David Robert Bailey's Brief Bio Page

Having never kept a journal in my life--but always wishing I had--I decided one day to see how many of the formative events of my life I could quickly recall...

• From Calgary, settled in Massachusetts then Connecticut.
• Speak (Canadian) French and English.

Paternal grandparents, deceased:

• Grandmother from Portugal.
• Grandfather from all over the place.
• Met (?) and lived in Providence, RI.

Parents:

• Mother Chery Bailey raised in Hartford, CT.
• Father Robert Bailey raised in Providence, RI.
• Met dancing in Newport, RI in 1965, married in 1967, settled in Cranston, RI.

Sister:

• Susan Madison born Sept 14, 1970. They brought her home and all I did was ask for another cookie. I think she's recovered though.

And finally, me:

Infancy:

• Born April 19, 1968 in Providence, RI.
• I'm told I liked my little plastic Volkswagen more than anything and saved the steering wheel after it met its end.
• Apparently I was an "active sleeper" and the night I insisted there was a pigeon with a red jersey on in my room has become family legend.

Eden Park Elementary School years:

• Kicked and screamed all the way to first day of kindergarten. Stayed painfully shy.
• Friends Steven Bushell, Michael Lehman, Johnny Whipple.
• My parents wisely choose to leave me in the neighborhood public school rather than a special "gifted" program across town.
• Did a lot of photography in darkroom Dad set up with the money he saved quitting smoking.
• Regular summer vacations to relatives on relatives' private lake on Cape Cod--loved piloting little motorboat. First glimmerings I was a wilderness person.
• Family vacation to Washington DC. I remember the air and space museum and my school "report" afterward.
• With my Dad, I spent a lot of time with model trains. A model of urban planning above the tabletop, a rat's nest of wires below.

Park View Junior High School years:

• New friends Bruce Kaplan, Ann Elise Rodrigues.
• Came out of shell, active in student council, band and yearbook.
• Pet turtle who hibernated in hole dug in back yard--four times! Also captured various pet snakes.
• Joined Boy Scouts--loved the camping part, hated the "learn to be a good (traditional 'God fearing' conservative) man" part.
• Somewhere in there, family vactioned to New Hampshire a couple times.

Cranston High School East years:

• TRS-80 color computer sets me down the computing path. CoCoNuts club--edited newsletter for years.
• New friends Mona Akerblom, Gayle Corrigan.
• Yearbook editor, friend / teacher Linda Lorenzo.
• Obligatory stint working at McDonald's.
• Also worked in city tax office, with somewhat less eager customers.
• Crowned King of the junior prom with Queen Andrea Casey but we each abdicated our thrones for other partners during the course of the event.
• Baritone in high school marching band--too bad the football team stunk.

Cornell years:

• First in extended family to go off to college. Mom cried because I chose the farthest of the schools I applied to (Rhode Island mentality on distances).
• Met Lisa Leinbaugh when a fortuitous assignment of freshmen to dorms put us on same floor. My fate was sealed immediately.
• David Gries taught me precision in programming. Finalized choice of computer science major.
• Devika Subramanian introduced me to artificial intelligence. I was curious, if a bit disappointed to find it hadn't been "solved" yet!
• We absolutely loved the Cornell/Ithaca environment and still miss it terribly.
• Spent 4 years rooming with Suji DeSilva.
• New friends Jeff Oris, Stephanie Goldstein, Josh Kablotsky, Eric Davis, Carol Ann Loesch, Mark Sonnenfeld.

Hughes Aircraft:

• Finally Lisa succeeded in dragging me away from home turf of east coast, as we went to California for internships.
• Got to work on cool stuff like Magellan mission to Venus.
• Spent our weekends exploring the mountains, beaches.
• Lots of fun and volleyball in LA with co-op gang including Mark Robbins, Eric Connor, Eric Anderson, Jung-hua Kuo, Dave Cadmus, Tom Hardy, Sam Yang.

Berkeley years:

• Amazing place, world's expert in everything is in town--lots of good talks.
• But don't like city very much: crime, crowds, traffic. At least we're near all our favorite outdoor spots.
• Did a little switch from computer science to cognitive science--more important questions, but very frustratingly slow progress.
• 1991 Oakland-Berkeley hills fire starts in backyard, claims our apartment and 25 neighbors' lives. Takes years to replace everything. Saved negatives.
• New friends Ben Gomes, Rebecca Leung, James Chan, David Stoutamire, Nikki Mirghafori, Robert Mueller-Thuns, Su-Lin Wu, Dave Lipin, D.R. Mani.
• Lisa gets her MS and goes to work at Intel.
• New friends Kris & Mike Hegg, Laura Mikkola, Andrew Zenk and Bernice Lum.
• Lisa's high school friend Larissa Heck moves to SF and we do much together.
• Set up color darkroom and dramatically improved photography skills.
• Family news: sister marries Andrew Madison; father has surprise heart bypass.
• Vacations: camping in Alaska and Hawaii.
• Lisa got to go to Ireland for work.
• Many many Sierra trips, usually organize big groups of friends. Annual Thanksgiving desert trips: Death Valley/Joshua Trees/Anza Borrego.

Post-Berkeley:

• Well, I started off by escaping for a while to explore the southern hemisphere.
• After hemming and hawing about our options, including where to live, it looks like I will be finding me a startup company in Silicon Valley. I'm quite excited.
• But someday, I'm sure, I'll return to teaching.