John is a member of the APCUG Speakers Bureau; he has done a number of web presentations for computer groups around the country and has often presented at regional conferences in Ohio. John got his feet wet with computers in the early 80’s with his first Atari personal computer. From that he continued with different mainline PCs until he built his first computer when he retired.
John taught elementary school for 25 years and finished his teaching career by teaching computer skills to middle schoolers for 10 years. During those years he was introduced to the Linux operating system. Since retiring he has spent his time teaching senior citizen computer classes in a joint venture between the ECOTUC and the Licking County Aging Program. Known around his area as “Free John,” John does just about everything on the computer with free and open source software; that even includes his preferred operating system: Linux. John also spends many hours helping both Windows users and Linux users with their computer problems. In addition to heading the Senior Teaching Program, he co-hosts ECOTUC’s “Linux Help Desk/SIG” that meets twice a month, and has helped start the “Windows Help Me/Show Me” Help Desk/SIG that meets monthly.