbies for the time and money I have available. They include;

• Model building- I started modeling at age 6 or 7, about 1945, and have been at it continually ever since. You can view some of my work at the modeler's home page. I model just about anything that moves. I am particularly, in recent years doing vintage race cars (see below) and ships, especially great lakes ships. Some of my work can be seen in a page on my modeling .
• History and history of technology- I have long been developing an interest in history, and in history of technology in particular. Items of specific interest include nautical and maritime history, history of machine tools, aviation history, automotive history (including auto racing), and history of electronics.
• Vintage auto racing, and racing history- I am the club historian for the IMCA Old Timers . My particular interest is American oval track racing. See Early Racing in Minnesota for some of my history work.
• Genealogy- I am most actively searching STAUFFER, BELL, SIMONSON, SEABORG, KISER, and PIGGOT. In my opinion the best genealogy web site is RAND Genealogy Club
• Photography and graphics- I have had a lifelong interest in photography, and interest I share with my wife (who is now more into video, however). I am particularly enamoured these days with digital photography, or to put it better, digital darkroom stuff. I also do a bit of art and graphics stuff on the computer.  Almost all photos shown on my web site have been through some degree of editing, if only for contrast and brightness.  A few have seen extensive work, such as cleanup of cluttered backgrounds, etc.  I now teach a short course in digital photography.  Here is a page on my digital graphics stuff,  Digital Art  .   You may be interested in my page on pixels.
• Hobby Electronics- I am a ham operator (WB0YTH) and, with a love for imagery, am starting into ATV.
• Music- My greatest musical skill is listening, unfortunately. I am musically challenged in terms of making it, however. I am a poor musician. With persistance, and years of patient support by fellow choir members, I do sing in the choir of my church, Lord of Life in Ramsey, Minnesota. My musical tastes include classical and folk music, particularly Celtic music.
• Writing- I fancy myself a writer, and have written a fair number of magazine articles. Like all wanabee authors, my goal is to write fiction. So far, however, I have been unable to sell any fiction. Most of my magazine articles are on my hobbies, and appear and hobby or aviation magazines.
• Aviation- I had started out to be a military pilot, but I soon found I wasn't good enough. Still, I was able to get a private license, and have had a life-long interest in aviation. Like so many private pilots, I have found that raising children and owning an airplane are not financially compatible. I did have an Ercoupe at one time, and hope to own another plane someday after Karen is through school. My interest in aerodynamics dates from my model airplane days. I have hand the good fortune to take several aerodynamics and aircraft design courses, and bring a physicist's view of aerodynamics. My article in a 1992 issue of Kitplanes magazine tries to bring some humor to the  Great Debate  between Newtonian and Bernoullian theories of lift.

My car is a 1960 vintage TQ. I purchased it in late May of '97. More about this car can be found on the  1960 Hook-Hinton TQ

my email address is stauffer@usfamily.net