July 2004

I'm Tom Kopec. I, my wife Leah and our daughter Lauren live with our fleet in Amherst, MA. We're on D number two, having traded my '99 for a '03 in August 2003.

I'm an electrical engineer by training and have spent the last quarter-century or so doing various computer-related things. Leah and I now have our own consulting firm (me in "embedded systems", she in management and business process) I had a LOT more time for DOC things when I was somebody else's employee!

Probably more relevant to my current participation in the DOC, I'm a Mopar geek. My dad was heavily into cars in his younger days (having gone in with two of his high-school classmates to buy an old '31 Plymouth which they amazingly shared!) He served in the USAF in the motor pool in Okinawa and spent some time in Quarter-midget circles when he returned home from active duty. My mother tells fascinating stories about their courtship. She could never predict whether she has going to get picked up in the '31 jalopy or my Grandfather's '51 Chrysler (with a *real* Hemi — 331ci!) Dad taught me (and my three brothers) well in the art and science of maintaining a vehicle… though, given the norms of the time, my sister was not a member of this club (a mistake I'm trying to not repeat with Lauren.)

At any rate, the first car I really remember was my dad's shiny new '64 Dodge 880 station wagon. I'd have been about six years old when he bought this chariot. He made the fatal error of buying the Factory Service Manual (FSM) for it and I read it cover to cover. Did the same with the FSM for his '69 Town and Country (which is probably the car my family at large has the fondest memories of.) So when folks say "Geez, he must have the FSM right next to his computer" they're half-correct — the '99 Durango FSM lives on the floor under my office desk, and the '03 FSM CD-image lives *in* my computer.

My rides over the years:
'64 Plymouth Valiant 200 4-door (170ci slant-six and *air conditioning* $300!) '74 Dodge Dart Sport 318
'77 Dodge Diplomat 318
'80 Dodge DeTomaso 024 (my college graduation present to myself — all show, no go)
'83 VW Jetta
'85 Chrysler LeBaron GTS turbo
'90 Acura Integra GS 4-dr
'95 Dodge Intrepid ES
'99 Dodge Durango SLT+ 5.9
'03 Dodge Durango SLT+ 4.7

So what do I enjoy? Mostly these days, bicycling — when I can. Amherst is almost heaven for bicycling! We live 0.8mi from the Norwottuck Rail Trail, so on those days I can break free, it's easy to just go for a cruise… I'm also a Ham Radio operator (W1PF), though I don't get much time to play radio these days. There's a pretty good-sized DOC Ham contingent, and Lauren is licensed as KB1GRA. There was a time (when I was someone else's employee) where I did a fair amount of carpentry. I've done kitchen remodels and decks for most of my immediate family and some friends but these days it mostly falls to keeping our abode in reasonable shape and helping family as time allows.

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