05/05/01 Update:

Here is Al's mini-bio he put together for our website:

After Caltech, I went on to graduate school in astronomy at the University of Wisconsin, sometimes sharing apartments there with other Class of '66 alums, Eric Jones, Phil Coleman and Mike Aschbacker. The years at Madison were the period of increasing student protests against the Vienam war, culminating one August night in 1970 when a truck bomb exploded next to Sterling Hall, the building which housed the physics and astronomy departments as well as the bomb's target, the Army Math Research Center. Despite heavy damage to the astronomy department done by the bomb, I managed to complete my thesis that fall.

Afer finishing my thesis, I went into space astronomy. At the time, the University of Wisconsin had a major role in developing and running the first successful astronomical satellite, the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory-2. I joined Wisconsin's operations team at Goddard Space Flight Center to help run their experimental package on OAO-2. After OAO-2, I joined Computer Science Corporation to help NASA operate the International Ultraviolet Explorer satellite. In 1983 SCS transferred me to the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD, to prepare for the operation of the Hubble Space Telescope satellite.

I have worked at the Science Institute in various capacities ever since. Now I am Branch Chief for the production processing of HST data in the Institute's organization. In CSC, I am the department manager for science operations. In these roles, I see myself as an enabler, helping other astronomers to get the most out of the complex equipment to carry out their research.

In my spare time, I served on the Council of the American Association of Variable Star Observers for a decade, serving as President of the organization from 1995 to 1997.

I married Gail Paton of Genoa City, Wisconsin, in 1974. We have a son, Douglas, and a daughter, Carolyn, and live in Columbia, Maryland.