A conversation with Mr. McCracken
What is your family like?
I am married and I have two kids. Sean is 13 and Margaret
is 3. My family is the most important thing in my life.
I love spending time with them. We do all kinds of things
together like snowboarding, geo-caching, hike, and especially
play music.
Wow! Is it loud at your house?
Very! My wife and I love music and she plays guitar and
I play the bass. Sean plays the saxophone and we recently
bought Margaret a drum set. The neighbors knew when she
got it and said "sounds like Margaret got a drum set
for her birthday!?" All we need is a bus and it's "watch
out Partridge family here comes the McCrackens." I
used to own a record store in Northern California in the
early '80s. Then I ended up buying a club and played in
a couple of bands.
Who is your favorite band?
Riveter. If you haven't heard of them it's because that
is going to be the name of my wife's all-girl band!
What in the world is geo-caching?
It is a fun activity that takes you to places all over the
world you
wouldn't normally visit unless you are doing this. It requires
a GPS (global positioning system) and the Internet. There's
a site on the Internet that gives you the coordinates of
a place where a box is located. You look up the coordinates
and the GPS tells you where to go. When you find the box
you open it and exchange something of yours for something
in the box. There are trinkets from around the world in
the boxes.
Sounds interesting, do you travel a lot?
We frequent Ouray and I like to four-wheel in my jeep in
Moab. We also go to Truckee, California, once a year to
visit relatives and do some snowboarding.
How did you end up teaching machining?
I've been working with machines since I was in high school
in western New York and I went to a votech school similar
to UTEC. Unfortunately, machining jobs were hard to get
so I joined the Navy. I was working at a place called Sundstrand
Aerospace and I had a friend that was an adjunct professor
here at UTEC and he mentioned that a position in machining
was opening up and encouraged me to apply. I did and fortunately
now I am here.
Do you like your job?
I love it! The best thing about it is the interaction that
I get with students. When people ask me what I teach I say,
"I teach students." I also love the relationship
that I have with the faculty here at UTEC as well as my
friends on the main campus. I feel we provide a world-class
education here, providing students with the skills and tools
to succeed in today's workplace and I am privileged to be
a part of UTEC and Mesa State College.
Written by Jenn Russell, Mass Communications student
