Bio

Becoming a tour guide

In the midst of a 30 year career as a software engineer, I found myself particularly enjoying times when I would give presentations or otherwise speak in public. At Charles Schwab, I joined an employee Toastmasters group and had fun honing my public speaking skills. When I took a position in 2008 at Advent Software, I ended up founding a Toastmasters group there. I would have enjoyed a role as a trainer but alas found few opportunities to move in that direction.

Meanwhile, I’d had a longstanding dream to be a tour guide, inspired by numerous experiences with captivating guides in my travels near and far.   In 2006, I led my first tour for a select group of family and friends.  We looked at some of the historic San Francisco office buildings downtown and discussed the rapid transformation of the city over the past 170 years.

In 2015, Advent Software was acquired and that led my decision to leave software development behind and focus on leading tours in the Bay Area, where I have lived for more than 38 years.

I participated in an excellent training program by the non-profit SF City Guides and began regularly leading their Haight Ashbury tour in June 2015.  I put together a tour that focuses on the legendary psychedelic rock music the neighborhood nurtured beginning in the mid-1960s and put together a list of more than 20 songs that I play as we tell the story of the hippies and bands such as Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Grateful Dead.

Later in 2015, I interviewed with the Giants for a guide position at Oracle Park.  I have long loved baseball and told them my goal as a guide would be to deepen the appreciation visitors have for the park and the rich history of the team.  I was pleased that the Giants give guides a lot of leeway developing material, and I put together a tour that focuses on the ballpark’s spectacular bayfront location, the important connection in the game between diversity and success and (of course) the fiercely contentious rivalry between the Giants and LA Dodgers.

I also was selected to join guide programs for the SF Museum of Modern Art and SF Opera. I sought to make these tours interactive and encouraged participants to share reactions to the art they experienced and reasons why these institutions are important to them. Because I love both opera and modern art, I was able to share my enthusiasm and give tours that deepened people’s connection to these cultural organizations. Sadly, these tours stopped being offered in 2020.

In 2017, I approached the SF Public Library with a proposal to put on musical programs to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. I presented to large audiences at the Main and other branches on SF’s major 1960s bands and the impressario Bill Graham. We later added a program on Classic Rock Posters, and all of these programs have since been presented throughout the Bay Area at libraries, Jewish Community Centers, and the Berkeley City Club.

When COVID struck in 2020, I was able to adapt many of my programs for presentation on Zoom. I learned to overcome the challenges of presenting virtually and made these events engaging and free of technical problems that plagued others. I successfully attracted people from far-away places to many of these programs. I was happy to see vibrant discussions taking place in Chat during many of my tours.

It was also at that time that I was asked by the Community Living Campaign to launch a program presented on Zoom focusing on modern art in the Bay Area. Art Viewing Adventures is presented twice a month, and we have had more than 50 programs, nearly all of which are later posted on YouTube for people who can’t join us in real time.

I feel very fortunate that my longstanding dream to lead tours has led to all this. I love leading walking tours in the Bay Area and am frequently thinking of new topics to tackle. I recently led my first event for the Berkeley Historical Society called the North Berkeley Rock Parks Tour. My goal in the years ahead is to stay busy with this endeavor. I hope having read this you’ll get to participate in one of my events and/or perhaps host me at your venue sometime very soon.