John McIntosh

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A Short Narrative of My Episodic Life

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">March1996 (revised January 2005)

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">John McIntosh

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">College of Architecture &
Environmental Design

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">Arizona State University

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">(Ten-minute self-introduction
at the ASU Leadership Academy)

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Childhood – 1946

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">Jack came home from WWII,
having survived twenty-six combat missions as an RCAF bomber pilot,
and married the girl of '41, Nan.  I was born in Edmonton,
Alberta on January 31, a leading-edge baby-boomer.  With the
twins Jean & Hugh following in ‘48, we lived in Gleichen,
Claresholm, Vulcan and Drumheller, moving each time dad got promoted
in the bank.

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Growing up – 1953

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">In grade two we moved to
Camrose, my Lake Wobegon of the heart.  Those were
very happy years of ice hockey, model airplanes, duck hunting, Cub
Scouts, Air Cadets, camping and school, when we knew every kid in
town. I thought it was stultifying at the time, but it was truly
idyllic in retrospect. I finished high school in Lethbridge, but
Camrose is the place I always think of as where-I-am-from.

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Coming of Age – 1963

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">Started in Engineering at the
then University of Alberta at Calgary; I hated it.  After
hitchhiking to Vancouver that winter, I transferred to the
University of British Columbia the next fall.  Completed
degrees in English Literature and Architecture; I loved it. Between
degrees I spent a formative year at sea with the Royal Canadian
Navy; earned an officer's commission.  Hitchhiked to
Montreal’s Expo'67.  Married classmate Patricia Austin,
August 28, 1968 in San Francisco.  Did the 60's!

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Education – 1973

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">Together we went to the
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; both completed the doctoral
program in architecture with a full ride on projects from the
nuclear power industry and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Did
research on three-dimensional computer modeling and relational
databases.  Spent the whole decade in a computer lab.

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First Career – 1983

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">Pat accepted a faculty position
in the School of Architecture at Arizona State University, and I
finished my dissertation on the patio in Tempe.  Then I
accepted a staff position with the charge from the Dean: "Make
computing happen in this College."  That was accomplished
in a brand new, wired building and it was then up to the faculty
(you can lead a horse to water, but…).  As an Affiliated
Faculty, which is an honorific title, I taught one keep-my-hand-in
course a semester on computer-aided design. Did a summer program in
Europe in ’90 with a colleague and twenty students touring
Spain, Switzerland and Italy – not a vacation.  Taught
professional development computer courses at the Havard Graduate
School of Design for four summers with that same colleague.  We
bought our first 4WD truck, took up fishing and started to hang out
a lot in Baja and Sonora, Mexico.

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Second Career – 1995

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">Served a year as Interim
Research Director for the College of Architecture &
Environmental Design and was then offered the Joint Urban Design
Program at the ASU Downtown Center, which is our community service
and outreach program.  So now I’m out of the ivory tower
and down on the street with the boyz-in-the-hood. We specialize in
charrettes, which is an architectural term meaning a big
community design workshop held over several days.

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Third Career – 2005

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">In composing dad’s
eulogy, I realized that he retired from the bank at the age I am
today, which got me to thinking about my next episode.  My
younger brother Hugh has already retired.  After earning tenure
and fifteen years of teaching, Pat resigned a few years ago to trade
stocks and work on her own projects.  With no kids to put
through college, we could as soon camp out on a beach down in
Baja.  On our fourth 4WD safari truck now, all we’d need
is a satellite up-link.

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Two things that changed my life:

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">• ">cartwheeled our truck off a mountain
in Idaho in ’95 without a scratch, but confronted my own mortality,

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">• ">did a work-related trip around the
world visiting India and Hong Kong in ‘96, and saw the
opposite extremes of the urban condition of Phoenix.

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Credo

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">Do good work, help people, and
have fun because they’re sure not paying me enough not to.

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Belief

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">We make plans, we think we know
where we're going; we don't, we do what comes.